One of the unintended consequences of so many toy recalls is that holiday catalogs, printed far in advance, are now full of recalled toys.
defects
This Huffy Bike Will Injure You
By 10.16.07
If you own this Huffy bike, you should be aware that at any moment “the bicycle crank can unexpectedly come off, causing the rider to lose control, fall and suffer serious injuries.”
PowerBook Explodes, Man's Apple Crush Grows
By 10.10.07
Jimm Lasser went to sleep with his PowerBook sitting underneath his bed, and woke to find it bursting into flames. From the pictures, it looks like there was a battery malfunction.
My Mayo Exploded!
By 10.8.07
This jar of exploding mayonnaise serves as a reminder why one should pay attention to the “sell-by” dates on the sides of packages. Submitter Doug writes:
Yesterday my mother went to open a new jar of Stop and Shop light mayonnaise. After she unscrewed the cap the contents started bubbling out from under the seal. She removed the seal and the result is what you see here. We took it back to the store, where they apologized and replaced it with the non-exploding kind.
You can see in the picture that the jar is six months past its sell-by date. UPDATE: Oops, we’re stupid, that’s the year 2008. Damn, there’s no reason for this mayo to go unless maybe that’s a misprint. Why would it explode, though? Bacteria get inside and cause a gaseous buildup? We’re betting heavy on “compromised seal.” Full-size pics inside…
iPod Lights Your Pants On Fire, Not In A Good Way
By 10.5.07
“So I look down and I see flames coming up to my chest,” said Danny Williams. His iPod Nano, and subsequently, his pants, were on fire.
Defective iPhone Screen? Here's A New One. Oops, Its Screen Is Defective Too (Repeat 5 Times…)
By 10.4.07
Volkswagen Recalls 340k Cars That Fail To Meet US Safety Standards
By 9.28.07
Volkwagen is recalling 340k cars because they “may be missing required caps in the sockets of the low beam horizontal and vertical aiming screws.” We’re not sure why that is important, but we’re sure that they wouldn’t bother recalling the cars if it wasn’t.
By 9.26.07
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“Scammers in China are pretending to be official quality control inspectors so they can take bribes in exchange for overlooking shoddy manufacturing.” [Reuters via The Raw Feed]
Halo 3 Discs Arrive Pre-Scratched
By 9.25.07
Eager fans today cracked open the hot new video game Halo 3, only to discover that their game discs were already scratched. It seems in their midst of preparing for a global launch with mondo cross-promotion, Microsoft forgot to check they didn’t use the the DVD holders with the defective nubs.
By 9.25.07
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A class-action lawsuit was filed yesterday against Simplicity Inc., Target Corp., and Graco Children’s Products Inc. for their roles in the unfolding defective crib recall. The lawyer who filed the suit originally represented the family of a 9-month-old who died in 2005 from one of the badly-designed cribs, which can be dangerous if assembled incorrectly. [Chicago Tribune]
Apple Urges You To "Take At Least Some Responsibility" For Your Defective iBook
By 9.21.07
Awhile back we posted a letter from a guy whose claim on a defective iBook G3 Logic Board repair was “9 months too late” and was denied by Apple. He wrote Steve Jobs and the Apple Executive Support team agreed to repair the defective unit under the “Extended iBook Logic Board Repair Program.”
Design Flaws In Toys Cause Far More Injuries Than Lead
By 9.12.07
Lead isn’t what you need to watch out for with American toys—it’s design flaws and the policies of irresponsible toy companies, says E. Marla Felcher on Slate. One study “recently found that of all the toys recalled since 1988, 76 percent involved design flaws. Kids choked, were strangled, and were burned by toy makers’ design mistakes.”
The reason so many toys were recalled this summer is not that there weren’t enough regulations. It’s that toy makers were ignoring the regulations that are already on the books. And the new testing proposal won’t stop them from continuing to do so.
11th Walmart Flipflop Chemical Burning Case Reported
By 9.8.07
When it got worse the dermatologist said that it was definitely not a fungus…
Man Fights IKEA Customer Service Over Defective LILLBERG Couch, Loses
By 9.8.07
A week after we moved and put the new covers on, our IKEA LILLBERG sofa broke. Right in half. The main support beam gave out right at the dovetail joint, and even split a board in the process. We were devastated, but figured that we’d be able to wrangle something out of it. Standard customer service would replace the couch, right?
"Bill Gates, You Suck"
By 9.5.07
Dan Jouver, a self-identifying southern Floridian, is yet another customer experiencing Xbox’s notorious Red Ring of Death product failure, multiple times, but unlike others, he is eventually driven to destroy his Xbox on-camera in a series of exciting scenarios.
Washington D.C. Gives Away Uncool, Defective Condoms
By 9.5.07
We’re sure that Washington D.C. meant well when it started giving away free condoms in order to help stop the spread of H.I.V. in the US city with the highest AIDS rate. One problem: The condoms suck.
Dell Laptop Catches Fire In Shanghai Office
By 9.5.07
Just when you thought it was safe taste to eat a pomegranate… a Dell laptop catches fire and self destructs! This time, on 9/03, in a Shanghai office.
Best Buy Sells You A Game That Is Missing Its Manual, Won't Exchange It Because It's Missing Its Manual
By 8.23.07
Jenn’s husband Dave bought a game on BestBuy.com then picked it up in store. By doing this he saved $10. Sadly for Dave and Jenn, the game was missing its manual and you need a code from the manual to play the game. Simple, enough, right? Just exchange the defective game for a new one at Best Buy.
