Earlier today, the Environmental Protection Agency took the unusual action of issuing a motor vehicle recall for nearly 500,000 Volkswagen and Audi sedans that used software to circumvent emissions tests. In light of this development, our colleagues at Consumer Reports have suspended their rating for two of the cars involved in the recall. [More]
recalls
Class-Action Lawsuit Accuses Fiat Chrysler Of Hiding Safety Issues To Increase Stock Value
By 9.14.15
Fiat Chrysler once again finds itself in the legal doghouse after some of its investors filed a class-action suit, claiming the automaker deceived them by withholding information related to the safety and computer problems in millions of vehicles in order to inflate the price of company stock. [More]
IKEA Recalls SPELEVINK Crib Mattresses For A Second Time: Now It’s Flammability
By 9.8.15
If you happen to own IKEA’s VYSSA SPELEVINK crib mattress, that means you’ve already missed two recalls of your kid’s mattress. Those were for potential entrapment: it was possible for the mattress to shift so that a child could become trapped between the mattress and crib frame. Now the Consumer Products Safety Commission reports another risk of this product: flammability. [More]
Salmonella Outbreak Potentially Linked To Andrew & Williamson Cucumbers
By 9.8.15
Eating more fresh vegetables is supposed to be good for your health, but that turned out to be bad advice for the hundreds of people who have become sick from eating contaminated cucumbers distributed to numerous grocery stores and restaurants in the U.S. and Canada. So far, 53 victims have been hospitalized, and one person has died. [More]
New Policy Means AutoNation Won’t Sell Vehicles With Open Safety Recalls
By 9.8.15
Although there is no specific federal law prohibiting used car dealers to sell recalled vehicles, nearly a year ago AutoNation – one of the nation’s largest pre-owned vehicle dealers – suspended the sale of cars with potentially deadly Takata airbag defects. Now, the company plans to take things a bit further, announcing it will no longer sell any vehicle that has an open safety recall. [More]
Kraft Adds 335K More Cases Of Cheese Singles To Recall Over Packaging Choking Hazard
By 9.4.15
After recalling 36,000 cases of Kraft Singles out of concern that consumers could choke on parts of the film covering individual slices, Kraft Heinz has expanded the recall to include 335,000 more cases of cheese for the same packaging reason. [More]
Store-Brand Frozen Corn Recalled For Potential Listeria Contamination
By 9.1.15
Time to check your frozen vegetable stash: bags of frozen corn sold as store private-label brands that may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes have been recalled by the company that packaged it. Some of the corn was distributed to Save-A-Lot discount grocery stores and to Market Basket stores, but two of the brands were not exclusive to any one retailer. [More]
Fiat Chrysler Offers $100 Gift Cards To Get Your Recalled Car Fixed Already
By 8.31.15
The federal government has fined Fiat Chrysler $105 million for its failure to address vehicle defects and active recalls, and perhaps they’ve concluded that customers will respond to a cash incentive, not a cash punishment. Taking a break from desperately hugging General Motors, today the automaker announced an offer: car owners get $100 if they bring their vehicle in for repair, and an extra $1,000 or $2,000 trade-in incentive to buy a new car instead. [More]
Cascadian Farms Recalls Frozen Green Beans From 2014 For Possible Listeria
By 8.27.15
We have really terrible news for anyone out there who was planning to make a turkey bacon and green bean sandwich on whole wheat or multi-grain bread, even though that has probably never been a sandwich that a real person would eat or make. All three of those foods have been recalled in the last few days, now including green beans from Cascadian Farm. [More]
Oscar Mayer Recalls 2 Million Pounds Of Turkey Bacon That May Spoil Before Its Time
By 8.26.15
Customers have been contacting Kraft Heinz Foods about something unfortunate: their packages of turkey bacon were going bad long before the posted expiration dates. The company investigated these complaints, and the investigation has culminated in more than 2 million pounds of bacon being recalled because it too might go bad. [More]
CarMax Plays “Used Car Recall Roulette” By Selling Potentially Dangerous Vehicles
By 8.25.15
During the height of recallopalooza 2014, a coalition of consumer advocacy groups raised concerns about CarMax, alleging that the nation’s largest used vehicle seller was misleading customers with claims of “Quality Certified” cars and “125+ point” inspections while not revealing that some cars had been recalled for safety issues that had not yet been repaired. More than a year later, a new report shows that CarMax is continuing this practice, which one legislator has dubbed “used car recall roulette.” [More]
9-Out-Of-10 GM Ignition Switch Compensation Claims Denied
By 8.24.15
The fund set up by General Motors to compensate victims of the carmaker’s long-ignored ignition switch defect ultimately acknowledged that GM was responsible for 124 deaths and 257 injuries, but these confirmed instances only represent a small portion of the thousands of claims rejected by the fund. [More]
Apple Offers To Fix Cameras That Take Blurry Photos On Some iPhone 6 Plus Phones
By 8.24.15
Can’t take a photo on your iPhone 6 Plus that doesn’t come out blurry? You’re not alone: Apple says it’s recalling a select batch of the Plus phones to fix an issue with the iSight camera that can make even your best efforts come out wobbly. [More]
Madewell Recalls 50,900 Pairs Of Shoes That Could Cause Wearers To Trip And Fall
By 8.21.15
You’re just strolling along, feeling fine and looking good in your new, $60 Madewell sandals when suddenly, you trip and fall. It’s not you — or at least, it might not just be your own personal clumsiness — the J. Crew-owned company says 50,600 pairs of sandals it sold in the U.S. and Canada have a metal shank that can dislodge from the inside of the shoe and break through the bottom of the outsole, posing a fall hazard. [More]
Why Don’t Huge Privacy Flaws Result In Recalled Smartphones?
By 8.18.15
When a car has a major flaw, like a potentially lethal airbag, it gets recalled. Same for a coffeemaker, or a surfboard, or a prescription drug. But when that major flaw is in a product’s software — like a huge exploit that puts literally a billion consumers’ privacy and personal data at risk — there’s no universal process out there for remedying the situation. Do we need one? And if so, how can we get one? [More]
IKEA Recalling 442,000 Nightlights Over Shock Risk
By 8.18.15
Ah, the nightlight: that beam of hope that cuts through the dark and soothed us when we were young and afraid. Or you know, old and also still not cool with complete blackness. In either case, you might want to check if your nightlight is one of the 442,000 IKEA is recalling after a child received a minor electrical shock when handling one. [More]
Blue Bell Says Ice Cream Will Be Back In Some Stores On Aug. 31
By 8.17.15
The nightmare is over, Blue Bell fans: four months after a recall linked to a listeria outbreak saw the ice cream disappear from shelves, months filled with speculation over when the company would start churning out dessert again, Blue Bell will be returning to select stores starting Aug. 31. [More]
More Recalls Under A More Watchful Eye Is The “New Normal” For Auto Regulators
By 8.17.15
Back in January, newly appointed chief of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Mark Rosekind predicted that 2015 could see even more recalls than the recallapalooza that was 2014.While, the 32.4 million cars recalled in the first eight months of the year still pales in comparison to the more than 63 million called back last year, Rosekind wasn’t completely off on his forecast – namely that the agency would take a less forgiving approach to possible safety defects. [More]
