Fisher & Paykel Appliances Ltd. (FPH.NZ) will fix up to 90,000 potentially faulty dishwashers in New Zealand and Australia, the New Zealand-based manufacturer’s Chief Executive John Bongard said Friday.
The dishwashers, manufactured between January 2001 and December 2002, have a part that monitors power flow and which is vulnerable to insects getting inside, potentially causing the machine to shut down.
The dishwashers, manufactured between January 2001 and December 2002, have a part that monitors power flow and which is vulnerable to insects getting inside, potentially causing the machine to shut down.
The problem affects up to 50,000 machines in Australia and up to 40,000 in New Zealand, Bongard told Dow Jones Newswires.
Safety authorities in New Zealand have said a recall isn’t necessary, but the company will encourage all owners of the dishwashers to contact it for a replacement part to preserve Fisher & Paykel’s reputation for “integrity,” he said.
Under Australian rules the replacement of the part is defined as a recall, Bongard said.
Fisher & Paykel has details of the owners of about 30% of the machines and has been contacting them about the problem.
The financial cost to Fisher & Paykel wouldn’t be “material” even if every single owner contacted the company and requested the replacement part, Bongard said.
Criticism of the company in the media for not immediately carrying out a recall was unavoidable, said Bongard.
The company would have been swamped by customer inquiries if it had immediately advertised the problem and then would probably have been criticized for not being able to process all the requests for new parts quickly enough, he said.
Fisher & Paykel is one of New Zealand’s 10 largest listed companies with a market capitalization of almost NZ$1.2 billion, and sells over one million appliances a year.
From Yahoo, Singapore