Recall and Notices

Recalls, Product Bulletins and associated notices are efforts by manufacturers to respond responsibly when a product issue has the potential to cause harm. Designers and manufacturers make a tremendous investment in insuring their products are safe and operate as intended. From time to time something occurs whether during manufacturing or real-world use of products that require specific action to address.

End-users are strongly encouraged to follow a manufacturers recommendations when a recall or similar action is taken. Typically, the manufacturer will have some sort of remediation plan in place. Returning the product for a refund/replacement or outlining provisional measures for using the product until the issues are addressed. This is one of the best reasons for maintaining your product purchase date and serial number. Recalls can often be tied to certain manufacturing batches identified by the serial number.

You will hear these referred to by different names: Safety Notice, Advisory Notice, Notice of Inspection, or some other iteration. Notices rely on the end user’s best judgement and do not necessarily mean a product is defective. Notices typically address:

• The proper application of a product.
• The observed misuse of a product.
• The use of a product in a compatible system.
• Best (or common) practices for safety and risk management.
• Incidents and how they could have been prevented.

Inspection notices will issue a call for a special inspection. A hard to spot defect, an uncommon defect, or a trend in wear can prompt these notices. Usually, the product can remain in service as long as the defects aren’t present.