I now need to purchase a new dishwasher. Thanks to all who have been so incredibly helpful.

Those registration forms are problematic, but I’ve learned to enter only the most basic information on them. Usually I put my office phone number on them, which at least deflects the dinner-hour sales pitches from all the “affiliated” companies that get your personal data. Still, for an expensive item like a kitchen or laundry appliance — or really, anything electrical that could pose a fire hazard — I think it’s a good idea to send in the registration.

I don’t frequent retail locations that sell appliances, and when I’m there, I don’t hang around reading bulletin boards. I don’t watch television, because I don’t have time to watch television; I get my news from the Internet, and if it had been on any of the local news stations’ sites or on Google News or on BBC or on the NY Times site or on CBS MarketWatch in any easily visible way, I would have seen it. With my employer cutting my pay by $500/month through furloughs, some expenses had to go; one of them was Consumer Reports. You have to pay to get into the CR online site; I don’t pay for online content.

My son also has a Bosch dishwasher, same model. Had such a whirlwind of notices been swirling around us, I expect he, his roommate, or his roommate’s girlfriend (none of whom wish to be immolated) would have picked up on this recall.

When frugal people are pressed financially, they tend to go off the grid to some degree: that’s what happens when you don’t kill time in front of the television (because you’re working three jobs), when you cancel the magazine subscriptions, and when you stay out of stores.

One thing’s for sure: I did appreciate having the Bosch mechanic fix the unholy loud noise the machine has been making, something previous repairmen could not accomplish. It was a simple fix — a device securing the machine into the opening under the counter had worked loose and was bent — and did not require the $250 overhaul one guy proposed.

Did you register your purchase with them? Bosch can’t contact customers they don’t know EXIST. Letters were sent to potentially affected customers whose products were registered with Bosch after purchase, and letters were also sent to customers of major retailers such as Sears who keep records of customers’ purchases and serial numbers and so forth. Beyond that, Bosch paid to have large advertisements placed multiple times in more than 2000 newspapers throughout the US and Canada. The recall was covered on TV, posted in retail locations, and detailed in other sources such as Consumer Reports and online. Bosch did everything it could conceivably do to contact customers about this issue. Unless the recall has recently been expanded, you would have been contacted in January if Bosch knew about you.

From what I’ve heard from former co-workers who still take these calls, Bosch is now doing additional notices via phone and/or mail to customers who have been previously notified but have not responded. So they are STILL trying. I have more respect for Bosch than for a lot of companies that do recalls, because Bosch wasn’t forced into it. They discovered the problem, and THEY notified the relevant government agencies and voluntarily issued a recall. Most companies these days require a lawsuit or government pressure to take those steps.