Friday, June 26, 2015

Safety Matches are not safe

Safety Matches are not safe

Quality of Homelites matches marketed by leading company WIMCO, when it was introduced years ago, was good. Now the material supplied (manufactured by Sri Sathuragiri Match Company, Karisalpatti, Tamilnadu and marketed by Wimco is utterly unsatisfactory.

The sticks are not Karborised. It is a lie. The sticks are of very poor quality, have cracks. The fire spreads wide burning more than half the length of the stick very rapidly; sparks fly at random, landing on body parts, clothes etc. Today, a small spark (it is not just a spark - it has mass - shot into my daughter's nose!! I got my lungi burnt while using your sticks. If the quality is good and if it is karborised, this must not happen. 

The match head composition is also bad. The quantity is not uniform across match sticks. In many cases is just a spec – no mass. The composition is brittle, does not stick to the tip. On striking the match head, unsafe occurrences happen. To light one candle / wick one has to use two or more sticks.

Price wise also WIMCO is costly. For 180 sticks the price is Rs 6.00 (3.3p per stick); similar matches from competitors, say for example ROSE from Parasakthi Match Works Kovilpatti 628501 TN, costs Rs 5.00 for 240 sticks (2.08p per stick).

I sent a complaint via email to WIMCO in December 2014. Some representative from the manufacturing unit in Sivakasi rang up, heard my story and hung up. No feedback. They have not withdrawn the stocks nor have they initiated any measures to control or improve the quality.

Should WIMCO stoop to this level of cheating? What are their QC guys doing? Is it their contention that the public won’t complain or quarrel about something so cheap an item like matches? Looking at Safety angle they are marvelously careless.

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The problem continues even now in June 2015. Even today, I escaped burns on my clothes due to lit match head flying off.  

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