The Stock Recall Check SOP

Purpose

When a part the shop stocks is recalled, three populations are at risk at once: units on the shelf, units riding in vans, and units already installed in customers' homes. This procedure guarantees that within a fixed number of business days every affected unit the shop ever bought is counted, pulled from use, sent back or destroyed as the recall directs, and that every customer who received one has been told in writing what the manufacturer says to do. Without it, a recalled unit gets installed off a van the week after the notice, and the shop learns about it from the customer's insurer.

Scope

Covers recall notices for parts and products the shop buys and installs or resells: from the CPSC, from a manufacturer, or from a distributor. It covers counting, quarantine, return or destruction, and customer notification.

It does not cover:

• Finding out whether a recall exists for a given part. That lookup is in How to Check a Part Against the Recall Databases, and this SOP starts when a notice is in hand.
• A defect the shop has discovered that nobody has recalled. That is a reporting question, owned by Reporting a Dangerous Product to the CPSC.
• Parts suspected of being counterfeit rather than recalled. Those follow The Suspect-Counterfeit Quarantine SOP, which uses a different bin and a different return path.
• Recalls of customer-owned equipment the shop did not supply. The shop can pass the notice on, but this SOP's counts do not apply.

Roles and responsibilities

The handoff that fails is between step 2 and step 3: the coordinator confirms a purchase and assumes the stock lead saw the email. The coordinator confirms the handoff by phone or in person, not by forwarding.

Procedure

1. Log the notice within 1 business day of receipt. Enter the product name, the affected model numbers, the lot, date or serial range that defines affected units, the hazard, the remedy (repair, replace, refund, destroy), and any instruction to stop use or stop sale, copied word for word from the notice. Acceptance: the log entry carries enough identifiers to tell an affected unit from an unaffected one by looking at it, or, if the notice does not provide them, the entry records that the identifiers were requested from the distributor or manufacturer, with the date asked. What wrong looks like: a notice that names a model but no lot or date range, logged as if every unit of that model were affected or none were. Stop rule: do not start step 3 on a guessed range; ask first, and if no answer within 2 business days, treat every unit of the model as affected. Hazard: none at this step, it is desk work.

2. Confirm whether the shop ever bought the product. Search supplier invoices and the purchasing history for the model and, where invoices carry them, the lot numbers, over the date range the notice gives for when the product was sold, or the last 3 years if it gives none. Acceptance: a yes or no, with the invoice numbers and the total quantity purchased written into the log, or if the shop's own records cannot answer, a written request to each supplier to run the account's purchase history for that item. What wrong looks like: "we don't carry that" from memory, with no search. Stop rule: a no is only recorded after the search; a no from memory is not a no. If the answer is no, the coordinator closes the entry at step 8 with the search recorded. Hazard: none, desk work.

3. Sweep the shop and every van within 2 business days of a confirmed purchase. The stock lead reads the identifying code on every unit of the affected model in the shop. Each tech reads their own van, including vans out on jobs, and sends a photo of each unit's code. Acceptance: a count of affected and unaffected units for every location, with every van accounted for, or, for any van that cannot be read in the window, its units logged as "unread, treated as affected" and that van's units barred from use until read. What wrong looks like: a code that is worn, covered or ambiguous, counted as unaffected. Stop rule: an unreadable code is an affected unit. Hazard: if the recall is for overheating, fire or a battery fault, do not plug in, charge or test the unit during the sweep; move it to a metal container away from combustibles, as the notice instructs. Lifting heavy items or cylinders off van racks follows normal two-person lift practice.

4. Quarantine every affected unit the same day it is found. Tag each unit "RECALL: DO NOT USE" with the log entry's reference, move it to the recall bin, which is physically separate from both live stock and the counterfeit quarantine bin, and set the inventory system's available quantity for the affected lots to zero. Acceptance: the physical count in the recall bin equals the affected count from step 3, and the system shows zero available, or if the two disagree, a recount the same day that resolves the difference to a named unit. What wrong looks like: tagged units left in their original bin "until the return gets sorted". Stop rule: a unit is not quarantined until it is out of the bin a tech picks from. Hazard: units recalled for fire or thermal faults stay in the metal container from step 3; do not stack them with flammables, cleaners or batteries.

5. Return or destroy exactly as the remedy directs. Request the return authorization or destruction instruction from the distributor or manufacturer, and follow it. Acceptance: an RA number and a shipping record, or a destruction record signed by the person who did it, stating the count and method, or if the manufacturer asks the shop to hold units for collection, a hold note with the date requested. What wrong looks like: units thrown out before the manufacturer says how, which can forfeit credit and destroys the evidence that the shop held them. Stop rule: nothing leaves the recall bin without an instruction in writing. Hazard: a destruction instruction that requires cutting a cord or puncturing a housing is done with eye protection and cut-resistant gloves, after the unit is unplugged; damaged lithium batteries are never shipped except under the manufacturer's written instructions, since they are regulated hazardous materials in transport.

6. Reconcile purchased against accounted-for, then identify installed units. Purchased (step 2) must equal on hand (step 3) plus installed plus returned or scrapped earlier. Pull installed units from the installed-part records: every job line carrying the affected model, and lot where recorded, in the sale window. Acceptance: the equation closes, or the gap is written down as a number and the customer list is widened to every job in the window that used a matching part type without a recorded part number. What wrong looks like: a gap explained away as "probably used on a job" without widening the list. Stop rule: an unexplained gap is never closed by assumption; it becomes customers. Hazard: none, desk work.

7. Notify every customer on the list within 5 business days of building it. Send the manufacturer's notice and remedy, not a paraphrase, by the shop's usual channel and in writing, and offer the remedy the notice provides. Where the notice says stop use immediately, phone the same day it is logged. Acceptance: each customer is reached and the contact is logged with date and channel, or, if not reached after two attempts on different days, a letter goes to the service address and the log records it. What wrong looks like: the office explaining the hazard in its own words, or promising a fix the manufacturer has not offered. Stop rule: questions about cause or risk go to the manufacturer's recall line, and the shop says so. Hazard: none at the desk; any site visit to replace an installed unit follows that part's own isolation procedure, and the step that restores water, power or gas carries its own check (a leak check at the joint with the stop opened slowly, a proved-dead and then proved-live circuit, a leak test on a gas joint).

8. Close the entry. The owner or service manager confirms the step 6 equation closed or the widened list was notified, the step 5 paperwork is filed, and every customer line in step 7 reads "reached" or "letter sent". Acceptance: a signed close date in the log. What wrong looks like: an entry closed with returns still awaiting credit; credit is a money question, the recall is a safety question, and they close separately. Stop rule: any open customer line keeps the entry open. Hazard: none, desk work.

The record this produces

One recall log entry per notice, kept for at least as long as the shop's workmanship warranty and preferably longer: the notice copy, identifiers, purchase search result with invoice numbers, per-location counts with photos, quarantine counts, the RA or destruction record, the reconciliation line, the customer list with every contact attempt, and the close signature. The coordinator reads it at every new notice for the same manufacturer. The owner reads it if a customer, insurer or manufacturer later asks what the shop did and when, and it answers that question with dates rather than recollection.

Worked pass

Notice. On Monday 5 October 2026 a distributor emails a manufacturer's recall for braided stainless supply connectors in two lengths, affected lots printed on the crimp sleeve in a stated range, hazard: the hose can burst and cause water damage. Remedy: replacement connectors free from the manufacturer. No stop-use instruction.

• Step 1, pass. Logged 5 October with models, lot range and remedy copied from the notice.
• Step 2, pass. Invoice search over the notice's sale window finds 40 units in affected lots across four invoices.
• Step 3, pass. By Wednesday 7 October: shop shelf 6 affected, van 1 has 3, van 2 has 0, van 3 has 4. Van 2's tech sends photos of 5 unaffected units. On hand affected: 6 + 3 + 0 + 4 = 13.
• Step 4, pass. 13 units tagged, recall bin count 13, system available zero.
• Step 5, pass. RA issued 8 October; 13 units shipped with the RA.
• Step 6, FAIL. Installed-part records show 22 job lines carrying the affected model in the window. A credit memo shows 2 returned earlier. 13 + 22 + 2 = 37 against 40 purchased, a gap of 3. The equation does not close. Stop rule taken: the gap is not assumed away. The coordinator searches the window for jobs that used a supply connector logged only as "supply line" with no part number and finds 9. The customer list becomes 22 + 9 = 31, with the 9 flagged "cannot confirm, offer inspection".
• Step 7, pass. List built Thursday 8 October, so the deadline is Thursday 15 October. 24 customers reached by phone on the first attempt, 5 on the second attempt on a later day, and 2 not reached after two attempts got letters on 13 October. 24 + 5 + 2 = 31. Each received the manufacturer's notice in writing.
• Step 8, pass. Closed 14 October with the step 6 gap and the widened list recorded.

The failed step produced the most useful finding in the file: 9 jobs logged without a part number. That is a records problem, and its fix belongs to the installed-part record procedure, not to this one.

References

• U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission recall notices and email subscriptions (CPSC.gov).
• Manufacturer and distributor recall notices for the specific product.
• See related: How to Check a Part Against the Recall Databases
• See related: The Installed-Part Record SOP
• See related: Explaining a Recall or Safety Notice to a Worried Customer