It’s no secret that Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 debacle had an impact on the overall brand, and today the company is looking to remedy that in part with full page apology ads in major United States daily news papers, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Washington Post (via The Verge).
Samsung has announced today to provide an update on the Note 7 debacle, saying that almost 85% of all recalled Galaxy Note 7 devices have now been replaced through its exchange program. You would think the Korean company would rather just pretend like nothing happened at this point, but I guess these numbers aren’t that bad — 85% is a good majority.
But it looks like that number is about to inch its way even higher, as Samsung now says that it plans to push out a software update that effectively cripples remaining Note 7 devices that the brave loyalists out there refuse to give up…
It seems some people really can’t take a hint. Despite the fact that the Note 7 is considered so dangerous it’s a criminal offence to take one on board a U.S. aircraft, some owners are still refusing to return them. After Samsung limited charging rates, several carriers are now upping the ante by remotely blocking the device from connecting to mobile networks …
Samsung has been having a rough time since the launch of its Note 7 smartphone, and even though the production of the handset has been halted and devices have been recalled, the company still doesn’t know for sure what caused the phone to explode. A new report out of Reuters says that Samsung is planning to officially announce the reasoning behind the defective Note 7 units sometime around the end of this year…
Many of us were assuming that after the Note 7 disaster, Samsung would be retiring the Note brand at least, and there have even been reports that the company planned to abandon the product line altogether. A post on the company’s Korean website, however, suggests that neither is the case.
Reuters noted that the company was not only referencing a Note 8, but also offering a special deal for Note 7 customers who remained loyal to the company by exchanging it for an S7.
Samsung said customers who trade in their Note 7 phone for either a flat-screen or curved-screen version of the Galaxy S7 can trade up for a Galaxy S8 or Note 8 smartphone launching next year through an upgrade program […]
Users in the upgrade program will need to pay only half the price of a Galaxy S7 device, rather than the full amount, before exchanging to the S8 or the Note 8, Samsung said …
The Guardian reports multiple cases of Samsung refusing to meet the full costs of damage caused by Note 7 fires. It recounts the stories of three owners whose homes suffered severe damage after their Note 7 devices caught fire.
John Barwick from Marion, Illinois, was in bed on 8 September when his wife Joni’s device exploded on the nightstand […]
“They told me they weren’t going to pay replacement costs of any damaged items. We were asking to have our carpet replaced, and to have the goods that were sprayed on replaced. We sent them photos,” he said. Instead, Samsung offer to pay a depreciated value of the items.
While some low-end insurance policies do only pay out for the used value of damaged goods, you’d expect a company of Samsung’s size to have better insurance in place. Samsung is also refusing to pay for hotel costs for someone forced to move out of their home due to the severity of the damage …
One of the biggest theories we’ve seen surrounding the fallout from Samsung’s Note 7 recall is the potential that the company would ditch the Note branding ─ something I don’t doubt at all ─ however, according to a report out of Korea, that cut may be a bit more drastic.
With Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 now officially classified as ‘forbidden hazardous material‘ and too dangerous to be taken on board aircraft, the company has begun rolling out an international airport exchange program. CNET reports that the company plans to offer the trade-in standards at major airports around the world.
After setting up exchange booths in South Korea’s Incheon airport, Samsung is now spreading the initiative across the world, announcing trade-in booths in airports across Australia. The customer service booths will allow passengers to switch out their recalled Galaxy Note 7 (along with the data on it) to another Samsung device […] The company also says it’s working to set up trade-in stands at other airports around the world.
ABC7News notes that one of the booths has been spotted in the USA, ahead of the security checkpoints at San Francisco airport …
As the FAA banned Note 7 devices from all U.S. flights – whether or not powered-on – it has emerged that Samsung used its own lab to test the Note 7 batteries prior to launch. The wireless industry trade group CTIA told the WSJ that Samsung was the only manufacturer to rely on in-house certification rather than using an independent lab.
Although Samsung’s own lab was CTIA certified, questions have been raised about the potential for conflicts of interest when a lab is signing-off the safety of its own products …
Samsung still has a lot of work in front of it with the Galaxy Note 7 recall, but if it lives up to its promises, the company may just salvage its reputation. However, things aren’t going to go perfectly in every case…
At this point, we can’t urge you enough to return your Galaxy Note 7 and get another device, but not everyone is going to listen. Many people, some with louder voices than others, are planning to stick with the phone, and that’s a bad, bad idea. As the days go by, more reasons are accumulating for why you should get rid of the phone, and the US government is adding another to the list ─ the Galaxy Note 7 has been banned from all US flights…
The US Consumer Product Safety Commission has once again made Samsung’s recall of the Note 7 official, extending its formal recall notice to replacement devices as well as original ones. Samsung had already instructed owners to cease using the devices and to return them for refund or replacement with alternative devices.
In an attempt to persuade former Note 7 owners to remain loyal to the brand, Samsung is now offering $100 credit to anyone exchanging their device for another Samsung phone …
Samsung has slashed $2.3B from its Q3 profit projections to allow for Note 7 recall costs, effectively wiping out the entire profits of its mobile business for the quarter, reports the WSJ.
Lee Seung-woo, an analyst at IBK Securities in Seoul, said he was now expecting the company to report a small operating loss in the third quarter for Samsung’s mobile division. If so, that would mark that business unit’s first quarterly loss stretching back to before its first Note series phone was released in 2011.
Samsung last week said that it expected profits to rise despite the first Note 7 recall, but it was at that time expecting most owners to swap the original for a replacement device. Its new numbers are claimed to reflect the complete loss of those sales, but that claim seems optimistic at best …
With production of the Galaxy Note 7 over and retail stores no longer selling the device, Samsung is now focusing on the safety angle. In addition to advising all owners to power down the device, the company has been sending out Note 7 Return Kits (via XDA Developers) as early as last week.
It’s been a long and hard road since Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 recall began, and now it’s finally over. Unfortunately for Samsung, it’s ended on a very sour note – the Note 7 is officially dead.
It’s been a rough past few days for Samsung. Following carriers halting sales of the device and a report stating that the company had stopped production of the device, Samsung has officially stopped sales of the device worldwide.
Since the launch of the Note 7, Samsung has been plagued with countless issues involving the handset. Following an official recall in conjunction with the Consumer Product Safety Commission, Samsung replaced over a million defective units, but even these new Note 7’s are having issues. According to a new report, Samsung is now halting the production of the Note 7, at least for the time being…
After several explosions over the past few days of replacement Galaxy Note 7 units, AT&T has decided to completely halt sales of the Galaxy Note 7…
Reports of a replacement Galaxy Note 7 catching fire surfaced on Wednesdsay when a Soutwest flight was evacuated during boarding. However, a new story points to Samsung being aware of a possible replacement device catching fire one day earlier in Nicholasville, Kentucky and trying to “slow” down the affected customer…
It’s all over… After all four major carriers in the US decided to let any wary customers, and even reports that AT&T was considering completely dropping the device, another replacement Galaxy Note 7 has exploded…
The trouble just doesn’t stop for Samsung. After what was expected to be the end of the Note 7 recall, things blew up in the company’s face — almost literally. Now things look like they’re going to get even worse. According to a report out of Bloomberg, AT&T may be planning to drop sales of the device all together…
Following a ‘safe’ Note 7 fire on board an airliner, Sprint has told Re/code that it will allow any owner to return replacement models outside of the standard return window. Owners will be able to swap them out for a different device.
If a Sprint customer with a replacement Note 7 has any concerns regarding their device, we will exchange it for any other device at any Sprint retail store during the investigation window
The terms are more generous than those currently offered by other carriers …
When a series of fires and explosions forced Samsung to recall almost 2.5 million units of its Galaxy Note 7 models at an estimated cost of a billion dollars, the last thing in the world it wanted was to have one of its new ‘safe’ replacement handsets catch fire. But that’s exactly what happened yesterday, and in the worst possible circumstances: on board an airliner.
The only saving grace for Samsung was that the aircraft was still at the gate. Had it been in flight at the time, things could obviously have been very much worse.
However, while the news is grim, we do need to be a little careful about jumping to conclusions …
Earlier this morning a Southwest Airlines flight about to head out of Louisville was evacuated as a passenger’s Galaxy Note 7 caught fire. Unfortunately for Samsung, that Note 7 was one that it had already been replaced with a supposedly “safe” unit…