Overheating vacuum cleaner cuts out, burns skin

I AM WRITING on behalf of my 90-year-old father who purchased a Genesis 2000W Multi-Cyclonic bagless vacuum cleaner from Verimark at the Game Pavilion on February 10.

My father has three small bedrooms in his home which he vacuums once a week, so the machine has been used about nine times since date of purchase.

On Friday, April 13, while using the machine, it over-heated and cut out. When my mother tried to assist in restarting it, she scorched her hand on touching the unit.

As the machine is clearly faulty, my father and I returned it to Game Pavilion on Sunday, April 15 at about 10.45am, to request his refund.

The Verimark manager was called and told me the machine is designed to cut out when overheating. When I asked how long it should run before this happens, he said he didn’t know and stated the manual says it takes about 15 minutes before cutting out, but we should get at least 45 minutes use out of it before that happens. Incidentally, there is no mention of this in their manual.

The manager connected the machine to the mains, switched it on and ran it for about a minute, declaring the machine was working. I told him that wasn’t my complaint and pointed out he’d only run it for about a minute, which didn’t prove anything. His reply was he’d proved it was working, to which I again mentioned I’d never complained about that and my concern was the severe overheating and cutting out. To this he couldn’t reply.

At this stage my father noticed the machine had already started overheating, which he mentioned to the manager. The manager again said he’d proved the machine was working as it should, which I told him didn’t solve our problem.

As I have never heard such rubbish, I asked him why this was not emphasised in the demonstration and why was it not clearly stated as a warning in the manual. Besides this, why is the machine sold without huge safety warning stickers advising the possibility of burn injuries? Again he just stared at me.

Realising he didn’t want to hear my complaint I again requested my father’s refund, to which he stated he’d proved the machine is working and it wasn’t defective. I again pointed out that wasn’t the reason we’d brought the machine back in the first place.

I realised we had reached an impasse so I allowed it to be booked in for an “assessment”.

As the customer service consultant tried to move the machine off the counter, which stands at about 1.5m high, she dropped it on the floor. When this happened I turned to the manager and said: “I will not accept anything less than a full cash refund for my father, as this action nullified our guarantee.”

I wrote to Verimark on its website on April 16, but haven’t received a response. I’ve now started internet searches on Verimark and see there have been many complaints on Hellopeter about the same thing.

Please assist me on behalf of my father, as I received an SMS today from Game Pavilion stating the machine is ready for collection. I would appreciate you contacting me if you need more clarity. C McGregor

Georgie: I raised the issue with Game, which was unable to respond by my deadline, but last year another customer encountered a similar issue with Tevo staff, who seemed to believe their products were exempt from the Consumer Protection Act. More training is in order.