back to article EE recalls all 'Power Bar' USB batteries due to 'fire safety risk'

British carrier EE has issued a recall for all “Power Bars”, the company's name for external USB batteries. The company had already recalled 500,000 of the devices, after being warned by The Register they posed a safety risk. The Register subsequently reported that the devices appear not to comply with European safety …

  1. Roq D. Kasba

    Shame, really

    It was a nice idea and the fact you could swap them for a charged replacement at any store was an innovative solution to the problem of low battery life on smartphone. Unlucky, EE, good attempt and shame it backfired.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    Money back?

    Surely if EE are saying the batteries are too risky to use they should be offering a 'no questions asked' refund of the retail value of the item?

    1. death&taxes

      Re: Money back?

      Which was exactly zero of your english pounds.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Money back?

        Zero? It wasn't clear from the article: I assume you mean that EE had given them away, not sold them?

        1. the spectacularly refined chap

          Re: Money back?

          Zero? It wasn't clear from the article: I assume you mean that EE had given them away, not sold them?

          It was a service, and a free one at that. Customers never owned their equipment, it was merely on loan while that service was in use. If e.g. British Gas cut you off for safety reasons would you expect them to "refund" you £x billion to build your own network in its place?

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Money back?

            A Service? Weirder and weirder.

            So anyway - the batteries were free and EE are being rather nice about giving people £20 vouchers. Got it.

            1. Danny 14

              Re: Money back?

              The EE powerbar was a free (I think you needed to send a text to order one that cost "something" - about 30p ish) service even for PAYG. You got a 2600mah pack and could swap it in a store.

              So effectively if you got one you have a £20 voucher for your troubles.

          2. Roland6 Silver badge

            Re: Money back?

            It was a service, and a free one at that.

            No it had a price, namely £20 pa. If however you were an EE customer (home phone/broadband, mobile PAYG/PAYM), EE invited you to enrol for free, however if you lost a powerbar then a £20 charge became payable. If you terminated your agreement you were expected to return the powerbar or start paying £20 pa for the service.

            So effectively EE had decided to give it's customers a £20 reward. The shame is that the powerbar service probably represented much better value than a £20 discount voucher.

        2. anothercynic Silver badge

          Re: Money back?

          They did, yes. If you sent a text message to a short code, you got a code you could redeem in an EE shop for one of these Power Bars. I have one of those. I suppose I should take mine back...

      2. Soruk

        Re: Money back?

        35p, IIRC. The text wasn't free, it was a reverse-charge premium rate text to get a code to get the thing.

        So, not free.

    2. mr_souter_Working

      Re: Money back?

      they gave the power bars free to all customers that wanted them - so what money should they be giving back?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        @<everyone above> - Re: Money back?

        Thanks for enlightening me. Neither the article nor the linked EE notice made any mention of it being a free service. Hence my comment.

        On the face of it, it is rather decent of EE to give the £20 vouchers out.

  3. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. death&taxes
      Thumb Down

      Re: Screw that. Cough up the refund.

      Just imagine if you'd spent just 10 seconds of your valuable time doing some basic research on the story instead of creating an invective stream you could have saved yourself getting so worked up.

      They were given away free.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Screw that. Cough up the refund.

        Just imagine if you'd spent just 10 seconds of your valuable time doing some basic research on the story instead of creating an invective stream

        Where would the fun be in that? I preferred the glorious invective to cold, dull logic.

        1. Admiral Grace Hopper

          Re: Screw that. Cough up the refund.

          Where would the fun be in that? I preferred the glorious invective to cold, dull logic.

          Yes, bringing facts to a rant fight is always a downer.

    2. mr_souter_Working

      Re: Screw that. Cough up the refund.

      you do realise that EE are under no obligation to give a refund for an item that they gave all of their customers FOR FREE!!!

      they do not even have to give any credit - they are actually being pretty good about it - although I have 2 of the power bars (one from my own phone when I was an EE customer, and one from my work phone) - I can return both, but would only be eligible for a single £20 voucher - as I am no longer an EE customer (the offer only applies to 'eligible customers')

      and then I would struggle to buy anything with it - as my company is the customer, not me - bit of a lost opportunity, unless you can use the voucher in store

    3. Dabooka
      Stop

      Re: Screw that. Cough up the refund.

      Swing and a miss

    4. anothercynic Silver badge

      Re: Screw that. Cough up the refund.

      Ranty ranty ranty. Done? Here's your dummy. :-D

    5. Shadow Systems

      To my down voters.

      As mentioned above, neither the article nor EE's link made it clear that the PowerBar was effectively free. Not being on that side of The Pond & unaware of how the device was marketed, I naturally assumed it to have been a purchased rather than given away arrangement.

      Thank you for the down votes, it just goes to show how an unclear article can lead to incorrectly reached assumptions ("Never assume. It just makes an ass out of you and me.") and kneejerk down votes.

      1. death&taxes
        FAIL

        Re: To my down voters.

        "Not being on that side of The Pond & unaware of how the device was marketed, I naturally assumed..."

        ... that a massively exaggerated over-the-top reaction on a topic of which you clearly had no knowledge, and which had zero impact on your life, was appropriate.

        And now you want to blame the article, and winge about (totally justified) downvotes.

        On the up-side at least you'll think twice next time.

        It's a shame you don't have the balls to leave your original comment up - it would serve well as a salutary lesson to others.

  4. Phil O'Sophical Silver badge

    Is this just the ones supplied by EE or should all such devices be treated with suspicion? A year or two ago they were popular freebie conference giveaways, and so probably made by the lowest bidder.

    1. Suricou Raven

      Li-ion batteries are something easy to get wrong. Competition between manufacturers is intense, margins thin. Shoddy construction is a common occurrence, and any breach within the cell that links anode and cathode - however tiny - will rapidly lead to thermal runaway ending in fire and/or explosion. One of the several issues with the Hoverboards recently was traced to very low-quality batteries prone to spontaneous fire in this manner, and given fake Samsung labels. Counterfeits.

      1. Anna Logg

        @Suricou

        Spot on, don't know how on earth you've attracted a downvote???????

      2. Roland6 Silver badge

        Re: Hoverboards

        My first thought was whether the problems being encountered with the hoverboards, namely very poor quality charging circuitry not only in 'questionably' cheap units but also in versions carrying the CE safety test mark has lead EE to rethink its previous decision.

        It would seem that there are significant quality problems with some electrical products coming out of China and that just because a product carries the CE mark, doesn't actually mean it is safe. The obvious implications for this is that we may see companies looking to bring manufacturing back on-shore.

    2. Necronomnomnomicon

      I got a fair few in the last year

      and all of them seem to have stopped working within their first charge or so. I liked the idea though, so I bought a nice Anker one that was on offer on Amazon and can keep my phone going for the best part of a week.

  5. frank ly

    You know you've been warned ....

    "... after being The Register warned ..."

    .... when you've been The Register warned.

    1. Dabooka
      FAIL

      Re: You know you've been warned ....

      Standards are falling that's for sure

      1. Vic
        Trollface

        Re: You know you've been warned ....

        Standards are falling that's for sure

        Have we recently lost an editor or something?

        Vic.

  6. andy 28

    balls of fire

    crumbs, hope my pot noodle branded energy bar doesn't melt down and turn into Bombay Bad Boy

  7. muddysteve

    I think EE are behaving well.

    They gave the power bars away, and are then recalling them when there has been a fault found. They are then giving you £20-worth of accessories for your inconvenience. Sounds fair enough to me. I have no connection with EE.

    1. Terry 6 Silver badge

      Re: I think EE are behaving well.

      So do I*

      They gave them away free. They don't work. They are replacing them with a £20 voucher.

      *However, there's a question worth asking about whether perhaps the marketing bods decided or were made to skimp on the budget for these jobbies.

    2. We're with Steve
      FAIL

      Re: I think EE are behaving well.

      Well, I was one of the people in the first round of recalls and by the time something worth having in their online store was in stock someone else had "used" my voucher.

      Making the redemption code on a £20 voucher the same as your telephone number and not throttling the number of attempts to enter a voucher code on your website is just proof that Marketing don't get IT security.

      Didn't bother to complain, Power Bar was free and all the stuff in their store is overpriced sh*te.

      1. Richard_L

        Re: I think EE are behaving well.

        I'll keep mine and take my chances...

        There's no way in hell that powerbar was ever 'worth' £20 in the first place - even before they decided to cut so many corners in its design and manufacture that they're now having to undertake a complete product recall. So I won't be too upset about not receiving a £20 voucher.

        There's absolutely nothing priced at or under £20 in the crummy EE accessories store that I want to buy and just like the powerbar, everything in the store that's for sale for £20 looks like it should only reasonably cost £10 anyway.

        1. Jason Bloomberg Silver badge
          Mushroom

          Re: I think EE are behaving well.

          I'll keep mine and take my chances...

          Did you read the T&Cs when you got your power bar? I believe you will find it is not yours to keep; it was a "free hire" service and it remains their property. I believe it has to be returned upon request, has to be returned after 18 months anyway, and you agreed that penalties can be applied if the T&Cs are breached.

          You can take your chances, but is it worth it, and do you trust them not to make your life difficult, cancel your contract, start court proceedings, or engage in other nonsense, when you have breached the T&Cs?

          I decided the offer simply wasn't worth it given the very low cost of similar high street products which I could own outright and do whatever I wanted with, lose, break or damage without fear of retribution.

        2. Roland6 Silver badge

          Re: I think EE are behaving well.

          There's no way in hell that powerbar was ever 'worth' £20 in the first place

          That was because you were effectively buying a service, namely: you take a discharged powerbar into any EE shop and exchange it for a fully charged one without a limit on the number of times you could this.

          they decided to cut so many corners in its design and manufacture

          Is there evidence of positive intent by EE or just bad luck in not spending enough on supplier due diligence and QA? Given the quantity EE would of been ordering and the envisaged use, there should of been little real incentive for EE to specify cheap devices that would fail within a very short period of time.

  8. Mage Silver badge

    The Elephant in the room

    Phones are too skinny, batteries too small for the consumption. My phone used to last all week.

    I'd happily have a phone twice as thick as my Sony Xperia Z1 if the extra space was all battery.

  9. mylittlepony

    EE managing the situation

    I had 3 of the first wave, one did get hot on its first charge. Took them all back to the shop, got one £20 voucher as the other 2 "weren't on the system"..... Didn't spend the voucher, twas all junk on offer really. A month later I get a marketing-head letter asking about the other 2 "Our records indicate...blah"

    Given the small print says I get charged if they don't return to them after 18 months, I wonder which set of records will EE use....

    1. gazthejourno (Written by Reg staff)

      Re: EE managing the situation

      Regarding the small print - could you forward us a copy of that? news@theregister.co.uk

      1. Jason Bloomberg Silver badge

        Re: EE managing the situation

        Original T&Cs; "the small print" ...

        https://ee.co.uk/content/dam/ee-help/Help-PDFs/EE Power_terms and conditions_300315.pdf

        Section 2.3 for the 18 months period.

        1. roytrubshaw
          Pint

          Re: EE managing the situation

          "Section 2.3 for the 18 months period."

          My wife spotted this and when she returned the power bar (as part of the first 50,000 recall) she suggested that they could highlight this particular condition to the next wave of punters claiming their free power bars. The manager was very surprised about the 18-month time limit as neither he - nor any of his staff - were aware of the actual Ts & Cs.

          On the plus side we did get two £20 vouchers as she returned her mother's power bar at the same time.

          It's just a pity that EE's accessory shop/site is both dire and over-priced.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Product liability laws?

    Armchair lawyers of the UK, put the Consumer Protection laws aside (maybe even the ones that say "a service must be delivered with reasonable care and skill", which seems to have been missing here since the early days when these things allegedly weren't even CE marked????).

    What can Product Liability laws bring to the table here? And why aren't they being invoked?

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I know these bars were free but it's amazing when we are told to not buy fake electronics goods like cheap mobile chargers because of fire, explosions, electrocution, etc. Then multi million turnover firms like EE send out gear like this.

  12. ukgnome

    Shocking

  13. D@v3

    Free? Not all of them

    I have never been a customer of EE but i picked up one of these (branded) bars in association with a well known music festival. The deal was, you give us £20, we send you a bar. For the duration of the festival, you can walk up to one of our stands and swap a dead bar for a charged bar. At the end of the festival, you keep the bar you have.

    I would expect there are a fair few of those knocking around, as the charge 'n' swap shacks always seemed to be pretty popular

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