A coffee machine exploded in an office injuring its owner and damaging property.
The company concerned denies responsibility and through its lawyer refuses to acknowledge its representatives met the customer to apologise or offer compensation.
Nicholas Sidley, a British quantity surveyor, had an espresso coffee machine. The machine exploded in his office and resulted in permanent scarring of his forehead. Sidley bought the coffee machine at Union Cooperative in Jumeirah for Dh76 and took it to his Jebel Ali office.
He used it for four days without any problem, but on the fifth day the machine took too long to spew coffee and he approached it when it exploded, sending a chip from his coffee mug into his forehead and knocking him over. The rest of the machine hit the false ceiling of his office and brought down a ceiling tile.
A doctor at his office premises stemmed the bleeding from a flap of skin and an ambulance took him to Jebel Ali clinic.
His wife called Union Cooperative the same day and reported the incident. The cooperative told her that someone from the company would call them and that the remaining coffee machines of this model would be taken off the shelves.
A representative of the coffee machine company called and expressed regret. Later company representatives Amitabh Reu, general manager, and Rajashekar Menon, operations manager, met Sidley after repeated calls and letters and admitted verbally that the machine was faulty.
Sidley showed them the exploded machine and they offered to replace it and took the damaged machine saying that they wanted it tested in their own laboratories. They did not give him a receipt. On further enquiry, he was told that the machine had been sent to China, but repeated queries from him have been ignored.
Iqbal Lala of the law firm said that there is no case at all. "There is nothing to link the company with the incident. I have not seen this machine and the company has not taken the machine."
Raj Menon of the coffee machine company, after initially denying to Gulf News that he met the complainant, said that the damaged machine was taken from Sidley by Amitabh, who has now left the company.
Gulf News
