Published 14th Jun, 2022

By Opeyemi Lawal

Tunde Ajibade, a worker at one of the federal government parastatals, has narrated how Fouani Nigeria Ltd., an electronics company distributing LG products in Nigeria, denied him a refrigerator he bought from the company after accepting it for repairs.

Ajibade said he bought a Hisense refrigerator with model number RD72WR for N192,000 from Celtos, an electronics dealer in Lagos, only to discover it wasn’t in good shape.

“I bought the refrigerator on March 4, 2019, but it was delivered late March because I am not resident in Lagos. After the delivery, the refrigerator didn’t work for two months. I informed the dealer and he requested I return it to Lagos,” he told FIJ.

“I returned it to the dealer, and he took it back to Fouani, an LG service centre, for repairs. It was fixed and then returned. Meanwhile, I had to spend N20,000 for each trip because I hired a van to convey it.”

Ajibade said the refrigerator kept breaking down and he had to transport it down to Lagos up to four times for repairs, incurring transport expenses each time.

“After the first repair, the refrigerator kept breaking down and I had to transport it to Lagos every single time. At some point, I even had to fly it down to Lagos. All the while, I hadn’t enjoyed the refrigerator for more than two months at a stretch,” he said.

“I went to Fouani in Apapa on July 9, 2020, after getting calls from them asking me to come pick the product. I got to the service centre, but the refrigerator refused to power. Their engineers there opened it and started fixing it right there. This was about the fifth time they were repairing it. I had to go home without it.

“At this point, my e-warranty was about to expire as we were in 2020. I hadn’t used the refrigerator for more than two months. I asked Fouani to extend the warranty by one year but they said they would only extend it for six months.

He said he involved the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection (FCCPC), an agency that protects the rights of consumers in Nigeria.

“When FCCPC got involved, Fouani asked that I return to Lagos to pick up the refrigerator again. I refused and asked for a replacement instead. Who would take a product that has been fixed five times? Taking it simply means I was picking up junk,” he told FIJ.

Job Card from 2020 showing that Fouani had received the refrigerator.

Ajibade said Foauni also insisted they could only replace a product with factory error.

“My dealer sent me a video of the product. What they returned was all banged-up and scratched. It wasn’t what I took there. FCCPC stepped in again, and they went to pick it up from the dealer.

Ajibade told FIJ that after he kept disturbing the dealer for a replacement of his product, Foauni told the dealer that Ajibade’s Hisense refrigerator was missing and couldn’t be traced from their records.

“How would they say they can’t find records of all the job cards? I feel cheated. It’s sad how I have been treated by Fouani,” he said.

When FIJ contacted Fouani Nigeria Ltd., an agent simply identified as Toheeb said there was no record of the Hisense refrigerator on their database.

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