SINGAPORE: A man took to social media on Sunday (April 21) to post a warning after one of the blades on his ceiling fan in his master bedroom flew off last month and landed near the crib where his infant sleeps.
What made the situation worse for Mr Matthew Ong was how the fan’s manufacturer, Fanco, responded to the incident, as Mr Ong felt that the company reacted irresponsibly.
In a post on the Complaint Singapore Facebook page, Mr Ong wrote that the incident occurred on March 30. After moving his three-month-old baby to the next room, he heard a loud crash from the master bedroom.
“I rushed over to check, and realised that one of the fan blades had broken and spun off, hitting the wardrobe and then the wall before landing near my baby’s cot.
Thankfully I had just carried my baby out a few minutes ago and no one was in the room at that time! We were just 1-2 metres away from the crash,” wrote Mr Ong.
He contacted the company on April 1, and the following day, a technician who was supposed to install new fan blades was sent.
However, the technician first took a photo of Mr Ong’s master bedroom, which he then sent to his superior. The latter told Mr Ong that because the fan was “off-centre and too close to (their) wardrobe,” the blade broke off.
This, however, did not make sense to Mr Ong.
While another contractor had installed the fan, it was serviced twice by Franco technicians, neither of whom told Mr Ong “that this ceiling fan in question is ‘not centralised’ and could be hazardous.”
Mr Ong added that the fans in their home have been replaced with KDK brand fans. When the KDK installers came, they said “no” when asked if the fan was too close to the wardrobe.
“… after my experience, I don’t think anyone would want to use a Fanco fan again. That’s why we rejected their replacement fan blade and had asked them to compensate us in cash instead.
Unfortunately, we haven’t heard from them ever since, despite several email chases. We were also unable to reach them via their phone lines.
This goes to show how irresponsible Fanco is,” he wrote, adding, “I hope to share my story to warn other Fanco ceiling fan users that this could happen to them as well.”
The Independent Singapore has contacted Mr Ong and Fanco and will update the story as needed. /TISG
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