LG Products - Buyer Beware - My Experience

The compressor on my split unit air conditioner stop running.

So, My wife stopped by Plaza Llama repair service and they sent out a technician.

He determined that the "Starting Capacitor" was bad and needed replacement.
The technician voiced concern about getting the part from "LG" to do the repair.

For those that do not know what a "Starting Capacitor" looks like, it's about half the width of a pack of cigarettes and round, with connections for two wires. A very small easy item to replace.

The next morning my wife stopped by Plaza Llama repair service to check on the status of the part.

She was told that the compressor would have to be disconnected and returned to Plaza Llama repair service. Later that day, the technician arrived and disconnected the compressor.

He arrived on his motor bike and I asked, how are you going to take the compressor back to the shop.
We were informed, that was OUR job.

Now why was it necessary to return the compressor to the Plaza Llama repair shop for such a simple repair?

Because it was under warranty and it has to be sent to "LG" in Santo Domingo for repairs !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This was on Wednesday, we are told it will not leave for Santo Dominigo until TUESDAY.

While at the shop, my wife noticed a large double sided refrigerator and asked if the customer was also responsible for bringing it back to the shop, the answer was "YES".

So for a 10-15 minute repair time to replace the starting capacitor in my compressor, they emptied out the R-22 coolant and are taking about a week, just to get it to Santo Domingo.

I will definitely remember this the next time I think about buying an "LG" product.


Don - Waiting weeks to have a "simple, easy" item fixed on an "LG" air conditoner.

windeguy said:

Don. Thanks for the heads up about LG in general. In your specific situation, do you think it would have been possible to find an alternate source for the starting capacitor locally in Santiago and just have another fellow replace it? I have replaced a few start-up capacitors on other appliances and just brought the bad capacitor to a local shop to get a new one.

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There's still one year left on the warranty on the compressor unit.
If the warranty was over, that's what I would have done.

The inside console has a 2 year warranty, the outside compressor unit has a 3 year warranty.
I thought it was 2 years on both, we were 2 days away from the 2 year expiration of the console part.


Doing it myself and voiding the extra year warranty of the compressor was not a chance I wanted to take.

But, I definitely thought about it...... :smoke: lol

rubio_higuey said:

So because you were afraid of voided warranty you will now have to endure 10 or more days of this awful hellish hot weather we have been having for the past 2 weeks.

Any refripartes store could get you a capacitor, I am wuite sure that the capacitor did not have LG brand printed on it, so it would be hard to observe a non LG capacitor. Anyway If I were presented with the option like you were, I would have said Lama people Gracias nos vemos and resolved it myself. I guess the parts and labor would not cost more than 1000 pesos. A year ago I replaced a compressor core on the compressor (outside) unit and the new core bought locally was undistinguishable from the original Nedoca one.

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Plaza Llama was a little slow in giving us the details (Great mystery).

Remember also, the opinion that it was the capacitor may or may not be correct.

I won't even try to count the times I have been told things that were not true in this country !!!!!!!!!!!!

The unit was working in the morning, we turned it off when we went out.
When we got home later in the day and tried to turn it on, it would not run.

All the technician had with him was a Voltmeter and a screwdriver.

He never even had me turn off the electric, just checked to see if the 220 volts was on the line going to the compressor unit. I did not see inside the unit, no idea how he determined it was the capacitor. He never fully removed the cover, took the screws out, started to remove the cover, then stopped and put it back together again.

Out of warranty, I would have tried a replacement capacitor.
Plaza Llama was aware of a problem with the unit and me trying to replace it would have been a red flag if that was not the problem. I had no valid reason not to let them disconnect the compressor.

As I stated, we originally thought it was a simple matter of replacing the capacitor, then we learned the hard way of what they were going to do, we were already committed to them, telling them 'no' would not have worked at that point.

The full unit cost over $30,000 pesos, if the problem is not the capacitor it could have gotten expensive.

The technician that said it was the capacitor did not tell us it needed to be sent to Santo Domingo, we found that out when we checked the next day, and then it was too late, they were coming back out to disconnect it.


As far as not being "LG's" fault, it would have been nice to know they won't let anyone take their units apart and that all warranty repairs must be done in Santo Domingo.

I, like many others probably believed that Plaza Llama's repair service would do the repair under the warranty.

LESSON LEARNED

When I get the unit back, I will update this thread with what was really wrong with the unit, IF THEY TELL ME.

donP said:

To replace a capacitor I would never let a PL technican do it.
They probably do more damage than good and I know that you can do it yourself.
Less headache, faster and may even be cheaper (as your repaired unit will never be the same as it was...).

donP

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Maybe that's why "LG" insists that Plaza Llama send their products back to Santo Domingo for repairs.

rubio_higuey said:

So because you were afraid of voided warranty you will now have to endure 10 or more days of this awful hellish hot weather we have been having for the past 2 weeks.

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I guess I should have mentioned that I never removed the 8,000+/- BTU window unit from the wall when we installed the split unit LG air conditioner 2 years ago........

Ahhhh, life in paradise.

Always Keep a Backup lol

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Fail-Safe !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!