Hotpoint urgent tumble dryer recall

AJXX

iberno wrote: »

I also want to know why some people are getting free replacements or for a £59 charge. How can the do different offers?

To be fair I've not seen anyone within recent months been outright offered a free replacement - the people who have had free replacements have all had some sort of complaint raised and seemingly been given a free dryer as an outcome of this.

The difference between the 50 odd quid model and the 99 pounds model has already been clarified, one is a condenser and one is vented - hence the price difference.

bouncydog1

My vented model was purchased in June and registered beginning of December. I've called them 3 times to establish what options were available. The replacement they offered for £59 is the same model as what I have!! I explained this was a model subject to recall and the supervisor couldn't explain! I subsequently found out from the local Hotpoint agent that models the same number as mine were altered from September by replacing the back panel in the same way as the recall adjustment.

I've elected to wait - which is an inconvenience but I am not prepared to pay a further £59 for what I already have, albeit with a changed back panel. Those with dryers within warranty should be offered a free replacement, but I think that it is perfectly reasonable that those with older dryers should be asked to make a contribution - after all they will be getting a new machine with a 1 year labour and10 year parts guarantee which is what Hotpoint offer now.

Having said all of that, I will not be purchasing any more Hotpoint appliances and will move over to Neff, AEG or Bosh. (Not prepared to pay for Siemens)!!!

AJXX

bouncydog1 wrote: »

The replacement they offered for £59 is the same model as what I have!! I explained this was a model subject to recall and the supervisor couldn't explain! I subsequently found out from the local Hotpoint agent that models the same number as mine were altered from September by replacing the back panel in the same way as the recall adjustment.

I've elected to wait - which is an inconvenience but I am not prepared to pay a further £59 for what I already have, albeit with a changed back panel.

If you watch the interview I posted a few pages back, the lady from Hotpoint explains that the offer of a replacement dryer is purely for people who want something sorting out ASAP. I.e. for the people screaming and shouting about having kids and several loads of washing per day etc....

I don't think it's intended to be an upgrade or enhancement in anyway, though if your dryer is older than say 2 years it obviously is an upgrade in itself.

It all comes down to what you want really; pay for a replacement model (with modification already done) and get it quickly or wait for a repair.

This isn't aimed at you personally, but I'm somewhat bemused by the amount of people on here spouting off about how inconvenienced they are over this, literally "life changing" as one poster put it - yet refuse to pay 50 odd quid to get a replacement dryer in a few weeks rather than wait months for the repair.

It's funny how so many people are so terribly "inconvenienced" yet when offered very reasonable solution (replacement) for a reasonable price (£50/£99) suddenly aren't so "inconvenienced" after all as they outright reject it (yet surely if you're so "inconvenienced" you'd just accept this and get on with life)?

lincroft1710

AJXX wrote: »

To be fair I've not seen anyone within recent months been outright offered a free replacement - the people who have had free replacements have all had some sort of complaint raised and seemingly been given a free dryer as an outcome of this.

As I have posted on more than one occasion I received a free replacement (delivered January) without asking or raising complaint. I can only assume my 7 yr old Indesit was considered unsuitable for repair.

AJXX

lincroft1710 wrote: »

As I have posted on more than one occasion I received a free replacement (delivered January) without asking or raising complaint. I can only assume my 7 yr old Indesit was considered unsuitable for repair.

Agreed, 7 years old it's no wonder they offered you a replacement over a repair.

ahar_2

powerful_Rogue wrote: »

On what grounds will you threaten them with the small claims court?

They admitted they are responsible for the fix to the machine, but have delayed it by an unreasonable amount. My claim will be for the cost of a repair to my existing machine. My dispute is not about responsibility under SOGA or other legislation (they have already admitted responsibility in my argument), the dispute is about the speed of the remedy.

Not particularly interested in the non specialist lawyers (this area of law is so heavily dependent the presiding judge and any previous cases) on here trying to rubbish my approach as with any small claims action, the objective is not to go to court, the objective is to get a quick remedy. Will I win? No idea. Lets see.

A couple of times in the past a letter has done the trick, never had to go to court before so lets see.

Lets remember that Whirlpool initiated the recall and then haven't resourced it properly. I'm not inclined to give them an easy time

wealdroam

ahar wrote: »

They admitted they are responsible for the fix to the machine, but have delayed it by an unreasonable amount. My claim will be for the cost of a repair to my existing machine. My dispute is not about responsibility under SOGA or other legislation (they have already admitted responsibility in my argument), the dispute is about the speed of the remedy.

Not particularly interested in the non specialist lawyers (this area of law is so heavily dependent the presiding judge and any previous cases) on here trying to rubbish my approach as with any small claims action, the objective is not to go to court, the objective is to get a quick remedy. Will I win? No idea. Lets see.

I know you are not interested, but I'll say it anyway...

Courts deal with breaches of the law.
Hotpoint/Whirlpool have broken no law that you can take them to court for.
Any court claim you may make against them will fall at the first hurdle, i.e. it will never get as far as a 'presiding judge'.

I hope that helps.

AJXX

ahar wrote: »

They admitted they are responsible for the fix to the machine, but have delayed it by an unreasonable amount. My claim will be for the cost of a repair to my existing machine. My dispute is not about responsibility under SOGA or other legislation (they have already admitted responsibility in my argument), the dispute is about the speed of the remedy.

A couple of times in the past a letter has done the trick, never had to go to court before so lets see.

Lets remember that Whirlpool initiated the recall and then haven't resourced it properly. I'm not inclined to give them an easy time

Just send a letter to them asking for a repair/replacement - a few people on here have done this already and it seems to work well. Absolutely no point in threatening SCC at this stage, try a friendly well written letter and take it from there.

I know you've said you don't want SCC advice, but your case sounds like it'll fall to bits faster than a wet cake. Why?

Hotpoint haven't breached any laws - Courts deal with breaches of law.

"unreasonable amount" that's entirely YOUR opinion, it may not be the opinion of the judge who will consider that Hotpoint has 5.3 million units to repair and several other variables that most people on here screaming about repair times fail to take into consideration.

You're putting a claim in for the "repair cost" - none of us know the actual value of the repair itself so how do you plan on submitting this figure to SCC?.. lets be real a back plate and a little tinkering inside the machine - 30 quid cost? The SCC filing fee is 25 quid!

The main issue I'd raise is that you would be submitting a case based on alleged unreasonable repair times, claiming a low value repair fee of circa ~£30 - what are you going to do win or loose? You're still going to have a machine needing modification....

Lets remember that Whirlpool initiated the recall and then haven't resourced it properly. I'm not inclined to give them an easy time

Again this is your opinion, we've already seen the interview with Hotpoint stating they're taking on engineers daily. They could have postponed the safety modification until they had x engineers but then people would be moaning about how long it took to start the safety program...

I'm not having a go at you personally, I just don't think people should threaten SCC action unless they have a considerable chance of winning - at best the argument you've just put forward is mediocre and there are far too many people who take great pride in winging about how terrible Hotpoint have managed this, but aside from phone line delays, it seems to me like they're doing the best they can and arsey people are making it very difficult for them.

I'm not inclined to give them an easy time

To be honest, I think this is entirely the problem. We've already seen from this thread how completely unreasonable and blind to the real world some people are. Perhaps it's all these people who feel so inclined not to give Hotpoint an "easy time" are causing all these phone delays etc...

wealdroam

ahar wrote: »

Shall be writing to them with a threat of small claims court - given the cost of them working on a court claim my guess either they will settle or not bother to engage, in either case I win.

Well, since we are into guessing, my guess is that something else will happen.

They will simply respond to any court documents, should they even get issued, saying that there is no case to answer.

To me, that looks like you lose.

bouncydog1

Actually it is an inconvenience - I either have to use my machine between the 2 hours on Saturday and Sunday that economy 12 rate is available, or use it during the evening at full rate - 3 times the rate of economy 12. So I will be out of pocket as I work full time and use Saturday and Sunday afternoons to go out and do things that I can't do when I am working. If my machine was out of warranty then I would pay the £59 for a replacement rather than wait several months as the £59 would probably be less than the increased electricity cost and I would have a new warranty on the machine!