Electrical compliance when selling electrical appliances into Australia

[rock_around_the_block]

Some friendly advice for ebay sellers to the Australian market

Are you aware that it is illegal to sell electrical appliances within Australia that are designed to be plugged into a mains power outlet unless they have an Australian compliant plug correctly fitted to the 240V cable.

Supplying an EU-UK/AUS plug adaptor for Australian consumers is not compliant. If your electrical products are sold bare wired or have an incorrect plug then your company is leaving itself wide open to statutory prosecution and potential litigation if a consumer is injured using an electrically powered product that you sell here.

[red-rum-greg]

I recently got electrocuted from mains voltage from a soldering iron which did not malfunction but was designed very poorly (basically mains attached to a conductive element inside the tip without grounding so my sensitive components were the easiest route to ground and were also destroyed), be very wary of these sorts of

[davewil1964]

---

@red-rum-greg wrote:
I recently got electrocuted from mains voltage from a soldering iron which did not malfunction but was designed very poorly (basically mains attached to a conductive element inside the tip without grounding so my sensitive components were the easiest route to ground and were also destroyed), be very wary of these sorts of

---

No you didn't. If you had been electrocuted you would be dead. What you got was an electric shock which, unless in exceptional circumstances (which this obviously wasn't one of), is not fatal.

Apart from the age of the thread, your hyperbole adds to the irrelevance.

[mark_3691]

This very dangerous situation continues here on ebay.

I recently purchased a media box from a so called top ebay seller ID: REMOVED who operates in Regents Park, Sydney.

The media box came with an overseas two round pin plug. NON Compliant and illegal in Australia. I am still trying to exercise my consumer rights and get this item refunded or fixed.

 If something was to go wrong and someone was injured, or worse, who would be liable for prosecution? The seller for selling non compliant electrical goods? Ebay for allowing these sellers to continue to operate and sell to unsuspecting buyers? Surely someone has to take the reins and weed these unsafe items out of ebay for the safety of buyers.

---

@rock_around_the_block wrote:

Some friendly advice for ebay sellers to the Australian market

Are you aware that it is illegal to sell electrical appliances within Australia that are designed to be plugged into a mains power outlet unless they have an Australian compliant plug correctly fitted to the 240V cable.

Supplying an EU-UK/AUS plug adaptor for Australian consumers is not compliant. If your electrical products are sold bare wired or have an incorrect plug then your company is leaving itself wide open to statutory prosecution and potential litigation if a consumer is injured using an electrically powered product that you sell here.

---

[davewil1964]

The seller is in China. There is a fair bet the goods came from China. The seller has 97% feedback - not good for a volume seller.

I'm not sure what consumer rights you think you have, but they are generally only applicable when you deal with a registered Australian business.

[springyzone]

I clicked on your feedback to see which seller it was.Yes, it is a Chinese seller & from the feedback, it does sound as if other buyers are having similar problems with electrical appliances.

The problem as I see it is that anyone looking at just the ad could be forgiven for thinking they are buying from an Australian seller.

It's true that a lot of our electrical items sold in shops here are made in China anyway but the difference is that at least if you buy in a big store, they'll come with the right plugs etc for Australian conditions & you would expect the same for anything you buy where the product is supposedly located in Australia..

When you're buying an electrical item directly from overseas, it won't necessarily be able to be plugged straight in & it probably won't be as easy to get any warranty honoured.

This feature of having ads that look Australian based but probably aren't needs a shake up. Sure, the info is there but you have to do a little bit of a search which not all buyers would know to do. If you look at sites such as etsy, they do it better, you always know exactly where the seller is located. The location of the seller probably needs to be on the opening page of the ad.

[audistarelectronics]

Talking about the legalities of these electrical fittings, well, as they are out of China, and from Chinese sellers, you won't have any claim on them if there is an injury or death from the use. Unless you have deep pockets. Those adaptor plugs they supply with all their items are downright deadly as they are so flimsy. It is upto the electrical authorities here to outlaw them and anyone caught supplying them from supposedly Aussie sellers, should be hit with the book. But, if they are registered in China, good luck with that. It is then upto the consumer to demand an Aussie plug be fitted to the item from the factory, or no purchase. Sometimes people can be their own worst enemy.

[mark_3691]

Thanks for your support. Great to hear all this advice 

[mark_3691]

I hear what you are saying but what's the point of having all these Australian standards and other regulations if any man and his dog can offload cheap Chinese copied imports to the public under the disguise of compliant and safe electrical products and the Govt departments seem powerless to prosecute offenders.

[lyndal1838]

Anything sold by Australian retailers has to comply with Australian standards....if anything goes wrong with these items you have some comeback.

If you buy from a seller who is based overseas you have no recourse if the items do not comply.  That is why itis important to do your homework....if the seller is registered overseas you can pretty much bet that the items are coming from overseas, no matter what the listing says.

[mark_3691]

I ordered the media box on 26 December, the item was sent via Australia Post on 28 December from Sydney and I recieved the item on 29 December so there was no way it came directly to me from China in a day or so.

Obviously came through an importer in Sydney who I thought was the major person who must comply with AS/NZ Standards on electrical equipment before selling it in Australia. Is this the case or am I wrong?