Ahead of the Chuseok holiday, some Samsung Electronics refrigerators have stopped working following a software update.

According to industry sources on September 23, numerous posts have appeared since the previous day on Samsung Members, an online community for Samsung Electronics products, stating that refrigerators were not operating normally after undergoing a software update through the smart home platform SmartThings.

One user stated, "I proceeded with the update after receiving a SmartThings refrigerator update notification, but it stopped working and almost all the cooling had escaped," adding, "It is a product that has not even been purchased for a year."

Another user shared, "Ice cream has started to melt," and "I have moved all the food from the refrigerator to a kimchi refrigerator."

There were also consecutive reports that the problem was not resolved even after taking measures such as unplugging the power and reconnecting it or turning the circuit breaker off and back on.

As the problem occurred right ahead of Chuseok, calls are growing for specific compensation standards regarding spoiled food and other issues.

Samsung Electronics is currently identifying the cause of the problem and has initiated emergency repairs for the affected products.

According to Samsung Electronics, this issue occurred when an update was incorrectly distributed to some customers during a software update testing process the previous day.

Samsung Electronics stopped distributing the update immediately after recognizing the error, and plans to deploy an emergency response team with the goal of completing recovery by September 24 at the latest.

Repair costs will be fully covered free of charge, and compensation for spoiled food is currently under review.

In addition, the company plans to individually guide customers who have not yet registered for repairs so they can receive the necessary measures.

(Photo: Capture of Samsung Members homepage, Yonhap News)