Federal Consumer Affairs Minister Bruce Billson has asked the consumer watchdog to investigate the "ineffective" recall of faulty Samsung washing machines which have sparked three house fires in NSW this week alone.
Samsung confirmed on Thursday that 83,686 recalled machines out of nearly 150,000 sold across Australia were yet to be serviced to fix a water leakage fault which can cause electrical fires, despite the recall being in place for more than two years.
The company was aware of 181 "incidents" in Australia involving the recalled models, including overheating, smoking or catching fire, since the recall was issued in April 2013.
However, Fairfax Media believes these incidents may be under-reported, as many fire and emergency services do not record details of the brand of appliance that causes an electrical fire.
Fire & Rescue NSW has recorded 20 fires across the state since the recall, with the latest occurring about 9am on Friday, at a unit in St Marys, in Sydney's west.
There were two more NSW fires on Wednesday: one in Corlette, near Port Stephens, and another in Granville.
After talks with Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Rod Sims on Friday, Mr Billson asked the ACCC to liaise with state fair trading agencies to assess the effectiveness of the recall.
"I have also sought to determine what additional steps are required to make sure the recall is effectively implemented for consumers with the potentially risky product," Mr Billson said.
"I've been concerned by reports that the recall process ... has been ineffective in alerting tens of thousands of consumers to their potentially risky appliances."
Mr Billson said Samsung had "rightly instigated and managed" the recall.
Tom Godfrey, from consumer group CHOICE, called for Samsung to release its product recall strategy "so consumers know exactly what the company has committed to do to ensure these potential lethal appliances are out of our homes".
NSW Fair Trading has been managing the recall with Samsung on behalf of all state and territory electrical safety regulators, as NSW approved the machines for nationwide sale in the first place.
A spokesperson for the ACCC, which has over-arching regulatory responsibility for product safety recalls, said its role in the recall had been to support the efforts of NSW Fair Trading by promoting the recall at recalls.gov.au.
"We will continue to liaise with the NSW government to monitor the level of effectiveness of the recall," the spokesperson said, adding that the commission was "very concerned about the safety of consumers" who may still be using the recalled machines.
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A Fair Trading NSW spokesperson said it believed Samsung had made "genuine repeated efforts to alert and contact consumers" about the recall.
This included placing newspaper advertisements, issuing media releases, contacting partner retailers to obtain customer details to contact them directly and a letter-box drop.
However, Fairfax Media is aware of numerous customers who purchased the faulty Samsung washing machines who were never contacted directly by their retailer or by Samsung after the recall, despite their retailer having their contact details on file.
Some customers have also claimed that even after contractors performed a service on their recalled machine on behalf of Samsung to rectify the fault, the machines still burned up.
Monitoring of secondhand sales of the recalled machines also appears lax.
Five affected Samsung washing machines were advertised for sale at the time of writing on eBay and Gumtree.
Two of the advertisements were published following prominent media coverage of the issue in major news outlets on Thursday. None of the advertisements mentioned the recall.
Samsung confirmed one of the advertised machines had been serviced, but could not confirm if it considered the other four units to be safe.
In a statement to Fairfax Media, Samsung said it had alerted eBay and Gumtree about the product recall in 2013.
It said it contacted consumers through reseller websites "on a case-by-case basis".
A Gumtree spokesperson said it was up to buyers to research products online before making a purchase - eBay was also contacted for comment.
For general updates on product recalls consumers should check recalls.gov.au and register for the ACCC's free product recall alerts.
Consumers who are concerned about their machine should contact Samsung's Product Safety Hotline on 1800 239 655 to arrange the free in-home service.
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