For Tony Conetta, the simple act of getting a glass of cold water and fresh ice cubes from his refrigerator turned into a frustrating experience.
“Freezer with no ice is very difficult to live without,” Conetta said. “You don’t realize how much you use it until it’s gone.”
Conetta bought his Samsung refrigerator for about $3,000 in 2016 because he liked that it was stylish and functional.
“Everything that would work in the kitchen to make it look nice,” said Conetta.
Then this summer, his freezer stopped working over the Fourth of July weekend.
“I opened up the door that Sunday morning and everything was defrosted with water on the floor,” he said.
Conetta called Samsung, who he says referred him to a local authorized service company.
“I then had to call them up and they turned around and said, ‘well your refrigerator is two years old, it’s out of warranty,” he said.
But Conetta still had the warranty booklet, where it says certain parts of the unit had 5, even 10-year warranties. After an inspection, the company agreed to replace the fridge. But when he was still waiting for a replacement weeks later, Conetta said he knew he needed help.
“I was a maniac because I was going nuts,” he said. “Your team turns around, they made a phone call.”
Within days, he said he received notification of a delivery of a brand new refrigerator, no questions asked.
Samsung gave Conetta $224.25 to help cover food that he lost. In a statement, a company spokesperson said: “We regret the experience that Mr. Conetta had with his refrigerator and we have followed up with him to resolve the matter to his satisfaction. We aspire to have best-in-class service for all Samsung customers and will carefully review Mr. Conetta’s experience in an effort to constantly improve our processes. We encourage any customer with questions about a Samsung product to contact us directly at 1-800-SAMSUNG.”
Conetta, meanwhile, is thankful he can now go back to cooling off and relaxing hassle-free.
“It’s so much easier to go to the kitchen for a glass of ice than to go to the clubhouse and get ice,” he said. “Thank you – you’ve been very helpful.”
If you buy a major appliance, it’s a good idea to keep the warranty information handy, just in case something happens.
