The major problem is that there was supposedly an injury. This will not be dismissed so easily if the customer chooses to push it (at least in the USA).

I can’t see how much of an injury could have occurred, based on the photos. Plastic case is not broken or melted. Some explosion!

 

The polarity is irrelevant. A court would not expect consumers to be experts on the proper installation of consumable parts, and incorrect installation should be expected and accounted for in the design. Failure -- or fire and injury! -- for such mistakes would be the responsibility of the manufacturer.

Then any device with paralleled batteries would have to be outlawed.

 

Then any device with paralleled batteries would have to be outlawed.

I add an mechanical interlock on my designs that prevent electrical contact in the case of reverse polarity.

 

I can’t see how much of an injury could have occurred

burnt my hand and batteries set on fire

You should offer your expertise as an expert witness at trial.

 

I'm no expert, but I wouldn't think that offering a refund without admitting any guilt could hurt a case. It's basically good business to refund any unhappy customer. Maybe he would be willing to send it back too, which would further put the ball in your court. "I'm very sorry that you're unhappy with the product, we would gladly accept it back for a full refund and we will send a pre-paid shipping label to give you the best possible experience", or something like this. No admission of anything, just take it back in the name of making the customer happy. At that point I'm not sure if it's legally advisable to dispose of it ASAP, or hang on to it, but once it's in your possession I would think that makes his brining any case that much more difficult.

This is sound advice to me.
Have the product returned and give them a full refund.

 

As a last resort, claim it was an "Act of God".

 

You should offer your expertise as an expert witness at trial.

The pictures show both batteries intact, with one having evidence of heat damage. No evidence of anything exploding, lots of evidence that there was no explosion. No expert needed.

What do you think happened that could have caused anything beyond a minor burn?

 

The user would have to be a fool to return the device.

 

I'd first web search for the battery because I agree with most of the responders that this amount of wattage output is really odd. You might find that the set that we have here are of the 3 volt variety, though most of those are rechargable, still, it's a good place to start your investigation.

 

The major problem is that there was supposedly an injury. This will not be dismissed so easily if the customer chooses to push it (at least in the USA).

I'm going to guess that without medical bills of some sort to show an injury severe enough to require medical attention, getting a reward large enough to convince a lawyer to take the case for only a cut of the winnings would be difficult. I'm not a legal expert by any stretch, but hopefully any judge with 2 brain cells to rub together could see through such a minor "injury".

 

I've read several amusing Reddit posts where customers threaten a lawsuit over something they were not happy with. Think of an auto repair place and the like.

The response given is typically "have your lawyer contact our lawyer" and refuse any additional contact.

Thus you have called their bluff, or have not provided them any further information to base a case on.

 

Hi All

I sell a few custom controllers on eBay and have just had a customer threaten us with legal action, with the following message:

"You can see below I brought a controller on 25th January 2023, it has stopped working completely and I thought this was due to needed new batteries.


It then started sizzling, melted the back, burnt my hand and batteries set on fire (they were brand new) there is a clear fault with the electrics of this item and I have attached photos below, before I take legal action against you please inform me how you wish to resolve this matter."

Does anyone know with a high degree of certainty what could have caused this?

The only changes I made was with the custom parts, no electronic modding at all.


Any advice would be much appreciated

It's hard to say exactly what could have caused the issue without examining the controller and the components used. However, it's possible that the batteries may have been inserted incorrectly or may not have been the correct type for the controller. It's also possible that there was a wiring issue with the custom parts that caused a short circuit.

Regardless of the cause, it's important to take this matter seriously and work with the customer to resolve the issue in a fair and reasonable way. It may be best to offer a refund or replacement for the faulty controller and apologize for any inconvenience caused.

 

My only thought is I would not replace it if you can help it, try for a 100% refund and move on.

This is now my first number 1 solution as opposed to what I said earlier

Replace the controller

Far easier to refund the money. No shipping charges, no return charges; etc.

 

Strange, never known an Alkaline battery get that hot - the wiring would melt and go o/c long before the cells overheated..

You've all assumed TS is in US, but I'm not so sure... the batteries are ASDA own-brand (a UK supermarket chain once owned by Walmart until late 2020). I doubt these batteries are sold in the US.

 

Far easier to refund the money. No shipping charges, no return charges; etc.

But you want the controller back in your hands, so it's not in his hands anymore. That's one more obstacle for him to file a law suit. IMHO, it's well worth the return shipping to get it back in your hands.

 

This looks to be a case of attempted recharge of alkaline batteries.
Not familiar with Xbox design and it looks like original design only supports a removable rechargable battery.
But then a later/newer version supported charging batteries via controller cable.
But to add more confusion, what I saw said this newer model also supported alkaline. So how circuit
would detect which battery type is installed??? and allow/disallow charging.
I owned a pair of wireless headphones and you had to use AA rechargeable as the base station would charge whatever
battery installed in headphones...
Might want to investigate the operation of the Xbox controller that you cosmetically modified and then sold.

 

I used to recharge "regular" AAA alkaline cells, but at about 1/10 of the amp-hour capacity. They were good for many cycles.

 

I agree with @irvine that they are Asda batteries so it is probably British.
So, the TS is legally responsible as he ”placed the product on the market”, and, as it failed within six months of purchase, is assumed to have been faulty at the date of purchase, so the TS would be required to replace the product or refund the purchaser‘s money, and would be liable for any consequential loss incurred by the purchaser. The purchaser would have to prove the consequential loss.

Does the product have any connectors, into which the customer could have connected the wrong voltage?

If at all possible, see if you can have the product returned for testing/inspection. You would have to prove that the fire was caused by the customer, so legally, you would be entitled to see it before any legal action could proceed.

Product liability insurance is can be obtained for <£50/year so it makes no sense to be without it.

 

Where is the OP? If the customer is in the EU and the OP is in a non-EU country, that's even less to worry about I would think. For such a tiny incident, no one looking to make money from it would go to the extent of hiring international lawyers.

 

He’s barking up the wrong tree. He should be going after the battery supplier.