Reports by Consumers

At this point a full product recall, including dry food should be in order. I don't know about you, but as a pet owner I was highly disturbed by news that animals were dying from rat poison laced wet products. Why take the chance!

I read that Maytag recalled 2.3 million dishwashers. Wow.

Segway Inc., in cooperation with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and other regulatory agencies outside of the U.S., today initiated a voluntary product recall to upgrade the software in Segway® Personal Transporters (PTs). Segway PT owners should contact the company at 800-750-6557 between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday, or visit http://www.segway.com to register for a free software upgrade. No hardware changes are required. Owners outside the U.S. should contact the Segway authorized distributor in their country to learn how to obtain the free software upgrade.

Can you imagine the "product recall" scenario in this case ? This would be huge in Belgium where last year in May more than 600.000 e-ID cards had been distributed.

Having just turned two years old, my Nikon D70 camera now seems to be suffering from the affliction known to other Nikon D70 owners as BGLoD - the Blinking Green Light of Death. Apparently, early model D70’s suffer from a problem which, although known to Nikon, hasn’t caused them to issue a product recall notice (as they did with dodgy batteries).

Sanofi-aventis, the manufacturers of Clexane Syringes, yesterday announced a product recall after it emerged that some syringes may contain an over-concentration of the active medicinal substance, enoxaparin, which is injected to thin the blood.

Regarding the Matsushita problem, however, I felt their response was very thorough, especially compared to the recent problems with Mitsubishi truck wheels falling off, and if anything too thorough, as for a month they pulled all their TV advertising and replaced them with simple information spots about the product recall, manned almost every kerosene stand with employees to ask purchasers if they have a National Fan Heater, and had leaflets distributed with everyone’s gas bill.

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission along with Hewlett Packard has issued a product recall on 135,000 batteries - 50,000 of which have been sold outside the US - for a range of Compaq and HP badged notebooks.

Indeed, bad products will be developed and customers will be hurt but by having a robust product recall strategy, a company will do just fine. But by fighting a war with people who used to be one-time customers of Merck, the company is merely setting itself up for eventual destruction.

Wedbush Morgan Securities’ outspoken Michael Pachter was more critical in his reaction. “We are disappointed that this type of content was included in the game in the first place,” he wrote. However severe his disappointment might be, Pachter sees little enduring damage to the company’s standing among investors. “We do not expect any long-term impact on GTA: San Andreas sales due to the product recall and later release of the new version. … Notwithstanding the large negative financial impact, we believe that investors should view this as a onetime charge.”

I personally think that the product packaging on this Cutter product should be recalled (or the the product packaging should be modified with softer and/or non-pointed teeth). That said, sentence number seven on the back label of the Cutter product does say, "Do Not push finger through lid opening".

When do (generally) sensible people become stupid? When do products need to be modified for safety reasons? Would your answer change if it were a child's finger that got stuck in the story I recounted?

According to UPI, "the affected vehicles, most of which were sold in the United States, are the Tundra pickup trucks and Sequoia, Landcruiser Prado and 4Runner/Hilux Surf SUVs built between May 2001 and December 2003."

Apple Computer is recalling 128,000 batteries that were shipped in its PowerBook G4 and iBook G4 laptops over the past eight months, marking the second time since last summer that it has issued such a warning.

In a report filed with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, the company said that it has identified a new crop of batteries that may have the potential to overheat. Apple will replace all of the batteries in question, which were shipped in 12- and 15-inch models of the PowerBook G4 and 12-inch versions of the iBook G4 delivered between October 2004 and May 2005.

THOUSANDS of jars of paprika have been removed from supermarket shelves after a potentially cancer-causing dye, similar to Sudan I, was discovered in a batch of the spice.

Bart Spices has withdrawn all its ground paprika jars sold in the UK, after traces of the chemical dye Para Red sparked a major product recall.

Most of the major supermarkets and hundreds of smaller shops were told to take the spice off their shelves on Friday. Bart Spices has also recalled the paprika it sold under the Co-op supermarket label.

On or around September 25, 2004, I registered my Kryptonite locks with their product recall program. (September 25 is when I first got email from them, anyway.) On November 14, I received email containing a “Trans. Id” number, and on November 20 they sent me a prepaid UPS shipping label. I packed up my two locks and shipped them the next day.

Not to be outdone by frying pans that explode when you use them for frying, Nature's Finest Candles has issued a product recall because the candles catch fire when you light them.

This is not to be confused with birthday candles that catch fire and explode.

DaimlerChrysler AG, the world’s biggest maker of luxury cars, is recalling 1.3 million Mercedes- Benz brand models worldwide to fix electrical and braking-system faults, marking a big blow to the brand’s quality reputation, they had been guarding for so long since Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG) delivered its first Mercedes on 22 December 1900.

Acc. to Germany-based Daimler Chrysler, Mercedes-Benz E-Class and CLS-Class cars built between January 2002 and January 2005 will have battery-control software replaced to enhance the on-board power supply, and E-Class, SL- Class and CLS models built from June 2001 until this month will receive updated braking systems. DaimlerChrysler will also check and, if necessary, replace alternators’ voltage regulators on Mercedes-Benz models equipped with six- and eight-cylinder engines built between June 2001 and November 2004.

Two companies are recalling about 88,000 portable propane heaters because a defect can cause gas to leak out, creating a fire hazard, the government said Tuesday.

DESA Heating LLC of Bowling Green, Ky., and Scheu Manufacturing Co. Inc. of Upland, Calif., are aware of four people who suffered hand burns and two cases of property damage, the Consumer Product Safety Commission said.

The propane heaters, made in China, have a plastic ring that can crack and allow gas to leak. The following models are being recalled:

_All-Pro (SPC-15R and SPC-30R)

_Master infrared (TT15A and TT30A)

_Reddy Heater (HD15A and HD30A)

Heaters imported by DESA bear serial numbers 016,000,000-016,159,999. All-Pro heaters imported by Scheu have serial numbers beginning with C or D.

Home centers and hardware stores nationwide sold them from September 2002 to January 2005 for $45 to $120.

Here's further proof of the impact that bloggers can have on companies and that corporate blogs/podcasts can have on audience interaction. The first is the lead article in PR NEWS in which Matthew Schwartz covers the Kryptonite product recall debacle, which reputedly cost the company $10m. Matthew interviews Kryptonite's PR Manager, Donna Tocci:

Not to be outdone by frying pans that explode when you use them for frying, Nature's Finest Candles has issued a product recall [pdf] because the candles catch fire when you light them.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission Friday recalled KitchenAid toasters after reports the heating element can suddenly self-start, posing a fire risk.

Whirlpool Corp.of Benton Harbor, Mich.,, was voluntarily recalling both the two-slice and the four-slice models of their KitchenAid ProLine Toasters.

Whirlpool has received three reports of incidents with the toaster unexpectedly self-starting.In one case outside the United States something on top of the toaster caught on fire, but there were no reports of personal injury or property damage.

The toasters, which were sold between August 2003 and January 2005, retailed between $250 and $300.