The ways it's been working here is that an email gets sent out, saying that there's been a recall, and that somebody's records (not sure who's anymore) indicated that we might have an item that needs to be recalled. In the email there is a link to go to (I think it's www.dellrecall.com, or something similar).
Follow that link, and it gives you a description of what the recall is about, and, in this case, where exactly the serial numbers are located on the battery. Then there is a form at the bottom to check the exact serial number you have.
So far, we haven't had to send any batteries back that I know of, so I don't know everything, but it only involves sending the batteries back, not the whole laptop.