Amazon wants United Kingdom customers to chuck hazardous hoverboards

Amazon is asking customers who bought the “hoverboards” to take them to a local recycling point for electronic equipment.

It advised customers to dispose of their product at a centre registered to recycle electrical items “as soon as possible”, and said a refund was being automatically processed. Many other retailers, including Target, have also stopped selling most hoverboards, and many airlines no longer allow them on planes. Those that purchased them will get an automatic refund in three days.

Amazon has already stopped selling hoverboards from companies that it believes don’t comply with adequate safety standards, it’s checking their scooters to see if they are compliant with best practices, many companies selling hoverboards have already seen their products being removed from Amazon.

The motorized scooters known as “hoverboards” are coming under greater scrutiny from government regulators, fire safety officials, and retailers over concerns that their batteries easily catch fire.

A spokesman for National Trading Standards said that of over 38,000 devices inspected between 15 October and the end of last week, more than 32,000 were deemed unsafe.

Watchdog the Retail Ombudsman urged businesses to remove the unsafe hoverboards from sale and warned they could be “held liable for any injuries caused by unsafe goods”.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is also investigating at least 11 reports of hoverboard fires in 10 states, including California. “As safety is always on the forefront for Swagway, we’re glad that this is taking place, especially in light of recent concerns with the fires with the poor quality batteries”.

The odd rise of the “hoverboard” and why you shouldn’t ride them through traffic. This was mainly down to them having non-compliant plugs without fuses which could lead to the product overheating, exploding or catching fire.

If you’ve bought one from Tesco, John Lewis and Argos, you should contact the retailers about your particular hoverboard as only certain brands are being withdrawn from those stores.

The South Bend, Ind.-based company said the notice went out to all hoverboard sellers and that Swagway already meets all of those requirements and has sent the requested information to Amazon.