I had a terrible relationship with my refrigerator! (and Samsung, the company that
made it). Originally, it worked just fine and I loved it. However, just before Mother’s Day it suddenly began to make a strange sound. Not a good sound.

On a Friday evening, the 6th of May. I asked my son to look at it and he pulled the heavy silver metal box out from the wall. We swept and vacuumed behind it. He unplugged it and plugged it back in. We checked the temperature, which seemed high. I went to bed, tired from the week’s activities
and forgot about it.  

On Saturday morning, I went to the kitchen as usual to let out the dogs and fix myself some
tea. The fridge light worked but the temperature told me it was NOT cooling. Not cooling at
all, in fact.  At first, I could not believe it. But then I realized I needed to act immediately. The
whole machine was full of food from top to bottom. The freezer compartment was so solidly
packed that, at first, I believed it was okay. Everything felt solidly frozen, and the interior
temperature read zero. But it was lying. Panic!

First, I emptied everything into my other freezer which is in the garage. The small fridge, also in the
garage, was almost empty. Lucky! So now it is full. A few items went into a smaller freezer,
which is part of the combination fridge/freezer that is in my laundry hall. 
In the process of emptying the farthest recesses of the large refrigerator, I discovered some
seriously disgustingly old stuff: For example, a container of yogurt which I won’t describe but
which sent me quickly to the trash container to get rid of it. Also, I found many opened
containers of things I really did not need. So, in fact, it was beneficial for all that this happened.
But it made me tired. Emptying everything out of a freezer and refrigerator is exhausting.

Also talking on the phone to someone who was probably in India made me tired. Frustrated
and tired barely describes my feelings, which seemed to rush at me from all sides. The
refrigerator is less than four years old. I am a single woman who uses it most every day, but
sparingly. There is no reason for this sudden failure.  And it will be time consuming to get it fixed, I suspect. 

The effort to find help both on the phone and chatting online is horrendous. I believe I was
“chatting” with a bot. But I cannot prove it. It was as if that man was programmed to make the phone call last as long as possible.  Later, typing to the bot was the same. Time wasted. They must be trained in ways to frustrate and infuriate customers who may become potential losses for the company. They put up so many roadblocks toward my being sent a refund, it was almost comical. I leaned in. I would not take no for an answer. They tried to say I was not entitled to a refund. I persisted.

And, honestly, it must be bad for me or anyone to get such a rise in blood pressure.

On my desk there is a small bottle of essential oils called “Stress Away.” It is very soothing to
breathe this into my nostrils. I wish I had found it on Saturday when I was in such a state of
frustration that I could barely speak.
On Saturday evening, I was too tired to do anything productive; but by Sunday, Mother’s Day,
I had recovered. Of course, my fridge was empty, but my food was safe. I made a huge pot of
soup with some of the food that needed to be cooked right away.
Sunday was a sleep-in day.  I knew I was not going to church because of an invitation to go
have pancakes.  Charley and Andrea and their family invited me for Mother’s Day brunch. All of my children and many grandchildren were there. Very gratifying and calming, I felt lucky and content.

This refrigerator story did not have an end, yet. On Wednesday, I waited for the repairman
who phoned me to say he would arrive in about an hour. The problem is, if it is indeed the
compressor, they will have to order a new one. No telling how long that will take.  No telling
how expensive the entire operation will be. Oh well. I am lucky because I was able to fit the
things from the broken fridge/freezer into others that were already here. Otherwise, I don’t
know what I would have done. My freezer was packed with things I want to use later: venison,
bone broth, lots of organic beef, chicken and pork, and a few boxes of prepared food that I heat up if I am in a real hurry.

Well, this is chapter II of the saga and it has a happy ending! But, I paid dearly for that in time (months) and personal trauma. The short version is that after several attempts to fix my compressor, the Samsung people told me it could not be fixed. Too bad. I told them I wanted my money back because there was a metal tag glued to the front of the refrigerator saying: 10 Year Guarantee for the compressor.

They argued. They said I needed the original receipt. I got a receipt from Lowe’s where I purchased the thing. It was the wrong one, they said. Apparently when I bought it, they substituted one for another, so there was a separate receipt. OK. I got that one, too. All of this required hours and hours on the phone. Days and days of suspense, and finally their admission that I deserved my money back felt like landing a big fish after a long fight. That was in the first week of June

They sent me a text saying that they would send me an email message asking me how I would like to be paid. My choices were direct deposit, a check or money order to get my money back. This seemed like a delaying tactic to me. And it was. Almost a month passed with nothing, no word from them. Then I texted them and said, “Where is my refund?” And they told me again that they would be sending me a questionnaire that would determine how I was to be paid.

This was just before 4th of July. I was busy with several parties, a visiting grandson, and things to do with my family. On the Monday after July 4th, with no warning, I got a check in the mail for a full refund! July 8th was the day the check arrived. They never sent me the communication about how I wanted to be paid that they kept talking about. They just sent me a check!

That is all I wanted. A check for the same amount that I paid for the refrigerator in the first place! What a surprise! They paid me! It took months. It took hours and hours of either texting them or talking on the phone with people who appeared to be trained in ways to delay and frustrate my efforts to make them pay me back. They were really good at it.

Most people would have given up, I think. If I had had a 9- to- 5 job, there is no way I would have been able to spend the amount of time I did. And the frustrations involved in the discussions about why they could not repair my fridge and the time wasted in waiting for them to make that decision. One day I told the man I was speaking to on the phone, “Let me be clear, this is my new hobby. I will devote every minute of my day to getting my money back. I will not quit. I will continue to spend as much time as it takes to get my money back.”

They offered to give me a discount on a new Samsung refrigerator, but I declined. I will NEVER buy another appliance from them.

Finding my check in the mail has made me truly grateful. I really never thought I would see it. I used it immediately to pay off the new refrigerator I had to buy when the Samsung one broke. Now I am thrilled with my debt-free, brand new, very fancy, G E refrigerator made in the USA.

Copyright©. 2024 Bonnie B. Matheson