Total recall

ROCKY THONGAM / TNN / Aug 19, 2007, 00:00 IST

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As consumers line up to return their toxic toys and faulty phone batteries, DT checks the ground situation in the city's showrooms.

As consumers line up to return their toxic toys and faulty phone batteries, DT checks the ground situation in the city's showrooms. As consumers line up to return their toxic toys and faulty phone batteries, DT checks the ground situation in the city's showrooms. As consumers line up to return their toxic toys and faulty phone batteries, DT checks the ground situation in the city's showrooms. As consumers line up to return their toxic toys and faulty phone batteries, DT checks the ground situation in the city's showrooms. doweshowbellyad=0;

Customer getting his phone battery checked (TOI Photo)As consumers line up to return their toxic toys and faulty phone batteries, DT checks the ground situation in the city’s showrooms.Indian metros are facing a sudden recall. Days after Mattel Inc. recalled its toys because they were painted with toxic lead paint, it is now the turn of Nokia phone owners to rush to the stores to get the batteries of their mobiles replaced. These are probably the biggest recalls that India has faced in the recent past. DT finds out more.
Your call is waiting
With a total of 46 million batteries that need to be recalled as they can short circuit after overheating , the customer rush at the outlets is phenomenal . DT takes a recce of various outlets of the mobile major.
Green Park:

Haryana

Jammu & Kashmir

Haryana

Alliance View
i
Party View

Seats: 90

L + W

Majority: 46

BJP

CONG

INLD

AAP

OTH

Leads + Wins: 90/90

BJP LEADING

Source: PValue

The centre manager, Amit Sharma, says, "Around 300 cell phone users are visiting us daily since the whole battery episode started. We have assigned six counters to check the phones and so far around 15 defective batteries have been detected." Users with defective batteries are then required to fill a form online, based on which the company will send them a replacement battery. But the phone users aren't satisfied. "God knows when the new batteries will arrive. One is so helpless without one's phone," says schoolteacher Nidhi Suri.

South Extension:
There is quite a crowd here. Says a customer Pritam Singh, "I have been standing in the queue since morning. It is the company's fault that we have to get the batteries exchanged; now they should at least ensure fast redressal."
Yashpal Singh, whose phone's battery is faulty, says, "I hope the process of replacing the battery is not as long-winded as getting it checked."
Connaught Place:
A long queue of distraught cell phone users are discussing the chances of the batteries exploding. Says Surendra, an employee at the showroom , "The news about these batteries has spread like wildfire. More than 2000 customers have approached us in the past couple of days. Some are anxious and others just refuse to listen to reason." Adds Ramesh Pathak, a gover nment employee who was waiting to get his phone checked, "I am here because my family is not letting me even switch on my phone. The battery is a BL-5 C and initially I thought that this is some kind of hype. However, when the company issued an official note saying the same, I was compelled to visit the service centre."
A toy story, all new
India buys its toys from anywhere - from the roadside, at traffic crossing and from cool toy stores. But when was the last time you checked whether the toy was toxic or not? Never! But the change has definitely begun after Mattel pulled out about 300 pieces from Indian cities because they were toxic. Worldwide , the figure stood at 1.5 million toys.
Mattel India MD Sanjay Luthra said, "In India, the recall has been limited to only 300 pieces of Sesame Street toys. They were sold in eight to 10 cities and we had asked retailers to withdraw them. People were given a refund." A retailer at Khan Market said, "The exchange went on without a hitch. Since the number of toys involved was not very high, there were no crowd management issues."
No Shelf Life For Them
In July 2007, millions of cans of chilli and other products manufactured by Castleberry Foods were recalled in the US, after they were linked with a botulism outbreak In June 2007, cosmetics by Lanache were recalled from the European market after it was discovered that they contained harmful chemicals In March 2007, Bausch & Lomb recalled its Renu MultiPlus contact lens solution In November 2006, Sony announced a global recall of the problematic battery in its T-series Vaio notebooks In December 2005, Sony Corp suspended the distribution of six of its digital camera models in China after problems were discovered with the cameras' LCDs

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