Tag: Galaxy Note7

If you haven’t figured it out, the Samsung Galaxy Note7 is dangerous, it has been recalled and basically every mobile carrier has thrown a Samsung-built kill switch update that renders the phone useless.  Verizon rolled out an update a couple of weeks ago that prevented the phablet from charging but some Note7 owners never updated to it as they figured out how to get around it.  So, meet Verizon Note7 kill switch 2.

Verizon has begun re-routing calls made from the Note7 to customer service.  This is on every call you make with the exception of 911.  They are serious about you getting that phone back to them.  Oh, and if that isn’t enough to get you to turn in the phone at your local Verizon store, don’t be surprised if you see an $800 charge on an upcoming bill for the phone.  Now to be fair I question how they could get away with this but the point here is that Verizon is making a statement: Turn in your Note7.  Now.

While there remains a few thousand Galaxy Note7 in the wild, Samsung is continuing to make heavy handed efforts to get those recalled devices back in their hands.  Already issuing an update that limits the charging to 60% of capacity, the South Korean company has gone a step further by not allowing the devices to charge at all.  Effectively, this is the kill switch for the device so if you are one of the few who have one, you won’t be able to use it much longer.  The news is not surprising as the company has been trying to get all of the remaining devices in the globally back in their hands.

What is surprising is that Verizon has said they will not roll out the update to their customers.  Uh, what?

Citing safety concerns (ironic) and not wanting to cut customers off during the holidays from their devices, Verizon has said they will not be pushing the update out to the Note7 on their network.

The long, painful and expensive saga of the Galaxy Note7 is over.  Samsung today has halted all sales and production of the beleaguered device, citing safe concerns over batteries catching fire.  The Korean manufacture has requested all consumers power down the devices and return them to the retailer or carrier from which it was purchased for a refund or exchange for another device.  The news comes just a day after all the major carriers here in the United States along with retailer Best Buy announcing they were no longer selling the phablet.

Amid reports of replacement units catching fire, AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon have all stopped selling the Samsung Galaxy Note7.  The carriers are all offering their customers either refunds or the option to select another phone from their lineup.  The news comes at the same time as reports have surfaced that Samsung themselves are “adjusting” the production of the Note7 with some suggested it has been stopped outright.

While it may not be clear what Samsung will do with the Note7, what is clear is that the device and to a lesser extent Samsung themselves are tainted and have lost an amount of trust with consumers.

There appears to be light at the end of the nightmare tunnel for Samsung.  T-Mobile announced yesterday that they, along with Sprint and Verizon, will resume sales of the Galaxy Note7 on Wednesday, October 5th here in the United States.  The resumption of sales ends a painful few months for the Korean manufacture who had to recall millions of Note7’s globally due to faulty batteries.  The new units have a completely new battery from a complete different manufacture.

Sprint and Verizon announced last Friday that they would be resuming sales of the device in their stores and online.  T-Mobile will be doing the same and they represent the first GSM carrier here in the United States to resumes sales.

Samsung USA has stated that nearly half of the 1 million of the Galaxy Note7 impacted by the recent recall have been returned here in the US.  That’s actually really great news as owners of the Note7 have taken the recall pretty seriously and returned the devices to their carrier or the store from which they bought it for a replacement.

Samsung Electronics America, Inc. announced today that about half of all recalled Galaxy Note7 phones sold in the U.S. have been exchanged through Samsung’s voluntary recall. Additionally, 90 percent of Galaxy Note7 owners have been opting to receive the new Galaxy Note7 since the phones became widely available on Wednesday, September 21.

It would appear too that users are opting to stick with the Note7 upon that exchange of their devices although they have mostly had the option to go with a different device if they so choose.