SINGAPORE: A man whose supposedly brand-new refrigerator started acting up 24 hours after being delivered to his home took to social media to complain about his purchase.
The man, who goes only by KL HJ on Facebook, said the fridge was from Liebherr, a German-Swiss manufacturer of heavy machinery and other equipment, including refrigerators.
He posted about his experience on the COMPLAINT SINGAPORE group page on Oct 15.
While Liebherr’s luxury refrigerators are more expensive than other popular brands such as LG, Hitachi, and Samsung, they have a reputation for being reliable and durable, and have a guaranteed availability of spare parts for at least 10 years.
Liebherr’s fridges are also known to be highly energy efficient.
Assuming, however, that they work well.
Unfortunately, this was not the experience of the post author, who ordered his fridge but was told that it would take two to three months to deliver.
A week after he made a down payment in person, he received a phone call saying that new stock had arrived. He double-checked and asked whether the unit he would be receiving was a rejected or showroom piece, but was reassured that it wasn’t.
His reasonable expectation of getting a brand-new fridge was thwarted from the get-go, as the unit he received had six to seven dents, and he posted photos to prove this.
But that was only the beginning of the problem.
“After 24 HOURS operation, the freezer side started to make some loud noise. The lcd screen started to have the hazard light” warning sign on, he wrote.
When he called the company, they sent a repairman, who used a hairdryer to defrost the freezer as part of the process of repairing the “new” refrigerator.
“It is ridiculous to accept that this is a new fridge. And after following up, they expect me to accept it as a new fridge after servicing the issue,” he added.
He escalated the issue, arguing that it was unfair to pass the unit off as brand-new, especially given Liebherr is a premium brand.
The post author also said he would avoid the company at all costs if he could choose a brand of refrigerators again.
In an Oct 16 edit to his post, he wrote that when he tried to chat with the company about the issue, he was told that it had already been handled by the company’s “office side”, which left him confused.
At this point, he asked for a refund or replacement and wanted an update from the company.
In his final update, he wrote that a serviceman from Liebherr contacted him and offered to replace his unit in two to three months.
“Hopefully this is the end of this. Shall see 2-3months time,” he wrote.
The Independent Singapore has reached out to the post author, as well as to Liebherr, for further updates or comments. /TISG