Response to case study scenario 1

3 out of 200 USB failing flash drives is a significant number of failures. The risk of something happening to the customer, its employees and the environment is far too great to be ignored. I would email my boss and send a copy to his/her boss urging them to recall the product expressing my concerns. By expressing my concerns to my boss via email over other means such as a phone call or just by speaking to him/her I would have proof of my efforts. As I am a junior I have no power to undermine my boss therefore I believe that I would have done everything in my power to bring the faults to the attention of my superiors.

The customer believes and is entitled to expect that it has bought flash drives that are free from defects. Any failures are down to my company's negligence and the consequences are my company’s responsibility. The customer would expect my company to make good its error at my company's own cost. This is true whether or not the defective goods represent a fire risk.

From experience working for Mattel Inc, a global toy company, who has recently had a voluntary product recall for various product faults I found that as expected some consumers were rightfully angry but in most cases they appreciated that Mattel admitted the faults and were offering replacement or substitute products. I believe that current and future customers haven’t lost confidence in the company due to Mattel’s honesty and professional approach to fixing their mistakes. Yes it cost the company money replacing products but the loss in confidence if someone was to get injured or, even worse died as a result of a defect in a product would be far greater and simply not worth risking.

Risks to my company should a product fail include legal cases for providing faulty and dangerous products. Selling faulty products which cause damages or injuries is a major error for any company to make and can come with devastating consequences. My company can be taken to court both by the government and the customers for negligence should such an incident occur and the fact that my company knew about the faults would make the offence even more serious. The directors of my company, my boss and even me could be held accountable and if someone was to die we could be charged with manslaughter.

Another consequence of failing to correct the problem would be a loss in customer confidence. Companies can have insurance which will cover a big loss but in such a case the loss in customer confidence will result in a long term drop in sales leading to a drop in profits. The insurance is expensive though and not every company takes it out, this would result in further losses.