Gettysburg, Pa., resident Lisa Saghy started noticing in January that things in her $2,257 Samsung fridge she purchased new in late 2017 didn’t seem as cold as they should be.
By April – when she had to store her hospice-bound father’s medication in her fridge – Saghy’s efforts to have Samsung repair the appliance were fruitless, according to a lawsuit filed last week. A week after she told Samsung phone representatives she was concerned about the medicine’s safety, her father passed away, claimed the suit.
“Samsung’s representatives did not help remedy this dangerous problem, nor did they seem to care at all about this untenable situation,” it said.
Saghy isn’t the only consumer who experienced issues with a Samsung refrigerator. Matthew Jordan of Laguna Hills, Calif., is also listed as a plaintiff in the lawsuit, which references “over 600 complaints about Samsung refrigerators,” received by the Consumer Product Safety Commission between January 2019 and December 2021. Of these, 211 were specifically related to food spoilage and 62 cited food poisoning, it said.
Like Saghy, Jordan purchased his Samsung refrigerator new.
He ordered the $1,298 appliance online in June 2020. After just a few months, Jordan noticed that some of the food in the bottom of the refrigerator was frozen, the suit said. Changing its settings didn’t seem to fix the problem.
Using a thermal imaging camera, Jordan documented “unsafe temperature variation inside the refrigerator,” according to the lawsuit.
Last January, a Samsung technician came to Jordan’s home to repair the appliance’s system board. Even after it was replaced with a new board, the refrigerator continued to have issues with maintaining a safe temperature.
“Samsung has otherwise refused to repair or replace Jordan’s defective refrigerator,” said the suit.
When a Samsung repair technician came to Saghy’s home in March, they told her “that the cooling panel on the back of the fridge was ‘totally blown’ and the compressor was not working,” an issue caused by a known defect that the technician said could not be fixed.
In April, Saghy received a text message from Samsung denying her any exchange or refund because her refrigerator was out of warranty, said the suit, which also claimed that the company told Saghy her complaint was suspended.
According to the suit, Samsung provided a uniform, express one-year factory warranty against manufacturing defects and materials and workmanship, against sealed system defects for five years and compression defects for 10 years.
“Although the warranties protect the Refrigerators for many years related to the allegedly defective parts at issue, based upon information and belief, Samsung routinely denies warranty claims based upon the alleged defects,” it claimed.
Jordan and Saghy allege that “Samsung designs, manufactures, markets, advertises, sells, warrants, and services refrigerators that pose unreasonable risks of property damage and serious personal injury during normal use,” in the lawsuit.
While the refrigerators in question “span several model numbers, but they all share a common design: double French doors with a bottom freezer.”
The plaintiffs have requested a trial by jury, as well as: an order awarding them and all others in the who might be eligible for the class-action suit damages in an amount to be determined at trial, for Samsung to discontinue production or sale of the appliances, a declaration that the refrigerators are defective and “pose a serious safety risk to consumers and the public,” and more.
Samsung declined to comment about the refrigerator lawsuit on Wednesday, according to CBS MoneyWatch.
“Our commitment to ensuring product quality and safety for all of our customers is our top priority,” the company said in a statement provided to the outlet.
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