Dodgy smoke alarms sold online

[Steve T]

Hi all,

I made the apparent mistake of ordering some aico ei3016 alarms from amazon, I needed them asap for today and amazon just seemed like the easiest option as they were offering prime delivery. The price of them was just over £40 each, so in line with some wholesalers and online wholesalers. Basically no reason to think they would be anything other than a genuine new product.

Today they arrived however as soon as I took the detectors out it was immediately obvious they weren't new, they were scratched up and honestly looked like they'd been rolling about in the back of a van, in a far worse condition than you would expect from an alarm that had maybe been sat on a ceiling for a while then carefully taken down later. However the easi fit bases in the boxes were brand new! Then on inspection of the date stickers they had clearly been tampered with, the corners were peeled up so it was obvious they had been removed from presumably some new alarms (dated 2034) and stuck onto these ones. Also the sticker that normally sits on the side (visible once installed) was not present at all, there was only a sticker on the top of the alarm body, the side you don't see once installed.

So I can only think either someone less than honest had ordered some new alarms from the seller and put their old alarms back in the box and swapped date stickers and then returned them for a refund essentially getting 3 free new alarms. Or the seller themselves is dishonest. Either way it is quite concerning as they're safety devices, if someone else had ordered them and not looked at them carefully they may well have installed them thinking they were getting brand new ones with 10 years life. Is this the sort of thing worth reporting to trading standards? As a bare minimum I'll be returning for a refund and buying elsewhere.

Cheers for any replies!

 

[littlespark]

You might want to change the title to “dodgy seller” it’s not aico that is at fault here.

Were they marked as new or used? If new… then yes, trading standards should be involved, and at a minimum reported to Amazon.

 

[Steve T]

You might want to change the title to “dodgy seller” it’s not aico that is at fault here.

Were they marked as new or used? If new… then yes, trading standards should be involved, and at a minimum reported to Amazon.

Fair point I will alter the title don't want to throw shade at aico their gear is top notch.

Yes marketed as brand new with a 2034 expiry date as you'd expect from a new alarm. It was the swapping of date stickers I was most concerned about as thats just plain fraudulent. Just looked at the seller reviews for the alarms I ordered and there are 2 other reviews reporting a similar experience to mine so I will definitely report it, once could be a genuine mistake (ie customer being cheeky returning used alarms) but 3 times sounds suspicious.

 

[SparkyChick]

If I was at all cynical, I might be inclined to think they could be from someone working for a housing association (or a contractor for such an organisation) who is changing a lot of them all of the time... and who might be making a fast buck by selling the old alarms.

If they are Audiolink capable alarms (I think the majority of the E3xxx alarms are these days), you could perhaps extract serial numbers from them and perhaps have a conversation with AICO about it... maybe find out who they were sold to. A bit of effort, but someone is, as you've highlighted, committing fraud.

 

[James]

If I was at all cynical, I might be inclined to think they could be from someone working for a housing association (or a contractor for such an organisation) who is changing a lot of them all of the time... and who might be making a fast buck by selling the old alarms.

If they are Audiolink capable alarms (I think the majority of the E3xxx alarms are these days), you could perhaps extract serial numbers from them and perhaps have a conversation with AICO about it... maybe find out who they were sold to. A bit of effort, but someone is, as you've highlighted, committing fraud.

if you cant extract the real serial numbers from them, perhaps returning them to AICO would give them the information required to prosecute, if indeed they are being sold as new.

 

[Steve T]

If I was at all cynical, I might be inclined to think they could be from someone working for a housing association (or a contractor for such an organisation) who is changing a lot of them all of the time... and who might be making a fast buck by selling the old alarms.

If they are Audiolink capable alarms (I think the majority of the E3xxx alarms are these days), you could perhaps extract serial numbers from them and perhaps have a conversation with AICO about it... maybe find out who they were sold to. A bit of effort, but someone is, as you've highlighted, committing fraud.

That explanation would make a lot of sense and would certainly explain the new bases and new boxes, with old relabelled alarm heads. I do remember the date label on the box and the one stuck on the old alarms matched. I'll have to see if there are any original serial numbers on the alarm heads. I will see if I can get in touch with AICO, I haven't sent the alarms back yet as I thought I'd best keep them to report to trading standards so hopefully at least the seller will be shut down.

Fairly unsurprisingly amazon don't seem too bothered and and also refused to post my review on the site as I had used the word 'seller' which apparently you aren't allowed to say in reviews.

I certainly wasn't ever in the habit of ordering things like smoke alarms from amazon and won't be repeating it either, was just a one off really for weekend delivery!