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eBay: Where Recalled Items Live Forever

A test search finds 100% of the recalled toys on our 'shopping list'

By Truman Lewis
ConsumerAffairs.com

October 30, 2007     Spanish

• Safety Agency Waits 16 Months to Recall Lead-Laden Key Chains • Lawmakers Propose Bill To Prevent 'Stove Tipping' • Senate Passes Tough New Consumer Safety Bill • Infant Deaths in the Nursery Increasing • Sears Stove Tip-Over Case Illustrates Safety Agency's Shortcomings • Next Season's Toys: Technology Meets Hannah Montana • Toys Safer than Ever, Toy Makers Claim • Toy Industry Needs Import Safety Checklist • Toys Getting Safer, Safety Chief Claims • Plastic War Hits The Toy Industry • Feds Propose New Furniture Fire Rule • Safety Recalls a Sign of Success? • Congressional Leaders Send Message to Mattel • Another Industry Lobbyist To Head Safety Agency? • $30 Million Settlement in Thomas & Friends Suit • Consumer Protection Bills Spark Bitter Lobbying Battle • Time Running out for Consumer Safety Agency --- • More Consumer Safety News • Recall Notices

Much attention has been paid to the recent recalls of high-profile middle-class toys like the Fisher-Price "Go Diego Go" boat toy or Mattel's Barbie Doll and Tanner.

News crews rush out to find stores that still have the offending items on their shelves. Politicians and government appointees huff and vow to enact new laws that will make life safer for children and their parents.

But the truth is, many recalls accomplish little. The recalled items may disappear, at least for awhile, from store shelves but there is at least one place where recalled goods live forever, uninterrupted by fears of lead paint, strangulation or ingestion of magnets.

That wonderland of e-commerce is eBay, the original darling of the online age.

eBay's highly-paid executives are quoted breathlessly by the trade press and lionized as visionaries who are single-handedly building a brave new e-community where happy consumers blissfully buy and sell forever.

The reality is somewhat different. Leaving aside for a moment the never-ending tales of skullduggery involving goods that are never sent, arrive broken, etc., the simple truth is that eBay seems to be the place where recalled products live forever.

We paid eBay a visit yesterday, looking for dangerous children's products recalled this year. We picked six items more or less at random from ConsumerAffairs.com's children's products recalls page and entered their descriptions in the eBay search box.

Shopping list

Sure enough, we found all six -- still on sale, many described as brand new. Here's our shopping list:

• Football Bobble Head Cake Decorations Recalled Oct. 25; excessive lead. Still for sale on eBay Oct. 29.

• 'Hannah Montana' Boots Recalled Oct. 18; zippers can tangle, causing falls. Still for sale on eBay Oct. 29.

• Fisher-Price GeoTrax Train Set Recalled Sept. 4; excessive lead. Still for sale on eBay Oct. 29.

• Parents Magazine Cell Phone Recalled May 3; choking hazard. Still on sale on eBay Oct. 29.

• Mattel's Barbie Doll and Tanner Recalled Aug. 14; excessive lead. Still on sale on eBay Oct. 29.

Unfair to eBay?

An unfair test, you say? There's no way eBay could be expected to monitor all the thousands of recalled products?

The computer experts we consulted don't agree. The eBay Web site, like most Web sites, is database-generated. Product names and descriptions are entered by sellers and located by potential buyers through the site navigation and search functions.

It took us about three minutes to verify that all six items we were checking for were indeed in the eBay database -- and we did it the old-fashioned way, by hand. The database engineers we consulted agreed that eBay could automate the process of checking government recall databases against items submitted by sellers.

"Entries that rang the "Watch It!" gong could then be examined briefly by a human," said one engineer we talked to. "Nobody wants to use humans but we are talking about children's life, after all, so perhaps eBay could make an exception, just this once."

Some critics would even go so far as to suggest that the attorneys general and federal agencies that so fervently track down sex offenders who dare to peruse public profiles on Facebook or MySpace should take a look at the deadly items being brazenly sold to unwary consumers.

EBay said recently that it was placing links on various product category pages that will link to the company's recalled items policy. According to the announcement, "eBay also messages sellers directly when they are selling items that may be affected by recent recalls."

It said the procedure was intended "to ensure a safe and successful buying experience online."

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