From a discussion with a Nikon executive: "You're going to let us have it (deservedly) on this one."
Here's the deal: batteries did indeed start getting to customers today on the EN-EL15 recall program. But here's the bad news: Nikon apparently shipped a few hundred replacement batteries with an E in that lot number. In other words, bad batteries.
I became aware of this when one of those customers emailed me with a "hey, I gave the UPS guy a battery with an E on it and got a new battery with an E on it in return" message. Yep. That was a mistake on Nikon's part. They'll be notifying those people shortly and shipping them a new battery overnight. So now the recall has a recall. Embarrassing.
Update: so no sooner do I get the above posted when the UPS delivery person shows up with my replacement battery. Which, as it turns out, is another defective battery ;~(. However, Now I can see the whole process and describe it for you, even if I don't have a proper replacement yet:
Delivery happens via your usual UPS delivery truck at the usual UPS delivery times (I tend to get UPS deliveries in a narrow one hour window here). You'll be getting a big UPS envelope. If the courier is paying attention to their tracking device, they'll see a very long message there that tells them what to do. This was the first my UPS guy had seen the message (won't be the last time ;~).
Inside the envelope is a sealed box (new battery), a piece of packing tape, and a label. The instructions are this: take the new battery out of the box and put the bad battery into the box in its place. Re-tape the box, put the label on, put the box on the truck. A simple enough procedure, but the delivery folk haven't been trained on it. Mine walked halfway back to his vehicle before he started to comprehend that he had a long set of instructions he needed to follow. Basically, I knew more than he did at the start of the process.
But it's a simple enough process. Once you've done it, it becomes easy to repeat. Out here in the sticks I suspect I'm the only person who my driver will see that message for, but in more populated areas I'll bet the drivers get very quick in following the instructions.