NOTE: This story was published in partnership with our NBC affiliate in San Francisco.
As some fairly new and expensive refrigerators are failing at a surprisingly young age, multiple families have filed lawsuits alleging fraud against both retailers and manufacturers.
“I love sauces, salmon, crab cakes. You can tell this is a foodie house,” Sarah Lloyd of St. Charles said.
Over the past six years, Lloyd has repeatedly faced every foodie’s worst nightmare.
“I lost all of this. So all of this, seafood things that are really expensive. It adds up big time, but I lost it multiple times,” Lloyd said.
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The problem started in 2018, when her new $2,500 LG refrigerator from Sears suddenly stopped working.
“There was this awful grinding from the fridge. It ended up being the compressor,” Lloyd said.
She filed for warranty service, but there would be no quick fix.
“I kept contacting Sears, they came out I think at least 11 times and they were unable to fix it,” Lloyd said.
Lloyd said Sears eventually allowed her to pick out a replacement refrigerator, so she chose a Kenmore.
She thought by switching brands from LG to Kenmore, she wouldn’t have the same compressor problems. Unfortunately, she learned that would not be the case.
“[The replacement refrigerator] was an LG-manufactured fridge with a Kenmore façade. Extremely misleading,” Lloyd said.
Less than a year later, her new replacement fridge also stopped working, and she said repair shops were reluctant to work on it.
“They said these refrigerators were terrible quality, and they said they don't touch them,” Lloyd told NBC Chicago.
"We have been in contact with Sears and requested that they work with the customer on a resolution of her service issues," a statement from LG said.
As for Sears?
“They said that the parts are only under warranty, not the labor. Of course I want a working fridge, right? I'm highly motivated, and it was $800 for an hour of labor,” Lloyd said. “I think that was about three years ago. So I know, every day I get out of this fridge, I'm lucky.”
Lloyd isn’t alone. Over the past few years, our NBC and Telemundo sister stations around the country have heard from dozens of upset LG and Kenmore owners, according to our nationwide Responds complaint database.
Terese in Philadelphia said her fridge failed when it was “only seven months old.” Bernadette in San Diego said “technicians have been to my home seven times.”
That story rings a bell for Kaare in Los Angeles.
“[The] fix lasted one week. I have had a total of six repair visits and have not had a working refrigerator for two months.”
Some frustrated fridge owners are heading to court.
Fed up and off to federal court
“It’s a nationwide issue,” Los Angeles attorney Azar Mouzari said.
Mouzari represents plaintiffs who are now suing LG, and says her firm is focused on a critical part called the linear compressor inside LG and some Kenmore refrigerators. “Which is really the heart of the refrigerator," Mouzari said. "It’s what keeps the food cold.”
According to LG literature, the linear compressor uses less energy and makes less noise than other compressors. LG offers a 10-year warranty and boasts “20-year durability” on their website.
But Mouzari argues in the lawsuit that the linear compressor’s actual lifespan is nowhere near 10 years, let alone 20. Her suit claims they frequently break down far earlier — and LG knows it.
Mouzari is asking a federal judge to make her clients' lawsuit a class action because she believes droves of families are facing the same breakdown. “Thousands, if not tens of thousands,” she said. “We have been inundated with calls.”
Old problem, new claim: fraud
LG previously faced litigation over its refrigerator, including compressor failures. In 2020, LG settled a different class-action lawsuit, covering people who bought select models between Jan. 1, 2014 and Dec. 31, 2017.
Mouzari’s suit is new, and makes a new claim: fraud. She argues in the suit that LG is defrauding people who bought after 2018, because LG continues to make a linear compressor that falls short of its “20-year durability.”
“We know that they’ve known about this issue. And they know the rate of failure is just unreasonably high,” Mouzari said.
Mouzari also names several major national chain stores that sold LG and Kenmore refrigerators in her suit "because those retailers were aware of the issue,” she explained.
NBC contacted LG and Kenmore about the lawsuit. LG told the NBC Los Angeles Responds team that the company does not comment on pending litigation. It is fighting the suit in court.
LG also told NBC 5 responds:
"Our focus on customer satisfaction is paramount. Home appliances manufactured by LG are used in tens of millions of homes across America every day, and LG has long been recognized by industry experts and customers alike for quality and reliability. Refrigerator service issues are generally related to cooling performance, which can be caused by various factors. For LG-brand refrigerators, when, on occasion, cooling issues arise, our refrigerators are backed by our five-year limited warranty on the cooling system, which fully covers parts and labor related to servicing the sealed system or compressor within five years from the original retail purchase date.We encourage any LG customer who may be having a cooling issue with their LG-brand refrigerators to contact our customer service team at 1-800-243-0000 or visit www.lg.com/us/support."
When LG settled the previous class action suit, the agreement said LG, “specifically denies any alleged defect in the LG refrigerators.” Kenmore says it no longer sells refrigerators with an LG compressor.
Mouzari says the new lawsuit is gaining traction.
100+ plaintiffs so far
“Currently, we have 102 plaintiffs,” she said. “We are getting calls all the time.”
She wants LG to extend people’s warranties up to 20 years and refund anyone who says they bought a dud LG or Kenmore after 2018, which includes Sarah Lloyd.
“You certainly don't expect to buy a fridge of that dollar value and have it only last a year,” said Lloyd.
The lawsuit also takes aim at several stores, including Sears, where Sarah Lloyd purchased her refrigerator. The lawsuit alleges they knew about this issue and failed to replace or repair many of the defective refrigerators.
Sears declined to comment when contacted by NBC.
If you bought an LG or Kenmore refrigerator after 2018, you can contact Mouzari’s firm to learn more about the lawsuit.
