Mum's concern over Big W earbuds after kids' alarming find: 'Beside myself'
A worried mum has warned against buying Big W's Laser wireless earbuds after her kids witnessed two pairs "smoke" and "melt" while charging.
Jo Meredith, from Tamworth, NSW, said she bought them for two of her six kids, and if she hadn't been home there could have been "life-changing consequences".
The mum of six told Yahoo News Australia that she'd picked one up for her daughter, 11, and son, 9 who both put them on charge when they got home.
But within minutes the charging cords both began smoking causing her daughter to scream.
"When it happened, I was beside myself. I was worried about my kids getting electrocuted," the mum told Yahoo News Australia.
"Easily our house could have burnt down. If we hadn’t noticed it, for sure our house would have gone up".
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Charging cable 'melted' in three places
Photos shared with Yahoo News Australia show one of the charging cable's had melted into three pieces. The other appears to have a significant amount of damage, but both are now unusable.
The power adaptors they were attached to became damaged too, despite both working previously.
Ms Meridith contacted Big W and was told to return them in-store. And despite living 60km from Tamworth, her closest store, she did what they asked.
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Although Ms Meredith was refunded for the earbuds and the damaged adaptors, the worried mum thinks more can be done to help solve the issue.
She claims she was told by the Tamworth store manager that the earbuds are "currently being tested" and that "nothing could be done" until it's completed.
"Big W never did a recall. They never made the public aware of how dangerous these had the potential to be," she said.
"They could have been pulled from the shelves. I would hate to think that somebody else got hurt."
A BIG W spokesperson told Yahoo News Australia the retailer "takes any issues involving customer safety very seriously".
"We have investigated this matter to ensure the products we are providing meet the relevant quality standards.
"In this instance, the products were sent for vigorous testing by the vendor. Following this testing it was confirmed there was no fault to be found and the products are therefore safe to remain on sale at BIG W.
"We encourage our customers to follow instructions when using our products to avoid safety issues. A full refund was provided to this customer."
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