SPRING Singapore Has Become Hateful

31 March Monday 1:42 pm

To call it SISIR is a disservice to what was once a trusted and trustworthy government body.  SISIR is dead. 

The Singapore Institute of Standards and Industrial Research (SISIR) was killed since 1991.

Back when there was SISIR, their logo on a product was tested proof of quality & safety. You could buy & use a product with ease knowing that SISIR gave its stamp of approval.

Now, the manager at SPRING just sits & takes some thousands dollars worth of salary. So easy to be manager, I can also do it.  Best place to slack is in a government agency/body. 

SPRING Singapore no longer tests products before putting them out for sale. So don't buy a product with the Safety Mark logo.  Ironically.  (Or rather, don't buy the product thinking that it's been tested & safe).

If a safety mark logo has a serial number, it could be real. But SPRING did not test it for safety (let alone quality).

Any testing, if any at all, is left to the "supplier" or brand or "independent" party.  A "registration fee" is paid to SPRING before the Safety Mark can be safely printed on the box & the product can then be put out for sale to unsuspecting consumers.

Look at the stringency of the past SISIR's manual as compared to the slacking at SPRING now.

SPRING Singapore now:

With reference to Toyomi HEPA Vacuum Cleaner. Model number: VC8088HP.   Purchased from Giant Vivocity.

Hot very fast the moment turned on. Heat continued to climb during usage. Had to be switched off every second or so to cool a little. Back filter cover melted within about 10 minutes of use with breaks in between.

Reported it to SPRING asking if the Safety Mark is fake.

10 days after my e-mail, the SPRING manager Daniel Ng finally replied that the model number is not listed in their register.  But not sure without the Safety Mark serial number.  And wanted to know if I had returned the product and been refunded.

(Why? If SPRING had really tested this brand's product & if SPRING's procedures are so stringent, how come they don't know whether the model number is registered with them? And why ask if I had returned the product for refund?)

I supplied the Safety Mark serial number with photos of the product.

Then he says yes, the product is registered with their SPRING.  Since I had returned the product for refund, they will just "follow up with the supplier".

And that's it.

It means SPRING did not test the product. They left it to the "supplier" (Toyomi) to do any testing & then the supplier just pays the "registration fee". 

Certainly, SPRING gave its stamp of approval without testing the product since the product was not even made yet for testing. The box is pre-printed with the Safety Mark logo, means this was done on the production line.  The product was assembled & boxed without testing.

All a supplier has to do, is submit payment for the permission to print the Safety Mark logo.  If "testing" reports are needed, just submit some. Once get the Safety Mark number, just print away on your boxes & sell.

There is no way you can say a product has been tested when the back filter cover melted within just a few minutes of normal use.

[SPRING confirmed they did not test the product but used "an independent and competent testing laboratory".  Clearly not so competent & SPRING has no control over the lab.]