'Haunted house' comes with a spooky surprise: It can catch on fire
Filed under: Recalls, Consumer Ally
It's a spooky looking house/candle holder intended to give you home a little extra Halloween flavor. As it turns out, it could add a bit of fright to the occasion since, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, it can ignite.If you have one of the Haunted House Screen Tea Light Holders sold at Yankee Candle stores nationwide as well as on Yankeecandle.com since August, don't light that match. It turns out that the window panes can catch on fire when the tea light candles are in place. Three fires have been reported.
Yankee Candle, which has no obvious notice on its site that the product has been recalled, lists the product as sold out. The distributor, on the other hand, does note the recall on its site.
The candle holder is made of black metal. The windows have a transparent coating. The fire trap of a haunted house is 15 inches wide, 15 inches high and four inches deep. It can hold up to six tea light candles.
The Chinese-made product was distributed by Coyne's & Company, which said about 7,800 of the little houses are involved in this recall. Consumers are asked to stop using them immediately.
To get a refund, contact Coyne's & Company or Yankee Candle. Consumers who want more information should contact Coyne's at (800) 336-8666 between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. Eastern Time Monday through Thursday or e-mail custserv@coynes.com
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
10-23-2009 @ 9:24PM
AJ said...
I work for YC at a retail store, and we have a recall notice posted about the recall and have called every guest that purchased the house from our store. The reason that the website probably doesn't have a clear recall notice is because the purchasers are being notified personally. If they bought it in a store they are being called by the store, and if they bought online, they are being notified by the online distributor. No biggie. The stores all pulled the product way back in September when YC discovered the problem and notified the maker of the problem, and then the whole recall came about. Guests are being offered a full refund, plus a $10 gift card for their trouble.
YC is trying to make this right, but the article makes it sound like we don't care, so I just wanted to clarify.
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10-23-2009 @ 9:42PM
jay said...
Quit bashing those quality chinese goods! Gosh darn it!
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10-23-2009 @ 10:03PM
JC said...
AJ,
How would the store contact anyone who paid with cash?
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10-24-2009 @ 3:04AM
Jon said...
Is this considered a black eye to the Yankee Candle community?? lol
10-24-2009 @ 7:03PM
AJ said...
YC takes the telephone number of every guest that purchases from them in order to track purchasing and to send out coupons in the mail to the guests (the coupons are sent to the billing address of landlines, if it isn't a landline, then it falls out of the system, but it keeps it for records purposes.) So that's how.
10-23-2009 @ 10:19PM
Tammy said...
Partylite candles are sooooooo much better than Yankee. This would not happen with Partylite products. I've been a consultant for Partylite for 5 months now and know that I'm offering a quality product. Check them out!!! www.partylite.biz/tfields
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10-24-2009 @ 5:30AM
nana said...
do you know that yankee candle and partylites are the same company
10-25-2009 @ 8:37AM
Rita Bolognani said...
Not any more, they cause as much black soot as Yankee. I was a consultant for years and would not burn anything but PartyLite. NOW I no longer burn them. I am tired of cleaning all of MY EXPENSIVE PartyLite holders and walls from the black soot. This is fairly recent too, I don't know what they have changed BUT they aren't any better than the next candle company.
10-23-2009 @ 10:20PM
Masenko said...
A candle... That catches on fire... Who'd have thought?
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10-23-2009 @ 10:42PM
Jen said...
LOL!!
11-12-2009 @ 10:35AM
harude91 said...
It is not the candle that is catching on fire, it is the candle holder that is in the shape of a house.
10-23-2009 @ 11:00PM
eric said...
Wow, did a third grader write this article? Gonna hang this one on the refrigerator Mitch?
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10-24-2009 @ 12:52AM
JL said...
Tammy ,
Yankee Candle did not make this product. It was made by a separate vendor. So it has nothing to do with the quality of the candles! Yankee Candle is by far the superior maker of candles and this incident could have happened to any retailer. They are stepping up and making things right!
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10-24-2009 @ 9:22PM
Patti said...
I would think one could still use it with the little battery operated candles instead of a live flame. You'd get the same effect without the danger.
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10-25-2009 @ 7:36AM
melody said...
STOP BUYING CHINESE GARBAGE, PUT AMERICA BACK TO WORK. I check every product before I buy it and look for American products first. I am so tired of being ripped off buying chinese junk its either tantied with lead or dangerous. It doesn't last, falls apart right away. That is what is killing American jobs and that we hire illegals to work insead of Americans. Do you ever wonder why all our politicians are rich and they never do anything about chinese products killing our kids and pets. Buy local. Look for American made products and do not support slave labor. If our poiticians cared a little bit about US they would not do business with the Chinese because of the poisons and the fact that there products are unsafe and they polute and use slave labor. BUY ONLY AMERICAN MADE PRODUCTS. IF YOU CAN.
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10-25-2009 @ 7:45AM
Andrea said...
I just checked out the Yankee Candle website and tried to find this product listed. It does not even appear on its site. It's as if it doesn't exist... or Yankee Candle wants to make this go away as quickly as possible and fails to even recognize that they ever sold this product.
I think this is shabby on Yankee Candle's part. If I wanted to protect my customers I would give the general public a notice of the recall and do the decent thing and post the recall on the website. This blatant ommission makes me certain I will never purchase any product from this company.
Simply saying "Well, we called everyone that bought one... and we keep phone numbers of all of our customers." makes me think, yeah so? How many people give authentic numbers at the register? How many don't want to be bothered by such matters? What if the buyer moved and changed numbers? Are you sure you contacted them all? Are you sure they listened to the entire message? Did they hear "Hi this is Yankee Candle..." and delete the message? Was there a person to person contact each and every time? Somehow I doubt it...
I'm not impressed by this policy. Not at all. I think by not posting it on the website you are sending a message that you just don't give a wick!
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10-25-2009 @ 8:04AM
Larry said...
WOW, who would have thought - Chinese made products again !!
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10-25-2009 @ 8:46AM
Rita Bolognani said...
Nana:
Yankee and PartyLite are NOT the same company. I would not let either one hear you say that either. LOL They are HUGE COMPETITORS! PartyLite and Colonial Candle were the same candle company, but PartyLite separated from them years ago. I should know the year but I don't remember right now. All three companies, however are located in Mass. Yankee in Deerfield, MA, Colonial and PartyLite are in Plymounth,MA. Just to clarify.
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10-25-2009 @ 9:23AM
John said...
Pray tell, when is this country going to wise up and Ban any imports from China ?We on the Gulf Coast suffered enough from "Katrina" now we are suffering with Dry wall from China. Toys from China are killing our kids.
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10-25-2009 @ 9:11AM
Linda said...
Yep Partylite Candles are way better then Yankee!! Its my understanding that partylite candles are the ONLY candles unsed in the white house as well. Because they burn clean and fragrances are better too.
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