Certain brands getting poor reviews

[Nukedaddy]

I recently had trouble with my Samsung fridge due to a known design issue causing icing. All my local appliance dealers with service shops declined to work on Samsung stating poor parts availability and issues getting paid for warranty services. Similarly LG products are getting the same treatment. No one wants to work on them. Both have a poor reputation for factory support and poor design for the serviceman to do needed repairs.
HOWEVER! Consumer Reports likes both LG and Samsung products, rating their equipment high for performance and reliability. BUT: Consumer Reports does NOT rate appliances for serviceability or factory support with parts or local service available.
Is the prejudice against Samsung and LG here locally in Southern Illinois due to our mostly rural location, far from metropolitan centers with lots of consumers? I called in a 50 mile radius of my home and found zero service shops willing to work on these brands.
They look good, and Consumer Reports likes how they work, but when the oven craps out on Thanksgiving and you can’t get parts before Valentine’s Day … Well let’s just say the prime user of home appliances will be far less than happy.
So here is the boiled down tincture of my question. Is the poor reputation of Samsung and LG at least here in rural America deserved? Are appliance service businesses having issues getting parts and factory support for those brands? Are there other brands to avoid for any reason? Is there any brand that stands head and shoulders above the rest when it comes to service after the sale?

 

[Nukedaddy]

I just thought… Is Samsung or LG making little effort to support local service in an effort to control warranty service costs? Do they put little effort into training service techs that DO NOT WORK DIRECTLY FOR THE MANUFACTURER?
Is this the root cause of the local prejudice against their brands? Is the prejudice due to the fact that these brands sell mostly through big box retailers instead of smaller outlets with local service? Example: I find all sorts of LG and Samsung in stock with Home Depot, Lowe’s and Amazon. But my local small chain appliance store has Crosley, Roper and Speed Queen. And a respected service department than will not work on Samsung or LG.

 

[dashriprok]

I'm the service manager at an appliance store that repairs all makes and models of refrigerators. For years we've been baffled at Consumers Reports magazine love for LG refrigerators because they are so bad compared to other makes. Though Samsung refrigerator are not favorites and may even have more problems than LG, Samsung problems tend to be nuisance issues such as water on the floor, water under crisper pans, ice maker not working. LG is bad compressor, bad compressor, bad compressor, bad compressor, bad compressor, bad compressor. We keep statistics at our shop and In 2020 LG refrigerators that we serviced were over 95% of our bad compressors. The other 5% were Whirlpool, Frigidaire, etc., but those were at least 20 years old. We commonly see bad compressors in 3 year old LG's. We find that parts availability is not easy for all foreign brands, particularly if they're more than 5 years old.

Statistically we have the least service on General Electric, Frigidaire, and Crosley refrigerators. Next down would be the premium brands Sub-Zero, Wolf, Thermador. Mid-pack is the Whirlpool family of brands: Whirlpool, Maytag, Amana, Jenn-Air, KitchenAid --> okay we have MORE service on KitchenAid refrigs likely due to the extra bells and whistles. About equal in reliability is Bosch and Fisher&Paykel but we rate them lower because parts are often hard to get. Next is Midea and Haier -- parts are way tough to get but Midea lately seems to be trying to get better. Now getting troublesome would be Samsung. At the bottom of the barrel is LG. In fact we often advise that when shopping for a new refrigerator, "Choose anything but LG."

We don't count on factory support for anything because our customers want their appliances fixed today. All too often factory telephone or chat support means, "We'll get back with you in 3 days." Typically we have it fixed before that.

The poor reputation of LG and Samsung IS deserved in my opinion. Overall we suggest you purchase the American brands you grew up with because parts availability is much much better.

 

[Dan O.]

In our area independent service companies can't even buy replacement parts for LG except at full retail price. Most customers don't appreciate paying a markup on full retail prices so it's not worth the hassle.

Most appliance manufacturers and distributors won't give technical support to independents. That leaves many people with imported products having to find "factory service". At least domestic brands have a lot of external support thanks to forums like this.

Parts for LG and Samsung are also difficult to identify without wide access to actual parts lists. (LG parts list are also difficult to read anyway IMO) If you've ever had to rely on describing an intricate part to someone over the phone and have to hope they know what you're talking about, you can imagine the difficulty in getting the correct part and the waits in between when errors occur.

Part availability is also frequently a problem for off-shore brands whereas North American products parts are often readily available from numerous suppliers across the country if necessary.

JMO

Dan O.

 

[Nukedaddy]

Great, frank and thoughtful insights that confirm the apparent prejudice here is founded in poor experience with those brands. Makes shopping simpler, for sure!