LG Warranty Nightmare - What would you do? (XP: The Nest, Money Matters)

AprilH81

We bought a new microwave and dishwasher on July 4th during a sale and the microwave was not installed until the middle of September when the kitchen remodel was almost finished.

On Tuesday, November 25th (the day before we left for my parents house for Thanksgiving) the microwave stopped working.  Nothing turned on, the outlet was still live, the breaker was not flipped but NOTHING worked.  Not one light, not one button, nothing.

I wasn't able to call customer service until after Thanksgiving, but they sent out a repair company and they said the control panel and filter boards were bad.  "Those parts never go bad." is what the guy said to my husband.

They ordered the parts on December 4th and said they should arrive in 4-5 days and it would be a quick 15 minute repair.  This repair would be 100% covered by the factory warranty.

I called to follow up today since we hadn't been contacted to set up and appointment.  The local service center was really nice, but they told me that LG was refusing to ship the parts unless the service center paid for them even though it was a warranty repair.  She gave me the part numbers and suggested that I call LG to put pressure on them to ship the parts out, so I did.

45 minutes later and after being transferred to a supervisor and being put on hold for a long time they tell me that the service center would no longer be servicing my microwave and they would like to send an LG Factory Technician out to look at the microwave and see what was wrong.  I about lost it, but mostly kept my cool and expressed my displeasure that because of a "fight" between LG and the service center (I'm on the side of the service center BTW) that I'm going to have to go even longer without a microwave.

She apologized and said that after the repair was completed that we could discuss "monetary compensation".  I'm not holding my breath because I have no written offer, but what amount would be fair?

The tech is coming out on Thursday, assuming he has the parts on the truck and can make the repair that day it will be a little over 3 weeks since we have had a working microwave.  If he has to order parts it will be another week or so (possibly longer, who knows) for delivery time and to get another appointment window.

The purchase price of the microwave was $225 plus tax if that helps anyone come up with a number.

penguin44

I have no idea because I have never had a microwave repaired, but that really sucks.

I have been dealing with similar issues with our furnace. Well the parts are covered by our warranty, but they were going to charge us over $1,000 in labor costs. Hmmm okay. Not happening sir.

MairePoppy

How is your state consumer protection department? Mine is fabulous. I recently had a problem with a notebook computer that didn't function properly. The store was giving me the run around for over a month. I called the stores main office and told them how frustrated I was with the store's response and that I would be contacting CDCP if the problem isn't resolved by the end of the day. Magically, the store manager was waiting with an offer of a store credit and the assistance of the stores tech in selecting a different computer. He also told me he was authorized to give a refund if that's what I wanted. I never had to contact CDCP.

You've complicated things by not following up asap on stuff, but it's worth a shot.

AprilH81

MairePoppy said:

How is your state consumer protection department? Mine is fabulous. I recently had a problem with a notebook computer that didn't function properly. The store was giving me the run around for over a month. I called the stores main office and told them how frustrated I was with the store's response and that I would be contacting CDCP if the problem isn't resolved by the end of the day. Magically, the store manager was waiting with an offer of a store credit and the assistance of the stores tech in selecting a different computer. He also told me he was authorized to give a refund if that's what I wanted. I never had to contact CDCP.

You've complicated things by not following up asap on stuff, but it's worth a shot.

The only thing I waited on is to make the initial call until we got  back into town from Thanksgiving.  Since we are well within the warranty period I don't think that will affect anything.

As long as the microwave gets fixed I don't think I need to involve any Consumer Protection Agency.  I'm not even considering a lawyer because it would be a stupid lawsuit.

I was just curious what people would think would be a reasonable amount of compensation to ask for since they are offering.

MairePoppy

Sorry April, misread that they were asking you to pay for labor on the repair. Either way, a lawyer would cost more that the microwave and installation. I have no clue on what would make up for the inconvenience of not having a working microwave. They will probably offer you a gift card $50 -$100. That would make me happy.

WhatawagSBNy

Any monetary offer is fine. Most important is to make sure they reset the warranty clock so you get another year if that is the original warranty period, not just the remaining 10 months or whatever. Sometimes there is a whole run of bad parts and they fix, then new parts go, and a short warranty gets whittled down to nothing with it out of service a month for each repair with. them denying a problem but always giving a waiting time for parts.

This is especially important if the year warranty says free parts and labor for ninety days then after that you pay to ship to them, pay labor but oh yes if parts were defective those will be free.

This problem was too soon after purchase for that.