Voluntary recalls are enormously complex. Consumers can't figure them out. We tried returning toys to various businesses and policies varied from one business to another: the toy had to be returned with the packaging or without the packaging; you had to have the invoice. Since this is a safety recall, you don't need proof that you purchased the item. All these kinds of things make consumers lose trust in the recall system because the rules aren't clearly established and aren't even the same for all merchants. That's really what we observed in 2007, when we worked on the Mattel recall, because that involved not only manufacturers, but also a number of merchants that also had to apply the recall.
