SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Fire / ignition

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20220506-D6407-2147356328. Severity: Incident, No Injury. Product: proctor/silex PSCMV807BK07 (I have previously described the product in detail.). Incident: I purchased online from Target on May 3rd 2022 for a 90-year old friend a Proctor/silex microwave oven model PSCMV807BKO7. The order number was [REDACTED]. It was delivered to the friend's address on Thursday, May 5th. I went over her house to set the microwave up. When I plugged it in it immediately turned on and pressing the Stop/Cancel bottom did not stop it. I plugged it in several times and each time it turned on without my pressing any buttons and could not be turned off without unplugging it. I therefore concluded the product was dangerously defective and I called the proctor/silex customer support number, 800-267-6419, to report it. However the person answering the phone did not speak adequate English to communicate effectively. I called again and spoke to another person with the same result. There is little doubt that had my 90 year old friend, who has hearing issues, had to set the microwave up she would not have realized the the unit turned on upon plugging it in and could not be turned off. She may well have gone to bed in the other room only to wake up, if at all, to a fire in the kitchen. Since she lives in an old age home with 400 other residents this could have resulted in a tragic loss of life and destruction of property. I put the unit back in its box and put it outside my friend's door. Today, Friday, May 5th, I went to the returns desk at Target store [REDACTED] and asked to speak to the store manager. I told him the situation and asked him to send someone to pick up this dangerous defective microwave immediately, since there were many other microwaves o