Despite an expensive voluntary recall of faulty single module RCBO circuit breakers in 2012, Hager Electro has since seen a doubling of sales for the product category

Hager Electro insisted on the voluntary recall for community safety and preservation of its reputation in the market despite the ACCC not mandating the company to do so due to the relatively small number of the faulty product (0.15%).

Hager Electro managing director Ross Magee, said despite the recall Hager has still been performing well.

“As a company, we communicated the recall extremely well to the market, especially to our wholesale partners. We also committed to compensating contractors fairly for replacing potentially faulty devices.”

“As a result, we’ve seen a recall return rate of 23% in Australia and 32% in New Zealand, which is two and a half times the best rates of return seen in the industry’s history.

“While we’re happy with this result, we’d like to do a lot better and are reminding wholesalers and electricians that the recall is still open and they should be on the lookout for any of the old,faulty product. Our hotline and online registry are still open. We’d like to see a return of above 40% in both Australia and New Zealand.”

Ross says while feedback from customers on the recall had been very positive, the bump in market share could also be attributed to the release of the next generation of products.

“We have replaced the potentially faulty circuit breakers with a new range of products that are not only safer, but also 10 times faster to install when utilising our unique OneKonekt system.”

“We’re known in the market for our quality and integrity. This is perhaps in stark contrast to a flood of cheap products in the market that aren’t even meeting basic safety standards. By and large, the industry’s self-policing regulatory system doesn’t seem to be working.This is a systemic problem and it needs to be addressed.”

Discovery of one of the products affected by the recall (installed or in stock) requires the unit to be:

• Replaced with a compliant RCBO
• Registered (Please visit: http://www.hagerelectro.com.au/downloads-services-support/electrical-safety-recall/6862.htm)
• Returned to Hager
• You can also call Hager Electro’s dedicated recall hotline on 1300 786 685.