Mike Wuerthele
Attempting to put the Galaxy Note 7 debacle behind it, Samsung has paid for a full-page apology to consumers that appeared on Tuesday in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post.
"An important tenet of our mission is to offer best-in-class safety and quality. Recently, we fell short on this promise," said President and CEO of Samsung America Gregory Lee. "For this we are truly sorry."
"We will re-examine every aspect of the device, including all hardware, software, manufacturing and the overall battery structure," said Samsung. "We will move as quickly as possible, but will take the time needed to get the right answers."
Samsung has yet to determine what caused the fires in the initial shipments of the device, or in the replacement units. Most of the reported fires with the initial release were during charging, according to U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).
Employees involved in the post-recall testing claimed that they were required to keep communications about the evaluation process offline, with e-mails and other accountable forms of communication forbidden. Samsung allegedly feared lawsuits and subpoenas as a result of the fires, leading to the drastic restrictions on staff.
Fires in the replacement units didn't appear to be limited to units charging, with most of the reported fires happening during normal use, or when powered off completely in the case of the evacuated flight on a runway in Kentucky.
Samsung drew complaints from the CPSC in how it handled the initial "voluntary recall" of the device. Samsung reports that it is "fully cooperating" with the CPSC at this time to work out what happened, and to ensure that it doesn't happen again in other devices.
AppleInsider has learned that unreturned Galaxy Note 7 devices are still causing fires, with a CPSC employee telling us that there have been "more than 10" fires since the full recall, all caused by hold-outs refusing to return the devices.
Christine McKee
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31 Comments
If you're foolish enough to fall for this, you fully deserve their products. Including their washing machines.
I should've written it down yesterday when I heard it, but it was reported that one of the other Samsung line of phones has now had a battery explosion and fire. If so, their problems, massive as they are now, are just beginning.
This also makes me think that the unit on the plane was maybe not actually powered down, guessing there is not really a way to know. I see it all the time, the person across the aisle on taxi still texting, putting his phone down every time the attendant walks by. We are not a culture of rule followers.
They publish that, and then on other page there is a story of samsung washers getting recalled because their tops fly off. It just doesn't end with them.
And what ever happened to the idea of disabling these devices from the carrier level. Would like it a bit more if they didn't make it onto planes just because the user was not aware.