Galanz Retro Top Freezer Refrigerator, 10 cu ft

I bought this for a friend as a birthday gift, as her old fridge had finally given up. At first she loved it– so cute, just the right size for the kitchen. Well, within a few months, the problems started. It iced up. Really badly. She defrosted it (and you thought the days of having to defrost a fridge were long over!), and within a couple of months, it iced up again. And again. And again. I’m no appliance expert, but it’s pretty clear the defrost timer was bad. Google says this is a known problem with these fridges. Galanz customer service was no help at all. She contacted them a number of times before they replied with something other than vague, bad-translation English, canned responses. They don’t service their fridges, as it turns out– only give a refund if you complain repeatedly. Fortunately, my friend is a determined woman, and she kept at them, sending photos, descriptions of the problem, and order receipts several times. At last they said they were putting a refund in the mail. After 6 weeks, no refund. She contacted them yet again, and they made a million excuses– problem with the courier (courier? now the USPS is a courier, seriously?), unexpectedly long “processing times,” blah blah blah. She finally got the refund but minus the sales tax. Yep. After contacting them a final time, they said they don’t refund the sales tax. This can’t be legal.
Don’t buy this pretty but really crappy fridge. The good reviews are from people who just got it. Check out the ones from people who’ve owned it for more than 5 minutes.

I don’t typically write reviews for my Amazon buys, but this item has exceeded my expectations for the price by far. We moved into our first home and the old fridge left behind was just not worth trying to salvage. Being somewhat cash strapped and not ready to commit to a full-size replacement (especially others with this retro style), we stumbled upon this. I was skeptical at first, but the fridge is a perfectly managable size for two people in terms of storage space, and the black retro look is great. Appearance has kept it’s charm and still looks new six months on.

No issues with shipping, no issues of any kind. Having a smaller fridge leaves us more space in the kitchen as well, which may be hard to lose whenever we upgrade to a full-size fridge as our family grows. The end game for this will become either a garage or basement fridge, when that time comes.

The only con I can give is that some items toward the back of the very top shelf may get a little too chilly, we’ve had a few smaller items freeze back there – the best problem to have with a fridge, it can cool too well at times. Might even just be something we could adjust further with the freezer settings, but we’re happy.

I love the refrigerator even with the deep deep ding in the door. It wasn’t caused by shipping because the box was fine. I think these refrigerators are being sabotaged at the manufacturer. The box said 10 cubic feet which is what I ordered but got a 7 cubic foot, twice. It’s definitely too small but I’m making do. The refrigerator itself is wonderful. There’s no ice in the back everything’s really cold. I hear it every once in awhile for a few minutes no biggie. I love this product. But the company needs to take care of business better. There’s no quality control on the shipping side. Would I order another one? I probably would. It’s gorgeous it’s cold unfortunately it’s the wrong size and has a ding in it. Rather than stress myself out with customer service I’m just going to deal with it.