Samsung American Fridge Freezer Problems

I was on phone to Samsung for one hour 30 minutes pulling me hair out

sharpman wrote: »

Samsung why are they so hard to get in contact with 3 hours and still no answer :mad::mad:

Sorry to hear that they were at least reachable when I was contacting them but it sounds like they don't want to know about it. They are not doing much for their future sales! What about joe Duffy?

seaniefr wrote: »

To all of you who unfortunately bought one of these pieces of crap (me included) Samdung will will fix it free (if it's a certain fault) up to 5 years from date of purchase

http://www.samsung.com/ie/support/troubleshootingguides/supportTroubleShootingGuidesMain.do

enter your model number or have a look at the troubleshooting guide list
mine was out of warranty by 3 weeks
I will never buy anything manufactured by them again!

http://www.samsung.com/ie/homevisit/
see links above
enter your model number & serial number and see if they have a service bulletin about your fridge.

Hi All,
just coming across this thread now, as last night we had the same issue. Our fridge start making a strange motorized noise that stopped when the fridge door was opened. But then it just stopped and makes absolutely no noise at all. About a month ago the water dispenser stopped working also. its a RS21 model and Im just worried in case when I go home I will have lost the contents of the fridge and freezer. Our problem is that we bought the fridge in the autumn of 2006, but surely at a cost of over €1000 it should last longer than that. I purchased it in DID. What is the best action for us to take next? Im presuming it is one of those that has been listed as having a fault but I haven't got the serial number to hand to verify.
Thanks

seaniefr wrote: »

Hi

check this link out
http://www.samsung.com/ie/homevisit/
all the info is in previous posts basically if its an RS21
particularly an RS21DGRS you will need to get it looked at. Mine was the same vintage and when the authorised service sompany came out to look at it it was 'beyond economic repair' as it had to be re-gassed and they apparently dont work very well after it.
I ended up with a replacement and they took back the original and this after losing the contents of the freeezer twice. One little bit of advice: don't put it on the long finger!

im getting on to it today, but just worried in case they tell me its out of warranty... surely even if it is it was still sold to me with the technical fault and is thus should be fixed free of charge?

hi all, just to update ...
i filled in the linked form above and the fridge is entitled to a call out from samsung. This form was completed on monday but i havent heard a word from them through phone or email and we are worried that the fridge is just going to stop working as the fan gets really load and then just stops working sporadically. How long generally have people had to wait for contact from samsung as it says on the form not to contact them once the form has been completed as they will get in touch with us...
cheers

no not yet, i might stick a temp in the fridge and see what it actually is. At the min, theres no water from the dispenser and the fridge sounds like its about to take off untill we open the door and the fan stop altogether.

just to update... with the fridge now heating up according to the temp on the display, i rang the support line and have been on hold for the past 41mins yet to speak to a human. This is disgraceful level of customer support... any other advice on how to get in touch with them?
cheers

no, i did remove some of the ice that had congregated at the base, but when i tried to get the panel off to remove some of the ice on where i presume the fan/motor is i couldnt get the panel off without the fear of it snapping.
Im on the verge of ring joe duffy ....

Just to update this, I have been emailing Samsung back and forth 5 times at this stage. I have explained my situation and they have basically said its out of warranty but we can put you in touch with an engineer that will help you but it will cost you. This has followed emails by me explaining that I felt the product wasnt of 'merchantable quality' when it was sold to me (given the admittance by Samsung on the Watchdog programme). I have just sent them an email saying that I was getting in touch with consumer affairs as their last email said I should ring their support line, of which I was on hold for 45mins the last time I rang.
Is there any other advice on what I could do, or has anyone else experienced this level of customer dissatisfaction with Samsung and their fridge freezers.
tHanks

seaniefr wrote: »

I am sorry to hear that it sounds like they have stopped warranty cover on them. It does sound like your problem is one that there is an upgrade kit could hopefully fix as I found that there was one out for certain models of Samsung fridges. What model is your fridge freezer by the way?

rs21 dcns is the model.

positivenote wrote: »

rs21 dcns is the model.

The model we were initially talking about was the RS21DGRS you might not hopefully have the probllems that were encountered on that model.

positivenote wrote: »

Just wanted to let you know how this all turned out.... which was good in the end. I rang Samsung haven been given a different number to ring following my threat to get onto consumer affairs and letting them know that i felt that i was being treated like a fool. I got through straight away and there was no problem at all, a free service call was arranged and the fridge has been fixed without and cost for labour or parts. They have also advised me of a 'loss of food' compensation policy that I am entitled to go for. I think that its a matter of persistence as it took me five emails before being given a no. other than the one i had to call.
anyway, hopefully the issues wont come back again.
Thanks for all advice

Glad to hear it worked out!

We had the dreaded noisy fan, temperature too warm, ice build-up problem on the fridge section of a Samsung American style side by side fridge/freezer. It is a RSH1NHSW model purchased in September 2009 costing €700. Although I was aware of and had previous experience of poor performance of Samsung equipment, we purchased this unit because the dimensions fitted (just) the available space, the colour (white) matched our other kitchen equipment and lack of an ice dispenser was also what we wanted. Had there been another make with this specification, we would have purchased this instead.

Eighteen months later and we loose the food contents of the fridge due to a warm temperature and ice build-up. So we execute a full manual defrost and all is good for a few months and then the noisy fan and we loose the food contents again. So then we get into a routine of planned manual defrosts every quarter but by late 2012 even this does not restore the cooling performance. It was time to do some research and it became apparent very quickly that this is a design issue with multiple models of Samsung fridges that has gone on for many years, so much so that there are various third parties offering DIY repair kits. There have been lawsuits and massive product recalls with some units allegedly exploding.

The Samsung website which is endlessly patronising was no help to me because it insisted that I submit the serial number of the unit. The serial number is not on any of the enclosed documentation and can only be found apparently on the lower left hand side of the unit. In my case, I could only access this be de-constructing some of the built-in section of the kitchen and I was going to incur additional cost to do this and make it good afterwards.

So I called Samsung. This was fun (not). It took three attempts and many hours to get to talk to someone. They tried every trick in the book to avoid one to one contact – well you would I suppose if you have sold hundreds of thousands of faulty units to now irate customers around the globe. Well again, the serial number was asked for and I explained my difficulty in getting it as above but I also explained that I had documented proof of purchase. This cut no ice (pardon the pun) with them and I was basically told – no serial number, get lost. I asked what was the probability that they would give me a direct replacement so I could assess if it was worth kitchen de-construction to get the stupid serial number, again I was dismissed with no answer.

I reconsidered my options. Getting a new unit from another maker would cost me €1000 or so when I add in the required kitchen modifications. Appliance DIY Repairs in the UK (http://www.appliancediyrepairs.co.uk/) offer a whole range of Samsung repair kits and for my model the cost is £133. Delivery is free in the UK but is extra to Ireland so this is expensive but for me it was potentially my least worst option. I am pretty technical so fitting the repair kit was not going to be an issue. The really neat thing for me was that the repair kit could all be fitted within the fridge compartment without the need to access the back or sides so I did not have to move the unit and incur additional kitchen modification costs.

I found Andy at Appliance DIY Repairs extremely responsive and very helpful and dealing with him in contrast to Samsung was chalk and cheese. The repair kit includes an apparently improved evaporator cover with fan, evaporator heater with thermal fuse and a defrost sensor which (and this is critical) you install in a different location to the original. It also comes with an excellent set of installation instructions. Anyone that is reasonably handy should be able to fit this kit but you need to set a full day aside for it. It can take quite a long time to get rid of the ice build up. I used two hair dryers blowing close to the evaporator cover (but not touching it as this will melt the plastic) to get the cover free and I had to pour boiling water on the drain hole at the bottom of the evaporator for hours to get this clear of ice. The unit has been working fine since repair but I cannot vouch for the long-term effectiveness of the repair kit until more time passes. Given that the repair kit is also made up of Samsung components, I have no confidence that it is a permanent fix.

I estimate this Samsung mess has cost us in the region of €400 so far when I include the two batches of food wasted. In fact we have never had a good Samsung product. Our first Samsung product was a CII-5361AT/MIC television bought in November 1996. From day one had a faulty circuit board and the TV had to be hit slap here and there every other day to get a picture. The current crop of Samsung TV’s also seem to have loads of issues even on their high end units. Just Google Samsung TV clouding and banding to get an idea.

We managed to avoid Samsung products for a decade until our second Samsung product which was a DVD-VR320 VHS/DVD recorder bought specifically to archive VHS tapes to DVD in April 2006 as it was the only one available locally. The VHS deck was terrible and it made awful grainy DVD’s from the VHS tapes. The vendor (Currys) allowed to me trial their display unit but it was no better. Then I read the professional reviews and found that they had the same issue – the terrible VHS deck was not just a fault on mine but a “design feature” of all of them. It was utterly useless and sits gathering dust in the attic. We imported a Panasonic DMR EX95 VHS/DVD/HDD recorder to do the job. It is a class box and I now use it as a PVR for recording TV programmes from a set top box and archiving them to DVD.

So our third Samsung product, the poorly designed and very unreliable RSH1NHSW American style fridge/freezer will be our last.

WE WILL NEVER BUY ANOTHER SAMSUNG PRODUCT EVER AGAIN. :mad:

We are careful users and tend to operate stuff by the book. Thankfully over the years other appliances we have owned (brands like Bosch, Electrolux, Zanussi, Belling, Mitsubishi, Philips, Panasonic, Sharp, Sony, Apple & Dell) have given us good service and value for money, only Samsung has not. What is amazing is how Samsung gets away with this. It seems to achieve it by being highly innovative in avoiding after-sales service and in avoiding it’s customers. It’s a shame it does not deploy the same level of innovation in the design and build of the products.

Buyer beware.

Hi there, My Samsung RSH 1 fridge / freezer has started tripping the trip switch at the electric box, any idea's please.

Thanks I will do that