Vocal Voices

Do you remember the kerfuffle months ago about tumble dryers going on fire and people being advised to register their dryers for modification? Well ours is a Hotpoint and when I went looking, it said it was one of the models which could be affected and therefore eligible for modification, so I registered and was told they would contact me in 10 weeks to arrange my repair visit - this was on 16th February.

Fast (or slow) forward to last Thursday and I get an email offering me two choices - either I can carry on waiting for my repair visit, which will now happen January 2017 at the earliest.....or.....oh look, they offer to contribute to the cost of a new dryer, a new one will cost €279.99 to which they will contribute a wondrous €85 Er no thanks, I can wait

Have to say osc after all the fires due to highpoint dryer I would ditch it fast get a different brand and feel safe
Just my opinion tho

Ah no Saundra, we only have it about 18 months and is not used regularly, mostly just to "finish off" towels. Fluff hardly builds in the filter and even so, I clear the filter after every use.

Wow, that is a generous offer - not! I'd have done the same as you Osc, esp if you hardly use it and clean it after every use

Saundra, as Osc says - if one cleans the filter as regularly as one should then there shouldn't be a problem. But too many people don't and then blame the manufacturer when things go wrong.

Saying that, my ex-upstairs neighbour had a dryer that she used all the time and I was always worried about how often she cleaned out the filer because she definitely was of the 'others will do for me / blame everyone else for anything that goes" wrong mentality

My cynical mind would be working the same way Osc! And what's the betting that you have to order through them, they'd generously offer to take your 'old' dryer away when the new one was delivered, then would recondition it and sell it on.

One of the problems in our lodge is that some people remember to clean the filter after use,
but then put the filter in back-to-front, even though they have to use undue force to do so.
This, I am told, is one of the main reasons that fires are started.

JoM wrote: And what's the betting that you have to order through them, they'd generously offer to take your 'old' dryer away when the new one was delivered, then would recondition it and sell it on.

Yes, yes and probably

Osc. if Hotpoint identified a problem and offered a free modification to correct it then they are, de facto, admitting responsibility.

With that in mind I would be tempted to get in touch with your equivalent of Trading Standards and bring this scam, for that is what it is, to their attention.

What they should really be doing is replacing all of the potentially affected dryers and replacing them! I can't understand how, having (as Frank has mentioned) pretty much admitted responsibility, they are not legally obliged to do so!

The email came from the UK though.