Technology

LG effectively has said that their owners manual and a cardboard box have authority over the courts. Clearly, as the courts have nullified it, they fucking dont.

All I see is a damned good reason to ban arbitration agreements outright. If you want to arbitrate a tort, you should be required to motion the court for it.

It boggles my mind that consumer protections in the US are so weak.

Reminds of that video of Louis Rossmann where he says something like: if a company writes something in small print and/or on places where people won't look, it's because the company knows they would lose customers and damage their PR if people knew about it.

Aside of being legal or not, if LG really wanted their customers to be aware of their BS, maybe they should have put a big ass plastic warning sticker in the front of the fridge itself, preferably holding the door/s locked or on the inside, somewhere annoying where nobody would miss it.

Lol.

Any judge worth his salt will ask LG for proof the consumer agreed to arbitration.

I hate LG more than any other company after dealing with their worst in class customer service when I bought a defective TV a couple years back.

It took 6 months of actively calling them and then creating a Twitter account and tweeting at their PR team and emailing the CEO to get my money back on the piece of junk.

Multiple hour+ long calls. Each time where I had to tell them everything from the previous calls that was supposed to be entered in their system, and was, but the call person literally didn't look at the screen in front of them. An hour long wait on hold to the claims department where someone picked up and then audibly hung up.

It was infuriating. But I had a $2,000 piece of junk in my house so I wasn't going to let it drop.

Arbitration clauses need to be banned, at least for regular consumer purchases.

But thanks to lobbying, that will never happen.

But at least I know never to ever buy anything from LG and Kenmore.

Everyone thinks the US is a litigious society, but it's the consequence of our political order. The lack of regulations are "compensated" by the right to tort. In many instances, there is no authority to enforce rights, only the ability to sue. The Americans with Disabilities Act works this way. (and there are many calling to remove that option, making the entire law theoretical)

Of course, the idea is that lawsuits will discourage people from getting redress because of the high-bar to enter a case into the legal system. But that wasn't enough, so the capitalists are trying to take that away too.

There are few things more obscene under capitalism than a privatized court system.

Had one of their fridges a while back with their proprietary compressor design. It kicked the bucket at about 2-3 years old. All appliance repair shops that I contacted in my area, including an LG-certified one, declined repairs. Most of them even immediately asked if it was an LG when I asked if they did compressor replacements to head me off at the pass. It was a good product while it worked, but that's only half the equation.

In 2023, my new LG dryer shit the bed after three months.

They sent a technician twice to replace the lint filter, and sent a third lint filter via mail when the error started again.

Apparently the lint filter sensor is dependant on a tiny magnet which can come loose if the plastic housing is so much as tapped wrong.

How many people do you think open up their lint filters over a bin and tap the lint out?

Fucking moronic design.

We never found out if it was a sensor fault, we were lucky enough to get a store credit and traded that fucker in. LG never again.

I have one of these fridges that failed. It was delivered and installed initially...I never saw the box. How does that factor in? Plus don't buy LG, it's a shit company.

Had an lg fridge shit the bed after a year or so.

Samsung did the same after a year.

Fuck them both.

A[n LG] spokesman said, "our focus on customer satisfaction is paramount.”

Ok, that got a solid laugh out of me.

My parents have a LG fridge and so far it's still running strong

Is it the newer recent fridges with defects or models from a specific country ?