Samsung said it’s stopping sales of its Galaxy Note7 smartphone after some phones exploded while charging.
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Korean media reports indicate that 35 cases of the Note 7 exploding while being charged up have been documented but only 24 were directly attributed to the so-called Batterygate.
Target has stopped selling the phone and is working with Samsung to replace the devices already sold in stores and online.
It is unusual for Samsung to confirm a delay in sales of a device, and rare for it to cite a quality issue.
Green Consumer Network in Korea, a civic activist group, issued a welcoming statement regarding the recall. “It will cost us so much it makes my heart ache”. The manufacturer plans to replace not only phones with faulty batteries sold to consumers, but also retailer inventories and units in transit.
Most netizens also said Samsung’s decision, as a global corporate giant, is desirable and that even a loss of 1 trillion won will later turn out to be a boon to its corporate image.
Teich says he asked Samsung if it would deploy an English language app to check battery and charger, it “repeated (its) hard line regarding replacing phones in the US over the coming weeks”.
Starting immediately, customers who are concerned about using the Note 7 can return the device to T-Mobile for a full, complete refund. VerizonOn September 2, 2016, Samsung announced a voluntary recall of the Galaxy Note7 in response to an issue with the device’s battery. Note 7 sales launched just two weeks ago.
Samsung launched the Note 7 on August 19 in some markets, including South Korea and the U.S. In the U.S., Samsung said it will let customers downgrade to a Galaxy S7 and refund the price difference. Koh refused to name the supplier.
“It is hard to reveal the exact expense of the recall”. There have not been human injury by the fire, but we decided that a simple battery exchange is not sufficient. “There were ample in-house discussions and the conclusion was that customer safety and satisfaction and product quality should be prioritized regardless of the monetary (loss)”, said Koh.
Koh, who declined to comment on the number of phones needing replacement, said Samsung had sold 2.5 million of the premium devices so far.
Germany’s biggest operator Deutsche Telekom said it had stopped delivering orders for the Galaxy Note 7, while French operator Orange said on its website that it had stopped pre-sales of the phone and postponed its planned sales launch – scheduled for Friday. So, the battery issue does not affect the Galaxy Note 7 model in China. While recalls in the smartphone industry do happen, including for rival Apple Inc, the nature of the problem for the Galaxy Note 7 is a serious blow to Samsung’s reputation, analysts said.
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The Note 7 features an iris scanner and an S-Pen that allows users to translate words.
