Steve Stafford has read a bunch of columns over the years that have helped dissatisfied appliance owners get some satisfaction.
Here in the newsroom we’ve nicknamed these articles “Dan on Your Side,” and they’re always popular with readers. But until recently, Stafford never dreamed he’d need my help to get the attention of a washing-machine manufacturer.
The company is LG and the appliance in question is a top-loading washer Stafford bought last spring at Lowe’s in Fairlawn. The model was WT7150CW.
Above is the top-loading LG washing machine Steve Stafford of Fairlawn bought at Lowe's last spring. In November, Stafford began notifying LG the machine was malfunctioning.
Including tax, delivery and hauling away his old washer, Stafford paid $814. Lowe’s delivered and installed the appliance May 16. By early November, Stafford began lodging complaints about its operation with LG.
He cited two principal problems.
“This first issue is the need to monitor and add extra water several times during wash cycles to assure adequate submersion and agitation of clothes,” Stafford wrote, noting the washer is supposed to automatically determine the proper water-level setting.
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“The second is totally inadequate rinse-cycle agitation,” Stafford wrote. “This forces us to stop the rinse cycle one or more times to push clothes, otherwise floating on the water’s surface, down into the rinse water.”
Both sound like worthy concerns, especially with a relatively new appliance. And Stafford has repeatedly brought them to the attention of the manufacturer.
Between Nov. 6 and Jan. 7, Stafford, an engineer, received or initiated 30 separate communications with LG employees or agents. He’s kept meticulous notes of each contact.
According to that chronology, the LG reps often promised to get back to Stafford but rarely did by the deadlines they set. And the more you read it, the more it looks like at LG customer service, the left hand often is unaware what the right hand is doing.
During his customer-service odyssey, Stafford dealt with at least 11 different LG employees, whose names and/or titles he carefully jotted down. They were: Alvin; Michelle; Briuna (an “LG Presidential Liaison”); LG Pending Management Team; Gerald; Justin; Hanna; Tisha; Jim; Adolfo; and S. Park, who apparently is president of customer care for LG.
(Often in customer-service situations, detailed chronologies like the one Staffard kept prove valuable in resolving disputes.)
Stafford also dealt with Jay, a technician for the independent repair company LG finally sent to evaluate his washing machine. It took Stafford from Nov. 6 to Nov. 27 just to get an appointment with Jay, who could not make it to Stafford’s house until Dec. 2.
On that day, Jay showed up and told Stafford he couldn’t diagnose the washer’s problem without first replacing a control board. Alas, Jay didn’t have that part on hand. So Jay ordered it. That’s when he learned it was out of stock, Stafford said.
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Four weeks later, on Dec. 30, Jay contacted Stafford again. Here’s how Stafford’s notes reflect what Jay told him: “Part continues to show ‘out of stock’ at distributor with no update as to any estimated ship date.”
After that is when Stafford contacted yours truly.
“Dan, I am writing this email to you as you seem to have a ‘Midas Touch’ with respect to getting appliance manufacturers to address faulty new appliances,” he wrote in an email.
“I am therefore reaching out to you to see if you might be able to perform some of the same ‘magic’ that you have written about in earlier columns.”
It seemed worth a try.
I started with LG’s public relations chief for North America, Christopher Demaria. I wrote him an email, including electronic copies of Stafford’s purchase receipt and his three-page chronology of contacts with LG customer service to get the appliance fixed.
“I’m reaching out to you to see if you can tell me how long it will take for LG to get that part in stock, and repair Mr. Stafford’s washing machine, so I can inform him how much longer he should expect to be living with a malfunctioning LG washer, beyond the current 62 days (and counting),” I wrote to Demaria.
I added: “Alternatively, is there anything else you can do to help resolve his situation, which has been ongoing for more than 2 months?”
I asked Demaria to get back to me by Jan. 13, but he didn’t.
But hours after I sent that email, someone at LG telephoned Steve Stafford, who notified me LG had reached out to him.
Subsequently, Stafford told me the communication was positive, and the situation has been resolved, but he declined to get into specifics.
“I appreciate everything you’ve done, thank you, thank you,” he said.
But “it never should have taken two months and 33 distinct communications with LG and its agent,” he added.
Stafford said he and his wife will be shopping for a differently branded washer soon.
