RACINE COUNTY — Racine County resident Michele Kling joins a long list of consumers across the country, complaining about their Samsung refrigerators. She called the I-Team saying her nearly $2,000 refrigerator hasn't been functioning for two years.
Kling said repair crews have replaced the ice maker three times and she said the refrigerator wasn’t cooling her food. Although no doctor diagnosed it, Kling suspects the lack of cooling made her son sick.
“He has a sensitive stomach to begin with, but he gets it right after he would eat and that’s when I really started to pay attention,” Kling said.
“It was very heartbreaking to know that it could have been making my kids sick, I can’t say that I know it for sure,” she continued.
Repair crews have also replaced the control panel and other smaller parts along the way.
Kling refused to pay for the repairs and stopped using the appliance.
On a group page on Facebook, thousands of consumers including Kling claim they have faulty Samsung refrigerators.
“You trust that it's going to be safe and that what comes out of it, your family can eat,” Kling said.
In a class-action lawsuit, nearly two dozen refrigerator models are listed, but not Michele Kling's model. The main subject of the suit is defective ice-makers.
The court document claims they cause "over-freezing in the ice compartment" "water leakage" and "fan noise."
The court document alleges Samsung has known about the defects "...for years and has taken no action to repair or replace the defective ice makers or the Class Refrigerators."
The lawsuit also includes twenty-eight pages of complaints from consumers and some, like Michele Kling, say they've had issues with their fridge's "overall temperature control."
Kling says her fridge is beyond repair. After our interview was over, she took it to the dump.
Kling told us weeks ago, Samsung agreed to give her a full refund. She's still waiting for the check. TODAY’S TMJ4 contacted Samsung asking for an interview and we are waiting for Samsung to answer our questions.
“They can make it better honestly by recalling these refrigerators,” Kling said.
