Toshiba has announced that it will redouble its efforts to encourage greater customer response to its recall of certain ‘flamable’ Sony batteries that had installed in Toshiba laptops. The original recall had been announced by Sony in September of last year with customers eligible to receive free replacement of the battery packs identified by Sony (not just Toshiba was affected, but Dell and others as well).

Commentary: The impetus for this additional recall effort was a Toshiba laptop catching on fire (yes, it had a Sony battery pack) six weeks ago (a full eight months AFTER the recall began). Another fire occurred back in April in Japan as well.

With all the news around recalls these days (pet food, toys with lead, exploding Chinese tires, etc.), this case serves an interesting reminder that, even with great publicity, it is difficult to get consumers to participate in recalls. This begs the question of when is enough effort enough, and the responsibility/liability is shared with the non-participating consumer?

Ultimately it of course it depends on the potential liability for of the product failure itself. We are cringing at the thought of one of these non-recalled laptop setthing an in-transit airplane on fire (experts say that a burning laptop will bring down a jumbojet in less than 15 minutes).

We’re happy to see Toshiba showing some responsibility on this (where’s Sony?) and wonder if some of the other laptop makers have skeletons in their closets – as the disclosure on recall participation has been dismal by all the major players. We hope we are not the ones on THAT flight.