Fridge failures: LG says angry owners can't sue, company points to cardboard box

while our consumer team recently hit a nerve they filed a report focused on faulty refrigerators and then our viewers responded resoundingly about your own refrigerator problems a lot of problems consumer investigator Chris k watching a huge Coast to Coast response he's also an un has an unusual request to find refrigerator boxes to answer a legal question I I said you know that's it this I guess this is the final word Frank in San Francisco says he's been dealing with a difficult called LG frid

ge since 2021 this one cost me $2,000 and it's SP a nightmare it's not freezing well techs have repeatedly tried to fix it but haven't Franks asked for a replacement or a refund but no I was ready to give up until I seen your program our program was my recent report about a lawsuit involving some LG and Kenmore refrigerators and a part LG makes called the linear compressor many viewers and the lawsuit claim CL it frequently dies long before the 10-year warranty or 20-year lifespan that LG advert

ises it's a nationwide issue on YouTube more than 1,300,000 people watched our story focused on Betsy in Redwood City she's had two fridges die in just 5 years yeah two she had exactly the same LG refrigerator that I have and so when I saw that I said okay let me now contact Chris seil and Pleasanton said says his fridge has required five replacement compressors compressor dies like every year while people like seil and Frank were contacting us the phone was simultaneously ringing off the hook a

t the office of the lawsuits lead lawyer attorney AAR mazari so we received thousands of calls within a span of two weeks thousands mizari accuses LG of fraud she says the company has known for years that refrigerators with a linear compressor regularly die young but it sold them anyway anyway Missi says a trial would force LG to make public any internal communication that might reveal what it knows LG has not yet directly responded to mizar's allegations in court instead it's trying to take the

dispute behind closed doors and it's pointing to the box I never seen the Box LG says it put an arbitration notice on the box it's 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 the Box they in the truck same for seil I did not even see the Box Betsy too no one we talked to ever saw the Box besides the arbitration notice on the box LG says it

puts notices two other places one taped inside the refrigerator and another in the owner's manual they put him into everything that's Anna Han professor of law at Santa clar University and I've been teaching here for 35 years Professor Han says these days you agree to mandatory arbitration all the time click here sign there Han says proper notice is key both sides must knowingly agree not to sue we asked if arbitration notice is printed on a box taped inside a product or included in a manual Th

at You Don't See until after you buy give Shoppers sufficient notice Han noted parallel to a case in which Samsung tried to force arbitration with a notice in a smartphone box in that case the court exact said exactly what you just asked which is was there sufficient notice to the consumer about this Clause was there actual consent if you don't know something how would you ever agree to it right H says the courts nullified the arbitration agreement in the smartphone box the judge has not ruled w

hether LG owners boxes boxed them into arbitration mazari says the legal maneuvering does nothing to repair people's problem fridges instead of fixing the issue LG decided to allocate those resources into a arbitration provision on a box LG told us it does not comment on pending litigation a spokesman said our focus on customer satisfaction is Paramount the company noted its appliances are used in tens of millions of homes Across America every day LG encouraged customers to contact them for help

people like seil threw out food so many times Frank I want a good refrigerator and others say they have asked for help LG's repeatedly sent them repair man what they want is a replacement fridge or a refund check you know it's just eating away at me we're asking LG to review Frank and Seal's concerns the court case currently has more than 100 plaintiffs a judge is weighing whether it should be certified as a class action our tip line is also open for fridge issues scan the Q code on screen righ

t now to fill out our Consumer complaint form online