Have you ever wanted to invest in the high-tech gadgets advertised around the holidays? One local family did with a refrigerator and now they say they’re paying for it.
The Feria family shared their story with First Coast News to warn other families about their experience.
They say they went out on a limb and invested in the Samsung Family Hub refrigerator, which they say is the 'smartest' and most expensive home refrigerator on the market right now.
Jordan and Ben Feria say they paid $4,300 for the appliance. Right now, the gadgets are working, but the actual refrigerator isn't, which Jordan Feria says makes meal time for her two toddlers difficult.
"They are young, they will want to come over and eat something and I can’t because our refrigerator is gone," Jordan Feria said. "We lost all of our food that day when it went down a month ago. As you can see it’s empty, we are using it as dry storage right now."
The Ferias describe a saga of dead ends trying to get it fixed for the past month.
They say first their home warranty company came out to their home with new parts and insisted it was working again, but when Jordan Feria opened the refrigerator door, there was no change.
"I opened the door and it was 75 degrees inside," she said.
That’s when the Ferias started calling dozens of technicians on their own. On their third technician to the house, it wasn't going anywhere.
"The first thing the guy did was walk in the front door and say I’m sorry ma’am I can’t work on this refrigerator," she said. "I said 'you’re the third technician from your company here, what do you mean?' He said 'I don’t have the tools or the manpower for that.'"
That's when Samsung got involved and informed the Ferias that the only certified technician that could work on the problem was from Lakes Electronics.
"They said Lakes Electronics is going to be your only technician in Northeast Florida that can handle this refrigerant."
She says Samsung’s technician delivered the same bad news.
"He said, 'I can’t tell you how this is going to be fixed because at this time this job is not created yet,'" he said.
Feria said the technician informed her that the training was ongoing but it wasn't complete yet since the appliance was new technology, so she would have to wait an indefinite time.
First Coast News reached out to all involved parties, which the Feria listed as Samsung, Lakes Electronics, A&E Factory Appliances and First American Home Warranty.
Samsung quickly responded first and their spokesperson says they are looking into our questions regarding technician training and why the appliance hasn't been fixed yet.
They also sent this statement in response to our concerns:
“We stand behind the quality and innovation of our refrigerators. We regret the experience that the Feria family had with their refrigerator and we have scheduled an authorized service provider to inspect their unit. We aspire to have best-in-class service for all Samsung customers and will carefully review the Feria family’s experience in an effort to constantly improve our processes. We strongly encourage any consumer with a question about a Samsung product to contact us directly at 1-800-SAMSUNG.”
The Ferias say they are concerned about the appointment scheduled for Monday because they say it was only scheduled after they informed the company that they were bringing their story to First Coast News.
First American Home Warranty called First Coast News to ask a few questions about the case and is now digging deeper for answers.
No one else has responded yet.
Until it is fixed, the family says they are bundling up to use a back-up refrigerator outside and coolers.
This is a developing story that First Coast News will follow-up on.