Pay Up Whirlpool like BP did!

I see that Whirlpool, the company behind  the fire risk dryers, have finally told owners not to use them.

Why? Are they unsafe to use? If they are now unsafe, then they were unsafe before people were told not to use them, in fact they have always been unsafe and yet the company were saying a few weeks ago that you could still use them as long as you did not leave them alone. They must have known they were unsafe then when they were still advising people that they could be used while they were waiting for a repair. The repairs have been going on for well over a year and yet not everyone has had theirs repaired. At this rate it will be many years into the future before they are all fixed.

Well, I always thought that under UK law that if you bought something it had to work, be safe and last a while. Im not too sure of the specifics but I think these are the basics. It’s a while since I looked at UK consumer Law so my thinking maybe a little outdated but that’s not the point. The point is if you buy something it should be safe to use.

Now we are being told not to use them. I’ve got one of their tumble dryers in my garage but I have checked the serial number and apparently mine isn’t one of the affected ones. Knowing that doesn’t give me full confidence in using it though.

The company who manufactured the faulty tumble dryers is American and they need to pay up to sort it out. Not only do they need to replace the faulty products they need to make good any financial loss there has been and pay for stress and so on. They shouldn’t have a choice in this, they should be made to do it and the American government should be helping here but I guess it would affect their profit margin of course.

Look at what happened with the Volkswagen issue. Volkswagen soon paid up to the Americans and I seem to remember watching President Obama on our news saying that British Petroleum would be paying for all the problems caused by the Deepwater Horizon explosion and subsequent pollution. I can still hear him saying it in my mind and he really stressed the word British. Admittedly there were a lot of people killed when the oil rig blew up and I cannot think that these tumble dryers have caused any deaths but the American company should pay up, just like other companies have paid up to the Americans.

Things like this work both ways and our Government should be pressing the Americans to sort things out like the US Government made sure that BRITISH Petroleum paid to sort their mess out.

It won’t happen like that though so don’t hold your breath.