Dangerous, faulty electrical - Shop wants me to send it to them ‘for inspection.’

Littlejennar

I bought a nutri-bullet type mixer 4 years ago from a well known store. It hasn’t had much use but a few months ago I noticed food would end up with an odd chemical smell. Then recently I noticed smoke coming from the blades that spin around. When I checked the metal had worn away and was just burning up. The chemical smell was awful and I realised that’s what had been causing the smell in my food - burning metal! 

I contacted the retailer and sent them lots of photos showing the metal
plates that were burnt and it was clear it was a huge fire hazard. They initially refused to do anything, so after much challenging (and a few threats of legal
action over the food contamination issue) they asked me to send it to them for inspection. 

I appreciate they have the right to do this, but at the same time the photos clearly show damage between the two plates which really should be sufficient- especially how serious it is. 

I’m hesitant to post it to them incase they destroy it and I have no evidence of the huge safety risk. They also haven’t guaranteed that I’d receive a refund for the item whatever the outcome. 

Due to the seriousness of this, should I be sending them the product? How can I protect myself so that they can’t just get rid of the product?

unforeseen

Well, it's not a huge safety risk unless you set it going and leave the house.
The retailer will do nothing unless they can inspect it. Who's to say that the pictures you sent are actually your appliance? 

Keep_pedalling

What are you expecting from the store after 4 years? I just looked up nutri-bullet blenders and they all appear to be sub £100 so it is not going to be worth repairing so the best you can hope for is a partial refund of around £20.

If you are hoping for compensation, you can forget that unless you have suffered injury or financial loss.

sparrow857

Surely given the seriousness of the issue, you would want them to inspect it? I work for a large U.K. retailer and when we get things like this, the item will be collected and sent to one of our product techs (or the supplier). They’ll inspect and perform tests on the item and will be able to tell what’s happened. In all honesty ,the vast amount of these issued are caused by something the customer has done. There is no way you’ll get remedy without sending it back and I think it’s quite suspicious that you won’t. 

mattyprice4004

Unless the guarantee is for 4+ years, why would they refund anyway? 
Things break and need to be replaced. 

powerful_Rogue

What end result do you want?

born_again

Littlejennar said:

I bought a nutri-bullet type mixer 4 years ago from a well known store. It hasn’t had much use but a few months ago I noticed food would end up with an odd chemical smell. Then recently I noticed smoke coming from the blades that spin around. When I checked the metal had worn away and was just burning up. The chemical smell was awful and I realised that’s what had been causing the smell in my food - burning metal! 

I contacted the retailer and sent them lots of photos showing the metal
plates that were burnt and it was clear it was a huge fire hazard. They initially refused to do anything, so after much challenging (and a few threats of legal
action over the food contamination issue) they asked me to send it to them for inspection. 

I appreciate they have the right to do this, but at the same time the photos clearly show damage between the two plates which really should be sufficient- especially how serious it is. 

I’m hesitant to post it to them incase they destroy it and I have no evidence of the huge safety risk. They also haven’t guaranteed that I’d receive a refund for the item whatever the outcome. 

Due to the seriousness of this, should I be sending them the product? How can I protect myself so that they can’t just get rid of the product?

So what have you been putting in it?
When you have been cleaning it, have you been pushing the blades down to clean them, that may now mean they are hitting the body/base?

Which brand/retailer?

photome

it’s 4 years old, does it have a 4 year gtee