This is one in a series of posts I’m doing on problems I’m having with LG appliances. Why a series of posts on LG appliance problems? Well, great question. You see I purchases three LG appliances. An LG Microwave, LG dishwasher and LG french door refrigerator. All three of them have broken in around three years.
My hope in posting this is to educate customers on the types of problems you can encounter owning an LG appliance.
This post is going to focus on my microwave.
In July of last year we ran into a problem with our LG microwave. The gist of the problem was steam from boiling water on the stove top seeped into the the button panel and shorted out the buttons. Since this is an over the range microwave it seemed to me that it should be able to handle moisture from cooking food on the stove.
When I tried to contact customer service they indicated that the unit was out of warranty and were not interested in helping me. When I explained to them the defect and pointed to a few articles I found on the internet they indicated they would look into the problem and contact me with more information.
A week went buy and I did not receive a return phone call. Rather than go through the normal customer service line, I decided to contact Jay Vandenbree an executive at LG. My email correspondence is attached below.
Jay,I hope you don’t consider this email out of place or inappropriate but I could sure use your help.
I’m sure you are even more busy than me so I’ll cut to the chase. I remodeled my kitchen in October 2007. With the exception of my stove, I outfitted the entire kitchen with LG appliances.
I’ve had problems with each one. The most recent, the microwave, is triggering this email.
A few weeks ago we hosted a graduation party for our daughter. My wife cooked potatoes and pasta for salads on our stove top. This which the fan on the microwave over the range dealt with. Or so we thought.
When we attempted to use the microwave later that day, we noticed the keypad was no longer functioning. Upon closer inspection I noticed that there was condensation on the window covering the display. My engineering background led me to hypothesize that the problem was a short caused by moisture on the keypad. I unplugged it and waited until the next morning.
Unfortunately, waiting for the unit to dry did not fix the problem. I did some more research noticed a number of people with similar issues. A sample of these are here:
As you can imagine, after my problems with my LG refrigerator icemaker, LG dishwasher and now microwave, I’m extremely frustrated at the quality of LG appliances.
I would like you to help me figure out how to best handle this problem. I’ve contacted your tier 1 and tier 2 customer service. They have copies of my receipts and have told me that the unit is out of warranty. While I understand the unit is out of warranty, I also have an expectation that an over the range microwave should not be susceptible to moisture problems. My last microwave lasted 10+ years.
If you were in my situation, how you would handle this problem?
Thanks for your time.
To which he replied:
Joe - Thanks for your note. It is always our intent to make sure your experience with LG is one we are proud of, and one that makes you confident is your choice of an LG product.I have forwarded your note to our Consumer Executive Service team, and they should be in contact shortly. If for any reason that doesn’t happen, please let me know, and I’ll follow up.
Jay
I never received a reply from the Consumer Executive Service team.
Our solution was to replace the microwave since the repair on the panel would cost nearly as much as the microwave.
