Samsung announced Tuesday that by morning, 500,000 new Galaxy Note 7 devices would be in stores.
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By last Thursday, the company said it had exchanged 130,000 devices. That’s after it stopped sales of the smart phones earlier due to fire-prone batteries. The problem was related to problems with the phones’ lithium-ion batteries.
In Samsung’s home market of South Korea, where the exchange program began Monday and where customers could seek a full refund until Monday, Samsung said only that the number of refund seekers was “very low”.
Samsung is offering the exchange after it was forced to issue a formal recall of the million or so devices after several reports that the phone overheats and sometimes catches fire or explodes.
It said customers in Malaysia, who own Galaxy Note 7, could replace their current device with a new one beginning Sept 29 onwards.
About a quarter of affected phones had been exchanged in the United States by Tuesday, according to a spokeswoman for Samsung’s US subsidiary.
To encourage Galaxy Note 7 customers to turn in their affected devices, Samsung said it would release an automatic update for old Galaxy Note 7s in some markets that would limit the maximum charge on the phone’s battery to 60%.
The refurbished Note phone has a green battery indicator, while the recalled version has a white one.
Another phone dealer, Miss Joan okechukwu also told newsmen that her company never sold the Samsung Galaxy Note 7.
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“Our highest priority is the safety of our customers and we strongly urge Galaxy Note7 users to immediately participate in the replacement programme based on local availability”, SME added in the statement.
