It’s been a long time coming, but Samsung has now officially recalled its Galaxy Note7 smartphone in conjunction with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), the government agency charged with protecting the public from unsafe products.
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Kaye said companies that think they can adequately handle a safety issue without involving the CPSC “need more than their phones checked”.
Anyone with a recalled phone should stop using it immediately and contact your wireless carrier, retail outlet or Samsung.com to receive a new Galaxy Note 7 free of charge with a different battery, a refund, or a new replacement device. While the company was previously offering to replace the phones, it will now offer consumers the choice of a replacement or a full refund. Note 7 owners must not only turn off the device on airplanes, it said, but also protect the power switch “to prevent the phone from being unintentionally activated”. You can go to Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 Safety Recall page here for details.
Some purchasers of the Note 7 say they’re willing to try another Samsung device.
It’s not clear whether this latest fire was caused by the same problem as the Galaxy Note 7 fires, whether it could be part of a separate issue or whether it is an isolated incident.
“We welcome this action by the CPSC and Samsung”, says Maria Rerecich, the head of electronics testing at Consumer Reports. “This issue is now being investigated, and our customer services team is in contact with the customer regarding the matter”.
Since then, the Consumer Product Safety Commission has not only stepped in, but US aviation safety officials have also taken the unusual step of warning airline passengers not to turn on or charge the phone during flights, or put them in checked bags.
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Samsung sold about 2.5 million of its top-line smartphone, including about 1 million in the United States. And the CPSC urged Note 7 owners last week to turn off their phones even though a replacement version had yet to finalized. But those actions drew criticism from Consumer Reports and others who said that the seriousness of the defect merited a formal recall, which would make it illegal to continue selling the phones.
