I need advice on a serious issue. I am selling an electric product following UKCA|CE standards from a few months. Recently, I have received two complaints of the product “catching fire”. Its a PL product and only about 200units in stock.
But I am more concerned about an upcoming similar product (I have bought bulk of it) and its on the way to Amazon warehouse.
Please note I am using the same supplier from last 3years. Supplier is authentic and have all the required certificates of CE and UKCA. Further, product is a high seller with monthly unit sales of 1000+.
This is the first time buying and selling electric product. My all other products are non-electric.
Clearly, this is a potentially very serious issue.
As it is PL, you are 100% responsible for the item’s safety. What steps have you taken to ensure safety? Have you just taken the Chinese (I assume) manufacturer’s word for it and the Chinese certification or have you made additional steps yourself, for example, having a sample tested in a reputable UK lab.
What manufacturing agreement do you have with the manufacturer?
Is your product liability insurance adequate? Remember that you are 100% responsible for the safety of the product, not the manufacturer.
Since receiving the complaints, what have you done to investigate them and to re-assure yourself of the product’s safety?
I always avoided electronics. By the way, do you have liability insurance?
I would recommend sending the old and new products to an independent company to test them. How did you pay the supplier? Do you have any recall, if paid through Alibaba you might have some chance of getting money back for the new order, not sure but worth a try if you can prove they are faulty.
Stop selling the product and investigate, if you need to recall the product then do so, properly inform the supplier about the incident then have the new product to be tested first, communicate with the customers.