Fire risks prompt tumble dryer recall - Now washing machines as well!

I had mine fixed not too long ago and I was talking to the bloke who replaced whatever it was he replaced. He said the parts he put in cost more than the actual model of dryer (brand new less than a year old ) I had. He said it was a common one to be fixed apparently. He also told me it was his 12th one that day. He came to my house at 1pm. He got paid £70 per machine fixed. He said he was rolling in it, altough he was self employed he said he had to get as many in as possible per week as once these machines are all fixed etc the contract would end and he would have to find other ones.
 
Interesting for anyone still awaiting a repair.

I raised a section 75 claim with my credit card company (Barclaycard) following other issues with my machine, as detailed earlier in the year here.

I had a call today and the great news was that the full cost is being paid back to me off the back of the Section 75 because of the non-related fault, but before agreeing to that, they actually asked if I had seen the £99 offer of the new Hotpoint machine and stated that as they are aware of the issues, they are paying out part payments of the £99 to cover the costs of buying the new machines - So if anyone is looking into that option and you paid for the machine on a credit card then it is worth exploring a section 75 claim. It came across that they are almost doing it as a blanket thing, if the wait time for your modification is really long, because of the safety risk. In fact Barclaycard seemed more concerned about the risks that Hotpoint are!
 
I had an email saying mine was going to be fixed in April. It wasn't. Time to phone up I think.
 
Did you check the link in your email? Mine said January. Then March. Now it has gone back to December 2015!??!?! Either way, it hasn't been done, but thankfully it will be getting recycled now anyway.
 
Just got this email!
Thank you for registering your tumble dryer for modification to improve its safety and quality. The safety of our customers is our number one priority and every customer matters to us. Therefore, the necessary modifications are generally being made on a first-registered, first-served basis. This is a large scale modification programme, and we would like to thank you for your patience in waiting for an update.
We're sorry we missed the date we originally estimated for your free of charge modification. We're working tirelessly to shorten the length of time it will take us to complete the modification programme, and we will re-arrange your appointment as quickly as we can.
An alternative option to your free of charge modification
As part of our ongoing efforts to shorten the wait time for customers to have their affected tumble dryers modified for free, as a gesture of goodwill, we wanted to get in touch to tell you about an alternative option available to you. You can now purchase a brand new tumble dryer from us at a reduced price that can be collected from selected Currys stores.

£19 for a vented dryer or £49 for a condenser. As our machine is now around a year old we will be going for this offer and get it over with.

EDIT just checked the Amazon reviews of the offered dryer, TDWSF83BEP and it's terrible! Think we'll wait for the repair. Not impressed at the idea of paying any money out TBH
 
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Yeah thanks for including all of the necessary information Hotpoint... :rolleyes:

hotpoint.jpg
 
Uther said:
EDIT just checked the Amazon reviews of the offered dryer, TDWSF83BEP and it's terrible! Think we'll wait for the repair. Not impressed at the idea of paying any money out TBH
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Dont have any of those complaints with mine. I just set it to cupboard dry or whatever it is and away it goes. It isnt any less cheaply built than the dry it replaced, drys fine, doesnt cost the earth to run like one of the review claimed?

only potential issue I've found is the filter hinge is flimsy but that doesnt affect operation.
 
I just went for the replacement since the dryer that was effective actually broke just after the news broke. So worked out ok.

Sure, it was nowhere near the quality of the one it replaced, but then again, the one it replaced was around 8 years old. So £59 (that was the offered price on the vented unit, for me, not £19 like you got offered Uther, that's a good deal) for a new dryer didn't seem like too bad an idea. Not when I couldn't get a second hand one on gumtree locally any cheaper.

They did try and get me to take extended warranty though. I told them to beat it. The replacement dryer will last until it lasts, then will itself be replaced with a higher quality unit.
 
They've just updated the available models for this, so we've opted to buy a replacement for £99 - The FTCF87BGG (Retails for £269-299 at Currys). It's a better unit than the one we have and has a higher capacity as well. Current one is 8 years old, so feels like a good deal even though we've had to shell out a little.
 
The bloke that did mine said it was basically only a risk for people who never bother sorting the filter. He said he had seen examples of literally rugs worth of fluff wrapped around the drum!

That said whenever I clean my filter a tiny bit always ends up dropping in so I guess if you used it a lot over a number of years it's build up a bit.
 
Owners told not to use dangerous tumble dryers after all

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39052979

Part quote - full story at the BBC.

Millions of owners of potentially lethal tumble dryers have been warned not to use them until the machines have been repaired.

Tumble dryers sold under the Hotpoint, Creda and Indesit brands have been behind a series of fires.

Whirlpool, which owns the brands, had said they were all right to use, providing someone was in attendance.

But following advice from Trading Standards, the new guidance is not to use them until they are repaired.

A statement on the Whirlpool safety website says: "If your tumble dryer is affected by this issue, then you should unplug it and do not use it until the modification has taken place."
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We had our new tumble dryer delivered october last year, sells at something like £300 and got for £60 iirc, they took the old one away of course.

Not bad considering the original dryer was about £150.
 
I got my drier seen to in November last year. Indesit farmed the job out to KnowHow who sent an absolute moron around to do the job. First of all he managed to damage my kitchen floor when he dragged the drier out. He left a 5cm hole in the lino, along with a 20cm scratch mark leading up to it. Then he put a screw through one of the cables in the drier which blew the breaker when he turned it back on, so he had to repair it before leaving. I complained to KnowHow and they spun me a 'we can only immediately authorise a £50 compensation claim' line, which I wasn't happy with. After 2 weeks of back and forth they paid me £300 for my damaged floor just generally giving a useless service.

So, lesson here is, if you see someone from KnowHow coming to fix your drier, watch them like a hawk.
 
I just looked at my repair status on Hotpoint just for the lolz.

"
Your registration details
When you registered your appliance onTue, Nov 24 at 12:21 PM you provided the following information....

Bear in mind that was 2015...

"Overdue.

We're sorry we missed the date we originally estimated for your free of charge modification. We're working tirelessly to shorten the length of time it will take us to complete the modification programme, and we will re-arrange your appointment as quickly as we can."


18 Months later and still no repair. Amazing. The fact I no longer own the machine and sent it to scrap is beside the point. I had forgotten all about the repair until the news today about Beko so thought I would log in and see what was showing up since they missed all the previous estimates. I guess they have stopped doing those now.
 
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