Shortly after the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 launched, news followed that a unit had exploded during charging. With exploding phones not exactly being a new thing and many different types of devices over the years having gone thermal in grandiose and very public fashion, nobody gave the news a second glance, chalking it up to a single faulty unit, or perhaps an electrical anomaly in the unit’s home. When it happened a second time and made headlines, people began to take notice. Upon investigation, Samsung discovered that it had happened not two, not three, but 35 different times to 35 different owners with 35 different units. They immediately set to work identifying what units could be in the same batches as the defective ones, and issued recalls as needed.
With the recalls in full swing, US carriers have already begun implementing their own solutions to stop sales and get Galaxy Note 7 units that have already been sold out of users’ hands and back to Samsung. Many people, however, either bought their phones unlocked, or managed to snag them secondhand from people who were either reselling them or had gotten their hands on one only to find that they did not want it. Luckily for these users, a press release put out on Friday indicates that Samsung is also offering a solution to users who need to get their potentially explosive devices back to their maker and exchanged for another, less failure-prone model. Customers can initiate the process by either going to the retail outlet that they got the phone from, or calling Samsung’s toll-free number at 1-800-SAM-SUNG, or 1-800-726-7864.
With Samsung’s solution, a full refund is not available, which stops customers who may be put off of Samsung because of the incident from jumping to another manufacturer. Instead, customers are invited to either wait one week and get their new Note 7 unit, with no defects to be found, or choose a Samsung Galaxy S7 or S7 Edge instead. Users who go for the latter options will receive a refund for the price difference between the devices that they’ve chosen, along with the S7 or S7 Edge version of any accessories that they happen to have that are specifically made for the Samsung Galaxy Note 7. All customers participating in the recall will get a $25 gift card or carrier bill credit (at select carriers), depending on how they obtained their Galaxy Note 7.