We guess this was inevitable really, people affected by a fire in London due to a faulty tumble dryer are criticising Whirlpool’s handling of the matter.
The recent fire in Shepherds Bush that involved a tumble dryer that was subject to a safety notification and sadly caused several of the flats in the block to be damaged when it went up in flames.
Problem is that now Whirlpool, the new owners of Hotpoint, Creda, Indesit and so on are refusing to offer much of any assistance according to reports.
On the face of it that might appear to be a very callous approach on the part of Whirlpool but, to a degree we get it.
The fact is that upon investigation the London Fire Brigade (LFB) found that the dryer in question had a faulty bearing. This would have allowed excessive levels of lint into the dryer cavity and, that is the primary cause of the fire.
This fault that was found is exactly that, a fault that should have been rectified and was not part of the remit under the safety notification.
In fact, as we are given to understand it, had the dryer been looked at for modification that work would not have been carried out until the pre-existing fault was rectified at the owners expense. While the rights and wrongs of that can be debated what cannot be is that, had that fault not existed then this incident would probably not have happened.
We can also understand people’s anger over getting nowhere fast as, given the scale of the incident it will no doubt be in the hands of various insurers and getting batted around in that system. It’s not fast!
Tom Jervis of Leigh Day Solicitors said: “Whirlpool are just stalling. We can push them as hard as we can but they are getting us stuck in the legal process.
“They’ve said it’s going to take a few more months.
“We’ve also asked them for an emergency payment because people who lost everything aren’t in a position to wait, but they have flatly refused.”
Two problems we see here immediately are that, of course it’s going to take time if insurers are involved an they sort out who’s responsible for what and who’s footing the bills. But also, if Whirlpool were to make any payment it’s like admitting fault in a car accident, once you do it, it’s all on you.
And if the problem was due to an unresolved, unrelated issue with the dryer that was not Whirlpool’s fault then, why would Whirlpool pay for that? Why would Whirlpool’s insurer?
Like we said, we kinda get this. Unlike some media however, we don’t glorify stuff or look to vilify companies just for the sake of it.
Thats not to detract from that people have been massively put out by al of this, of course they have but, the exact same thing could have happened to any tumble dryer.
