Hotpoint urgent tumble dryer recall

magpiecottage

mossstitchmama wrote: »

Am I entitled to involve my credit card company?

As the manufacturer has admitted there was a fault at outset, you have a claim against the RETAILER. You could then claim for the cost of a repair within a reasonable time. Arguably, five months (until July) for the manufacturer to repair it is not reasonable.

Assuming the cost was more than £100 and you bought it on a credit, rather than a debit, card, you could hold the credit card company liable.

AJXX

AG1979 wrote: »

Whirlpool have fixed 200,000 of an estimated 5 million affected products so working on the basis that in 3 months whirlpool have fixed 200,000 appliances that's 800,000 a year it will take them 6 years to fix every product on paper.

The whole debacle is a joke no one at whirlpool has a clue to what is going on and are lying to customers just to get them off the phone.

The company should be replacing these dryers not making people wait an excessively long time to have an appliance modified.

Sorry to keep singling you out, but once again you're passing comment without any logical thought.

It's incredibly easy for us to say "well they should be doing this not that". Exactly how viable do you think it is for them to replace 5 million dryers with brand new ones? it would probably put Whirlpool out of business - even if they did do this, the logistics alone would be a nightmare and I would guess that replacing x million dryers as opposed to repairing them would end up taking the same time if not longer than repairing them anyway - so you'd still be complaining about waiting an "excessively long" time.

lying to customers just to get them off the phone.

Again I'm not defending Hotpoint nor am I happy with the way this is being handled, but based on some of the posts on this thread and social media, can you really blame them for lying to get people off the phone? I'd imagine each call is a mix of abuse, demands, unreasonable requests and in-depth questions designed to trick them out if they say the wrong thing.

Yes I know they work in a call centre and normally it's part of the job to take some abuse - but certainly not every call or at the volume of calls they're currently dealing with judging by hold times and disconnections other people have posted.

If you are insisting on ringing them, I'd suggest the best approach would be to be nice and come across as co-operative and friendly (no matter how annoyed you are with the process) as this way they're more likely to help you.

The guy who suggested writing a letter instead is spot on.

mossstitchmama wrote: »

My dryer was recalled while it was still under warranty and I was told I could have a straight swap for a new one. I've been waiting since I registered in November (by which time the one year warranty has expired). Hotpoint are now saying I can only get a new machine if I pay the £59. You can imagine my response to that!

I paid by credit card. I would like a refund so I can put the money towards buying another dryer (not from Hotpoint, Indesit or Creda). The retailer has said it is not their concern as the machne is now out of warranty.

Any advice would be helpful. Thanks

Really this IS something that the retailer should be dealing with under SOGA, but as wealdroam has stated the machine may not actually be classed as faulty. Even if you did go through the entire SOGA process, bear in mind that the retailer can refund minus usage - after 1 year of usage you're very unlikely to get a full refund.

Personally, I'd pay the £59 and get a new one off Hotpoint as the SOGA process can be lengthy, may not even work in this case and ultimately any refund will not be a full refund.

AG1979

I highly doubt this would put Whirlpool out of business they have Insurance that covers these things also 5 million products to a global brand is nothing.
If they cannot repair/replace within a reasonable time frame then they should be buying these products back thd main objective is to get these products removed or made safe not whirlpools bank balance.

These products are faulty else they would not be subject to recall no matter how small the risk the risk has been deemed sufficiently high enough to warrant a recall on these products.
Do you think whirlpool would issue a recall damaging the brands name if the risk was not sufficiently high enough.

I work for a major motor manufacturer & we have failures & warranty claims everyday but we have to see a significant risk of failure or risk to safety to warrant issuing a product recall.

wealdroam

AG1979 wrote: »

I highly doubt this would put Whirlpool out of business they have Insurance that covers these things...

Do you understand that insurance is to cover unexpected happenings?

I ask because you told us earlier:

AG1979 wrote: »

Let's not forget that hotpoint knowingly sold these defective dryers for many years...

Not sure how you knew that, but if these faulty machines have been 'knowingly sold for many years', who do you think is going to insure them?

unholyangel

AG1979 wrote: »

I highly doubt this would put Whirlpool out of business they have Insurance that covers these things also 5 million products to a global brand is nothing.
If they cannot repair/replace within a reasonable time frame then they should be buying these products back thd main objective is to get these products removed or made safe not whirlpools bank balance.

These products are faulty else they would not be subject to recall no matter how small the risk the risk has been deemed sufficiently high enough to warrant a recall on these products.
Do you think whirlpool would issue a recall damaging the brands name if the risk was not sufficiently high enough.

I work for a major motor manufacturer & we have failures & warranty claims everyday but we have to see a significant risk of failure or risk to safety to warrant issuing a product recall.

You're misunderstanding what a recall is.

A recall isn't something used to recall products that may suffer from a fault. A recall is used to recall products that may cause death, injury or damage to personal property.

A recall is a way for the manufacturer to protect themselves from such claims - they are not doing a recall because all of those units are faulty, they're doing a recall to limit potential liability should any of those units become faulty in a way that poses a danger (and therefore, might cost them a lot of money to settle wrongful death/injury claims).

That safety fault may only ever present itself in (for example) 10% of units sold.

The manufacturer has no liability for faulty units - even with product liability, it is only for damage caused by the item that they are liable - they are not liable for any damage to the item itself.

JG1971

They sold dryers with a potentially dangerous design flaw, they've owned up to it, offered to put things right and issued instructions on what to do in the meantime.
In my opinion, they didn't anticipate the level of response and their customer care teams have been swamped.
In all likelihood, the customer care clerks are not being given clear instructions on how to deal with the disgruntled/impatient/frustrated (delete as appropriate) customers when they eventually get through. Hence the reason people are being passed from pillar to post.
The mistake they made was to offer replacement products for free - I didn't expect one, but I was offered it so I took it rather than wait for a repair. I wasn't about to ask them if they were sure they could afford it.

AG1979

These products have been recalled because they are dangerous no company in its right mind would issue a recall on the scale whirlpool has unless it had too.

Yes whirlpool will have insurances that cover them for design flaws etc.

If the company I work for produced cars that then suffer failures it is investigated and if warranted a recall is issued but there has to be a significant risk to warrant it.

Else your shiney new car would be in the garage every other week having this that or the other checked.

The problem is there is no possible way they are going to get round every appliance in a reasonable time frame there are already 8 month delays before an engineer can attend.

If you drove a car and a recall was issued due to a possible issue with say the brakes would you be happy if the manufacturer said you'd have to wait 8 months to have your vehicle checked would you be happy to continue driving that vehicle until it was checked.

Now the manufacturer says you can continue using these appliances as long as you follow xyz.

The fire brigade say do not use these appliances they are unsafe.

Insurance companies are refusing to cover your property if you continue to use these appliances because you are aware they are a fire risk and have been recalled.

So excuse people's impatience, hotpoint are doing their best to try dodge the bullet on this.

You've had your fire risk removed from your house be grateful for that but when people have young children and busy lives people want these appliances out of their houses.

We have been decieved by hotpoint.

I know they have been knowingly selling these defective products because whirlpool have admitted it and i also read an article from which stating they have been telling hotpoint for years that they had issues with their appliances.

wealdroam

AG1979 wrote: »

Insurance companies are refusing to cover your property if you continue to use these appliances because you are aware they are a fire risk and have been recalled.

Citation required please.

AJXX

AG1979 wrote: »

If the company I work for produced cars that then suffer failures it is investigated and if warranted a recall is issued but there has to be a significant risk to warrant it.

The problem is there is no possible way they are going to get round every appliance in a reasonable time frame there are already 8 month delays before an engineer can attend.

If you drove a car and a recall was issued due to a possible issue with say the brakes would you be happy if the manufacturer said you'd have to wait 8 months to have your vehicle checked would you be happy to continue driving that vehicle until it was checked.

Can we flip this on its head as you continually bring up the company you work for as if they would handle this better....

So for the sake of arguments, the company you work for has now issued a safety recall for all Power steering pumps sold between 2005-2015, over 5 million units are suspected to be at risk. So far 10 fatal crashes have found to be caused by a defect in the design of this pump which ultimately is less than 1 % of units sold.

For the sake of argument, you have 250 garages across the UK in which the pump can be replaced. You currently receive 1,500 calls per day from people wanting to book a repair. You already have a back log of 25,000 repairs to carry out - current wait times are 6 months and this increases with each passing day.

For the sake of realism 25 % of the 1,500 people per day are people ringing just to complain, people refusing a repair, people wanting compensating, people refusing a repair on x day, people demanding repairs on Tuesdays at 5:24 pm, people who prefer a slightly smaller pump, people saying they have lost all faith in your brand and don't want a repair or the car, journalists calling. Each of these calls wastes a significant amount of time and further increases repair wait times as you are dealing with these people instead of booking repairs.

Bonus points will be added if you'd like to accept the ITV This Morning Challenge - ITV's "consumer expert" has just announced that people should NOT be driving cars with your pumps fitted under any circumstances.

Your call volumes have now increased from 1,500 callers per day to 4,000! 40% of your callers now refuse to drive to a garage for repairs. 30% demand a replacement vehicle at no extra cost. 20% of callers are now "totally unreasonable" and will not accept any resolution you suggest and purely remain on the phone with you to waste your time and belittle you.

Please tell us how you/your company would handle this as you continually seem to think you can do a better job...

KellyKoo

AG1979 wrote: »

I'll bring up the Beko fridge freezers that burst in to flames that did actually kill a father as he rescued his children from their burning house would you be suggesting that somebody stays awake 24hrs a day 7 days a week until it was repaired just in case it burst into flames.
There were 500,000 fridge freezers affected so not a 5 minute fix either.

Unfortunately my life does not stop because hotpoint can't design and manufacture a simple household appliance so it doesn't burst into flames when used.
Babysitting my dryer for a week or two I could probably live with but we are talking 7 - 8 months before hotpoint can attend to my dryer.

Yes I remember that recall. I had a BEKO Fridge Freezer which was one of the affected models.


Just checked my washing machine, it seems it is one of the recall ones... so I await a reply to the email I have sent to see what repair / modification they want to do. A nice shiny new washing machine would go lovely with my new free dryer!


I wonder if this new recall from Hotpoint on the washing machine is because of the exploding ones I remember reading about a few years back. I remember mine being one of the affected ones, but they did not do a recall, perhaps they have changed their minds!

Search 'exploding hotpoint washing machines'