LG G4 Fiasco

The LG G4 phone had a mass failure issue, LG did not issue a recall and millions of customer were affected (Source) in this fiasco, deserving addition. Their playbook was deny deny deny.

All this was caused by a issue where heat would detach the soldering. They lied and hid the fact that the Soldering would disconnect due to heat and cause device failure. The most common result was the boot loop issue.Where the device would be stuck in a cycle of booting but never accessible. This would result in all user data being lost, and the device being unusable. Other issues included touchscreen issues, where the screen would stop responding until restart (or at all), charging port death, speaker funtion breakdown ( users reported near zero volume, despite the device being maxed) and "knock knock" and double tap features no longer funtioning, thish occuring early on as a precursor to the touch screen issues. When reports of abnormally high failure rates occured in the first couple months (as several media outlets covered, I will add this later) LG and hid it, refusing warranties early on. Then when it became too much of a wave for them to deny they told outlets it was a very small subset they would look into, all the while having confirmed many months before that it was a universal issue.

The issue was exasperated by the device having the snapdragon 808 processor inside. Which famously had overheating issues along with the 810. But it was there devices (including the G flex) that suffered these desoldering issues en-mass.

Did they recall the devices? No, that would be too expensive. The LG G4 was LG's best selling phone ever. A recall would destroy its Profitability and damage the brand reputation (see Samsung Galaxy note 7 fires a year later for comparison) . So instead, they doubled down on marketing the device ( the G4 was marketed for over two years at bus stations in Canada, well after the release of the G5. Over 2 Years for a phone.) They lanched a replacment sceme with US carriers to hide the issue with replacments (will add source here). This did not adress its systemic problem of breaking down and losing all user data.

Users who had it replaced reported it dying a second or third time because the issue was never fixed.  All data is lost upon bootloop and LG continued selling it for over a year after finding out (Source here).

Personal anicdote: I personally had mine stop accepting touch inputs until you close and open the screen 20x sometimes. And it stoped charging so I just put the batteries in an external charger daily (removable battery). But in comparison I was lucky.  I knew 5 other people who had one (most of any specific model android phone) and every one of them said it died completely.

All this was to hold them off from the expected outcome of a total recall or to limit damage from class action lawsuits. It received Android 5.0 near first (two months after release). And as a flagship was expected to get 2 major updates. Many reviewers mentioned it was expected to receive Android 6.0, and consumers bought it based off that knowledge..... That was even confirmed through a LG spokesperson in South Korea (twice) that the device would be receiving 6.0 marshmallow (source here). But the update was never globally released. Behind the scenes they knew about the bootloop issue and that customers devices would not last. They decided to not update it, despite saying for many months that they would. At the time android updates were not yet segmemted (link to video on this topic), so updates took much longer to develop, and the decesion to do so would be made well in advance. They even marketed it for over a year after that decision would have been made, knowing they wouldn't support it. They continued to market the device for over 6 moths after Android 6.0 was supposed to be released. Having already decided at minimum in the prior year that they wouldn't release the update globally.

What makes this even more anti-consumer is they actually made the update, but they ONLY ever released it in their home market of South Korea in order to avoid trouble and reputation damage at home. THEY MADE it but decided not to release it to the rest of the world presumably because it wasn't worth the effort, and they wanted to be done with the device.

This act by LG was a masterclass in anti-consumer practices. They denied the issue and lied till the end on updatez, and ended support while still marketting  a device they knew regularly died within the warranty period with regular usage.

But it arguably worked for the. No recall was issued,major reviewers who recommendedthe device enthusiastically (source link), never revisited it, or commented on the issues. And only small time reviewers and owners covered it (source). LG marketed the device heavily and consumers were told it was an Android flagship for midrange prices. And bought it on mass. Lg even ran heavy promotions for it with many carriers (see At&t or Bell if anyone can find it via wayback machine). When the device died the general sentiment said was that android is unreliable and few blamed LG due to large reviews not covering it as an issue.

Personal anicdote: But the result is everyone I knew who had one switched to Apple directly after bc "android is buggy" and Apple "Just works". LG seemingly accidentally ran the single best marketing campaign for Apple.

They only ended up paying for one settled class action suit on the issue exclusively in the USA, but the rest is history. They avoided a recall, that executives knew would be needed months after release (sourse on LG knowing the bootloop issue existed 3 months after release). But they never again replicated the market success of the LG G4. Customers would avoid LG going forward regardless of specs for years and reviewers started shying away from them for "reliable and modern" Apple and Samsung phones.

And the rest is history, they came up with a many innovations after, like the second screen, ultrawide cameras, quad DAC, metal or modular phones. But consumers perspectivs were set and they generally never considered LG as a premium Phone brand again. It is arguable how much of their drcline had to do with consurmer sentement due to the mass device failures. LG left the market in 2021.

At times companies get away with Anti-Consumer behaviour without punishment or mass outrage. But they imploded their market by having mass failures. Making their userbase think twice about buying from them again. Word of mouth and personal experience towards a brand is powerful when competitors exist.