Samsung might have hoped that its Note 7 battery problems would be taken care of with the global recall already in place, but the replacement units aren’t faring much better.
In the past seven days, at least three reports of replacement Note 7 handsets – marked as safe with a black sticker on the box – catching fire have hit headlines around the world, including one that caught fire on a plane. However, according to WKYT, Samsung known about the potential for the replacement units to catch fire since at least Tuesday. It hasn’t, as yet, put its replacement programme on hold.
Michael Klering, the victim of the latest reported incident, said he wasn’t even using the phone at the time.
“The phone is supposed to be the replacement, so you would have thought it would be safe. It wasn’t plugged in. It wasn’t anything, it was just sitting there,” he said.
While news of replacement units catching fire is already terrible news for Samsung, Klering’s story took on an additional twist that suggested the company may have deliberately dragged its feet in dealing with the incident. According to Klering, he received a text message from a Samsung representative intended for another member of staff that read: “Just now got this. I can try and slow him down if we think it will matter, or we just let him do what he keeps threatening to do and see if he does it.”
We’ve asked Samsung for comment, but hadn’t heard back at the time of writing.
As we said just a few days ago, Samsung’s troubles with the Note 7 are far from over.
Update: A Samsung spokesperson got in touch with the following statement:
“Samsung understands the concern our carriers and consumers must be feeling after recent reports have raised questions about our newly released replacement Note7 devices. We continue to move quickly to investigate the reported case to determine the cause and will share findings as soon as possible. We remain in close contact with the CPSC throughout this process. If we conclude a safety issue exists, we will work with the CPSC to take immediate steps to address the situation. We want to reassure our customers that we take every report seriously and we appreciate their patience as we work diligently through this process.”
Related: Galaxy Note 7 saga could still get way worse for Samsung
Watch: Note 7 vs S7
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.