Samsung you need to change your approach or lose customers

General Discussion
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An honest course of events from a power user and “the guy” for everyone I know when it comes to tech recommendations.

I am disappointed in the Samsung brand and looking elsewhere.

Tizen on the fridges has always been a stupid choice, without getting too deep into this topic the locked down state of your fridges has completely prevented innovation. Samsung, you lose your best customers by doing this, the people most likely to contribute to your ecosystem and make your fridge useful are those writing apps for free just to do cool stuff. Those people, myself included, the family tech people, are less likely to recommend your fridge because the Family Hub is truly useless. The bundled apps and services are lackluster and buggy. Aside from a collage of Van Gogh paintings I don’t even look at the Family Hub any more.

I direct up to $500k annually of spending for tech refreshes and hardware acquisition at my workplace, if I want to buy 30 Samsung TV’s I have the authority to do so. I did when the “Frame” TV’s came out.

I had the first generation Samsung Family Hub fridge fail (refrigerant system leak and compressor sent burnt oil through all the coils) 3 months out of warranty, total loss.

It’s ice maker was always faulty and horrid.

My brand loyalty and the improvements to the fridge (specifically the beverage center and ice maker) led me to buy the 32" Family Hub at it’s launch which was disappointingly only a few months prior to the “AI” upgraded version of the fridge.

The fruit infusion chamber insert in the beverage center practically disintegrated after one use of adding lemons, something your advertising material recommends. I do not want to ingest unstable plastics, your lack of testing of this is demonic.

I have your dishwasher, the top rack plastic has also begun disintegrating, it contaminates everything it touched and has been replaced.

Placing ads on the fridge was an awful choice, I have only ever used art mode but I understand other users frustration. You must undo this, there is no excuse.

Locking down the fridge and preventing sideloading (Tizen sucks but if I could code for it I’d be ecstatic) is a fundamentally flawed decision for a “tech first” fridge.

Here is what finally prompted me to speak out:

The new sound effects for “fridge open” suck. They are atrocious. My wife hates the AI voice and change from the musical tone. I went to change it in the settings but there is no such option.

You are losing tech people, the **only** people that will test and recommend your kitchen appliances.

My sister and her husband just bought a new home, I recommended a Thermador instead of a Samsung because I am done.

In my circles I will do my best to ensure nobody buys Samsung again until everything I have mentioned is remedied.

Samsung you are welcome to reach out if you want more meaningful feedback.

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This forum was set up a number of years ago so that customers could help other customers with the smartthings home automation platform.

Then a few years ago, Samsung combined a bunch of its apps and called the one remaining “smartthings“ but this particular forum still isn’t monitored by Samsung employees except for one small area for developers. So it’s unlikely any Samsung employees will see your post.

Instead, you can post on the official Samsung support community, which is monitored by Samsung employees. Or, of course, try their official channels, like Facebook or X.

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Thank you, I cross posted this to the Samsung forum and was provided a link to email their CEO. I will follow up :slightly_smiling_face:. I hope I can get some traction as I believe Samsung only has to correct a handful of bad decisions. I’m a huge proponent of SmartThings and use it to expand my Google Assistant so I really appreciate all the knowledge I’ve gained from the community here.

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Samsung “white goods” (AKA large home appliances) have always been problematic. Any appliance repair person will tell you that they get more calls for Samsung appliances than other brands. And when there is a problem that needs replacement parts, it often takes months to get those needed parts.

There’s a reason appliance repair people suggest buying “simple” appliances without control boards. They just work, and work practically forever. And if they need repair parts, the parts are plentiful and affordable.

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I’ve been told the same thing about LG appliances and their support network, so take it all with a grain of salt.

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I am happy with Bosch Group and Home Connect. Home Connect works with SmartThings, Google Assistant and Alexa.

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I’ve had no issues with my three LG smart white goods. Bosch has also been good (non-smart). My Samsung TV’s failures and Samsung’s poor support ended up in small claims case, which I won. But I will say my Samsung TV is now working after 7 months and it allows me to hear my cat bark (lol)- and it has the new and “improved” hub without Z wave which I have no use for.

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When I recently called a local appliance repair company about a Kenmore washer he was able to tell it was a rebadged LG. Said they don’t work on those as they are so poorly made.

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I’ve an lg dryer , Samsung washing machine, neff dishwasher, Samsung fridge. The lg dryer replaced a failed Samsung dryer and it’s better in my opinion. Fridge is great as a fridge but the smart aspects of it are below expectation. Neff dishwasher is decent but slow, but I think that’s due to eco saving programmes.

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While I’m good with my LG appliances as appliances, their smart capabilities leave a lot to be desired.
I’m guessing some of this is liability driven. LG Thin Q is very thin feature wise and almost worthless IMHO. That’s why I did not upgraded my Bosch dishwasher to SMART as I’m not sure if their smart version has any features worth using (I currently use a smart EVE plug so I can monitor energy use and status, which is better than what I can do with LG..). I did recently get a Samsung MW and there is no true MW functionality, but I can turn the range hood and light on and off, but not enter the eco mode through ST. It does report kWh though.

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For someone looking for a refrigerator with a touchscreen… worthless in my opinion.. Samsung has the market on that locked down so they are hardly losing any customers because of the lack of apps or innovation