'I've called Whirlpool 40 times and got nowhere' - BBC News
The Hotpoint and Indesit washing machine recall starts in January, but some customers are still waiting for answers.
Alex Acteson has phoned Whirlpool 40 times on behalf of her mother, Chris, who had a stroke two years ago

Alex Acteson gave up on Whirlpool's website once it buckled under the weight of consumers frantically trying to find out if their washing machine needed to be recalled.

Instead, on behalf of her elderly mother Chris who has a potentially fire-prone washing machine, Ms Acteson rang Whirlpool's helpline.

Forty phone calls later, Ms Acteson is still waiting to get through to Whirlpool. "I'm worried," she said.

Whirlpool - which owns the Hotpoint and Indesit brands - announced on Tuesday it had been forced to recall about 500,000 washing machines built between 2014 and 2018 after discovering some were a fire risk.

Customers were unable to check the safety of their machines online because of technical difficulties. The special recall website crashed immediately and only began working again on Wednesday afternoon.

At the same time, customers have been struggling to get through to the company's helpline.

Whirlpool apologised for the problems and its vice president of communications and public affairs, Jeff Noel, said on Wednesday that the recall was "now up and running".

But Ms Acteson, from Chichester in West Sussex, has been calling the phone line for hours and said she has been "hung up on", "put on hold for 25 minutes", told the phone line doesn't exist or advised to call back via a recorded message.

"They have a duty of care to look after their customers so if they are going to have a recall, at least have the systems in place to be able to have the recall," she said.

The company apologised to customers about the fault on its model checker website

Whirlpool announced on Wednesday that the recall of Hotpoint and Indesit washing machines will start on 9 January

Owners of the affected machines who register on a dedicated website will be asked from that date whether they want a repair or a replacement.

However, that is a long wait for someone like Ms Acteson's mother Chris, who is in her seventies and had a stroke two years ago.

"She doesn't need to be worried about this over Christmas," she said. "And due to the fact that she has had a stroke, things like this do worry her more than probably your average person.

"It is just not acceptable by Whirlpool."

Half a million appliances need to be fixed or replaced as the door locking system can overheat.

Whirlpool said it had recorded 79 incidents in which washing machines had caught fire because of the electronic door.

Whirlpool's Mr Noel said: "It has been an unfortunate situation. It is not the way that any of us would want to start a recall, especially something so important during the holidays.

This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Jeff Noel said recall website was now "up and running"

"But it is such that we have done everything we can to resolve it. We've done everything we can to improve and I'm proud to say that these folks that have worked so hard, that we are up and running."

Whirlpool was already reeling after problems with fire-prone dryers.

It was heavily criticised for its initial response when more than five million tumble dryers, sold over 11 years, were found to be a fire danger. It only launched a full recall for that issue after four years, following an intervention by the regulator.