You know what? It might be time to just go ahead and trade in that new Galaxy Note 7 for something else entirely.
Thankfully, most of the major carriers here in the US have made it fairly easily to trade the problematic handset in for a completely different phone.
AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon were among the first to take things a step farther by halting sales of the device completely as the US Consumer Product Safety Commission looks into precisely what is going on with the handset.
“While Samsung investigates multiple reports of issues, T-Mobile is temporarily suspending all sales of the new Note7 and exchanges for replacement Note7 devices,” T-mobile wrote in a statement.
Samsung, meanwhile, says that it’s also investigating additional reports surrounding incidents involving units sent out by the company to replace the initial batch of faulty phablets (that number was around three-dozen when the company formally issued its recall statement). As of the writing of this post, reported issues with the new phone number around five – a sizable jump since the first story came about a smoking unit hit the wire on Thursday.
In addition to the incident on a plane at the gate in Louisville, reports have come in from Minnesota, Kentucky, Virginia and Texas about problematic units, all tied to replacement devices.
Samsung reached out to us with a statement late Friday, prior to the reporting of these most recent incidents, stating that the company is working with the CPSC, “to take immediate steps to address the situation.”
A spokesperson for the company more recently gave us a similarly-worded (but shorter) statement, downplaying the number of reported issues while re-reassuring consumers that it’s looking into what’s going on with the devices. Here it is, in full.
We are working diligently with authorities and third party experts and will share findings when we have completed the investigation. Even though there are a limited number of reports, we want to reassure customers that we are taking every report seriously. If we determine a product safety issue exists, Samsung will take immediate steps approved by the CPSC to resolve the situation.
Update: As of the end of the business day on Monday, U.S. Cellular had halted sales of all Samsung Galaxy Note 7’s, a spokesperson confirmed, and offered customers who had already purchased one of the phones a chance to exchange it for any other smartphone sold at a U.S. Cellular store. Sprint had also halted sales of replacement units, at least.
Samsung also asked carriers and retailers to stop sales and began issuing refunds on all replacements.