[Anchor]

Some Samsung Electronics refrigerators completely stopped working while undergoing a software update. Households that stocked up on groceries ahead of the Chuseok holiday are experiencing severe inconvenience.

Reporter Jeong Seong-jin has more.

[Reporter]

The lights are out in a refrigerator packed with food ingredients, and only a message indicating that an update is in progress remains displayed on the control screen.

[Lim, Affected Consumer]: That notification message just kept appearing, and it's been completely dead ever since.

This incident occurred after users received a notification on SmartThings, an app that controls Samsung Electronics home appliances, on the afternoon of the 22nd and proceeded with a refrigerator software update.

[Lim, Affected Consumer]: I have to throw away all the food inside, and since I bought the food right before the holiday, I couldn't even sleep properly because I was so worried.

When customers requested after-sales service from Samsung Electronics, even more absurd responses were given.

[Kim, Affected Consumer]: They told me AS would be available next Tuesday, after Chuseok... When the customer service representative told me, "Situations like this happen sometimes during the update process," I was dumbfounded and bewildered.

As consumer complaints poured in starting through online communities, Samsung Electronics stepped up to contain the situation by forming an emergency response team and taking measures to complete the recovery of the affected products by today.

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

Samsung Electronics stated that the problem occurred because an update file that was still under the testing process was mistakenly distributed.

Most of the products that suffered damage are some Bespoke AI refrigerator models produced last year, and the number of reported cases so far is reportedly in the hundreds.

[Kim, Affected Consumer]: If clicking an update incorrectly once makes an electronic appliance unusable, isn't this a major defect?

As home appliances increasingly rely on software due to the introduction of AI and other technologies, a comprehensive inspection seems necessary ranging from the update process to recovery and overall response after failures occur.

(Camera-the-field: Kim Nam-sung and Lee Chan-soo | Video Editing: Park Ji-in | Design: Kang Yoon-jung)