Nobody really wants their pocket to explode or their purse to catch fire. That’s bad. So owners of defective Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phones, which have a manufacturing defect in the battery that can lead it to catch fire or explode, have been told to exchange theirs. That, however, is proving much easier on paper than in reality.
For those playing along at home, here’s a brief timeline of the major events that led us here:
- August 31: Samsung delays new shipments of the Note 7, after receiving reports that some units sold in South Korea may have caught fire.
- September 2: Samsung admits the phones have a problem and announces the exchange program.
- September 15: Samsung and the CPSC finally make the recall official.
- September 16: Samsung’s top U.S. executive apologizes for the fact that 97% of Galaxy Note 7 phones may be susceptible to exploding; promises replacements will be available no later than Sept. 21.
- September 21: U.S. wireless carriers say that new phones are now available for anyone to order, not just for folks who need to exchange potentially flammable ones.
That exchange program Samsung announced on Sept. 2 gives owners of defective Note 7 phones two options. Either they can:
1.) Exchange their defective Galaxy Note 7 for a new, non-defective one, or
2.) Exchange their Galaxy Note 7 for a Galaxy S7 or S7 Edge instead and receive a refund of the price difference between the two devices.
Samsung said on Sept. 20 that only about a quarter of the defective units sold in the U.S. have been exchanged so far.
We’ll grant that some of that is no doubt down to consumers, some large percentage of whom have likely not yet pursued an exchange. The carriers who sell the phones, however, seem to be another big bottleneck, as Consumerist readers are reporting challenges trying to get their phones swapped.
One Consumerist reader with a defective Note 7 tells Consumerist that he spoke with T-Mobile employees three separate times on Sept. 21 but still hasn’t received any clarity about when he can expect to see his replacement phone.
“I wanted to go to a local store to replace the phone, but the representative [on the dedicated Note 7 exchange hotline] told me they cannot process an exchange that way,” he writes. The customer service agent told him they would have to ship a dedicated unit to a store of his choice, and that he would be able to pick it up on Sept. 22.
Later that day, when he had not received a tracking number, he called again. A second representative assured him that the phone was in a warehouse and would be shipping to the store, and promised a shipping notification soon.
By evening, the customer still had no tracking notice. He called the hotline again, at which point a third agent said that they do not have the new phones in stock, and do not know when they should be able to ship them — and added that the reader should call his local stores to see if they have one, in direct contradiction to what earlier agents said.
Our intrepid reader called the hotline again on the morning of Sept. 22, only to be told once again that there are none in stock now. In the meantime, the stores local to him all sold out too, and so he’s stuck with a dangerous phone for a while longer.
We checked in with T-Mobile, after reading their instructions to consumers who own Note 7 devices, to ask what their customers should do. It turns out, our reader’s third CSR was the right one.
“Customers should definitely bring their phones into a retail store,” T-Mobile told us. “We’ll give them new accessories, whatever they have that they got with their Note 7, we’ll take care of it.”
The representative also added that affected Note 7 owners can exchange their devices for any other phone in the store’s inventory, and encouraged Note 7 owners to come swap out their phones soon.
It’s not just T-Mobile customers, though; another reader reports similar issues exchanging his phone with Sprint.
He called Sprint stores in his region on Sept. 19, 20, and 21, he reports, asking if there were any replacement Note 7 units in stock. On Monday and Tuesday, he was met with responses saying they hadn’t come in, which was to be expected. However, on Sept. 21 he says he was told, “No, we already sold out.”
When he inquired further, he says, the representative at the store told him they’d sold out on Tuesday, the Sept. 20 — a day he called and was told there weren’t any. The employee told him that phones were being distributed on a “first come, first served” basis — meaning that new customers who wanted new Note 7 phones were getting them when they showed up and asked, while exchange customers with recalled product would have to keep waiting if they didn’t show up at the right time.
Sprint store employees also told this shopper that they would be unable to hold a phone for 30 minutes for him, if he called and reserved one and then went to pick it up.
“The corporate offices of [Sprint] have been helpful,” our reader writes, “but Samsung is delivering devices directly to the retail stores … creating a bottleneck that will undoubtedly give rise to more delays and possibly more issues” while customers with defective devices are left waiting for replacements.
We asked Sprint to clarify what customers with affected devices should do, and what their policy on distribution is, but haven’t heard back yet; we’ll update if/when we do. We’ve also asked AT&T and Verizon Wireless to comment on what their subscribers should do, and will update with statements from them as we receive them.
This kind of chaos is part of why the CPSC was not happy Samsung tried to go it alone with a non-recall recall in the first place. “Companies should not be putting out unilateral recall announcements,” a CPSC official told us at the time. “It doesn’t matter if it’s a global product or a solely U.S.-based company. Consumers should be appropriately informed, and that takes time and planning. It does not serve consumers well to simply say a product will be recalled without coordination regarding the scope and remedies.”
In the meantime, if you’re a Galaxy Note 7 owner having a hard time getting your phone exchanged, drop us a line: tips@consumerist.com
by Kate Cox via Consumerist