Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Order An LG Dryer Online

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​Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Order An LG Dryer Online

       On February 28, 2025, our 15-year-old gas dryer crossed over the bridge to wherever the souls of dead appliances go. ​

     That same day Tom and I (below, in a considerably more carefree moment), 

...girded our loins, so to speak, and immersed ourselves in the task buying a new dryer. 
      "Where should we go?" I asked Tom. "Lowe's? Menards? Home Depot?"
      "Wherever you want," he replied.
     I looked out the window at the bleak, wet February day and thought of an aptly descriptive quote from Sinclair Lewis's novel "It Can't Happen Here": a gray trickle of cold dishwater from Heaven's kitchen sink."*
         "Say," I said, "what if we just stayed home and ordered the dryer online? People order appliances online all the time, right?"
           "Whatever you want," said my accommodating mate.
           So we spent the afternoon on an online dryer hunt and eventually bagged this LG 7.3 cu.ft. Rear Control Gas Energy Star Dryer with Sensor Dry.

      In truth, the main draw of this particular model was the free delivery, installation, and haul away that came with the purchase.

     I even read the small print, just to be sure:

        As we didn't have any hardwiring, side venting, water line extension, propane conversion, or and other installation issues that we knew of, I figured we were good to go. Although in retrospect, mayhaps that last line, There may be some additional work or parts required that are not included in this service was meant as a broader umbrella statement than I imagined at the time.
        But at the time all seemed in order. We placed our order for our new LG  7.3 Rear Control etc, etc, etc, Dryer on February 28 and were given a delivery date of March 19.  Fine, we thought, we could go three weeks without a dryer.  In fact we went into what I christened "Little House on the Prairie" mode, hanging up the laundry all around the house to dry on these cold, wet, winter days (see post from 3/18/2025,   https://www.ailantha.com/blog/the-day-nothing-was-working).

        About halfway through our wait time Tom received this assuring text from LG:  ​

...with a drawing of the correct  outlet needed for a gas dryer, which we had.

      On Wednesday March 19, our dryer arrived as scheduled, delivered by the LG contract delivery service, an outfit called RXO. However, the RXO delivery kid, who looked to be in his 20's, informed us that he didn't have the gas hose in his truck that was necessary to install our dryer. Nor could he haul away our old dryer without putting a cap - which he also didn't have on him - over our gas outlet. He advised us to go to Home Depot and buy the necessary 6-foot hose and then call LG and tell them to call RXO again to arrange for an installer to come back out to our house. 
       Now, we probably should have realized on the spot the sketchiness of that directive. But alas, we were at the front end of the journey, and so Tom zipped out to Home Depot, bought the hose and, just to be safe, a gas outlet cap and a few other dryer installation supplies.
           In fact, Tom knew how to install a gas dryer himself. He once replaced the gas valve and hose (whatever exactly that involved) on our old dryer. But what Tom couldn't do on his own - obviously - was haul away the old dryer and move the new dryer, which had been left at the bottom of the basement stairs, up against the wall where the connecting outlets were. Besides, Tom no longer had his pipe wrench - having once lent it out after which it was never returned - or the fittings needed for the installation. And better to leave the job to the professional. Who, per our agreement with LG, was going to come back and do it, anyway. Even though our post-delivery paperwork stated that the dryer had already been installed.

           But we trusted. So on Wednesday, March 19, per the instructions of our RXO delivery kid, Tom contacted LG about rescheduling the hauling away of our old dryer and the installation of our new dryer. Tom was asked to please answer a survey afterwards.  ​  
    The next night, Thursday night, March 20, Tom received a call from RXO, the delivery service, from someone with a foreign accent, informing him that RXO was not going to install our dryer and asking him to please answer a survey afterwards.
        The next day, Friday, March 21, I called LG. I talked to a very nice lady with a foreign accent who told me - that is, after about a combined 45 minutes of waiting in line then waiting while she tried to sort out my situation - that RXO was not, in fact, going to install our dryer but that LG would reimburse us $50  for us to arrange and pay for on our own installation and haul away service.
      To which I, normally a most non-confrontational soul, replied, "$50?!  We already spent $33 on the gas hose! And besides, there's no way I could get someone to come to my house and do that job for under $200!"
     The nice lady had me wait a while longer while she conveyed my response to...whoever...then returned to tell me that I would be hearing from RXO right away, and in any case to call back if I didn't hear from them in 48 hours. I was asked to please answer a survey afterwards.
         48 hours - which would have been Sunday, March 23 - came and went. So did Monday, March 24. On Tuesday, March 25 I called LG back and got a nice guy with a foreign accent. After much waiting and back-and-forthing the nice LG guy with the foreign accent told me I needed to call RXO myself. I was asked to please answer a survey afterwards.
         I called RXO, and after much waiting my called was picked up by a nice lady with a foreign accent to whom I schpieled my story. She told me to stay on the line, she'd transfer me to someone who could help. 
         The next person I talked to was  - glory be - a hale,  hearty, friendly guy who sounded like he was from right here in Columbus, Ohio. "Don't you worry," he boomed, "we're gonna fix you right up!" He told me to stay on the line, which I did, and I was transferred back to LG. I mean back to square one, "press one for this and two for that" square one. When a nice lady with a foreign accent finally answered I had to start my story all over.
     This nice foreign lady had me hold the line while she checked with...whoever...and after a long hold she returned and she assured me that I would received a call from RXO before the end of the day to schedule the installation of my dryer. And could I please answer a survey afterwards. That was Tuesday, March 25. 
         It was on the afternoon of Wednesday, March 26, after nobody from RXO had called me back and my dryer had been sitting a week in my basement, still pre-born and uninstalled, that it hit me: 

...This outfit is not going to install your dryer. Ever. You got baited and switched. 
       I was somewhere along in the five stages of aggravation - denial, anger, hair-pulling, b**ching and more b**chng, that one of my daughters called. I proceeded to bend her ear with my tale of dryer woe. My daughter was sympathetic and soothing. But she also pointed out something that had already occurred to me, that all these customer service workers, probably sitting in cubicles thousands of miles from me and from one another, didn't have a clue what to do, or the power to do anything anyway, about my dryer. And then she brought up something that hadn't at all occurred to me: maybe they were even slave or subjugated labor, forced to sit in those cubicles and field questions all day from Americans ticked off about their appliances.
     I then wondered if the beleaguered workers would be fed if they didn't earn their quota of positive survey answers.
        Anyway, I accepted that my dryer issue was not going to be taken care of by LG or their proxy, RXO. Still, I felt I needed closure. So the following day, Thursday, March 27, I decided to call one more time, this time to RXO, not to demand that they install my new dryer and haul away my old, but only to find if they are in fact strictly a delivery service,  if installing and hauling is something they even do.
        So on Thursday morning I called RXO, was put de rigueur on hold and eventually connected to a nice foreign lady who assured me that she couldn't discuss what I was asking her about, that I'd have to call LG. I repeated that I wasn't asking for service, that I only wanted to know if RXO did, in fact, ever do installations. She politely transferred me to LG, where I was connected to another nice foreign lady.
        Well, as long I was on the line with LG I figured there was no harm in giving it one last shot. I started from the beginning and told the nice lady my long tale of dryer installation woe, from the promise of free installation and haul away that had initially lured me into buying an LG dryer which was still sitting uninstalled in my basement over a week after delivery, to the seven customer service reps I'd talked to so far, eight counting her, and everything in between.
         After I'd finished my exhaustive jeremiad the nice foreign lady sympathetically informed me that she was parts and repair, but that she'd transfer me to online orders.
        It was definitely not Matti's day, Matti being the nice young foreign guy to whom I was transferred (I changed his name, just in case, even though the name he gave me surely wasn't his, anyway). I was telling Matti my story for the third time that day, and my mood had definitely not mellowed. After I finished Matti politely told me I needed to call RXO. 
        Be kind, I told myself, don't take it out on Matti, who might be chained to his cubicle just trying to get a good survey so he gets fed that night. Anyway, I took a deep breath and told Matti that I'd already called RXO. That it was RXO that transferred me to him. 
        "Oh," said Matti. He then left me on the line whilst he went off into the ether to try and find the answer to what to do next with this livid, fat cat American lady and her dryer. 
         When Matti returned he told me he had someone from RXO on the line joining our conversation who would explain to me why my dryer couldn't be installed. I then found myself listening to someone who sounded just like Matti and, for all I knew, could have been Matti. Anyway, this RXO Matti sound-alike didn't really explain in any manner that I understood why RXO couldn't install or haul, just that they couldn't. 
        I'm sorry to say that I then went off on Matti Sound-Alike, telling him that this was fraud, that I'd been tricked into buying this dryer on the promise that it would be installed, that if I'd known it wouldn't be I'd have gone to Lowe's, that this was dishonest and wrong, and now what was I supposed to do?
​       Matti then informed me that Matti Sound-Alike had left the conversation. "Okay," I said, "so what am I supposed to do about my dryer?"
       Matti sadly informed me that I'd have to take care of the situation myself, and he offered me some Byzantine logic to the effect that since the installation and haul-away services had been free, LG couldn't refund me anything. Because I hadn't paid anything for the service.  Which they didn't provide.
        I then did a repeat performance for Matti of the rant that I'd laid on Matti Sound-Alike, who might have been Matti. After I finished, poor shaken Matti told me to hold the line, probably needing a moment to himself to cry. He then came back and told me that LG would compensate me for the cost of taking care of my dryer situation on my own.
        "Fine," I snapped (which I shouldn't have), but I don't want to be offered any $50. Tell...whoever...that I'll need at least $200 to have this dryer installed and the old one hauled away.
        "Yes, yes," said Matti. "I'll tell them. Now," he crooned in the most dulcet and soothing tone, "you go and have some lunch, and after lunch you'll be contacted about your compensation."
        Poor Matti. He was probably wishing he could go and have some lunch. I hope he did.
       TO BE CONTINUED....    
     *I highly recommend that every American read "It Can't Happen Here," a novel by Sinclair Lewis written in 1936. In view of current events, it will, I promise, blow your mind.