Sorry to hear about your latest setback, I'm sure someone could get their hands on a monitor for you. What screen resolution were you working at? I'm sure I could get a monitor with xga resolution, but I'm in Northern Ireland. Would anyone in the Mainland have a monitor in their attic?

Very interested about your Star Destroyer project, I have a few links to some scratch building projects if you need them.

What about the Finemolds Falcon will you be doing any mods to the mandibles or would they not be noticed in what you film of it (the angle of the mandibles is regarded to be the one of the only inaccuracies of the Finemolds kit along with the size of the radar dish) 

Cutting off the mandibles is a very scary experience with the cost of the kit and all, but it does improve the look of the ship, I'll post a couple of pics if you want.

J.

Okay Adywan, I explained the scenario to my mate who sells in 'Currys' and also to someone else that I know is knowledgeable in my local 'PC World' too.  I'll just post the points here for the benefit of others here that may buy expensive equipment in future - 

Both of them reckoned it seems unlikely that the 'extra 3' that was advertised at the time would have been for only 3 'months' rather than 3 'years', if you're sure that it didn't explicitly say so.  Most stores/companies normally offer 'years' of extra cover, not 'months' they said.  So that's definately a point that can be argued more yet, since it seems the promotion was ambiguous.

As far as the 'Warranty card' being missing from the packaging, it's unfortunate it wasn't included due to someone's error.  They both agreed that it's the last thing most people concern themselves to look for when they open things up, themselves included.  Ideally, it would be spotted as missing at the time, before something breaks down, but as you were told the 'receipt' covered you, it's not surprising you didn't concern yourself with that.

Both of them confirmed that a basic 'receipt' only covers anyone for 1 year, but think you should continue to argue the fact that you paid for what you believed was 3 'years' extra cover, not 3 'months'.

The other point they said they would argue if it was them, is this -  since you still have the 'receipt', they recommend that an equally valid complaint route on top of the 'warranty' thing....is to emphasise that 18 months is too short a 'shelf-life' for an expensive monitor to last anyway.  So they said that you should make a fuss over that aspect too, and complain that is wholly inadequate, and 'not fit for purpose'.

They suggest getting onto the 'Gateway' customer service, either directly or online.  They also think it might be worth contacting 'Trading Standards' again to point this out, as you may have just got someone unhelpful the first time.

(and it might be best to omit telling anyone that you've been using it every waking hour for the last 18 months....ahem)

Either way, both reckoned that they would certainly 'escalate things' with both the store and 'Gateway'.

Good luck, and I guess we'll all now know to query the sellers about the whole 'Warranty card'/'extra cover' scenario a bit more in future, at the point when we first pay for something.

vaderios said:

Imp fighter I still want that flipped dagobah shot to be noted and explained in depth :)

I've not forgotten, and there's that Hoth one that I never noticed before either, until recently.  I'll be covering those when I can, as there's a bit to go into concerning both scenes that they appear in.

Adywan,

I am a 36-year old financial advisor who lives in Eastern Washington.  I have been following your project with enthusiasm for quite some time.  You sir, have the guts to follow through on a dream that is quite frankly, brash, impractical and unwieldy.  I mean, you plan to film on a giant Star Destroyer model?  You actually bought wampa fur?  You are a brilliant and ridiculous fool, and my hat is off to you for taking such an uncompromising stance and earning such a devoted following.

Last summer I burned a copy of Star Wars Revisited and have had a SW movie night on three separate occasions with the SW nuts that I call friends.  I am eagerly awaiting Empire Revisited and even more so, RotJ Revisited.

Ok, enough of the compliments-- let me come to the point.  I hear you on your trials and tribulations with Gateway, having worked in the retail industry for some time.  I pretty much used to be that guy you spoke to who couldn't get anything done on a monitor replacement, but certainly tried like the dickens to do so.  My advice-- forget reporting them to the BBB, don't send them a strongly-worded letter, etc etc etc.  In short, remember your experience and move on.....

I have something that might allow you to do this very easily.  I recently replaced a monitor that I used for less than a year, and it is in perfect working condition.  My wife has been bugging me for six months to do something with it.  I have been attempting to give it away, but apparently people think that a 24-inch Dell 1920x1200 resolution flat-panel is too ridiculously huge. 

*scratches head*

You don't, do you?  

Ady, it is yours if you want it.  All we need to do is arrange for shipping.  And as useful as it might be for you, I would definitely get the greater gift-- that is, I would be helping somebody who has more cajones then I ever will, who has the guts to follow a brash, impractical and unwieldy dream.

Whaddya say?

=o) 

Awesome first post Jacen.

Maybe Adywan can look on it as a present from Santa...  :)

Rhikter said:

So I saw Star Wars in Concert last night and noticed something interesting.  Early in the performance a clip was shown from Obi-Wan vs Vader in ANH, and the lightsabers had clearly been repainted.  However, throughout the rest of the performance there were similar clips shown, including more Obi-Wan vs Vader, without any repainted effects.  Might it be reasonable to suspect that the clips in question were from the WIP BluRays?

Or SW:R? :P

Jacen said:

Adywan,

 

24-inch Dell 1920x1200 resolution flat-panel

And thus beautiful good fortune smiles upon this project. Thank you Jacen, for your incredible offer.

Now to see if Ady takes it.

Here you go.....

 http://reviews.cnet.com/lcd-monitors/dell-ultrasharp-2407wfp/4507-3174_7-31899303.html?tag=psum

Don't let them fob you off Ady.

UK consumer law states that any purchased item should have a reasonable functional 'life span'.

Even if it is now outside it warranty it hasn't been owned by you long enough to fall out of that criteria.

Demand to speak to the manager and don't leave until they have agreed to replace the thing.

Threaten to write to trading standards and if they don't give in follow through with it using the short length of time you owned the monitor and any documentation regarding the three year coverage as the basis for your complaint.

They have to respond to any complaint from trading standards and they are much more likely to settle than get a black mark from them.

Also write to their head office and tell them how they tried to pass you off and how bad the customer service was at the shop.

You might end up with a much better monitor.

Whoops sorry, bad consumer service gives me the red mist (I spent a year trying to get my laptop repaired by the Apple store after it started giving me electric shocks and blew my headphones while I was wearing them) and that was after a year of owning it.

I only managed to get it sorted when a charming fellow at the shop referred to me as "An Arse" in a memo attached to the computer after I picked it up for about the 20th time.

I had a similar problem with a furniture store that kept sending me the wrong furniture and suddenly went out of business before I got my money back.

Grrrrrrr!

Here's some photos of the mods I did with my Finemolds Falcon, as I said cutting off the mandibles is a scary job, its just a matter of score and snap,.....

http://img10.imageshack.us/i/p1000875r.jpg/

http://img26.imageshack.us/i/p1000876k.jpg/

neat! how long it take u to do that? it has to take some skill to make that kind of a model.