UPDATE 27th December: Tesco, Argos, John Lewis and Menkind recall products over fears of explosion
John Lewis: Selfy Stick Air Runner (white & black) 893 91901 & 893 91902
Menkind and Red5: Flywheels in black, white and red. Codes 51974, 51976,and 51977 and SmartGlider in “cool white”, “Dazzling red” and “jet black” Codes: 51979, 51980, 51978
Argos: Nevaboard – catalogue code: 455/7669
Tesco: iCandy airboard glider – all models
Trading Standards officers have identified major safety risks with the boards, including issues with the plug, cabling, charger, battery and cut-off switch, meaning they don’t comply with UK or EU standards.
From the 17,000 tested, 15,000 of them were found to be unsafe and were held back however as we all know products do manage to slip through the net of the border agencies + they weren’t actively looking for faulty boards until very recently so thousands of them will be in the country.
Lord Toby Harris, Chair, National Trading Standards, said:
“Our teams at sea ports, postal hubs and airports have seen a significant spike in the number of unsafe ‘hoverboards’ arriving at national entry points in recent weeks and are working around-the-clock to prevent dangerous items from entering the supply chain. Protecting consumers from harm is our top priority and our Safety at Ports and Borders teams are preventing thousands of these unsafe items from being released onto the market every day.
“We suspect that most of these products are being imported for onward sale domestically as Christmas approaches – we urge consumers to be on their guard when purchasing these products and advise you read our product safety checklist to help ensure you are not purchasing a dangerous item.
Both Halfords & Costco have now recalled products.
This isn’t the first time these boards have been in the news, recently we’ve seen many reports of fires being started by these device.
If buying online Trading Standards offer the following advice:
- Try searching for reviews of the product or the seller – do these seem genuine?
- Are there lots of spelling or grammar mistakes on the site? This can be a clue that a business is not professionally run.
- See if you can find out where the company’s head office is based – and whether that fits with how the website presents itself.
- Do they have a landline number you can call if there are any problems? Bear in mind that if the company is based abroad, it can be more difficult to get a complaint dealt with or return a faulty product.
- Read the small print – notice if anything seems odd, repetitive or in incorrect English.
- Is there an ‘s’ at the end of the ‘http’ part of the web address, or is there a padlock symbol in the task bar? This means the website is using an encrypted system that keeps your details more secure.
