I recently ordered an LG UltraFine 27" 5K Monitor for Mac — via Amazon. It was a normal “Amazon Prime” listed item. It arrived yesterday and everything looks and works fine — except that all the printed documentation (including the Get Started guide and Warranty Registration Card) are only in Spanish and/or Portuguese. It seems this unit was not intended for the U.S. market.
Should I be concerned about this? Worry that this is some sort of black-market item? Or just ignore it and enjoy the new monitor?
Was the seller Amazon or some other retailer? Not all items labeled as “Amazon Prime” are necessarily sold by Amazon. In your order list, click on the order to see the listing for the item and note the “sold by” line.
And if you run into set up trouble, LG has good phone help. If you didn’t receive warranty information in English it would be a good idea to give Amazon and LG a call.
It does sound like a “grey market” item. It can be an issue when buying from certain resellers, whether they are on Amazon Prime or not.
For something like an LG 27" 5K Monitor that appears to work correctly, it probably is a case of legitimate hardware being resold outside of approved distribution channels. If that is the case, your main risk is that if something goes wrong with the device, there is a strong possibility that LG will not honor the warranty.
It probably is worth contacting LG customer service to check that the serial number is legit and to understand its warranty status before going to the trouble of returning it.
Did it come with a US power cable? Spanish/Portuguese power cables wouldn’t work in the US, so it would’ve had to have been repacked with a US cable.
Did the box look to have been resealed?
Another possibility is that the US materials weren’t put in the box. Many devices aimed at the US market include manuals in multiple languages, so the error could be there.
It was indeed a U.S. power cord (I had wondered that myself). And if the box had been opened and resealed…they did a fabulous job. It definitely appeared unopened and brand new.
All is working perfectly. I do like the suggestion about checking re the serial number. I will try to do that. Thanks to all who replied.
Of course, Spanish could also apply to Mexico or Central America – which I believe (although I have never been there) use the same connectors as the USA.
Marketplace sellers who ship via Amazon (“Fulfilled by Amazon”, aka “FBA” sellers) get their stock comingled with identical products from other sellers (including Amazon themselves).
If a seller is selling used goods as new, or misrepresents a product, or is selling counterfeit goods, it could still be shipped to a buyer who buys direct from Amazon.
I’ve heard that they’re not supposed to do this, but my personal experience is that they do. At least for movie purchases.
I’ve bought a few movies from Amazon (sold and fulfilled by Amazon), and received products that were quite obviously returned and resold (fraudulently) as new. Sometimes with obvious damage to discs, with paper media (like streaming codes or other inserts) missing, and for one order, a multi-disc box arrived with one disc was missing (and two copies of one of the other discs).
Amazon was always great about accepting the returns/exchanges, but it is very frustrating, and on a few occasions, the replacement item was also obviously a used item sold as new.
I no longer buy movies from Amazon unless they are new releases - there’s just too much risk that if I buy something older, I’m going to get used items fraudulently sold as new. I now buy these items from other stores or from an Amazon seller with a 5-star rating and who does his own fulfillment.