Sony apologizes for the "inconvenience" of battery recall
By Cyrus Farivar 
posted Oct 24th 2006 1:03PM
posted Oct 24th 2006 1:03PM
Oh Sony, perhaps your Sony Entertainment execs have convinced you that any press is good press, but it's not always that way in this business anymore -- when will your bad news ever get out of our news readers? After your various episodes regarding the near-10m worldwide battery recall, you issue an obviously forced apology for causing serious property damage and putting millions of customers at risk of harm or death? Because according to The Associated Press, top company executives have apologized for the "inconvenience caused by a massive global recall in laptop batteries," but seemed confident that the problem was fixed and that the company could move on. However, AP's coverage continues: "The executives were seated while they bowed and did not bow deeply standing as most Japanese executives generally do in public apologies for troubles at their companies, underlining how Sony has been reluctant to admit fault in the troubles with its laptop batteries." Sorry Sony, you don't get to invoke papal infallibility on this one. We know you basically invented the consumer electronics industry, but that doesn't mean you get to act like like a curmudgeonly old man, cursorily acknowledging the interruption that is actually a major mistake. What's more, the AP posits that you've "maintained that the short-circuiting happens only very rarely and only in certain ways that the battery is connected in a system with laptop models, or if the laptop is used improperly and gets bumped around." Not you seem to be listening, but let's face facts here: it's not as infrequent an issue as you probably wish, Sony, and time and time again it's been proved that ordinary users doing nothing unusual are experiencing these fires. C'mon Sony, it's us, Engadget. We won't even mention how incredibly angry we are about Lik Sang. You, us, let's dish.
I'm a sony fan and still am.
But let me say this to them.
Fuck Sony.
The Sony batteries for my Acers don't even get hot and they are on all day long.
@Jason.
So since your Sony batteries are okay, I guess pretty much everyone is in the clear and these incidents never actually happened... ;)
Yeah, i bet they're sorry.
We own hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of Sony professional video gear. I trust it fully. There is nothing better.
but really... Up Yours Sony!
So does a plane full of nuns have to go down at the hands of a Sony laptop battery for them to take it seriously? My Dell is not on the list (yet!) but that sucker gets pretty hot from "normal use"
Really makes me wonder what sort of problems the PS3 will have. Since they can't seem to even make a battery correctly
Just because Engadget posts and re-posts photos of the same set of damaged batteries/laptops 10+ times a week doesn't suddenly make it a widespread problem. These daily Sony battery articles are getting tired and old, it's like this is becoming the new slashdot.
It's not a widespread problem huh?
So... recalling a few million batteries is what ?
I'm sorry but you don't get to bend reality just to defend Sony. Only Sony executives get to do that.
I just bought a Vaio yesterday. Does anyone know if my battery would be affected?
Anthony,
No telling...but if it is...Sony is "sorry".
you may not want to actually use it on your lap
So...now everyone on Engadget are experts in Japanese management? Get a life. They apologized. Just because they didn't dance around in a tutu and sing songs to you doesn't mean is wasn't hard to do.
Its no use at the moment, the anti-sony fanboys won't shut up until they see just how well the PS3 does, and how Sony bounces back from the battery recall.
Notice the different attitude about other Sony products, such as TV's, Stereos, Projectors and many many other consumer electronics.
But don't let it fool you, some people are actually paid to spread the FUD. It's true and sad, but it's called marketing.
I am going to enjoy watching the Playstation 3 fall on its face and cost Sony even more money and embarrassment. The name 'Sony' used to be synonymous with quality consumer electronics, and as with many other rich and powerful people and organizations, it will succumb to the green-eyed monster known as greed.
I personally am buying a Wii, I can buy an HP or Dell Core 2 laptop for the same price it would cost me to buy a PS3, one extra controller, memory card, 2 games, and online service subscription.
The failure rate on these is 1 in 3.5 million. How many incidents have there been versus how many batteries there are. My god you people are dumb sheep.
Where is that statistic from? According to that, there are 350 million Sony batteries out there. I couldn't find this info anywhere...
It is actually stated in another Engadget post from a while ago. You can find this information at either the BBB or another consumer incident reporting site, where they said since 2004 there had been somewhere like 50 reported laptop battery malfunctions. This was in September so don't say oh well it must be old.
stoopid sez : I'm proud of my battery, coz
"It's a Sony !!" (sic)
Apology accepted.
actually engadget has been going down hill lately with all their news . they used to give out news and let people comment on it . now if they don't put their 2 cents into it ( and its usually bashing one thing or another not only sony stuff) its not news to them.
i am starting to hate their articles as it sounds like all fanboys talking.
as for sony well i guess the focus is on them this year its been on microsoft and other companies in previous years so all major companies have their day.
the laptop batteries are actually over hyped 1 in 3 million is a really small number compared to actual production of electronics. but sony is trying to fix it by doing a recall usually good PR. they could have as easily said na FU you go deal with your manufacturer.
so be glad they are doing this they could have as easily screwed everybody
well still, if your 2k dollar laptop catches on fire.... thats kinda a big deal.
This Sony bashing is getting out of control and just downright stupid. When a design flaw finds its way into a finished product, the "right" thing for a company to do is spend the time and money issuing a recall. And after that put more time and money into making sure it never happens again, both of which Sony has done without delay.
You're really going to critique them on the depth of their bow?
The most sensible post all day. Thank you.
It's at least been 6 months (and maybe even earlier if another commenter was correct) since the first event- you think that 6 months is "without delay"? NO! "Without delay" would have been announcing the recall after the first 3 reported incidents at the latest (to confirm that it is indeed the battery's fault, only 3 incidents should be enough to get people worried). And critiquing them on the depth of the bow is a bit picky, but they do have a point- a sincere apology after such a big accident is usually accompanied by a deep standing bow (as far as I have seen) but of course Sony doesn't feel that responsible. They acted similarly at the rootkit incidents and Lik-Sang's death (I live in China already, if one importer goes down I have 100 more to choose from, but I'm boycotting Sony now- Nintendo all the way).
You need a good translator, but this article contains several slides that Sony used during the press meeting:
http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2006/1024/sony2.htm
Whether to include safety mechanisms in a battery pack is up to each laptop vendor's choice unless Sony designs the pack for the vendor. Sony didn't allude to in this press meeting, but most people would assume that Dell and Apple did not include the safety measures in the batteries that they ordered. Earlier this year, Sony had expressed regret in failing to assure that the laptop design of their clients are appropriate for the design of battery pack that the clients specified.
Unlike Dell and Apple, HP laptops have safety mechanisms in the machine itself or battery pack or both, thus no recall. HP is stingy, though, in a sense -- because unlike Toshiba, Fujitsu, Sharp, Hitachi, Gateway and Sony, they decided not to spend their labor on unnecessary recall or voluntary replacement program.
Sony restated that the cause of LAX Lenovo incident cannot be determined because 4 out of 6 cells that were in the laptop have been lost.
There is a difference between "flaws in products" and this. This isn't your iPod screen getting scratced here. This is dangerous. This can cause deformities, serious injuries, and god knows what else.
Sony is NOT taking this seriously. Sure, 1 per 3 million is not a large number, but it's too much for something like explosions... especially in a product that sits on your lap... on your lap... let me repeat that again.. ON YOUR LAP. In all honesty, I want to have kids at some point in life, but a sony battery could ruin my chances.
If something like this happened to any other company, it wouldnt just be on internet news sites, it would be on news all the time.. it'd likely make headlines. I haven't seen anything about this on TV. They need to do commercials, mailings to registered laptop owners, newspapers... they need to make a bigger effort.
Has Sony or anyone else listed all the names these SOny batteries are sold under.
Not just Dell,Toshiba, Apple, IBM or their new chinese name.
The battery to replace my Toshiba battery was from from Best Buy under my three year warrenty is called Hi Capacity.
It would be good to print a list of batteries that have been recalled so that folks can refer to when buying replacement batteries.
I love my Toshiba Satellite Laptop and do not want anything to happen to it. It is my window to the world.