UK’s largest mobile network happens to be EE, where they have more than 27 million customers, and it was earlier this year that the company figured out it would be a nice gesture to offer their customers a free Power Bar portable phone charger. This Power Bar was supposedly able to offer up to 2,600mAh of portable juice while you are on the move, and should you run out of juice on the Power Bar itself while you are outside, you can always bring it to the closest EE store in the vicinity to swap it for a fully-charged one. It looks like things are not all that rosy after all, as EE has issued a recall for some of these free Power Bars, citing isolated overheating incidents as the reason.
In one of the incidents, a 26-year-old woman suffered from burns as her Power Bar ‘exploded’, resulting in a fire at her house. According to EE at that point in time, this particular issue affected only one production batch, where they also mentioned that they had not come across “any issues of overheating with other batches and they meet all safety standards”.
EE has since changed their tune, mentioning that there had been “a very small number of further incidents where Power Bars have overheated in circumstances that could cause a fire safety risk”, and hence proceeded with a full, voluntary recall of all the fre Power Bars. Customers who return their Power Bars to the nearest EE center will be able to enjoy a £20 voucher which can then be used to redeem at accessories at EE’s online site. [Press Release]
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