The $900 Dryer that Cost Samsung $26,000+
Online consumer forums from the Better Business Bureau to TrustPilot and Reddit document thousands of consumer experiences with product companies refusing to honor their warranties. For some companies, it’s a deliberately cultivated practice intended to cut costs and increase profit margins.
The playbook is simple: deny, delay, deflect. They claim the specific defect isn’t covered. They point fingers at the retailer, the delivery guy, the installer, or even you. Or, they send a technician to slap a “band-aid” on the problem—a cheap, temporary fix that fails the moment your warranty expires, forcing you to just give up and buy a new one.
For appliances like refrigerators and laundry machines, waiting months for a real solution isn’t an option. Most people just fold. They buy something else.
That’s what some companies count on. This is unfair to the consumer who paid good money for a promise that the company never intended to keep.
So, what happens when you refuse to fold? Here is exactly what happened when I decided to call their bluff.
The Defective Dryer
It started simply enough. On August 11, 2024, I bought a brand new Samsung gas dryer directly from Samsung.com. Their own team delivered it. Their own team installed it.
The first weekend after its delivery, I loaded the dryer with clothes and turned it on. Not good. The thing sounded like a rock tumbler. Scrape. Grind. Scrape.
As it turns out, an appliance technician later found that the drum was misaligned by 2-3mm from the factory. A manufacturing defect—plain and simple. It’s only a week old, and I have a warranty—no problem, right?
I called Samsung. That is where the “scam” part of the warranty kicked in.
The Blame Game
Samsung sent a technician to my house on September 4, 2024. What happened next was a masterclass in gaslighting. He took the dryer apart, confirmed the internal damage, and then immediately started the “Blame Game.”
First, he blamed the retailer. (I reminded him Samsung is the retailer).
Then, he blamed the shipper. (I reminded him Samsung is the shipper).
Finally, he blamed the installer. (I reminded him Samsung is the installer).
Realizing he had run out of people to blame, he told me he would send a report to Samsung for review. But he didn’t stop there. He pulled out his mobile device and asked me to sign a form acknowledging his visit. I read the form. It was not an acknowledgment of his visit – it was a form asserting that the dryer was “repaired.”
Wow… seriously? Did he really try to trick me into signing a form that lets Samsung off the hook? I’m a lawyer—I know not to sign that. I refused.
It seemed he wasn’t used to customers saying no. So, he looked me in the eye and said, “It’s okay, I’ll sign it for you.” He then proceeded to fill in the signature block on his mobile device, right in front of my home video surveillance camera. My jaw dropped. That was truly bold!
Apparently upset that I had challenged him, he shoved the heavy dryer back against the wall with such force that he cracked one of the floor tiles and tore the vent hose. He left me with a damaged floor and a noisy dryer venting exhaust gas directly into my house.
I immediately called Samsung support. I spoke to a representative named “Kingston.” I explained that this is a brand-new dryer delivered defective and asked if they could simply replace it. Kingston’s response? He told me that because the damage was “physical,” it wasn’t covered by the warranty—ignoring the fact that it came delivered that way. He refused to replace it. Incredible.
I had a defective machine, a damaged home, and a warranty that wasn’t worth the paper it was printed on.
It’s not my practice to file personal lawsuits. But I was left with only two options: do nothing or stand up for myself. So, I sued. [See the Complaint.]
Enter the “Death Star”
Now Samsung has been sued. The cost of hiring a lawyer and filing a response exceeds the value of the dryer. So, you’d think Samsung would just offer to replace the $900 dryer and fix that one tile, right? Wrong.
They hired Greenberg Traurig, LLP—a massive international law firm with thousands of lawyers—to crush me. This is the “War of Attrition” strategy. They don’t want to win on facts; they want to make the process so expensive and annoying that you quit.
I sent them basic questions (discovery). They stalled for four months.
- December: “Our person is on PTO. Can we have an extension?” I graciously granted the extension.
- January: “The fires in LA are disrupting us. Can we have another extension?” As a professional courtesy, I once again granted an extension.
Spending Millions to Save Pennies
Here is the part that defies all logic. Throughout this process, I gave Samsung multiple “off ramps.” I made reasonable settlement offers. I told them: Just replace the dryer, fix the one tile your guy broke, and pay the small court filing fees. That’s it.
Any rational business would have taken that deal in a heartbeat. It would have cost them perhaps $2,000 total.
Instead, Samsung chose war. They rejected every offer. They chose to pay a “Death Star” law firm tens of thousands of dollars in billable hours to fight a $900 dryer claim. They essentially lit a pile of money on fire just to avoid admitting they were wrong. It highlights a disturbing corporate mindset: they would rather spend a fortune punishing a consumer who stands up for themselves than spend a few pennies doing the right thing.
The Paper Tiger
I filed a simple 3-page Motion for Summary Judgment. [See Motion.] Basically, I told the judge: “Here are the facts. There is no credible dispute. I should win.”
Because the floor tile was discontinued, and because Samsung had refused my earlier offers to fix just the one broken tile, I was now forced to seek the cost to replace the flooring in the entire laundry area to maintain a consistent look.
This would have been a great time for Samsung to clear its head, call me, and be rational.
Instead, they filed a massive 364-page opposition. [See it here.]
Why so much paper? It was designed to bury me and the court. They wanted to throw so much mud against the wall that the judge would throw his hands up and deny the motion because it was too much work to read.
But Samsung made a rookie mistake—or, at least their high-priced lawyers did.
To put up a valid defense, Samsung needed evidence—service tickets, warranty terms, photos. They needed to submit proof that the dryer wasn’t defective. But instead of having a witness from Samsung swear to those documents, their own lawyer signed the declaration.
In court, that’s a huge no-no. A lawyer can’t swear to facts she has no personal knowledge of. It’s called “hearsay.” I pointed this out to the judge in a very brief 6-page reply. [See Reply.]
Samsung then panicked and filed an unsanctioned 62-page response [See Response]—making their overall paperwork a whopping 426 pages.
The Verdict
As a writer, brevity is your friend. Brief, simple, and concise communication shows respect for the court and their time. Samsung’s tactic was to overwhelm the court and hope for a lazy judge.
They lost. The court saw through all of Samsung’s bullsh*t. I won everything.
The full cost of the dryer, the full cost to replace all of the flooring ($24,479.83 total), plus court costs and legal fees. [See the Order Granting MSJ, Judgment and Amended Judgment (adding costs).]
They could have simply replaced the dryer. Now, because of their gamesmanship, they must pay more than 20x that amount, and that’s on top of the massive legal fees they paid to Greenberg Traurig.
I can’t help but ponder: was this legal incompetence? Was it a law firm purposefully trying to generate fees by dragging the case out? Or was it a corporate goliath intent on avoiding honoring a warranty no matter the cost?
The Frivolous Appeal
You would think they’d cut a check and go home. Nope. They appealed.
But here is where they crossed the line from “aggressive” to “unethical.”
To get more time for their appeal, their lawyer filed a document with the court under penalty of perjury. In it, she checked a box saying: “The other party is not willing to stipulate to an extension.” [See the document.]
That was a lie. They never asked me. Not once.
I emailed them: “When did you ask me?”
Their lawyer replied with a stunning admission: “We reasonably believed it would be futile to do so.”
Translation: We lied to the court about a fact because we predicted you’d say no. [See the Proof.]
Checkmate
I’d had enough. I drafted a Motion for Sanctions. I laid it all out—the stonewalling, the perceived forgery, the hearsay, and now, filing a false statement under penalty of perjury on appeal. I was ready to ask the appellate court to punish them and refer the attorneys to the State Bar.
I previously sent them a letter threatening them with sanctions if they continued the appeal. [See the letter.] Now, I sent additional correspondence via email documenting their perjury and telling them I would add that to my sanctions motion. [See the emails.]
Suddenly, the “Death Star” went dark. Samsung decided to drop the appeal. They opted to pay the judgment in full.
The threat of having their bad behavior exposed to the appellate court was the checkmate.
The Takeaway
They want you to think they are too big to beat. They want you to think the warranty is just a piece of paper they can ignore.
They are wrong.
If you have the facts, and if you refuse to let them bury you in paper, you can win. Read these documents. Learn their playbook. And the next time a giant company tries to bully you, remember: even giants stumble when the small refuse to back down.
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Disclaimer: This article is a public service. It’s my personal story, intended as a case study on how a corporate giant can try to bully a consumer into submission. It is not legal advice and is not a solicitation for clients. I do not handle consumer warranty cases. My hope is that by sharing every detail—including the actual court documents—I can arm you with the knowledge of the playbook they use and show you that it is possible to fight back and win!