Electric shock from new vacuum cleaner

ian_design

Hello!

My sisters husband just got a nasty electric shock from a new vacuum cleaner from Argos. Apparently part of the cable had an exposed wire. Also my sisters pregnant and nearly had a heart attack (not literally). Both are okay, brother in law just has a burnt thumb, hopefully no internal damage, but both severely shaken, especially as she was going to do the hoovering and he insisted she put her feet up.

My question is what should they do? Obviously get a new vacuum cleaner but are they entitled to any compensation and if so how would they go about claiming it?

Any informed answers most appreciated!

wealdroam

ian_design wrote: »

Hello!

My sisters husband just got a nasty electric shock from a new vacuum cleaner from Argos. Apparently part of the cable had an exposed wire. Also my sisters pregnant and nearly had a heart attack (not literally). Both are okay, brother in law just has a burnt thumb, hopefully no internal damage, but both severely shaken, especially as she was going to do the hoovering and he insisted she put her feet up.

My question is what should they do? Obviously get a new vacuum cleaner but are they entitled to any compensation and if so how would they go about claiming it?

Any informed answers most appreciated!

The purchaser is entitled to be compensated for their losses.

They will need to make a list of all their losses and assign a monetary value to each one. These will be for things like medical bills, damage to property, phone calls, postage, etc. Add those all together and submit a claim for the total amount.

Do please remember that you cannot claim for what might have happened.

Could it be that your sister's greatest shock was hearing her husband offering to do the vacuuming?

tomtontom

Compensation for what? If they have any genuine concerns about "internal damage" they should seek medical advice. If not, they should return the cleaner, explain the fault and ask for a refund or replacement.

ian_design

Great, thanks for the advice guys.

Zandoni

Is there any chance that the exposed wires have been caused by getting caught up in the rotating brush, if it has one?

elsien

Hopefully no internal damage? Presumably if that is a genuine concern, they have taken medical advice?

NotRichAtAll

if part of the wire was exposed then surely you should be seeking a full investigation and a full product recall before someone else is potentially killed? have you or they taken photos of the said exposed cable?

thescouselander

This a quite serious. They should get some pictures and report the incident to Argos and trading standards.

Also should get their electrics checked as they should have been saved from a shock by the RCD on the consumer unit. I assume the either don't have one (old installation maybe) or the one the do have didn't work. Either way it's worth sorting out.

prowla

Have they pulled the wire at all, or trapped it?

robatwork

Take lots of pictures.

You would also be wise to get an expert to examine the cleaner before returning it eg. an electrician at worse or better an electrical engineer.

When you say "Apparently part of the cable had an exposed wire." this is very woolly and no use should you end up in a legal dispute with Argos or the manufacturer. For all we know he could have got the shock by plugging it in carelessly.

Does he have RCCBs on his consumer unit?