More than 80,000 faulty Samsung washing machines with the potential to spark fires are still in use two years after they were first recalled.
Today, the technology giant launched another national safety recall of the top loader machines through a large advertising campaign.
A total of 144,450 machines were found to be faulty in 2013 but only about 61,000 have been serviced or replaced since the initial recall.
Since then, 180 incidents have occurred where the machines have been smoking, overheating and catching fire, with two occurring as recently as last week in New South Wales.
Samsung vice-president of consumer electronics Phil Newton said he wanted Australians to remain safe.
“Our responsibility and our desire is the safety of Australians, it’s our number one priority and we won’t rest until every single one of these has been taken care of and dealt with,” he told the ABC.
Mr Newton said he followed the advice of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) when the company was made aware of the fault.
“We spent millions in advertising to try and drive awareness,” Mr Newtown said.
“I guess people just lead really busy lives and for lots of different reasons, people don’t check these details.”
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Top Comments
We bought one of the affected washing machines in May 2013 from a Good Guys franchise and we have never been notified of a recall. It was only when the media reported on the unfortunate deaths of 2 people that we read the products affected. I don't know what the millions of dollars was spent on, but it certainly wasn't spent on a single phone call to us informing of the recall.