[G4 General] rirozizo:
ADDED "A Callback from LG Jordan"

This post will be kept up to date with my story.

What happened?

As you may or may not know, a lot of LG G4 devices are becoming paperweights after a while due to manufacturing defects straight from LG. LG admitted that there definitely is an issue, and has claimed to take full responsibility for this. They have pin pointed the issue, and now know how to solve it.

What exactly is the issue?

What I'm talking about is ILAPO, or Infinite Loop Auto Power Off. What actually happens is that over time, loose connections between the CPU and the main board just cut the power off of the CPU. The CPU is a Snapdragon 808, what this means is that there's basically two CPUs inside the device, one that is quad core, and another that is dual. The problem is apparently specific to the dual core CPU, because turning the two cores off might prevent this issue from happening again. Once that CPU is disconnected from the board, the device hangs for about 5-10 seconds and then turns off and doesn't turn back on normally.

This issue is present on a lot of LG G4 devices, but is apparently most common on devices with the serial number that starts with 505. I have (had) a G4 with this serial number. And I was no exception of this issue. After exactly a year and a month and 5 days, I got ILAPO while chatting on Hangouts.

What I did (So Far):

Consulting XDA Members:

So first of all, I have contacted one of the best I've known. He has the experience, and my intention wasn't to nag to him about it, it was to be more of a guinea pig if he needs to extract any info from people who have this issue. It's none other than [MENTION=2684188]autoprime[/MENTION]

We went on and on in the IRC chat trying to see if I can at least boot into something. What I could get to was the following:

- LG logo

- TWRP Recovery for 1 second (couldn't press any button there)

- Download mode for 1 second (not enough for a connection to PC)

- VERY RARE 2-3 minutes of normal boot

Trying with LG:

Now I have heard of many tricks to temporarily solve this issue, at least to get my data back. But since LG claimed that they would fix/replace the device, I went ahead and contacted LG, then actually got up and went down to their official repair center in my country.

Their reply was that my device is an LG G4 H815, and what they sell is an LG G4 H815P so they refused to fix my device. My device wasn't bought straight from LG, it was imported from another country. They claimed that they would fix it if it was bought straight from them.

Trying with the shop:

I then went to the shop where I bought it from, they had no idea where the device came from, but took the device and took my phone number to try and fix it themselves and see how that goes. I waited 3 days and then they called and said that they actually fixed it for only 30$. I was SHOCKED! I went straight to them as soon as I hung up and then turned it on in front of them. 2-3 minutes later, it froze, turned off, and went back to ILAPO. I took the device without paying anything.

Trying with LG again:

So my next step was to figure out where this thing was imported from, and contact that LG branch.

I have tagged LGUS on Twitter hoping to get some assistance from there, and I did get a reply. They said I should contact LG Levant for assistance. After sending them an email, this is what I got as a reply. This is a copy-paste of the reply, this is how bad they are at English-ing. Terrible:

So this was hopeless, off to another way for customer "support".

I went to LG's website in the US and contacted them via live chat. The following is the transcript:

Basically I gave them my IMEI and they told me that this was made in Korea and that I should contact LG Korea. So I went to LG's website in Korea, and with a lot of Google Translate I have sent them an email explaining my situation. No reply yet.

Hardware Mods:

So this has been hopeless, LG doesn't want to respond to anything. So I tore it down. It takes literally less than 10 minutes to get to the main board alone. Just unscrew the screws, clip off the plastic, clip off the two cameras and the screen ribbon cable, then clip off the main board (one really small clip at the bottom will do).

I then stuck it in the fridge for an hour. After that I tried to normally boot it, see how far it goes. It booted to CM and then after 20 seconds it froze again and back to ILAPO. So I stuck it in the freezer for 4 hours.

Now I know about condensation building up inside the component of the board, but at this point I stopped caring. LG didn't care, so why should I? After 4 hours I got it off the freezer, built it back again, and went to download mode and flashed the 5.1 KDZ hoping to flash the BIG core disabler fix and see how that goes. To my surprise, every flash went smoothly. I got it back to 5.1, and flashed the fix. But then while it was booting the first boot, it froze and went back to ILAPO.

So now back to the freezer for another hour.

LG Lebanon on Facebook:

This is bad, I went ahead and ranted on LG Lebanon's Facebook page. You can read what I posted HERE or below:

Straight up liars making us believe that LG will fix their own devices' issues, when in fact they always refuse fixing anything because of some reason.

My LG G4 was YOUR PHONE. It has an LG LOGO on it and the fact that I live in Lebanon means that YOU are responsible for whatever defect your device has.

You did not agree on fixing the G4's hardware defect and you were never able to offer good customer support (seriously I've seen customer support replies from china that had better English than yours).

Even though you actually admitted that the LG G4 will be stuck in a bootloop after a certain amount of time, you always found a reason not to fix it on your responsibility.

I'm never buying a product from LG again, be it mobile phones, refrigerators, washing machines, microwaves. Because I'm sure that you won't fix any of them either.

That's 600$ down the drain after about a year.﻿

So they commented saying they'll call me. After two days they did call and I explained everything to them. They said they're going to call me back in 4 days and let me know if there's anything they can do. But they made me understand that there are limitations to what they can do since they cannot offer a full warranty repair/replacement. So they might be able to offer a discounted repair or a discount on another product.

5 Minutes later they called again, asked for my specific model number: H815 SEA. And then they asked for the Serial Number. After that they told me they'll check from which country the device was imported from and they will contact them and then give me a phone number for me to contact so I could MAYBE try and ship it to the original country where it came from and fix this.

So now we agreed that they would call me back on Monday to see how we can solve this issue.

The Callback and its aftermath:

So they called me back on Monday and told me that since it was a weekend, they couldn't progress any further with my issue and said that they sent a reminder email to the "guys at the service center" and that they'll call me back again either the same day (Monday) or "tomorrow tops" (Tuesday)

They called me not Monday, nor Tuesday, but a WEEK and a HALF later asking for my serial number AGAIN because "we must have typed it wrong by mistake". It took them about 10 days for them to realize it was a "wrong S/N" which is a total lie.

After about two days I posted again on LG Lebanon's Facebook page. They told me to come down to their service center for "further assistance". I went down, they took my S/N YET AGAIN and told me "we got some info about the device but we need more time, so give us your name and phone number and we'll call you back".

After a day, Facebook was suddenly filled with angry people, including myself. Here's some of the posts from us to LG Lebanon on Facebook:

Dear Facebook friends,

Today marks the day I pause my rants about all that is wrong in the world and redirect all that anger towards LG Lebanon.

I would kindly ask you to share this post when you read it if you agree as I do that something fundamentally wrong is going on.

Today's post will include a list of expectations that you should equip yourself with when buying an LG phone:

1) This phone (along with thousands of other phones with serial numbers starting with 505 to 511) will have a manufacturing bug and will self-destruct 9-10 months after you pay $500 to buy it.

2) You will be told that the problem is just a bad shipment whereas the truth is that LG released an entire generation of bad phones and launched it into the world.

3) If you bought your phone from outside Lebanon, LG Lebanon will claim that it is not their responsibility to fix it (Got it from the Bahamas? Book a ticket and go fix it there or wait several months until we ship it to Korea and then return it with god-knows how many flaws. PERFECT PRACTICAL PLAN!).

4) If you bought your phone from Lebanon, you're in for quite the ride! Read ahead!

5) You will complain and the receive a call from the LG Marketing Department (Not Service Center, Marketing Department) who will promise you that everything will be okay and that the elite customer service is all they care about.

6) A marketeer will track down the job number of your phone and tell you that it is now in the hands of the service center and should be done in no more than a week. She will confidently add that if the fixing process takes more than 10 days, your phone will be upgraded to a brand-new LG G5 according to a policy issued by LG HQ in Korea.

7) Days will pass by and none of the promises will materialize. When you call to check up on the status of your phone, the marketeer will say she didn't promise you anything and that she does not have the authority to upgrade your phone after she promised she would do so.

8) You will get mad because a lady on the phone is challenging your intelligence after her company ripped you off. You will ask to speak to a manager, she will say that will redirect you and instead hang up the line.

9) You will try calling again but you will not be answered no matter how many times your tried because LG are probably sick of you being right about them being filthy little dealers.

Until I get a proper phone that is worth my time, money and rants, stay tuned for more absurdities sponsored by LG Lebanon!

Here we go again:

CC: Rawad Zahreddine Farah Masri Zahreddine and all those having an experience of a lifetime with LG Lebanon

Last week I spent more than 3 hours exchanging phone calls with LG Lebanon and was finally promised that my phone will be fixed/replaced/upgraded "by far" on Monday or Tuesday. (all 3 options I would have been satisfied with)

Maria (again) promised that LG has been instructed by the Korean offices to take in any phone with a valid warranty and a manufacturing problem and upgrade the LG G4 to a brand-new LG G5 if the fixing process takes more than 10 days. My phone satisfies the criteria that you set since I have bought it from a legal channel here in Lebanon and Maria made sure of that after I gave her my IMEI and SN.

Here I am two days after the deadline that YOU gave me ended, yet, not only have I received nothing, but Maria is telling me that she has no authority to make sure her promise is fulfilled.

Two questions come up here:

1) Who authorized this marketeer to make such promises and why does she suddenly lack this authority?

2) Why is your marketing department handling manufacturing issues and making promises on behalf of the company, and then breaking these promises?

I waited till today to call since I was previously asked by your marketing department to give you the "benefit of the doubt" and approach this with "good faith" (literally). When I finally got in touch with Maria again she said that there is nothing she can do - she wouldn't even track the job number of my phone after I asked her to do so twice.

The conversation intensified after she tried to dodge the fact that she made clear promises to me, and when I asked to speak to a manager she said that she will redirect me to the Administration/Services.

Instead of redirecting, she HUNG UP AND THE LINE WENT DEAD.

Of course, before she hung up, she warned me that the phone call is being recorded (What is that supposed to mean? Is LG going to sue me because they stole my money? - I would love to entertain myself and see that happen. If anything, these recordings should present evidence of the promises that your marketing department set out before me last week).

I called again and again afterwards and there was absolutely no reply. I had to get in touch with my local dealer so he could get in touch with your offices because I wouldn't be surprised that you would go to the extents of blocking a customer's number just because he/she is right about your filthy schemes.

Yes people, I now need a proxy to get in touch with my phone's service company!

I will now happily join Rawad's social media campaign against LG until I get what I have been promised.

Just like LG is willing to cross the lines with its customers (numerous times and in horrible fashions), I will be more than happy to go the extra mile to get what is rightfully mine.

After receiving a call from Maria in the marketing department, I thought my communication with LG is finally getting somewhere and the $500 I spent on my phone are finally going to count for something.

But no.

The LG company returned my phone (FOUR WEEKS LATER!) to the store that I bought it from saying that its warranty has expired and that is entirely FALSE.

I bought my phone on November 13 2015 (9 months ago) which means that my warranty is still valid for another 9 months! Yet the reply I got was that I have no choice but to buy a new phone since mine is irreparable and that was after the marketing department assured me that LG has the green light from Korea to repair any damage that has to do with manufacturing.

I spent my entire morning on the phone with LG trying to get a hold of someone who can help me but instead I spent an hour being transferred from one department to another without any help whatsoever. I am utterly disgusted by the lack of service.

Make sure that the next time your marketing department promises customers that the service center "will be glad to help", they mean it.

This has been by far the worst experience that I have ever had with a tech company, and I am surprised that LG still prides itself by saying it is one of the leading companies in its field.

A Call from LG Jordan:

After 2 weeks, I posted on LG Lebanon's Facebook Page again with the following:

Aaaaand here we go again... sigh...

So about 2 weeks earlier you asked me to go back to your service center to see what we can do with my situation. You told me that you needed more time to "gather more info about this phone based on its serial number and IMEI" and you requested for "my name and phone number" so you can "contact" me.

Well, first, it literally takes no more than 10 minutes to put the IMEI and S/N in, and look for the country of origin of my device. It took LG US live support 2 minutes to do it. Second, I never got a call back for this 2 minutes task, which really intrigues me whether or not you actually care about your own customers.

I really like the creative ways you're ignoring my situation.

I'm kicking this up a notch actually. You see, me being an XDA Developers Recognized Contributor helps me quite a bit. I can address this to XDA on the forum and get the support you, as the official seller of this device, never gave me.

Not only that, but me actually being one of the producers on XDA-TV in front of 380 000 people might raise the awareness of your poor customer support.

I'm going to prepare for a video to be up in front of that many people. I don't care about my G4 anymore. YOU never cared, so why should I?

I hope you guys will have a blast defending yourself from all the hate comments that might go towards you soon.

Now this is basically me threatening LG. "If you don't give me something, I'm putting you up on XDA's front page"... a TL;DR for you.

After 2 days I get a call from a foreign number. It was LG Jordan's market manager (I think) and they basically have told me that they will take care of my situation and to give them a week to do so. And they have told me to "tone it down a bit on Facebook with all the likes and shares you're getting" and that basically I'm putting the blame on the wrong guy. I'm not putting the blame on the wrong guy, LG is LG wherever it is, but anyway I have told them that I blamed LG Lebanon because they never gave me any way to contact the branch where my phone came from so I can get a fix.

So again, I wait...

A Callback from LG Jordan:

After around 2 weeks I got a callback from LG Jordan. They have told me that my device was originated in Singapore and that I should contact LG over there for a fix. I asked them if I can get any contact info so I can directly contact them, they told me that they're gonna call me back. After 3 days they did call me back and told me that LG Lebanon have been informed of my situation (even though they already knew about me) and that I should come (for the third time now) down to them to get my device fixed.

So I'll do that and see how well it goes.

The Rant:

This has been TERRIBLE. Every LG branch is blaming the other one, nobody wants to fix my phone even though it is totally LG's fault I now have a hard bricked device. They are constantly finding reasons not to fix/replace it. There's no single phone number to call, no single email to send to, no single link for a live chat. Each branch has a different mind set, and one branch refuses to fix another branch's product. This is STUPID!

This is not about whether there's warranty or not. This is about a worldwide defect that is affecting a LOT of users and will keep affecting them as long as they are using their LG G4s. My G4 was THEIR DEVICE. It has an LG logo on it, and THEY are responsible for whatever hardware defect they produce and we buy.

LG has failed miserably with supporting their customers. And they have been straight up liars because they actually made a statement that they would fix this issue. Seriously how much do they get paid for this? I'm an RC here and have offered much better support, and the people who I've supported aren't even customers!

I'm never buying a product from LG again, be it mobile phones, refrigerators, washing machines, microwaves. Because I'm sure that LG won't fix any of them either.

That's 600$ down the drain after about a year.