Still concerned, she contacted a British researcher, Dr. David Langton, who had helped sound the alarm about the recalled model.
The company has a Web site, mcneilproductrecall.com, with information about the recalled products and how to identify them.
Over the weekend, some people said they had been unable to obtain clear information about how to receive a refund on mcneilproductrecall.com, a company Web site about the recalled products.
The layoffs and reductions in production came as regulators continued to be flooded with complaints about the recalled 15-inch Firestone ATX and Wilderness tires mounted mainly on Ford Explorer sport utility vehicles.
Current standards for light trucks, "do not address this vehicle population, a population which has exploded in the past 10 years," said John Lampe, Firestone's executive vice president, in testimony about the recalled tires on Sept. 12. "These issues have been difficult for us.
But a day later, after a reporter for The New York Times presented questions to Mattel's Shanghai representative about the recalled items, the store manager said the items were not available and repeatedly requested the return of another recalled item that was bought from the store.
