LG - to trust or not to trust?. Review on LG 32 LG 80FR LCD

LG today, is a consumer electronics giant in India. They project an image of providing'international quality' in India.  But do their products and after sales service live up to the fanfare? Is life with LG really that good?

So, I bought an LG LCD television following everyone else like a dumb sheep - model:32LG80FR about 18-24 months ago. 3 months ago, the product started developing trouble powering up.

Neither the remote nor the physical power button could get it to start. It was a very strange and unusual problem - sometimes it would power up but mostly not. But once powered up, it functioned normally. It was like playing Russian roulette everyday with the TV.  After getting fed up with this frustrating problem for weeks, I decided to call LG customer support - ofcourse expecting to go through hell.

Now comes the surprise - I didn't have to navigate endless IVR menus and within seconds I was already talking to an executive. The lady was very polite and helpful and seemed eager(probably due to good training) A smart company knows that high quality customer support can help them tide over most image problems and it seems that LG realised this and made sure that their customer support executives are well trained.

The whole registration process went off smoothly - the agent took my details(address, phone number, model number, make etc.) and registered the complaint and generated the complaint number with minimum hassle. BEST part was - the executives seem to have retained something that most people have forgotten - to listen. Listen to your customer's problems first! Kudos to them for that.

The next day, a person called me saying he was from LG - from the nearest authorised LG service centre(Neutron Service Centre, Dadar - Mumbai). When I told him about the problem, he said that he knew what was wrong with the set and said the power supply would need to be replaced. He said it will cost me Rs.2400+tax and Rs.600+tax for the visit.

It sounded a bit fishy so I called LG toll free again and told them that the person who called me might be trying to overcharge me and I want to confirm the price of the component with them. LG asked me talk to Neutron as they have no information about the price of components.

I immediately called Neutron posing as a general enquiry and asked him how much the part would cost. He said Rs.1100+tax. After getting this information, I informed him that the guy who called me asked for 2400+600. Realising they had been caught red-handed, he made several lame  excuses and said that there was some'miscommunication' and that Rs2400  was only an approximate rate etc etc. Only a fool would believe him. Clearly, it was a case of these service centre guys trying to fleece the customer.

I wonder how many customers these so called'genuine' and'authorised' service centres' are fleecing across the country on a daily basis. Had I not called LG back and reconfirmed the quote, I'm pretty sure I would've paid Rs3000 atleast. There is no rate card or prescribed charges for components from LG. As a result, these guys quote whatever they feel like.

All said  and done, the part was replaced(the old one is still with me) and I was charged Rs.1673(incl tax) for the part replacement and service visit. The warranty on the replaced part is measly 3 months. Needless to say the guy was trying to stick me with one of his annual maintenance contracts as a parting gift.

The dying questions now are, after having paid more than Rs.30, 000 for a television set, should it not last longer than 2 years without faults? Why do I have to pay for having  their shitty malfunctioning components replaced? Further talk with the service guy resulted in him admitting that the problem I was facing was a known issue with the LG Tv's. How else would he know the exact issue just by talking to me on the phone and before he even arrived at my home to inspect the TV?

So anyway, I'm pretty sure that this TV wont last more than another 2-3 years. In comparison, my last TV was a Sony CRT 21 incher that lasted from 1998 to 2009 - that is more than a decade with the only problem being broken program and volume buttons on the set. Note that I could still operate it perfectly using the remote.

So is life really good with LG? Maybe not.