Hot stuff
They need to fire someone though
HP and Google have issued a formal recall for the defective micro-USB charger cables that have given some HP Chromebook 11 owners a nasty surprise by melting or bursting into flames during use. "If you purchased your HP Chromebook 11 on or before December 1, 2013 and you have not received a replacement charger," Google wrote …
Why? It was probably some company in China that supplied it, and some company in China will also supply the replacement.
Unless some guy in HP knew about this beforehand and didn't take action, or wasn't suspicious if one company could undercut everyone else's prices by 50%, I don't see how you could blame him.
There are no such things as manufactured goods that never experience a catastrophic failure state. None. Not even sticks (wooden dowel rods) escape that fact. The idea is to minimize the overall number of such failures, they'll never be eliminated. Considering the incredible number of consumer electronics products out there it is really impressive there aren't a lot more burning parts.
Also note the CPSC recommendation to halt the sale of the products. That's what they say anytime more than one of anything fails in a way someone could be hurt. They did not force the recall, only recommended it and Google/HP voluntarily recalled the product. It obviously wasn't a serious issue, but Google/HP didn't want the bad press. The voluntary action also means that liability product insurance won't cover the costs of the recall. Insurance only covers recalls if they are government mandated, not if they are voluntary.
Although not wanting bad press isn't exactly altruistic, Google/HP should actually be commended for doing the
right thing and taking care of the products they sold without a judge or government agency forcing them to. This isn't the kind of thing you go firing people over, this is the kind if thing that happens if you're making stuff.
I have an HP Chromebook 11. I tried to fill out the form, and got the interesting error message "Yikes, we don't recognise that address. Please try a different shipping address". I suppose I could try a different one, but I'd quite like the replacement to be sent to me, not someone else... (Cue 20 minutes on phone spelling out UK place names to someone in the US who doesn't know the phonetic alphabet...)