Attention, Blackjack owners: If your favorite smartphone (the Blackjack, natch) has been experiencing odd dropped calls for no apparent reason, and you’ve been cursing up a storm to AT&T, your anger may be misguided.
According to the nice people at Samsung, a few Blackjacks made from November 2006 to February 2007 might have a manufacturing glitch that hangs up when you don’t want it to. While there’s no official recall, Samsung, through AT&T, is offering a free exchange program for certain owners of the popular smartphone.
Check the date on the sticker behind the battery. It’ll be in a yy.mm format, so 06.11 for November of 2006. If it’s 06.11 through 07.02, dial 1-800-801-1101 and tell them what’s going on to initiate a replacement.
Most customers won’t be affected by the defect, and Blackjacks made after February had a corrected manufacturing process, so they won’t have the problem.
Make sure to back your stuff up first.
A FAQ, from Samsung:
Q: What is the nature of the product advisory issued by ATT and Samsung
regarding the SGH-i607 BlackJack?A: First, there is no recall of product. Some customers who purchased
the Samsung BlackJack i607 which was manufactured during the months of
November 2006 – February 2007 may find they are experiencing dropped
calls or poor signal reception.Q: What should I do if I am experiencing these issues with my BlackJack
phone?A: If you are experiencing these issues, contact AT&T’s Exchange by
Mail (XBM) program at 1-800-801-1101. The XBM representative will assist
customers with devices built in the timeframe by exchanging their device
for another.Q: How can I tell when my phone was manufactured?
A: The date will be located on the lower right hand side of the
identification sticker in the battery compartment. It is in the format
of yy.mm.Q: What has Samsung done to correct the issue?
A: Samsung has implemented some design changes to fix these issues and
there have been no issues with call performance with all new hardware
manufactured from and after March 2007.