Hundreds Recruited To Tackle Dryer Fault

Whirlpool (NYSE: WHR - news) says it has recruited 650 extra staff to deal with a safety recall involving millions of fire-risk tumble dryers, that owners have been warned could take until next January.

The company has contacted 3.4 million customers since identifying the potential concern with two types of tumble dryers manufactured between April 2004 and September 2015.

It (Other OTC: ITGL - news) is offering repairs or money off a replacement - though owners may have to wait until January next year, 10 months from now, and some 14 months since the initial product alert last November.

In an effort to reach customers more quickly, Whirlpool have recruited and trained 350 more call centre employees and 300 additional engineers to deal with the safety recall involving the Hotpoint, Indesit and Creda brands.

In a statement, the company said: "The scale of this modification programme is considerable and we know our customers are experiencing longer wait times than we would like.

"We apologise for this inconvenience and are working hard to improve our response times."

Customers currently have to wait about 10 weeks to be scheduled for a modification date, but that could be as far away as January 2017, Whirlpool said.

"However, we are confident that this timeline will be reduced as we continue to recruit more engineers and increase the resourcing of our call centre," it added.

In the meantime, the company is advising that people can continue to use their products "provided that appliances are not left unattended whilst operating."