Samsung has issued a statement for the British market explaining that it is replacing all customer’s current Galaxy Note 7 devices and has stopped sales of new ones because of the risk of an exploding battery. The company’s statement explains that as at the start of September, it was aware of thirty-five cases around the world. The majority of these have been in South Korea or North America with one report from Taiwan. Since the 1st of September we have seen other cases, but these are not mentioned in the press release. Samsung explain that they are voluntarily replacing devices with a new one over the coming weeks and customers need to call them for more information. This, the press release states is because Samsung place customer safety as their absolute priority
Samsung’s UK press release highlights some of the communications issues with being such a large business. Samsung’s story is a variant of the existing story, but there is one important difference: Samsung have explained what is causing the battery to explode. Their statement explains that a “very rare manufacturing process error” was causing an anode-to-cathode contact. A short circuit if you will. In the context of battery manufacturing over the world this is a rare event, but not it seems for the Samsung Galaxy Note 7. In the same press release, Samsung do not confirm the battery supplier involved but state that they use a number of suppliers and they are working with all of them. Of course, during Samsung’s investigation of the exploding Galaxy Note 7 devices, it will be painfully obvious to the manufacturer that had built the battery but it seems Samsung do not want to name and shame the battery supplier, at least officially to the UK market. It’s also interesting that Samsung have included a number of questions and answers at the bottom of their document and when asked if this were a recall, the company explained: “Although this is isolated to a battery cell issue, we are prioritizing the safety of our customers first so, we are voluntarily replacing Galaxy Note 7 devices with a new one.”
Nevertheless, the document also confirms that there are no other Samsung products that is believes could explode and that it does not envisage any issues with the replacement Galaxy Note 7 devices. New customers waiting for their Galaxy Note 7 in the UK will need to wait a little longer as Samsung will be replacing existing devices first.