Charging cable caught on fire

Zebra881

Hi everyone

I'm looking for advice as to how to proceed with this problem. Any advice is appreciated and if you have any questions in order to help then please ask away.

On 09/01/2019 I purchased a GAME branded Xbox One twin charging block from one of their stores using my debit card. It was £7.99 which seemed like a bargain as it was a reduced item but the damage it has caused is much greater.

On 12/02/2019 I contacted the store to explain that it had set on fire the night before (details below), and they said quite honestly don't bring the cable into the store. It will "go missing" after NY refund and they would probably never respond. My partner used to work in the store so I am on friendly terms with the retail staff and they are usually quite honest with me.

I then called head office to advise that after the first use one end of a cable supplied with this product had caused damage to my carpet which I now have to pay to repair. We had plugged the cable into the xbox one as per instructions and it was charging one of the blocks, while resting on a glass tv stand. The cable had been plugged into the block for approximately 30 minutes, and as we were about to get ready to leave for the evening I noticed an odd smell. My partner identified that it was coming from the tv stand. He picked up the charging block which was so hot it burned his hand and he dropped the block and end of the cable onto the floor. The cable was melted and it had started to burn through the plastic which melted onto my light grey carpet and left two shrivelled black holes in the middle of the room.

After contacting GAME, and a carpet repair specialist – I contacted Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Services to confirm that it was an electrical fire and for advice as to whether this situation could have been avoided, mostly for reassurance that I was not doing anything to potentially cause an electrical fire. They confirmed my suspicions that if we had gone out for the evening my home could have burnt down.

This has affected my mental ill health as I am affected by something called OCPD which involves checking behaviors. It's not relevant to the sale and I am not seeking damages but I do feel this whole situation is making me more ill as I already check things like whether my kids have left aerosols near radiators, the cooker hobs, phone chargers etc. I am now switching everything off and unplugging them including my powered wheelchair as I will only charge it when I'm awake which is causing massive problems when I haven't charged it sufficiently and cant get to work or school :eek: I'm getting help with this but I could really do without my worst fears coming true and things actually setting on fire when they shouldn't :mad:

The carpet repair specialist has quoted me £120 to repair the carpet and I feel that I should not have to pay this because it was the faulty product that burned my partner's hand and then burnt through the carpet. It's really noticeable damage due to the colour and thickness of the carpet. I spent 3 months wages on these carpets when I moved in and I'm absolutely gutted we have meticulously had no shoes rules and special covers for my wheelchair wheels for 2 years then this happens.

When I spoke to GAME they said I could keep hold of the cable if I wanted but they would not ever refund me unless I handed it back. I advised I was keeping it as much evidence but I did send them high res photos of the cables (with attached melted carpet fibres) and close up photos of my carpet, as well as the quote from the carpet repair company, and message from Fire and Rescue Service. I have asked them to pay the £120 to repair my carpet and investigate why the product caught on fire.

I was mad at the time and asked for a response within 28 days. Naturally they did not respond or keep me updated at all so I said I would take them to court. I called and asked for an address to which I could issue an LBA and had the worst customer experience ever. I was told that GAME do not have a physical address, and when I replied saying "are you sure?", the advisor shouted down the phone in a defensive manner "SORRY - ARE YOU CALLING ME A LIAR?!" I had to talk this person down into not hanging up on me after being on hold for 40 mins... I wasn't being rude in any way. Eventually he put me on hold and got the address.

After chasing up twice between first reporting the matter, and the 4th April, 2 months after it happened, they refused to give me an update, meanwhile my carpet looks awful. I cant use a rug or change furniture round because of my chair so I have to stare at this all the time and it's annoying me.

On 4th April I issued an LBA I wrote from a template and have given them the month to reply. I did get an immediate email once they received it, very matter of fact - saying that I have to claim on my insurance and send a report.

I dont have home insurance - (long story short I couldn't afford premiums when I became disabled and was in hospital, and whenever I declare it was cancelled for non payment nobody will insure me for 25 years ) I was fed up of corresponding via email as they wouldn't budge and basically said I have no proof of damage unless I have it assessed so I invited them to send their own insurers. I called up customer service to discuss over the phone because my final official say on the matter is within the LBA and they are yet to offer any kind of resolution. As soon as I got through and explained the complaint the person dealing with me said "oh, you're carpet lady, sorry, I'm not allowed to speak to you" and put me through to the manager.

The manager apologised for the lack of contact and said it was being looked into but they dont think they can do anything if I'm not insured. Surely this cant be correct? They have until around 5th may to reply and I'm going to submit a court claim online. Just wondering if it's worth much time with the amount of stress this has caused. Is it likely with the proof I have they will have to pay for the carpet repair? I probably should have vor advice sooner but I thought a big company would have decent processes and timescales. It's been months now and they wont even refund the £7.99 :rotfl:

In short - is it worth bothering with the court claim? Has anyone ever dealt with this company regarding faulty products? What's the best way to proceed if they dont respond before the time is up? Should I give them a few days? Am I being unreasonable to expect this kind of complaint to be resolved within 2 months? (I have no idea what goes into actually testing these products for safety, I do know they haven't been recalled from sale)

KatrinaWaves

So much of this is irrelevant sorry.

If you want them to pay to fix your carpet and refund you for the item you need to give them the faulty item back to investigate. You can take photos and stuff as your ‘proof’ but you can’t just keep it.

Everything else is irrelevant. You have to give them the item back.

DCFC79

KatrinaWaves wrote: »

So much of this is irrelevant sorry.

If you want them to pay to fix your carpet and refund you for the item you need to give them the faulty item back to investigate. You can take photos and stuff as your ‘proof’ but you can’t just keep it.

Everything else is irrelevant. You have to give them the item back.

I would be expecting the partner to be telling the OP this.

OP your not entitled to know why said item caught fire.

Zebra881

Thanks for replying. I was told by a member of their staff not to take the item into the store because it will just be thrown away/lost and I will never get this resolved as they just ignore complaints. It also states on this website to bring damaged products or photos to court... and I assumed that actually having the damaged product in my possession was better than it disappearing?

I have never once said they cant inspect it and I did offer fo hand it to them, but only if I could have a receipt for it and they said no.

Has anyone got answers to my questions at the bottom? Sorry if some of this is irrelevant. Like I mentioned, i do have mental ill health and I tend to over explain.

Zebra881

Also before I posted I saw posts from other people and what could be seen as bullying by other members over whether their issue was even worth resolving. I just wanted to explain why I'm so upset by the whole thing as I didn't want someone to just come back and say, cover it up with a rug, get insurance, it was only £7.99 etc because I'm not an unintelligent person and I have considered everything else.

KatrinaWaves

Zebra881 wrote: »

Thanks for replying. I was told by a member of their staff not to take the item into the store because it will just be thrown away/lost and I will never get this resolved as they just ignore complaints. It also states on this website to bring damaged products or photos to court... and I assumed that actually having the damaged product in my possession was better than it disappearing?

I have never once said they cant inspect it and I did offer fo hand it to them, but only if I could have a receipt for it and they said no.

Has anyone got answers to my questions at the bottom? Sorry if some of this is irrelevant. Like I mentioned, i do have mental ill health and I tend to over explain.

A member of staff at a store you say your partner used to work with and you have a friendly relationship with the staff. Was this a person who had the authority to tell you to keep the item, or a random staff member who said 'oh itll probably get lost'

If the person investigating your complaint has asked for the item, you need to give it to them. You have your photos.

They have given you two options, let them inspect or claim on your insurance and have your insurance contact them. You have refused both. You cannot just expect them to give you £120 because the fire brigade said an electrical fire could have burned your house down. You dont need the fire brigade to tell you that. They need to

A) see what the issue is because if it IS the power bricks fault they may need to recall it and stop other people having fires
b) it might not be a fault of the power brick but a fault of your home environment (power supply, ventilation etc)

JJ_Egan

What you consider as bullying is often that the poster has asked an opinion .
But 100% refused to take onboard the advice believing their opinion is correct . Despite asking for others opinion in the first place.

Zebra881

You are right, it was just a member of staff I am on friendly terms with, and not someone from head office - yet head office did at first ask me to take the item to the store if I want a refund for the cable, which I did try to do.

The manager just went to take the cable from me and do a refund onto my card. I asked the store manager if I could have a my receipt back and was told no. He said that without giving them the original receipt I could take a stolen one back into the store and keep getting it refunded. That seemed like a fair enough explanation, I've never worked in retail sales so I assume he is right. I just didn't want to lose my receipt for the other items purchased at the same time, console etc, in case they break within warranty. They couldn't even just cross the refunded item off, they wanted to take the whole receipt which I've never come across before. I don't know if I was misadvised or not but the store is nowhere near my home and I don't drive so it's not exactly easy to get to and I was tired and just left rather than argue in front of a store full of people.

After I had explained the above, one of the emails I had from their head office (back in Feb) they also said I am within my rights to keep hold of the cable until they have concluded their investigations so I took that as meaning they don't need it back. In the same email they said they would also provide a full resolution within 28 days but never did.

I haven't at any point tried to be awkward with them, I want to get this resolved and would do anything reasonably within my power to sort this.

That was one of my questions - so if they say I have to claim on insurance and I don't have any I don't have any other legal rights to have them pay for the repair? I thought at court they could ask for an expert to look at the damage? And if not found to be liable I would have to pay for that? I'm happy for them to do that as I'm satisfied the item was faulty. It was plugged into the console and draws power from that, which is not damaged in any way from the incident. Also I followed the manufacturers instructions which I have kept, and also official advice on electrical items. They were on a glass TV stand with adequate ventilation and not mistreated in any way. I'm pretty confident it is faulty - I know they have to do their own investigations and I have to allow them to defend my claim against them which is fine.

I'm honestly not trying to be awkward, I really appreciate your help. I will post the cable to their head office tomorrow seeing as I now have the correct correspondence address, at the time of taking the cable into the store I didn't have this and they haven't asked for the cable since.

Re the insurance I accept that it is my own problem- 10 yrs ago I was in hospital, nil pay, never claimed benefit and in hospital more than 28 days so wouldn't have been entitled any way. I used what money and credit I could access to pay for rent and got in a right mess. I couldn't pay my premium and I've been paying for this since I was 21. I cant take out any insurance at all and from what I've read on this forum in the past it gets recorded on a database for 25 years and if I dont declare it then my insurance is void. I haven't been able to find specialist insurance from a reputable company and even then they treat cancellation because of this situation as though I have had it cancelled for fraud or something. I dont feel entitled to purchase insurance but I do feel that this treatment is a bit harsh.

When I told the customer service manager I dont have insurance he said they had never come across anyone bor having insurance and said he didnt know what to do but he would find out. That was about a month ago and not heard anything since

Zebra881

I accept that regarding my bullying statement. I'm not disagreeing with anything anyone has said. I appreciate the opinions of my experienced people than myself.

read the sticky post before posting which said to write what I bought, how much it cost, how I paid for it etc which is why I included so much detail. And then like i said I just explained regarding the anxiety etc because I was just having a whinge to an old friend who thought they were large cigarette burns (we dont even smoke), and they were like, oh just put a rug over it or move the table, without thinking I cant really do that because of my wheelchair castors. It really does need repairing.

So that comment was just because I tried to include everything in my OP because I had seen other posts where someone says I cant do this or that for X reason and people have a go saying "well you didn't mention that". I was just overthinking, sorry.

I'll try to be more concise in future.

AndyPix

Zebra881 wrote: »

Hi everyone

I'm looking for advice as to how to proceed with this problem. Any advice is appreciated and if you have any questions in order to help then please ask away.

On 09/01/2019 I purchased a GAME branded Xbox One twin charging block from one of their stores using my debit card. It was £7.99 which seemed like a bargain as it was a reduced item but the damage it has caused is much greater.

On 12/02/2019 I contacted the store to explain that it had set on fire the night before (details below), and they said quite honestly don't bring the cable into the store. It will "go missing" after NY refund and they would probably never respond. My partner used to work in the store so I am on friendly terms with the retail staff and they are usually quite honest with me.

I then called head office to advise that after the first use one end of a cable supplied with this product had caused damage to my carpet which I now have to pay to repair. We had plugged the cable into the xbox one as per instructions and it was charging one of the blocks, while resting on a glass tv stand. The cable had been plugged into the block for approximately 30 minutes, and as we were about to get ready to leave for the evening I noticed an odd smell. My partner identified that it was coming from the tv stand. He picked up the charging block which was so hot it burned his hand and he dropped the block and end of the cable onto the floor. The cable was melted and it had started to burn through the plastic which melted onto my light grey carpet and left two shrivelled black holes in the middle of the room.

After contacting GAME, and a carpet repair specialist – I contacted Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Services to confirm that it was an electrical fire and for advice as to whether this situation could have been avoided, mostly for reassurance that I was not doing anything to potentially cause an electrical fire. They confirmed my suspicions that if we had gone out for the evening my home could have burnt down.

This has affected my mental ill health as I am affected by something called OCPD which involves checking behaviors. It's not relevant to the sale and I am not seeking damages but I do feel this whole situation is making me more ill as I already check things like whether my kids have left aerosols near radiators, the cooker hobs, phone chargers etc. I am now switching everything off and unplugging them including my powered wheelchair as I will only charge it when I'm awake which is causing massive problems when I haven't charged it sufficiently and cant get to work or school :eek: I'm getting help with this but I could really do without my worst fears coming true and things actually setting on fire when they shouldn't :mad:

The carpet repair specialist has quoted me £120 to repair the carpet and I feel that I should not have to pay this because it was the faulty product that burned my partner's hand and then burnt through the carpet. It's really noticeable damage due to the colour and thickness of the carpet. I spent 3 months wages on these carpets when I moved in and I'm absolutely gutted we have meticulously had no shoes rules and special covers for my wheelchair wheels for 2 years then this happens.

When I spoke to GAME they said I could keep hold of the cable if I wanted but they would not ever refund me unless I handed it back. I advised I was keeping it as much evidence but I did send them high res photos of the cables (with attached melted carpet fibres) and close up photos of my carpet, as well as the quote from the carpet repair company, and message from Fire and Rescue Service. I have asked them to pay the £120 to repair my carpet and investigate why the product caught on fire.

I was mad at the time and asked for a response within 28 days. Naturally they did not respond or keep me updated at all so I said I would take them to court. I called and asked for an address to which I could issue an LBA and had the worst customer experience ever. I was told that GAME do not have a physical address, and when I replied saying "are you sure?", the advisor shouted down the phone in a defensive manner "SORRY - ARE YOU CALLING ME A LIAR?!" I had to talk this person down into not hanging up on me after being on hold for 40 mins... I wasn't being rude in any way. Eventually he put me on hold and got the address.

After chasing up twice between first reporting the matter, and the 4th April, 2 months after it happened, they refused to give me an update, meanwhile my carpet looks awful. I cant use a rug or change furniture round because of my chair so I have to stare at this all the time and it's annoying me.

On 4th April I issued an LBA I wrote from a template and have given them the month to reply. I did get an immediate email once they received it, very matter of fact - saying that I have to claim on my insurance and send a report.

I dont have home insurance - (long story short I couldn't afford premiums when I became disabled and was in hospital, and whenever I declare it was cancelled for non payment nobody will insure me for 25 years ) I was fed up of corresponding via email as they wouldn't budge and basically said I have no proof of damage unless I have it assessed so I invited them to send their own insurers. I called up customer service to discuss over the phone because my final official say on the matter is within the LBA and they are yet to offer any kind of resolution. As soon as I got through and explained the complaint the person dealing with me said "oh, you're carpet lady, sorry, I'm not allowed to speak to you" and put me through to the manager.

The manager apologised for the lack of contact and said it was being looked into but they dont think they can do anything if I'm not insured. Surely this cant be correct? They have until around 5th may to reply and I'm going to submit a court claim online. Just wondering if it's worth much time with the amount of stress this has caused. Is it likely with the proof I have they will have to pay for the carpet repair? I probably should have vor advice sooner but I thought a big company would have decent processes and timescales. It's been months now and they wont even refund the £7.99 :rotfl:

In short - is it worth bothering with the court claim? Has anyone ever dealt with this company regarding faulty products? What's the best way to proceed if they dont respond before the time is up? Should I give them a few days? Am I being unreasonable to expect this kind of complaint to be resolved within 2 months? (I have no idea what goes into actually testing these products for safety, I do know they haven't been recalled from sale)

Short version ....


Bought a double xbox power brick from Game.
Left it on for a bit and it got very hot and burnt a hole in my carpet.
They want it back to inspect it - i'v not given it to them because of stuff ..
Do i have a claim ?

KatrinaWaves

I'm really not sure posting a faulty electrical item is a good idea but I am no expert on electricals.

Anyway you keep talking about court but there is really no reason this needs to go as far as court. Courts dont have electrical specialists sat waiting for someone to turn up with a faulty item. Take many photos or the item and the damage and get the item back to Game for them to investigate. They cannot possibly investigate why it set on fire without the item, no more than I can investigate sat here why it set on fire.

Nobody got back to you after 28 days because there was nothing to tell you. based on your first post I dont think it was stated to you that they would investigate and get back to you in 28 days even if you kept hold of the cable. What they seemed to be saying was that they couldnt force you to return the cable, as of course they cannot, as it still belongs to you.

If they investigate and you are not happy with the outcome, then you could take them to court for your losses and try to get your money that way. Then they would present their evidence, and you yours (if it got that far) and a judge would decide the outcome.