BASEC contacting.

[revor]

Have over last 6 weeks or so tried contacting BASEC emailing twice filled in form on line and last attempt tried ringing. Had no response at all. Tried ringing today passed on to message box and told that was full. My query is about foreign cable approval as wanted to know if products from overseas (in this instance China) are approved in UK. BASEC on website list some Chinese companies that are approved but not the one that appears on the lead of a "granny charger" I bought for my EV. Presume BASEC are still going the website seems live anyone know if there is an issue. (Maybe all working from Home ??!!)

 

[binky]

I would be suspicious of any Chinese cable, you don't need BASEC to tell you that

 

[revor]

I would be suspicious of any Chinese cable, you don't need BASEC to tell you that

Yes I agree which is why I was querying it. I bought the charger on line from a British company with made in Britain prominent on its website although did not specifically say the charger was. I genuinely did believe I was buying made in Britain. So was surprised that the cable and probably the charger itself was made in China and whilst a few Chinese manufacturers are listed by BASEC, this one isn't. I recall that probably about 12/15 years ago the market was flooded with cheap cable from China with CSA being below specification and considerable amount was used without knowing where it ended up. Don't know whether there were any resulting failure incidents arising. I am keen to understand how non BASEC approved cable is getting into our system and whether it is controlled or not. Maybe it isn't.

 

[binky]

I am keen to understand how non BASEC approved cable is getting into our system and whether it is controlled or not. Maybe it isn't.

 

[binky]

When I was a lad, a long long time ago, we used to have institutions that regulated and certified products - remember the 'kite mark'. However, these were done away with in the name of progress, in favour of self certification schemes like CE marking. So whilst standards do exist, and many Chinese products do meet requirements, there's no proactive enforcement. It's only when the rose fertiliser hits the fan that anything might happen. Legal liability.lies with the UK importer, so it's up to them to ensure compliance with UK regs. They should be doing regular quality control checks especially if claiming ISO9000 ( or whatever that is today) compliance.

Personally, I would look at the quality of the cable and make my own judgement, and then decide if I want to fit said item ever again.

 

[revor]

Think have sussed the issue. BASEC was acquired by Kiwa UK about a year ago. They are a certification body across a whole range of disciplines. Looking at company house BASEC now only have 2 directors a CEO and CFO. They may not be fully set up yet but a year is a long time and does not look good when on their website they have all these means of communicating with you, but then they do not reply.
As an aside I try to avoid buying China products as we have a £40billion trade deficit with then and don't see why I should contribute to it. I have no truck with the Chinese people have worked with some over the years. I got on with them really well. I think we should have all imported goods labelled with country of origin so we can make an informed choice. Not all goods are so marked and if they are it is not very evident.