Our investigation shows that, one year on from announcing that some of its tumble dryers were at risk of catching fire, Whirlpool is still failing millions of affected UK customers.
Slow and poor service
In April this year, we investigated the Whirlpool tumble dryer safety issue, surveying 820 affected customers and conducting 30 mystery calls to the Whirlpool call centre posing as customers with affected machines. At that time, we foundΒ multiple failings in how Whirlpool was handling its customers.
In November, we carried out a second investigation. We contacted those surveyed in April again, as well as nearly 500 additional affected customers who had not previously been polled.
We found those with fire-risk dryersΒ are still being forced to wait far too long, with one in five (22%) customers surveyed in April still waiting for their machine to be repaired or replaced.
A third (33%) of thoseΒ who had since had their dryer repaired or replaced said they were dissatisfied with how the manufacturer had handled the situation.
One quarter (26%) of affected customers were told they would have to wait longer than six months for their tumble dryer to be repaired.
Marlon says: ‘I was contacted by email last winter informing me that it would be done in March. March came and went then another email with June as the modification month. No contact in June. Another email in August asking if I would like another tumble dryer, at a reduced price, instead of waiting for the modification to take place. After looking at the reviews of the models offered on Which, I decided I would not take up the new machine offer. So now I wait, a year on.’
One in five (22%) were told that the wait would be between three and six months.
We found widespread concern among customers, with six in ten (62%) of those we surveyed for the first time in November 2016 worriedΒ about using their tumble dryer, despite Whirlpoolβs advice to continue to do so.
Potentially dangerous advice
In addition to being forced to wait far too long, we found Whirlpool giving a customer incorrect and potentially dangerous advice.
Last month, our mystery shoppers made another 30 calls to the Whirlpool call centre.
One of those callers was told that their machine was not affected. This was incorrect as we gave the call centre a model number of a dryer we knew was on the list. They even told us to throw any letters received about the safety notice ‘in the rubbish’.
On three occasions, mystery shoppers were told to contact the shop they bought the machine from for a replacement.
We also foundΒ long waits for a customer ID number that needs to be issued before anything can happen in the repair or replacement process.
Despite Whirlpool committing to reducing the waiting time for a customer ID number to 10 days, Which? found some call handlers quoting 6-12 weeks to mystery shoppers.
Which? says
Alex Neill, Managing Director of Home & Legal Services at Which?, said: ‘It is absolutely unacceptable that, one year on, Whirlpool customers are still seeing slow, poor service and potentially receiving incorrect and dangerous advice. Whirlpool’sΒ modification programme is clearly not progressing as fast as it should.
βFollowing the devastating fire caused by a tumble dryer in Shepherds Bush earlier this year, Whirlpool cannot be allowed to continue letting consumers down. It must clean up its act and sort out this mess urgently.’
Update: 12 January 2017
Today, weβve launched a campaign to challenge Whirlpool to sort this mess out quickly. Itβs now been a lengthy 14 months since the news broke that certain Whirlpool-owned tumble dryers could pose a fire-risk.
Some 750 fires have been reportedly linked to Whirlpoolβs faulty dryers. Whirlpoolβs repair programme is moving too slowly, so their unmodified fire-risk dryers continue to pose a potential threat to peopleβs homes.
In August 2016, Sharnaβs home was destroyed by a Whirlpool dryer:
Last month, we took the decision to file for a judicial review ofΒ Peterborough Trading Standardsβ handling of the Whirlpool dryer safety issue. As Whirlpoolβs UK headquarters are in Peterborough, itβs Peterborough City Councilβs Trading Standards department thatβs been dealing with this matter.
This issue shouldn’t be allowed to drag on any longer and we need your help to make Whirlpool do more to prevent dryer fires.
Do you support our campaign? Have you been affected by the Whirlpool tumble dryer safety issue? What more would you like done to resolve this safety issue?