A customer wandered into the shop today with a broken L G appliance part and asked if I could get one for him.Sure I said fixed lots of these over the years, and called my supplier.Gave him the model and serial# as usual and he said no that is a mechanical part and LG won't allow anyone other than factory otherized tecks to buy them,and any orders must be accompnied by a workorder# showing the part is going to be installed by a otherized rep.He said that they had been repremanded for selling this manufactures parts to unautherized shops(like mine I guess) and the public and had to stop.So even though my customer was fully capable of changing a leaky water valve himself(about the same difficulty as changing a thermostat in a SBC engine) it was not allowed anymore and further I was not allowed to purchase any more parts from this compnay,L G,because I was not an autherized dealer,There is a large LG dealer in my town and they just heard about it as well.So at this point the only parts you can purchase for LG appliances is trim parts,If I owned a LG appliance and it broke even I couldn't get parts at this time and I have been fixing this stuff for 30yrs.Lets hope this doesn't spred any further than this one manufacture and people show there discust with this one manufacturer(no problem getting parts for all the rest of them)or if the auto industry follows suit, we soon won't be able to change plugs ,oil or washer fluid without paying a dealer to do it. Ed
-- Edited by flatblack55delivery on Friday 18th of October 2013 08:14:43 PM
-- Edited by flatblack55delivery on Friday 18th of October 2013 08:17:37 PM
I'm really sorry I just bought an LG washer and drier. If this is how LG wants to do business, these will be the last LG products I buy. I would think this practice would violate the competition act.
45. (1) Every person commits an offence who, with a competitor of that person with respect to a product, conspires, agrees or arranges
(a) to fix, maintain, increase or control the price for the supply of the product;
(b) to allocate sales, territories, customers or markets for the production or supply of the product; or
(c) to fix, maintain, control, prevent, lessen or eliminate the production or supply of the product.
In the truck world propriety software is pushing the independent shops out. If you want to diagnose the air conditioning on an international truck you need international's software to hook to the body computer and it's dealer only. International is one example but it is becoming more and more prevalent.
This type of thing is one of the reasons that small shops are closing all the time .When I started I took pride in the fact I could fix peoples appliances.Now the computers cost so much and fail so often that they just buy a new washer insted of getting the old one fixed .Seams to be the way the big compnays like it that way they don't have to pay a parts guy,have a parts desk and pay for a phone,lights or heat in a parts warehouse.I am glad I still restore the vintage stuff for people as there is a great satisfaction in seeing someone happy to have there grandmothers Moffatt or Frigidaire stove working and shining again. Ed
LG is probably made by Whirlpool or GE or....
I had a list of all the manufacturers of appliances and who makes what.
You probably can buy that same part from another maker.
I'll see if I can dig up that list.
It may come in handy for you.
LG is from off shore Korean I belive. Maytag,Whirlpool ,Kenmore,Admiral,Kitchen Aid are all Electrolux from Sweden with manufacturimg in Mexaco and China.GE,Hotpoint,McClary are owned by Mabe and mostly made in Mexico,some manufactured in Quebec.The only Canadian one is Frigidaire, mostly with some parts from Mexaco.There are Italian,German and I have even worked on Turkish appliances a few years ago .The only thing they seem to have incommon is if they have electronics in them then the average lifespan these days is about five years.Its hard to keep up with who ownes who but LG seems to be on its own at this time .I never Know where the parts are coming from one week to the next when I open the orders. Ed
LG is from off shore Korean I belive. Maytag,Whirlpool ,Kenmore,Admiral,Kitchen Aid are all Electrolux from Sweden with manufacturimg in Mexaco and China.GE,Hotpoint,McClary are owned by Mabe and mostly made in Mexico,some manufactured in Quebec.The only Canadian one is Frigidaire, mostly with some parts from Mexaco.There are Italian,German and I have even worked on Turkish appliances a few years ago .The only thing they seem to have incommon is if they have electronics in them then the average lifespan these days is about five years.Its hard to keep up with who ownes who but LG seems to be on its own at this time .I never Know where the parts are coming from one week to the next when I open the orders. Ed
ed. i didn't know you were in the repair end, so, if you were considering a new stove for you house, wink-wink, what brand would you consider. and by chance, would you know dan from webster appliance repair here in belleville. he is a neighbor.
-- Edited by shag766 on Saturday 19th of October 2013 10:10:33 AM
Good point Slim, and very true, the amount of manufacturers that have moved/shut down etc is staggering.
The small guy today is fighting a battle for sure as ED posted, getting to be things are controlled by a few trying to get a monopoly over the market.
Try replacing the computor in a VW, sure you can switch it, but it will not run properly UNTILL, you take it to a VW dealer,,, AND he programs it through VW in Germany.
This includes now the chip in the ignition key.
I just replaced my 15yr old Kenmore elite fridge as it needed new gaskets (at minimum) The gaskets and service call would have cost me over $450.00 (that was with me replacing the gaskets). I opted to buy an 8month old GE for sale on kijiji for $400.00
When I told my appliance guy I bought a GE.....he told me he couldn't work on it....or get parts.
Sad really. The days of expecting appliances to last 15-20 yrs. are gone for sure.
the same but different i had bought a high end big screen sony t-v about 6-7 yrs ago from a independent shop here in belleville. most of my electronic stuff is sony. at about the 4th year the thing quits and i call the shop where purchased and he says call the certified repair place in kingston. i call and the guy asks a couple of ? and tells me to open a small grey plastic cover on the front. i crapped my pants. there was a burn mark like a 12v positive cable had shorted out on the fender. he tells me the t-v is toast and they will p/u it up the next time in town and there is a comp package available from sony but it has to go through his shop not to just toss it. by this time time i am flipping out and call the shop where bought and bring him up to speed. he is a 1/2 a--- bud and calms me down explaining the procedure and tells me the guy in kingston is a good guy also but there is a procedure. 2 of us put the thing in the back of the s-u-v and head to his shop instead of waiting. xx this was about a 3000.00 t-v and its toast after the 4th year. the older guy, owner, at the repair depot is waiting for me as he had been called from belleville and told i was coming. he turned out to be a not bad guy and explains the situation and says this model is having a big problem and sony knows about it and they will offer some comp. this isn't a retail shop just a service/repair shop for about 6 brands. we get shooting the poop and he tells me how to handle sony for the best compensation. i ask him what brand he see's the least of and he says he really can't answer that ? with a wink. i thought a moment and ask, if you were buying a hi-end t-v for your house what would you buy. he gives a little chuckle and says i would probably consider a panosonic for my house. xx some more yaking and he says the days of a t-v lasting 15-20 years are long gone. before long they will be a disposable item, 6-7yr average, and the cheaper prices are reflecting that. he was happy to be near retirement. xx sony comp, lol. if i bought a sony anything up to this $ i got 200.00 off. up to this $ and over 300.00 off. this was on a 3000.00 original buy. i emailed and told them they knew how much sony stuff i had from the warranty registrations and if that is it, stuff it up their hooper, it was an insult. xx thinking a bit i buy a something and get the re-bate leaving me paying 75.00 out of my pocket and donated it to a charity auction and claimed the full price on my donation receipt.
thanks guys-i feel better now. its just the way the world is going.
Been buying Sony for years......last one was $2600 50" big screen...It did last 10 years.....Pixels started going last year, so bought a Sanyo 50" for $799.....Salesman told me not to expect more than 6-7 years out of it, but at that price, thats OK
That's funny appliance repair topic on a rodder forum..Sad but funny..I have a horror story as well with whirlpool & LG.. Couple years a my Wife was quite sick was diagnosed with terminal Lung cancer..just quickly after many,many tests it was determined our best option would be to remover her lung.. Surgery was done and here we are five years out and she is cancer free..Do I beleive in miricals and God..YES.. Anyway while she is in recovery I thought I would get her some new appliances.. So I got her a really sweet looking set of Whirl-pool Cabrio glass top washer and drier, lots of buttons and lights looked real purty in the dark ,looked like some sort of space control panel at night ..nice drier..I was feeling pretty good about getting her this nice stuff to make life easier for her..We live in the country, septic tank and I thought great these HE' use very little water ,that's good for the septic tank right..they don't wash sheets or blankets or anything more than light t-shirts and undrwear.how can they they don't have an agitater (that sure has come to agitate the hell outa me.. ) just over a year out I happen to be in the house one Saturday morning when the washer is in a spin and I am saying to my bride ,what the hell is the noise she says what noise and I am sayin can't you hear that and as I am saying that it really gets going I am thinking a friggin frieght train is coming through the house..She says it's has been like for a long time and she had gotten used to it thinking it was normal..I had a close inspection and could tell the drum bearings were toast sounded like every wheel bearing in my car was bad at the same time..Stasrted checking around and found just about everyone that had one over a year old old was having bearing troubles ..checked with the dealer and told I was SOL..sent off a complaint to Whirlpool and was told sorry about your luck ..Did some reading and ordered in the bearing off e-bay and bought an installation tool to remove and replace the bearing (have done a couple for others I can do em in an hr now)..Then the glass dr frame made from tie-straps. is broken ,$300.00 for a glass dr this machine is 18 months old..So with the help of those wide black spring clip paper holders and some epoxy I have effected a repair that is still working for more than a year now..Our old set lasted us 25 years and was still working when we handed them down to my Son and his wife ..I was looking at just buying a new set hoping they might be our last set..Ha what a joke ..how was I to know everything to-day is JUNK They are all junk now-a-days..Whirl-pool owns 70% of all the washers and driers ,may-tag, moffatt, ken-mor.. whirl-pool, and Amana..and I don't know know how many others so no matter what you buy Whirlpool owns it and they don't give a squat about you the consumer..The appliance guys tell me they have never been so busy with service on all the junk appliances out there now..The applaince manufactures say it is mandated by our government to make waterless washer pieces of crap and I beleive it will take about 10 years to get it right in the meantime we get it up the butt as usual with all this junk being forced on us cause there ain't nothing to buy that is anygood..My advice when you buy is to get the best extended warranty you can cause you will need it.There is non better than another so I am told by everybody in the appliance business although the sales people will tell you they have never heard of any problems..yeah right ..
I also have the the same story with my 50" plazma LG TV the on off power board failed ..The Tv is only Three years old and if you shut it off maybe sometimes you could get it to come back on we actually left it on for three months till we went away for holidays and had to shut it off..I found out it's a huge problem with sveral makes & models and they all including Samsung, and a few others have the same problem capaciters blow out ..pretty common for lots of makes and power boards are on back/order for months I am still shopping for a power board and you have to be carefull of the e-bay scammers and make sure you know what serial number board you are looking for..I am still looking for a power board for my LG plazma..I just bought a Refurbished 55" Samsung smart TV has an internet PC with access to all internet Netflix and stuff as well as TV..$650.. from Cargo xx stores with a 3 year warranty for $75.00 I was a bit nervous at first but it has been since July and it seems to working just fine..I just think most stuff is changing so fast any more with technolodgy changing so fast that anything more than a year old is out of date I find that even with clothes no sense to buy anything that lasts any more than a year or you will out of style next year..That's why I never worry about a war with China If we ever went to war with China they would have massive unemployment and their government would go bankrupt as they depend on us us buying all there chit and we do..It is pretty hard to find any manufactured products of quality anymore and we probably couldn't afford it if we could anyway..we live in a world of hurry up and cheap and I guess thats what we want cause we buy it up as fast as they unload it into the store..Heck look at the sales on tools in the CTC flier this week-end cheap junk but we all got our shops and tool boxes stuffed full and we will be rushing to buy more this week-end so I guess we get the government we vote for and the products we buy are about the same ..I guess it's our own fault for the mess we are in and the worst part I don't see it ever changing back to quality unfortunately our kids will either pay the bills ,make it better or it will just derteriate till we have a complete monetary colapse of our economy but I doubt if any of our good manufacturing jobs making quality appliances or anything else we took pride in will ever be back..Now how do export and get rid of the Liberals???
So Chuk how do you really feel.Those washers you talked about never worked properly from the factory and most shops won't even go on a call on one of them because if you do show up you can't make a lasting repair and then the customer is mad at you insted of the manufactuer that sold a product that never worked properly forom day one.The Maytag model has over 400 complaints on one consumer web site that the machine used so little water during a cycle that on a really full load some of the clothes didn't even get wet.The compnays truely don't care if you buy from them or not.Bace when they did care there wasn't the population we have now so every customer counted now we have millions of people in the same area and if you aren't happy there are thousands to take your place.As for the big TVs the problem to m is the fact this plasma stuff is new tecknolagy and who knows how long it is suposed to last 3yrs,5yrs,20yrs who knows.We know the cathode picture tube type lasted 10-20yrs,Whirlpool direct drive washers ,without electronics,lasted 10-15yrs basicly trouble free.The new space shuttel flashing light stuff with luck 5yrs.My advice to my customers is buy the cheapest one you ban find with the features you NEED and buy it,that way you still have some money left over to replace it 5yrs from now.As for features ask yourself if you really need an 11 cycle dishwasher or a washer that injects steam or a fridge with a computer screen in the door. Ed
Look around people , most everything you look at or own is disposable , your cars , get in an accident and see how fast they want to write it off ,,a light frontender and its written off.... ur tv s , my grandfather only bought rca s , lasted for years ,, 5 6 7 years is the life of t vs... fridge stoves freezers,, they seem to last for a while ...everything is buy and toss....yesteryears products were made to last ... look at what your parents and grandparents bought , look at the stuff they had for years ..sad really.....