I do have a similar problem.
If the board is hooked up like in the example above (Pin1 = GND, Pin2 = VCC, Pin3 = GND, as opposed to the suggestion on the product page, which suggests to hookup pin2 to GND and pin1 to VCC) I get the first row working but the second row does no display anyghing. Even with no data transmitted to the display, the first row is fully dark (or white) while the second row shows nothing.
If all the data channels are connected, I can transmit text to the first row but the second still stays blank. I tried this on two different displays of this type and both show the same problem.
Any suggestions? Are they just broken?