Woman puts oven maker in the hot seat after problems with product
HOUSTON (KTRK) -- The end of a remodeling product for one Houston family was frightening. That's not the way it's supposed to end.
Her kitchen filled with smoke and she wanted action from the manufacturer. When she didn't get it, she turned to ABC13 investigative reporter Ted Oberg for help.
When Gaye Shockley remodeled her kitchen, she and her husband bought all new appliances. They look great but the first time they turned on the stove, it caught fire.
"It was pretty loud," Shockley said. "It wasn't like an electrical snap, it was just like 'bam'."
"There was a good bit of smoke and it filled up."
She says she could see the soot in photos and says the repair tech confirmed her suspicion.
"He said he had a fire in here, definitely a fire. It was contained to this area but definitely had a fire."
At first LG offered only to replace the faulty part but couldn't even do that right away. It was backordered. The store she bought it from would only take it back if she had the original packaging.
"You don't expect an appliance to catch on fire the first time you turn it on. So we didn't keep the packing."
So no luck there either. She called and called, once spending an hour and nine minutes on hold, she said.
No luck.
So she called us.
And we turned to the manufacturer and they turned back to Gaye.
"We want to make things right with you," they said to her. "We don't want you to have an unsafe product in your house."
We checked with the Consumer Product Safety Commission to make this was not a larger issue and did not find any recalls issued or reports made on this make and model. In the meantime, hours after we reached out to LG, the company offered to refund the Shockey's cash or replace the oven.
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