Posted on 03/18/2024 6:32:09 AM PDT by Leaning Right
Frank Rodriguez in San Francisco says he has been dealing with a difficult LG fridge since 2021. “This one cost me $2,000 and it’s been a nightmare,” he said.
He says it’s not freezing well. Techs have repeatedly tried to fix it, but haven’t. Frank says he’s asked for a replacement or a refund. But that hasn’t happened.
*snip*
LG says it put an arbitration notice on the box. It’s now asking a federal judge to require individual fridge owners to move their case to arbitration -- in private. But owners we interviewed say they never saw the box because delivery people unboxed their fridge.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcbayarea.com ...
The article says that the refrigerator’s compressor is the problem. But LG refuses to replace it with a better one. If that’s true, LG is risking its reputation over something relatively minor.
Ours is now 7 years old. Works great. Maybe they had a later lemon run.
Another problem with these so-called smart refrigerators are that electrical storms can wipe them out by frying the electronics when power surges occur. Same goes for microwave or regular ovens.
The GE repair guy said the fix cost way more that what they made on the Fridge but GE's reputation was paramount.
That was before GE was Welched.
We have excellent appliances from LG: a refrigerator, washer and dryer.
That's the "Energy Star" environmental bulls**t compliance that they've forced on all of us that none of us asked for or wanted.
What’s with all the arbitration lately? Just a few nights ago my ROKU got locked and I was unable to get anywhere until I clicked to accept their arbitration change. Not even a reject button. Can’t even watch channels you pay for.
They seem to be gambling here. The compressor can be the most expensive part of the fridge to replace. But it won’t function without it working well. Times past, a compressor failure meant a new fridge was needed unless it somehow was covered under the short factory warranty.
Ours lasted less than 7 years.
They replaced the compressor once and the tech said it would last about a year.
He was correct...............
We just repaired the Washing machine, replaced the water pump. Less than 7 years..........
“If that’s true, LG is risking its reputation over something relatively minor.”
Several things going on here. The guy refusing to replace the compressor is probably only responsible for a tiny portion of the business and if he artificially extends the warranty he may be opening an infinite money sink. He also is probably risking his bonus. When the bonus is at stake I I’ve seen corporate officers do some destructive things that damage the company but optimize an individual’s bonus. Lastly, it’s not minor. I have an LG and it needs a new computer board. They aren’t made anymore. A repair would use obsolete parts and cost more than a new fridge. The freezer works and I use that as I have a better brand refrigerator elsewhere in the house. I’ll never buy an LG anything again.
> Maybe they had a later lemon run. <
I’m just guessing here. I’m guessing that some bean counter at LG noticed that if the compressor was made just a little cheaper, the company could save a ton of money over the years.
This often happen when the bean counters have veto power over the engineers.
The same thing happened to a relative of mine. He owned a GMC car that had continual transmission problems. Turns out that GMC had replaced a small steel part in the transmission with an aluminum one.
Yours is about to go.
7 years is the usual time the compressor starts to go.
It will slowly get to the point where the freezer will no longer maintain the temp below 0° F.
If you have a large amount of frozen food in it I would purchase a small chest freezer as a back-up.
We lost hundreds of dollars worth of frozen food TWICE............
“electrical storms can wipe them out by frying the electronics when power surges occur...”
While not an LG, that is exactly what happened to our refrigerator a few years ago.
Thank goodness my wife found a youtube video that dealt with that issue on our exact model and explained which circuit board needed to be replaced, complete with part number.
Considering the alternative, I was more than happy to drive the 30 miles round trip and pay the $100 for the part.
“We lost hundreds of dollars worth of frozen food TWICE”
You didn’t learn your lesson the 1st time??? 😁
They replaced the compressor under warranty and it ran fine for about a year. We had a small upright freezer as a backup, but it wasn’t big enough to hold everything.............
Our LG fridge is also 7 years old. Doing fine but expect it will kick the bucket in 3 more years. I think it’s planned obsolescence.
We have an old Hotpoint fridge out in the garage, for extra room needed at the holidays, though it’s mostly used as a beer fridge. It’s been with us for 38 years, and we’ve never had any problem with it at all.
I have a real problem with any product or service from any company where you are told AFTER the sale what their non-negotiable terms and conditions consist of.
It's a one-sided transaction where the consumer is given no choice and no good-faith opportunity to participate in the deal.
This happens for software products a lot, but as we see here, it's extending to a lot more products. I'm being asked on a weekly basis, for example, to blindly acknowledge and accept the T&C on my Samsung phone. I swipe left to ignore the request... but someday I expect there will come a time where I can't use my own property unless there's a proper acceptance to their terms.
This has to stop. It's all one-sided. /rant
We thought ours had fried because everything we tried that it said to do was not working. . As a last resort I unplugged the frig and left it unplugged, we had already thrown aways the food that spoiled. I left it unplugged for about a half an hour, and thankfully it had reset itself. It still needed to be set to the correct temperatures, but at least it wasn’t fried. It apparently shuts itself off in protection, but the only way to reawaken it is to unplug it completely for a period pf time.
Well there’s that. We have an ‘ancient’ Kenmore upright freezer and and OLD GE side by side in the garage. Both are older than our adult children.
I will keep an eye on this. It wouldn’t surprise me at all. Hubby might not like it, but I wouldn’t mind a different fridge if this one goes kaput.
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