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Jun. 4th, 2012
About five years ago I bought a double-bed electric blanket, which we've been using ever since.
One day a couple of weeks ago it suddenly b0rked. Rey's side stopped working altogether; mine started misbehaving. Sometimes it wouldn't work at all, sometimes it would go on but the LCD display wouldn't work, sometimes everything worked. A couple of digital clocks reset at the same time; we assumed there'd been some sort of voltage surge from the mains that had fried the electronic controllers. (In hindsight, not the best explanation.)
When we stripped the bed we found a black scorched mark around the power connection on Rey's side - it had also scorched partway through a mattress protector above it and an underlay below it, but didn't spread beyond that. Dodged a bullet there... as best I can tell, Rey's side must have shorted and THAT would've been the cause of the surge that damaged the other controller and reset the clocks.
By now it'd be well out of warranty and I don't have proof of purchase, so I wouldn't be expecting to get a refund, but this seems like the sort of thing that a five-year-old electric blanket shouldn't be doing, and I'd like to report it somewhere. Problem is, the manufacturer (Mistral) no longer seems to have a contactable Australian presence. Their <a href="http://www.mistral.com.my/cust_care.asp">website</a> boasts "Australian heritage... since 1968" and has pictures of kangaroos, but all the customer care locations listed are in Malaysia.
(While Googling, I discovered <a href="http://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/About_us/News_and_events/Media_releases/2010_media_releases/20100505_check_electric_blankets.html">this recall</a>; our blanket is a 'Linda' SPSLMB-DQ-F, which is not one of the listed models but close.)
So, any idea where we should report this?
One day a couple of weeks ago it suddenly b0rked. Rey's side stopped working altogether; mine started misbehaving. Sometimes it wouldn't work at all, sometimes it would go on but the LCD display wouldn't work, sometimes everything worked. A couple of digital clocks reset at the same time; we assumed there'd been some sort of voltage surge from the mains that had fried the electronic controllers. (In hindsight, not the best explanation.)
When we stripped the bed we found a black scorched mark around the power connection on Rey's side - it had also scorched partway through a mattress protector above it and an underlay below it, but didn't spread beyond that. Dodged a bullet there... as best I can tell, Rey's side must have shorted and THAT would've been the cause of the surge that damaged the other controller and reset the clocks.
By now it'd be well out of warranty and I don't have proof of purchase, so I wouldn't be expecting to get a refund, but this seems like the sort of thing that a five-year-old electric blanket shouldn't be doing, and I'd like to report it somewhere. Problem is, the manufacturer (Mistral) no longer seems to have a contactable Australian presence. Their <a href="http://www.mistral.com.my/cust_care.asp">website</a> boasts "Australian heritage... since 1968" and has pictures of kangaroos, but all the customer care locations listed are in Malaysia.
(While Googling, I discovered <a href="http://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/About_us/News_and_events/Media_releases/2010_media_releases/20100505_check_electric_blankets.html">this recall</a>; our blanket is a 'Linda' SPSLMB-DQ-F, which is not one of the listed models but close.)
So, any idea where we should report this?