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Samsung to Customers: Stop Using Note 7, Then Wait For Replacements (samsung.com) 74

Samsung is now telling owners of their Galaxy Note 7 to "power down your device and return to using your previous phone. We will voluntarily replace your Galaxy Note7 device with a new one, beginning on September 19th... We acknowledge the inconvenience this may cause in the market but this is to ensure that Samsung continues to deliver the highest quality products to our customers." The BBC reports: Samsung has urged owners of its Galaxy Note 7 phones to stop using or exchange the devices as they risk exploding. A statement by Samsung, the world's biggest mobile phone maker, said "our customers' safety is an absolute priority..." Earlier on Saturday, aviation authorities in the United Arab Emirates banned use of the devices on the Emirates and Etihad airlines.
Three Australian airlines have already banned use of the phone, and by last week 35 incidents had been reported to Samsung, which believes that the exploding batteries affect 24 phones out of every million (or one phone out of every 41,666).
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Samsung to Customers: Stop Using Note 7, Then Wait For Replacements

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  • Then again (Score:4, Funny)

    by Ol Olsoc ( 1175323 ) on Saturday September 10, 2016 @03:42PM (#52863529)
    You aren't supposed to use it - but at least it has a headphone Jack.
    • by CanadianMacFan ( 1900244 ) on Saturday September 10, 2016 @08:32PM (#52864343)

      And you can still use it to listen to 4'33"

  • waiting on Volkswagen and Samsung
  • by labnet ( 457441 ) on Saturday September 10, 2016 @03:51PM (#52863567)

    How on earth will anyone tell they have a fixed phone? Will it have a big S on it for safe. Or be a different colour? Or will you have to find some tiny serial number and look it up?
    I do feel sorry for Samsung, as you can test hundreds of samples and not see a problem, but when you sell millions it only takes a low failure rate with a big consequence to have major repercussions.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by netcruiser ( 1645001 )
      You guessed it! It will actually have a big S (for safe) on it, on the sticker on the box. http://www.gsmarena.com/how_to... [gsmarena.com]
    • I do feel sorry for Samsung, as you can test hundreds of samples and not see a problem, but when you sell millions it only takes a low failure rate with a big consequence to have major repercussions.

      For a device costing hundreds of dollars, 1 out of 41666 is not a "low failure rate" by any stretch of the imagination. Heck, even for a cheap item a company would get hammered with class action suits for that level of failure - and this was a flagship product!

      They rushed it out, trying to get ahead of the Apple iPhone event... and it drastically backfired.

      • by labnet ( 457441 )

        Sorry, but you have no clue.
        These level of failure rates are a nightmare, as they are next to impossible for engineering to detect.
        What do think is a reasonable amount of battery/charger circuit combos to test. 100, 1000, 10000. Even at 10000, it was unlikely to be detected.

        • Oh no, he expects every unit to undergo thorough testing. And not any piddly flying probe type crap, oh no, every unit should be stress tested for hours while the senior greybeard stares at it sagely. It does cost several hundred dollars, surely they can work that into their margins. After all, automobiles cost tens of thousands, and there is never a safety defect on a single car that leaves the factory. Hell, manufacturing is easy. Children do it every day in sweatshops all around the third world, and look
        • I haven't been wasting time on this, since I've not changed my S5 for about 2 years now, and I'm not particularly interested in going to anyone's bleeding edge.

          Are you saying that the problem is actually between S7 phones (and S7-batteries, supplied by Samsung) and SAMSUNG-supplied chargers, or between S7s (etc) and third-party chargers?

          Since the phone is less than 4 years old, then charging is via a micro-USB connector. So if it's charged with a Samsung micro-USB charger, then that's certainly something

  • Is it at least waterproof?

    After they first denied then ignored the leaky Galaxy S7 Active, I don't have much confidence in Samsung. This time they're afraid of more damage than just the phone, so they have to take it seriously, but with the Active, they just said they would replace them under warranty if they failed (about half would, but who is going to test theirs?). Considering that it's a known defect and they didn't recall them, I hope they get sued for data loss.

    • Is it at least waterproof?

      The flames it emits are hot enough to turn any nearby water into a kind of gaseous shield.

      If you direct the output of the flames you can also use the phone as a means of propulsion, look for the Note7 Nozzle Xtreme cases to hit the market soon.

  • Return to using? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by sphealey ( 2855 ) on Saturday September 10, 2016 @03:58PM (#52863603)

    Return to using your previous device? Unlike an expired auto insurance card which many people stick in the glovebox, most "previous devices" have been traded in or sold to offset the cost of the new device thus leaving the hapless buyer device-less. Sorry about that.

    sPh

    • In that case they're telling people to go to the store where they bought their phone. Most carriers will give them a substitute Samsung phone [androidcentral.com] to use in the interim. Supposedly, Samsung is also providing loaner J-series phones, though I haven't seen details.

      The delay for a replacement is apparently a combination of a shortage of Note 7s using non-Samsung batteries (their battery division is new, and apparently not quite ready for prime time). And time to get FCC approval for a Note 7 with new batteries
    • most "previous devices" have been traded in or sold to offset the cost

      [Citation needed]. Anyway there are so many millions of smartphones stuck in people's desk drawers that if you actually needed an interim phone I'm sure you could easily get one for free.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    ...We acknowledge the inconvenience this may cause in the market but this is to ensure that Samsung continues to deliver the highest quality products to our customers."

    I really hate that patronizing attitude. And highest quality by whose standards?

    Well Samsung, I'm sorry for the inconvenience of the class action lawsuit I'm joining. And I'm sorry for the inconvenience of the millions of dollars in legal fees it's going to cost you.

    • Yeah, whoever decided to stick the term "continues to" in that statement is an ass. They would've come off much better if they'd said " ... to ensure that Samsung delivers the highest quality ..."

  • ...what to do! I'll stop using it as soon as you pry it out of my cold dead ha
    • by SeaFox ( 739806 )

      ...what to do! I'll stop using it as soon as you pry it out of my cold dead ha

      You mean "smoldering, missing"?

  • Sell it on eBay for $5,000
  • A fanatic is... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by mccalli ( 323026 ) on Saturday September 10, 2016 @04:55PM (#52863767) Homepage
    Churchill's quote: "A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject." [goodreads.com]

    This situation and post has literally nothing to do with Apple, yet at the time of writing there's around a third of the threads talking about Apple and some fantasy reaction they may or may not have had if faced with this circumstance. People - for gawd's sake give it a rest.
  • I want Galaxy Note 3 for a bigger phone with a small thumb keyboard on it.

  • I despise Samsung - not as much as I despise Microsoft, but plenty. I am therefore pretty happy that this is happening to them.
  • by wantobe ( 626056 ) <robm@mi l e s - p c . com> on Sunday September 11, 2016 @06:53AM (#52865419) Homepage
    The wife and I had continued using my Note7 up until yesterday, because I figured 1) the chances were pretty small(ish) that our phones were affected and 2) we hadn't yet had an official response from what Verizon was going to do. When I got the Samsung email yesterday, I decided that we should at least go to the local corporate Verizon store and see what they said. An hour later, we walked out with "loaner" phones (I got the s7, the wife got the s7 edge) and the promise that we would receive notification (text or email) when the fixed Note7s were going to be available. It wasn't too much hassle; they simply treated it as an exchange (they put the difference in taxes paid for the Note7 verses for the S7s on a gift card, which we'll use to pay that difference again when we get the Note7s) and I can't really see how they could have done much different. We're keeping all the accessories for the Note7, so we don't have to worry about any returns, and the rep we spoke to said the Zagg screen/back covers we bought would be replaced under the lifetime warranty Zagg offers. It's not a great situation, but I'm happy with the Samsung and Verizon responses.

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