Hotpoint urgent tumble dryer recall

lincroft1710

Marktheshark wrote: »

A flow chart of how to get the 100% free new dryer out of them is required.

Having the name Lincroft1710, living in town XXXX and owning an Indesit purchased in 2009, these are the only facts that Hotpoint had before deciding to give me free new Whirlpool.

beefturnmail

AJXX wrote: »

This has already been discussed several times already. Logistically giving everyone a free machine would likely take longer than simply repairing the existing ones.

If you continue to use the machine whist regularly checking on it and cleaning the filter there should be no issues.

None of us are "happy" about the situation, but there isn't anything we can do. We can throw our toys out the pram and refuse to use the machine altogether (which serves nothing but to cause more inconvenience for ourselves) or wait for a repair/accept a (reasonably priced) replacement.

If your machine is "discontinued" then it must be a good few years old - why not just accept a paid replacement and get a brand new machine?

It's 2.5 years old - I expected it to last a lot longer - my washing machine is still going strong after 10. Why can't they 'logistically' give everyone a free new machine? How is this logistically harder than giving everyone a new machine for £70. I was aware of the advice that you can continue to use, but I'm not really comfortable doing this for 6 months. Don't leave it unattended, fine so what do I do if it catches fire whilst I am 'attending' it and who pays for the damage? Not my insurance company you can be sure as I am aware of the fault. The advice from Which is to not use the drier.

matchboxfull

Our machine was 1 year and 1 day old when we registered for repair, so younger than 1 when the recall was issued. What do they do for machines less than a year old?

wealdroam

beefturnmail wrote: »

It's 2.5 years old - I expected it to last a lot longer...

And you are right with that expectation.
Could you perhaps look upon the £59 towards a new machine as the value of the use you have had from your existing machine?
That equates to £24 a year for use of a tumble dryer - less than fifty pence a week.

beefturnmail wrote: »

I was aware of the advice that you can continue to use, but I'm not really comfortable doing this for 6 months.

Then don't use it. Your choice.
But as the manufacturer is saying you can use it, I'm not too sure that you can blame them for the machine being idle.

beefturnmail wrote: »

Don't leave it unattended, fine so what do I do if it catches fire whilst I am 'attending' it...

Use the fire extinguisher for electrical fires you have readily available in you kitchen.
Every household should have suitable fire extinguishers available, but of course do not delay calling the fire service.

beefturnmail wrote: »

...and who pays for the damage? Not my insurance company you can be sure as I am aware of the fault.

Have you checked that with your insurance company?
If the manufacturer is saying it is ok to use, I would expect the insurance company to cover it.
But please don't take my word for it - check with your insurer.

beefturnmail wrote: »

The advice from Which is to not use the drier.

So there's conflicting advice out there. You need to decide.

AJXX

beefturnmail wrote: »

It's 2.5 years old - I expected it to last a lot longer - my washing machine is still going strong after 10. Why can't they 'logistically' give everyone a free new machine? How is this logistically harder than giving everyone a new machine for £70. I was aware of the advice that you can continue to use, but I'm not really comfortable doing this for 6 months.

I didn't say they can't - I said logistically it would be a nightmare.

The one thing people seem to come on this thread and say is "I'm not happy waiting x months for a repair, why can't they just give everyone a new machine" (or something to that effect). Yet I fail to see how organising, shipping, delivering and presumably fitting x thousand new machines is going to be any quicker than repairing x thousand machines - either way you're still going to be waiting months for a new machine and people are still going to be complaining about how "unreasonable" and "inconvenient" the wait time is - so why is this suddenly acceptable just because you have a new dryer at the end of it instead of a repaired machine?

beefturnmail

AJXX wrote: »

I didn't say they can't - I said logistically it would be a nightmare.

The one thing people seem to come on this thread and say is "I'm not happy waiting x months for a repair, why can't they just give everyone a new machine" (or something to that effect). Yet I fail to see how organising, shipping, delivering and presumably fitting x thousand new machines is going to be any quicker than repairing x thousand machines - either way you're still going to be waiting months for a new machine and people are still going to be complaining about how "unreasonable" and "inconvenient" the wait time is - so why is this suddenly acceptable just because you have a new dryer at the end of it instead of a repaired machine?

I'm struggling with the logic here - Indesit are saying to me wait until August for a repair, or if you don't want to wait that long, have a new one for £59 - so clearly organising, shipping, delivering and presumably fitting x thousand machines is quicker for them then repairing the machines, as (I assume!) I wouldn't be waiting till August to get the new drier.

What I object to is being charged for it. The point made by Wealdroam about viewing the £59 as the value of the use I've had from the machine is a good one though - however I may not want to pay for another hotpoint machine (especially given this safety issue and reading a previous poster who took the new drier and it broke down after 5 uses). If they're not going to offer people who don't want to wait lengthy periods a free new drier they should offer then £59 in cash, which they can then put to a new drier of their choice (not necessarily 1 particular hotpoint model)

AJXX

beefturnmail wrote: »

I'm struggling with the logic here - Indesit are saying to me wait until August for a repair, or if you don't want to wait that long, have a new one for £59 - so clearly organising, shipping, delivering and presumably fitting x thousand machines is quicker for them then repairing the machines, as (I assume!) I wouldn't be waiting till August to get the new drier.

At the moment, yes. But as we've already seen on this thread - one or two people somehow mange to get a free dryer and you now have 500 people all over twitter, emails, phoning constantly also wanting a free dryer - just speculation but that maybe why they withdrew the free dryer in the first place.

If Hotpoint start handing out free dryers you can bet that by this time next week 90% of people contacting Hotpoint will want the new free dryer instead of a repair - which is then going to dramatically slow things down in terms of replacement dryer availability and delivery times.

What I object to is being charged for it. The point made by Wealdroam about viewing the £59 as the value of the use I've had from the machine is a good one though - however I may not want to pay for another hotpoint machine (especially given this safety issue and reading a previous poster who took the new drier and it broke down after 5 uses). If they're not going to offer people who don't want to wait lengthy periods a free new drier they should offer then £59 in cash, which they can then put to a new drier of their choice (not necessarily 1 particular hotpoint model)

Wealdroam makes a good point yes and that's the correct way to look it. There's not much point in objecting to it, it's that or a repair - the choice is yours, if you accept neither than you're only causing problems for yourself.

They aren't going to offer £59 in cash because like it or not, you're simply not entitle to it.

All Hotpoint have to do is offer a repair (and there is no timeline specified by law in which the repair has to be carried out in) - that's it. Free machines and significantly reduced machines (i.e. £99 etc...) are being offered as an additional option off Hotpoints own back.

There's no point in these people taking the attitude of "well I don't want another Hotpoint, I want another brand"- if that's how you feel then scrap your current dryer and jump ship to another brand, why even bother waiting for a repair? Hotpoint certainly aren't going to magically turn up on your door step with a wad of cash and an engineer begging you to stay with Hotpoint...

Lip_Stick

I contacted Hotpoint mid-December and am waiting for my drier to be repaired. They wrote and emailed the other day giving a date of June for the repair.

As my machine is over a year old I cam buy another condenser unit for £99, but Christ it looks ugly! Are the deliberately offering the nastiest looking machines? Besides, the one I have is silver, and white just won't look good in my kitchen. lol

LLDRE

I have been following this thread for a while and wanted to share my experience.

We registered our machine as faulty on 23rd November 2015 and were sent the standard '5 week' email. I decided that I would not use my dryer until the repair had been carried out. This was my personal preference. We live in a rented house, where there isn't room in our kitchen for a dryer. We opted to buy a condenser unit in 2011 and it lives behind our living room door. For me the risk of fire, no matter how small, in a room full of very combustible soft furnishings was too great. I don't want to risk our home but this property is also our landlords pension. Yes both him and us are insured, but that wouldn't take away the nightmare we would all have if our machine were to cause a fire.

My husband and I have four small children and very busy jobs, so of course we have been inconvenienced. I have had to do our washing on a priority basis and take advantage of any dry and/or windy weather. I would like to state again, that this was my choice.

I received an email on the 7th February informing me that my repair would likely be carried in June, or a I could pay towards a replacement. We opted to pay £99 for the replacement. This was more convenient to us and to be honest replacing an almost 5 year old machine, with a completely new and superior model, for £99 is a fantastic offer. The delivery time is almost two weeks but includes fitting of the new machine and removal of the old one. I am perfectly happy with this.

I personally feel that the recall is being handled in the best way that whirlpool can offer. I cannot imagine the pressure that their staff are currently feeling. I have read so much on this thread about the call centre staff. I have never worked in such an environment but whenever I have had to deal with them, I have never been anything except patient and polite. The person on the other end of that phone is the cause of this issue.

You are not automatically entitled to a brand new, free machine. I'm sure that you all have either a washing line or radiators. Yes, you will have to make more of an effort to dry your washing this way. It really isn't as bad as losing your home or your life, nor is paying out £59 or £99 for a new unit.

beefturnmail

I was just looking in to the vented drier they are offering as replacement (TVFS83CGP) and noticed that this model was itself part of the recall (or safety notice, if not technically a recall).