When J&J’s McNeil Consumer Healthcare Unit announced a recall of children’s Tylenol, Motrin, Zyrtec and Benadryl over the weekend, it also provided a toll free number you could call for more info. Ron Lieber at the New York Times called it on Saturday to find out how the refund process would work. What he got was a three minute recording telling him to throw the products in the trash, but nothing else.

Lieber writes:

It had to have occurred to someone at McNeil that people were going to want to know how to get their money back. But rather than come right out and say on the first version of its Web site that it didn’t have a system set up quite yet to handle refunds, it simply said nothing. As a result, many parents probably threw the medicine in the trash, only to have to go digging through the banana peels and coffee grinds later when they discovered they needed information from the product labels in order to apply for refunds or coupons for replacement products.

If you bought some of the recalled medicine and want your money back, try one of the following options:

• send an email to McNeil via its contact form
• request a call back
• call 1-888-222-6036

You might want to try options 1 and 2 first; Lieber says there were reports that telephone operators were just offering coupons to consumers who managed to get through over the weekend.

“How to Get Your Tylenol Refund” [New York Times]

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