Thomas Debrowski, Mattel’s executive vice president of worldwide operations, apologized to China’s quality control chief.
He said, “Mattel takes full responsibility for these recalls and apologizes personally to you, the Chinese people, and all of our customers who received the toys.”
He added that he realized the recalls had damaged the reputation of imported Chinese goods, already under for amid rhetoric against outsourcing of US jobs to Asian manufacturers and US fears of growing Chinese industrial power.
Even Before the Mattel recalls, a number of incidents involving unsafe products from China, ranging from toys to seafood to pet food to toothpaste had led to calls for the banning of Chinese imports into both Europe and the US.
Earlier this week, Mattel CEO Robert Eckert tried to defend his company’s toy safety record from the onslaught of two Democratic lawmakers who accused him of stonewalling a probe into production practices in China.
Debrowski claimed that the “vast majority of those products recalled were the result of a design flaw in Mattel’s design, not through a manufacturing flaw in China’s manufacturers.”
But it is unclear whether this was merely another attempt to head off investigation into manufacturing processes that could be far more costly to change than design practices, or whether this was a real attempt at taking responsibility for the recall.
With congress at loose ends, and the toy companies involved in maneuvers, perhaps the only way we will find out the truth will be through legislation. If you or a loved one has suffered adverse side effects as a result of a defective product, contact Houston area product liability lawyers at Marc Whitehead & Associates, not only for yourself, but for the public’s right to know.
The details of all the specific situations are lost on the “street.” All that will be remembered is that the “brand” and name was bad/dangerous. People won’t buy Colgate, they won’t by Mattel, and now Graco cribs. An apology to China because of the magnets was NOT understood on the street.This may do MATTEL MORE HARM!
MANY bedding and home furnishing items have been quietly pulled off the market because of excess formaldehyde levels. There may be many other products that are quietly disappearing.
We gave up checking raw materials 20 years ago and went to “vendor certification.” They went the same way when everything moved to China. Inital samples were approved, production started, costs were cut by changing to less expensive raw materials, the end customer was never notified, they never tested, and this is where we are today.
START TESTING GUYS, or you will lose your brand and good name. All the money you “saved” by moving to China will be lost in one recall and the public won’t remember any of the details. They will only remember the brand or name bad connotations, and it will be off their list.
Cosmetics, fabric producers making goods for apparel, home furnishings, bedding, foodstuffs, personal care items, etc. etc. all should now be TESTED and every raw material in the product evaluated. If the USA testing labs aren’t running 24/7 now, you guys deserve to lose it all. WAKE UP!
Anonymous < above: That was a fantastic comment. Thank you for stopping by and sharing your knowledge and frustration with the rest of us. I could not agree more about testing these products. If, as you say, the raw materials aren’t being checked and it is up to the vendor / brand to do the testing, we have no one to blame but the brand itself.