Sunbeam Australia today asked Appliance Retailer to publish the following statement in response to a negative story that appeared this week:
Sunbeam Australia wishes to assure its customers of its most rigorous safety standards and correct and clarify information that was stated within this story.
The story featured a range of products listed as “recent recalls” which included an image of a Sunbeam Electric Blanket with the words “recalled” in red across the product.
This voluntary recall was in fact undertaken by Sunbeam almost 10 years ago — in 2003 — in response to a potential heat controller fault in one of its electric blanket products. At the time, Sunbeam was praised by the Office of Fair Trading for its proactive action on this matter.
The heat controllers in the previous model of Electric Blankets have not been produced by Sunbeam since 2001-02 and Sunbeam has had no other recalls on electric blankets since this time.
Relative to the story, Sunbeam wish to highlight the following:
– No research or contact was made by producers with Sunbeam directly or through Sunbeam’s PR agency relative to this story or to any other products.
– The story stated the product was a “recent recall”. More than 10 years ago does not constitute “recent” and is misleading to consumers.
– The heat controllers in the previous model of Electric Blankets have not been produced since 2001-02.
– Sunbeam has had no other recalls of electric blankets since this recall.
– The story did not highlight this was a voluntary recall. This was a company initiated action and was praised at the time by key authorities.
– Sunbeam’s rigorous safety standards are among the highest in the world and its Electric Blankets carry exclusive SleepPerfect technology featuring nine levels of safety protection.