Do you care about product recalls? (not just about those cribs)

In My Humble Opinion (IMHO)
#1

This is about recalls in general.

If you haven’t heard, a major crib company has recalled a huge amount of cribs, do to the drop-down sides of the cribs deforming or breaking. Apparently, this causes injury and has lead to four suffocations.

Read about it here if you care.

I have a baby now and have a crib that was recalled a couple years ago(different company). We got our crib used for $50 and only discovered the recall when a family member emailed us. Same situation as the current crib recall.

We didn’t care. I figured the odds were low of anything happening, so let’s keep it.

I did order the free repair kit, but I told my wife that I wouldn’t care if it never came. It did and consisted of four metal clamps that supported the drop-down sides. I installed it and moved on.

What about you? Are there product recalls you ignore? Do you take action if you own a recalled product of any kind?

#2

Well, if it was something like a crib or those strollers that take your baby’s fingers off or something on my car that could kill me, then yes. (Especially the car thing, because they make it so easy.) If it’s something that I think that I as an adult don’t need to worry about, then no.

#3

Some recalls are important as they deal with something truly life-threatening, and others are rather piddly nuisances.

Ones that I’d care about would be if Northern Amalgamated Tasty Foods announced that due to a maintenance mishap, five thousand loaves of bread were baked with powdered asbestos instead of flour. <Go look in the kitchen> Oops! Better take that back to the store!

Or, if the manufacturer of my laptop computer reveals that the batteries have been exploding spontaneously. A couple of years ago, it seemed that someone in this household was getting a new battery shipped to them every two months with all of the laptops we’ve got.

But, at the other end, if you look on the wall near the service desk at Lowes or Home Depot, they’ll have tool recall notices posted for all manner of trivial reasons. Brand X is recalling screwdrivers that may snap if used as pry bars? Well, duh. But it just takes one moron to lose an eye to trigger a recall effort. :frowning:

#4

There was a recall on the HEPA filter part of my whole-house air filter. Something about it catching on fire if it got put back into the air filter while wet and causing a short (the instructions say to clean the HEPA filter with water).

I wasn’t notified about the recall from the company I bought it from, but by a stroke of luck I saw the recall on the manufacturer’s Web site.

I got the company to replace the HEPA filters. When the guy came to drop the filters off, he explained the reason for the recall and said that with my furnace setup there was a near zero chance that I’d have a problem with the old filters.

So, now I have two sets of filters, which is great because when you wash the filters they take about 2 days to dry (and I never think to wash them until it’s super cold). Now I have a backup for when I wash a set.

Anyway, I like recalls when they mean free new stuff!

#5

Obligatory link to The Onion.

#6

Depends on what the recall is for. If it’s something minor, I don’t care. If it’s something that my kid sleeps in and could potentially strangle him, then yes, I care. Automotive recalls, I usually care but if it’s something minor inside the car, maybe not.