Horrible experience with LG repair service

[jianglai]

I bought a 77-inch GX at the end of December last year. The TV came about a week later and I paid for professionally installation because it needs to be wall mounted. I used it for about a week and it is dead -- it won't turn on and pressing the power button would just cause the screen to flash white and made a clicking sound.

I bought the TV on Amazon through a third party vendor, so I contacted them on Amazon to have it exchanged. They told me no can do because I don't have the packaging any more. I am a bit upset because who keeps a 77-inch TV's box in an NYC apartment after making sure it works for a few days. They said if they were to take it back I'll have to pay $600 restocking fee.

I thought that's not the end of the world because the TV is clearly under warranty. So I contacted LG. LG contracted some local technician to come and replace the logic board a week later -- there was a delay in shipping the board, so I had to wait for a week.

The tech came, replaced the board, but still no luck. He thought the problem was with the power assembly unit with where all the capacitors are. He took a photo, sent it to his people, and told me that the parts are backordered so I'll need to wait for up to 2 weeks. If I don't hear from them in 2 weeks, call them and they'll submit a request to LG to replace the unit.

Obviously I was upset because I've now paid more than $4k to have a giant slab of dead screen sitting on my couch -- it needed to be unmounted for the repair. I'll probably have to pay someone to help me mount it when it is fixed. So I contacted the vendor again and vented all the problems. They said they want to do good by me and they are one of the biggest vendors for LG on the east coast so they had some pull. They asked for my case number and said they'll escalate with LG.

One week passed and they still haven't heard anything back from LG. I tried calling LG and I've must spent more than 3 hours on the phone with them at this point. I spoke to like 6 or 7 different people from different department, and was able to have them create a refund/exchange case for me because they told me the parts won’t be ready till March. After I uploaded the receipt, I called again but now I'm being told all sorts of conflicting information.

All of them told me that it'll take another 7 business days for my case to be reviewed. At this point I'd be without a TV for more than 3 weeks. After that they don't know what's gonna happen. I've been told:

1. I'll buy a box from Home Depot or whatnot and LG will reimburse me the money, and then I ship the TV back.

2. LG will ship me a box to ship the TV back.

3. Because I bought it on Amazon from this vendor, they cannot do exchange so the best they can do is a refund. This is kind of ridiculous because if it depends on the vendor I'd try to work with the vendor.

4. They have a procedure to return the TV without its original packaging, but they can't tell me what it is until my case is approved.

5. I even asked if I can buy the same TV from a different vendor (the vendor that I originally bought from have the TV on backorder), use it in the meantime, and return the broken TV in the new TV's box. And the rep doesn't know if that'll work. I was a bit mad at this point because a box from Home Depot would work but a box for the same model from a different vendor wouldn't?

6. It'll take 7 business days to approve, and after that up to 7 weeks for full resolution, whatever that means. I guess that means me receiving a replacement or a refund?

I do like this TV (when it works), and I really don't want to return it and deal with the damages on my wall. But it looks like all signs point to me not able to get even my money back for another month or so, not to mention to get a exchange. I sometimes say to myself maybe I should just wait it out and buy the G1. Also the price of GX dropped like $300 between when I bought it and now, so I basically spent $300 more for one week of watching and countless hours of complaining on the phone.

The vendor says they are still working with their LG contact but honestly I'm not hopeful. Not that I don't trust the vendor, but given my experience with LG, they don't seem to know what they are doing and they definitely don't know what is a good customer experience.

I guess the moral of the story is, keep your TV box as long as you can...

[jianglai]

UPDATE: I’ve given up. LG customer service is a clusterf**k. Some rep told me the part is ready today, some said tomorrow, some said in two weeks, some said there’s no part because refund is approved, some said refund is cancelled because I asked to wait for the part.

Filed a claim with Amex and let them deal with LG and the seller. Too bad I still have this giant dead slab of a TV occupying half of my couch and an empty bracket mounted on the wall. Dispute will probably take another month or so but at least I don’t have to deal with this crap anymore. What waste of time.