A major product recall is under way after London Fire Brigade confirmed that a Beko fridge freezer was the cause of a fire in a tower block in Bermondsey last week. LFB went on to explain that they believe that this model of fridge freezer has caused 20 fires in London alone over the last 3 years.
Given that Beko was alerted to the hazard by LFB in June 2010, serious questions are being asked as to why the problem is only now becoming widely known. Beko have certainly made some attempts to contact customers in the last 12 months – they claim to have written to 200 000 owners and modified 11 000 appliances – but with an estimated 500 000 owners in the UK there is much work still to be done. Absent the announcement yesterday from LFB, it is unclear what Beko were planning to do next.
Product recalls are very difficult to implement and, even with detailed prior planning, response rates from owners are notoriously low. Nevertheless, given the very serious nature of this problem, there is a widespread feeling that more should have been done. Recalls also pose serious issues for crisis communications: if you go to the Beko UK website today you find a 1-page statement about the product recall and an apology for the fact that “Our normal website is temporarily unavailable.”
If you think that your appliance may be affected go to the Beko website for more details on the recall.
I have checked and found out that I do in fact own one of these affected product ie the fridge freezer with the potenial of catching fire. I imagine like many other people who own the product I never recieved any correspondence from Beko until I saw the TV last night stating that they now need to do some modification on these pratical models. I Logged onto the Beko website entered my model number & serial number which confirmed I need to contact them re engineer coming out to complete mofications the free phone telephone number 0800 0094837 which was given is actually dead.
For two days on the trot i have been trying to contact the phone number that has been issued for the recal for my fridge freezer.Only to be cut of after there message.This i do not find good enough as i work all day and my house could catch fire due to a faulty appliance. also at night when you are asleep this could cost lives. I AM VERY ANGRY and not impressed with the way things are being dealt with.
I have had the same problem as Lorraine Rivers. Does anyone know how to contact Beko. Somehow I do not think they have tried very hard to contact customers, is there any other action we can take. I’m thinking do I really want a fridge that is hazardous fixed by a company who cannot even set up an emergency telephone line properly!
I too have one of the fridge freezers I tried the freephone number but just couldn’t get through I called the normal customer service number off the website and got through after a couple of tries give it a go they are coming on saturday to fix it
Have tried several times over 2 days ans still cannot get through to customer service. As many people are concerned why have they not increased number of phone lines to take our calls. not everuone have acess to computers to see what Beko say on website.
I am awaiting a reply to my e-mail
My model no is one of the ones affected but Beko website says only serial number starting 00 to 06 are affected, mine starts 07 but I’ve had problems with my thermostat since my fridge freezer was 13 months old, the freezer keeps freezing up (within a day of defrosting it!) and the fan is getting stuck on the ice! I was given an 01923 (01923 81 81 21) number by Comet to try and when I phoned it the automated msg said models up to 07? I was unable to get through to anyone on that number also! Come on Beko get it sorted my family are at risk!!!!!!!!!