[superbad]

Originally Posted by singleton

At this point, I am not sure what to do next. I would appreciate any advice or suggestions from the teamBHP community on how to tackle this issue.

1) Go to the local LG authorised service centre along with your AC invoice & raise a ticket there. They should send along a technician for diagnosis & repairs.
2) Do you see an option in your Amazon order to raise an issue/complaint? Try & avail that.

[Itachi_Uchiha]

As far as i know, it should be a refrigerant leaf issue. I think the technician didn't check properly for leaks after installing the AC. Did he vacuum all the pipes and lines properly before filling refrigerant in them ?. Here in Rajasthan's scorching heat, we have 2 Mitsubishi heavy duty ac (fixed speed) at home and trust me they are so powerful. Do get your leakages and refrigerant levels checked properly this time. I hope your issue resolves soon.

[Chillout]

When you buy AC , Fridge online, ensure you buy the extended warranty as well. I have bought all my ACs online and never had any issues. Once close to my warranty expiry, hardly 2 days left the AC developed a leak. Called up Flipkart support, they sent the person and it was fixed in a couple of hours and gas also was filled.

So when you buy online opt for extended warranty and most importantly the installation has to be good. This is what causes more than 85% of the issues

[rahulpandita]

I own two LG ACs - installed from two different service centres and huge difference in overall experience. During peak summer, the service level will be sub-par which I experienced during installation of the first AC. I had to escalate the service request after which a different service centre was allotted and they did the job well. My first AC installation went well, with the technicians explaining everything and answering all of my questions. With the second AC, not so much - post installation they forgot to do the leak and cooling test and had I not insisted, they might have left without it.

In my case, at the compressor end they forgot to 'open the valves' hence the refrigerant was not circulating and I was only able to get this sorted as I insisted on a cooling check before they left. I think this might have happened with your AC as well (just guessing).

As for the installation prices, the 1199+GST is just for mounting the internal unit, fixing the compressor (on ground, not on the brackets which is chargeable). Everything else (drilling a hole in the wall for copper pipes and drain pipes, extra copper pipes, extra wiring for the compressor) is chargeable. That is why I ended up paying almost 4k per installation. If you buy it from a physical store, they always have a sheet handy to explain this. For Amazon, you need to dig deeper in the details of the installation. I would highly recommend buying appliances like refrigerators, ACs etc. from physical stores. In both cases, I was able to bargain and bring down the price even little bit lower than Amazon. And when it comes to issues, they always assist with it.

[G V Krishna]

As other members have already highlighted, the issue is the loss of refrigerant (cooling gas in layman terms).

To fix this, obviously the gas has to be refilled. But the elephant in the room is why did the gas leak at all.

1. This could be an issue while installation - Improper tightening of pipes whether at the compressor unit or at the joint to the indoor unit. As per normal installation, once the copper pipes are connected, there's a leak test performed with surf/soap water and the pipes are again tightened to arrest any leaks from joints.

2. Leaks in Outdoor Unit

3. Leaks in Indoor Unit

In your case if the leak is due to point#1, you are lucky and just opening those joints, re-tighten them using good teflon tape should arrest them. Again gas is filled and insist on testing for leaks with surf water.

If it's not point#1, you got a defective piece. Though the leaks in Outdoor unit and Indoor unit are fixable - complete dismantling, tests with nitrogen, lots of trial and errors are involved. Since this is a brand new unit & in warranty, 99% of cases the brand would replace it (either the Outdoor Unit or In Door Unit or the exact problematic part) with a new or a refurbished unit once a leak is proved in the compressor or the coil.

In getting the proper attention to your problem, I suggest to bug Amazon as well. In these types of cases, time is utmost important as you know and it's already quite late. But do not lose the ground and stay strong in the fight. Follow the above trouble shooting steps once you get connected with the technician.

Though I understand the frustration, this incident shouldn't be the basis to form generic opinions on Amazon, Online Sellers, LG or any other brands. This is a bad case and should be treated as one and shouldn't be generalized. I'm saying this with more than 3 decades of fiddling incidents with Local, International brands while living in India, US, CA & EU when bought in local stores, online.

You wouldn't believe, currently even I'm facing similar situation with a BlueStar Inverter AC. This is the 3rd BlueStar AC, which was purchased after good performance of two other ACs since many years. The service guys refilled the gas twice in 3-months and yesterday only they identified the place of leak when they came to replace the AC. Of course I bought the AC from my BlueStar dealer friend, and was installed by his star technician whom I too know since a decade. But all these didn't prevent a fault. Sometimes crap happens and that shouldn't dampen our moods.

Use twitter, Facebook, make as much as noise it takes to grab the attention of LG. All the best for the fight in a country where liability is a joke.

[skarthikeyan]

I've been buying AC, Fridge, RO water purifier etc on Amazon and has never had a problem. In my opinion, such poor service is irrespective of the buying channel.

Looks like LG support is overwhelmed during this summer and isn't adequately staffed.

If you're open to it, please do share the link to your tweet, FB post to LG. I can retweet and maybe other Team-BHP'ians can as well and make this more visible. I've also tweeted LG India at https://twitter.com/skarkarthikeyan/...78045028737027 with this Team-BHP thread link.

You can also email the CEO Andy Jassy(ajassy@amazon.com) and tweet publicly to https://twitter.com/amitagarwal. Amazon takes escalations seriously, I used to work in Amazon and have seen such escalations taken seriously and addressed quickly. Perhaps Amazon can put some pressure on LG to do their job properly and also on the seller who sold you the LG AC.

Also, if you've paid via a credit card, maybe try a charge back calling out the issue with your credit card provider?

Every provider or service these days is looking to solve the main problems, but when a small percentage of us customers fall into a scenario that's considered as a "niche" problem, then the support or service teams don't have a runbook to support or explicitly told to ignore us. I've seen this with household items - LG purifier for eg needed twitter escalations to make it work, Swiggy food delivery and more.

[samitjain]

I have used a lot of brands and service with LG has not been an issue. The problem is the timing. Peak summers and low manpower at this time. Ramazan followed by EID has created this temporary shortfall.

The number of people putting A/c has increased and A/c sales have gone up considerably.

The manpower hasn’t quite caught up with it. Also it’s a seasonal job for some. Bangalore, as far as I remember, didn’t require A/c and it’s in last few years due to global warming A/c has become a requirement.

All these issues might have created your service issue. In delhi, even urban clap people who provided ac services within few years are taking 2-3 days time to provide slot.

[Torq]

Originally Posted by singleton

In hindsight, this is one mistake I did. Last few big ticket appliances, I had got from reliance store and there were no issues at all. This one I got from Amazon and now even Amazon support is not doing anything to help

Got myself LG ac from amazon about 5 years back. No issues whatsoever. I am surprised about the installation charges as well. Have you raised complaint with amazon as well?
Raise complaint and escalate with LG as well.

On the contrary, just after first lockdown, I had ordered LG washing machine from LG corporate website as had some significant discounts. Inspite of waiting for one month there was no sight of dispatch or anything. A barrage of tweets, emails and lots of followups later, finally got my refund and bought a whirlpool from amazon :-)

[singleton]

Originally Posted by skarthikeyan

You can also email the CEO Andy Jassy(ajassy@amazon.com) and tweet publicly to https://twitter.com/amitagarwal. Amazon takes escalations seriously, I used to work in Amazon and have seen such escalations taken seriously and addressed quickly. Perhaps Amazon can put some pressure on LG to do their job properly and also on the seller who sold you the LG AC.

Also, if you've paid via a credit card, maybe try a charge back calling out the issue with your credit card provider?

Thank you so much Karthikeyan. I have tried these handles now, let me see if anything happens tomo.

I did seriously consider repairing this on my own through UrbanCompany, but can't get over the feeling that I am being duped by such large orgs who keep talking about their famed customer service. I have decided to drag this to consumer court if needed.

This is the first time I have had issues with Amazon, and all the famous support stories I used to hear once upon a time (how Amazon is always on the customer side, no other e-commerce does this blah blah), all now seem to be just PR stories. Amazon so conveniently told me if I get a "Service Denial Letter" from LG, they can help (and no other way for them to help).

I did go through my last 2 years of Amazon and quite a few big ticket items (Washing Machine to Fridge to Microwave to iPhones and what not) has come from there. This might be a one-off problem, but clearly tells me who can be trusted to help when there is a problem.

So looks like this would be my last big ticket purchase from Amazon (at least for a while). I think now I would be ok to spend a few thousands more for peace of mind.

[JagMan]

Check if the bank will accept a chargeback request for the payment for a defective product being delivered, if the payment was made via a card. Get your money back and use that to buy a new AC and let Amazon and LG quibble among themselves on how to sort out this mess.

[MT_Hyderabad]

I buy Everything online, it is all about finding a good deal, quickly.

Local stores can never match the prices offerrred online.

Companies sell different products online and offline. Local stores show prices of products of model they have, which obviously is higher than the other products being offered online.

Yes, I have faced challenges too. Last year, I bought an AC through flipkart for my in laws.
The AC was delivered on time, but the technician was delaying installation.

My father in law got it installed from an authorised service centre of Voltas near his home, got a receipt too. As installation was COD, never paid Flipkart for it.

Overall experience 4 stars! Ratings attached

[tracerspiff]

Originally Posted by singleton

Dear teamBHP community,



At this point, I am not sure what to do next. I would appreciate any advice or suggestions from the teamBHP community on how to tackle this issue.

I had a problem with my LG fridge and I raised a complaint through the LG India app. Just download the app, register your product on it and raise a service request. They were pretty prompt and the technician replaced the compressor on warranty. I was expecting a bigger hassle since it was a big purchase but it was all rather smooth.

[Torq]

Originally Posted by MT_Hyderabad

I buy Everything online, it is all about finding a good deal, quickly.

Local stores can never match the prices offerrred online.

I am guilty of a very similar habit buying everything online, as we get to see every product manufacturers have to offer, even the minor changed products.
But, big stores such as croma, vsp, reliance do offer price match.

[thanixravindran]

Originally Posted by MT_Hyderabad

Companies sell different products online and offline. Local stores show prices of products of model they have, which obviously is higher than the other products being offered online.

Just a small point. Companies have set up different SKU Stock Keeping Unit for online and offline for the same product. It has several advantages like differentiation between online and offline sales, revenue accrual and warranty as well different margin with target segment. They cannot afford to lose their offline channel partner for more online volume. So you can get the same product if you can understand the SKU or ask the OEM.

[MT_Hyderabad]

Originally Posted by thanixravindran

Just a small point. Companies have set up different SKU Stock Keeping Unit for online and offline for the same product. It has several advantages like differentiation between online and offline sales, revenue accrual and warranty as well different margin with target segment. They cannot afford to lose their offline channel partner for more online volume. So you can get the same product if you can understand the SKU or ask the OEM.

Yes, but there is even more to it. No two dealers in the same 1 km vicinity will have same model of ACs or Washing machine etc., this prevents people from negotiating with the dealers. I learnt it hard way 13 years ago when I was looking for an AC in Hyderabad. After that, took benefit of online purchases for nearly all my requirements. I dont know if things changed now.