Hotpoint urgent tumble dryer recall

AJXX

LongTallKatie wrote: »

Feeling somewhat annoyed I wrote again, this time advising them that if they did not contact me in 7 days of receipt of this letter, I would start legal action, quoting SOGA, despite the fact I purchased the dryer from Curry's. I felt it gave weight to my argument, and more so because I had already had the modification, in which something went wrong and I was left being ignored and with no dryer, not ideal when you live in a flat and have no drying space outside.

I don't want to sound like a broken record but people really need to stop doing this. If you didn't purchase the dryer from Hotpoint directly you have absolutely no right to threaten Hotpint with SOGA, because you have no contract with Hotpoint.

What you are doing is essentially sending a LBA (letter before action) which you have absolutely no way to proceed forward with should you need to. Therefore if Hotpoint choose to be awkward or simply ignore this what are you going to do? Anything less than proceeding onto court is going to be akin to backtracking/backing down and ultimately making you look stupid.

Think of it as threatening them with a nuclear bomb which in reality you have no launch codes for - when they see you can't actually launch the bomb anything else you throw at them is going to look weak in comparison.

I'm sure it would be very easy for Hotpoint to check if you purchased the unit directly from them or not simply via checking the serial number.

IMO firing off letters before action which are essentially just empty threats is asking for trouble.

For those that happy with waiting times etc. I can only say, stand your ground and do it politely by letter, make sure you send it recorded so you get a signature. If your not happy with model replacements being offered, ask them for the model that matches your current model.

This however is good advice, as far as I can tell you're more likely to have a positive outcome by simply sending a letter instead of phoning (but no need to threaten court action).

LongTallKatie

AJXX wrote: »

I don't want to sound like a broken record but people really need to stop doing this. If you didn't purchase the dryer from Hotpoint directly you have absolutely no right to threaten Hotpint with SOGA, because you have no contract with Hotpoint.

What you are doing is essentially sending a LBA (letter before action) which you have absolutely no way to proceed forward with should you need to. Therefore if Hotpoint choose to be awkward or simply ignore this what are you going to do? Anything less than proceeding onto court is going to be akin to backtracking/backing down and ultimately making you look stupid.

Think of it as threatening them with a nuclear bomb which in reality you have no launch codes for - when they see you can't actually launch the bomb anything else you throw at them is going to look weak in comparison.

I'm sure it would be very easy for Hotpoint to check if you purchased the unit directly from them or not simply via checking the serial number.

IMO firing off letters before action which are essentially just empty threats is asking for trouble.

This however is good advice, as far as I can tell you're more likely to have a positive outcome by simply sending a letter instead of phoning (but no need to threaten court action).

First off in my correspondence Hotpoint knew I bought the dryer from Curry's since I provided the receipt, and never tried to fool them into thinking it came direct from them. I quoted SOGA, but did not threaten the small claims court, as I knew this would not be possible. A LBA, does not have to refer to small claims court, it is simply a LBA, warning them that you intend to take further action.

I said I would take legal action, that could in fact mean a whole manner of things like a private prosecution against Hotpoint for modifying a dryer as I agreed to, but then failing to ensure that modification was safe, thus rendering the dryer unusable and then ultimately ignoring my first letter. If I'd have gone back to Curry's after the modification screw up, I don't think Curry's would have wanted to know, since Hotpoint had clearly caused damage after trying to modify it.

Remember, all was fine until 2 days after modification, and Hotpoint even agreed to send a replacement, then something went wrong and I was forgot about. I had to do something, first letter ignored, I sent another one advising it was my intention to pursue legal advice / action if they did not replaced the dryer as previously promised during a call.

I guess the fact I got the replacement was not about a letter advising legal action, but the fact they had in fact screwed up a modification, and forgot they had promised to replace my dryer, so they apologised and then arranged a delivery.

There has been a lot on TV recently about the dryers, maybe these TV programmes should start to inform people of what action they can taken and against who if they are not happy with waiting for a modification. I guess I was lucky in getting a modification within weeks, even if it did go wrong. I know that if I was being told it was going to be June, July or August I would be far from amused.

I had a similar issue many years back with a BEKO Fridge Freezer, it was only 14 months old when it was part of a recall / modification programme. I pursued Curry's on the grounds of SOGA, they continually told me they were not interested as it was over 12 months and to go through BEKO. I started proceedings through the small claims court, and once they got notification of this they backed down, replaced the fridge for new model, refunded court costs and compensated me as way of apology.

Too many companies fob customers off about what they can and can't do, people need to take a stand, I guess many coming to MSE, are just glancing at posts, perhaps not really understanding what they can and can't do and perhaps they skim over posts so don't see the good advice you are offering.

I do admit though, that remaining calm and polite is the way forward if you want Hotpoint to take you seriously.

Tinman

Will be a report on ITV news in a few minutes

unholyangel

Longtallkatie, a private prosecution is a private criminal prosecution. There is no criminal aspect of this so no grounds for a private prosecution.

Further to that, you said you purchased the machine over 6 years ago - meaning that even if you had approached currys instead of hotpoint, your claim was statute barred.

Hotpoint giving good customer services is entirely separate to legal rights or legal entitlement.

Zandoni

unholyangel wrote: »

Longtallkatie, a private prosecution is a private criminal prosecution. There is no criminal aspect of this so no grounds for a private prosecution.

Further to that, you said you purchased the machine over 6 years ago - meaning that even if you had approached currys instead of hotpoint, your claim was statute barred.

Hotpoint giving good customer services is entirely separate to legal rights or legal entitlement.

It worked though.

AJXX

Zandoni wrote: »

It worked though.

We have no proof of that, it could have been a number of other factors such as;

- The fact that he/she spent the time to write a letter in the first place (which sounds daft but it has worked for others as well and seems to have a better outcome than a phone call).

- The fact that he/she had already had a modification done which appears to have gone wrong or failed in some way and this was verified by an engineer.

- The fact that Hotpoint knew they'd messed up by "forgetting" about him/her for 3 weeks after promising a new dryer.

There's no proof any of this was to do with him/her threatening SOGA action, I highly doubt Hotpoints decision was influenced by this in anyway - as we've already discussed he/she would have no legal ground to stand on taking SOGA action against Hotpoint and I'm sure Hotpoint knew that.

Well done to that particular poster for getting a good outcome, but I very much doubt it was anything to do with empty threats of legal action.

As I keep saying, people should not be threatening legal action that is simply impossible for them to actually go through with - this thread is giving the impression that firing out LBA's and SOGA threats is the way forward; when in reality this is asking for trouble if Hotpoint isn't the retailer. I think what's working is the fact these people are writing in, not that they're threatening half-baked legal action against the wrong company.

powerful_Rogue

Especially as they purchased the machine over 6 years ago.

LongTallKatie

AJXX wrote: »

We have no proof of that, it could have been a number of other factors such as;

- The fact that he/she spent the time to write a letter in the first place (which sounds daft but it has worked for others as well and seems to have a better outcome than a phone call).

- The fact that he/she had already had a modification done which appears to have gone wrong or failed in some way and this was verified by an engineer.

- The fact that Hotpoint knew they'd messed up by "forgetting" about him/her for 3 weeks after promising a new dryer.

There's no proof any of this was to do with him/her threatening SOGA action, I highly doubt Hotpoints decision was influenced by this in anyway - as we've already discussed he/she would have no legal ground to stand on taking SOGA action against Hotpoint and I'm sure Hotpoint knew that.

Well done to that particular poster for getting a good outcome, but I very much doubt it was anything to do with empty threats of legal action.

As I keep saying, people should not be threatening legal action that is simply impossible for them to actually go through with - this thread is giving the impression that firing out LBA's and SOGA threats is the way forward; when in reality this is asking for trouble if Hotpoint isn't the retailer. I think what's working is the fact these people are writing in, not that they're threatening half-baked legal action against the wrong company.

I think it was all three, I do not believe for one minute the letter mentioning legal action did anything. I think if I hadn't written, I would still be stuck with a modified dryer that didn't work.


BTW, did anyone else just see the story on the ITV News.

LongTallKatie

powerful_Rogue wrote: »

Especially as they purchased the machine over 6 years ago.

It was six years old on January 2nd 2016

unholyangel

Zandoni wrote: »

It worked though.

Did it?

If it did "work" then it should be easy to replicate and anyone threatening the same should get the exact same outcome.

If however it was due to another variable (such as goodwill), then you'll find varying results (which is - going by the responses on this thread - what has happened).