When you pay a high price for a flagship phone, you expect it to be a worthwhile transaction. Hearing that you’re carrying a potential fire hazard in your pocket and being told to return it at once for a safe unit can shake your faith in the manufacturer a bit, to say the least, but most Samsung Galaxy Note 7 buyers were all too happy to pick up their new units. In China, however, the provider of the batteries that had caused the explosions was never used in the first place, and units reportedly still encountered issues. In the States and other recall zones, reports of replacement units suffering the same end result were capped off by the story that a reportedly brand new Galaxy Note 7, certified safe by Samsung, had grounded a Southwest Airlines flight. At this news, Sprint told customers that they could trade Samsung’s latest for any other device while the investigation into the plane fiasco was ongoing. AT&T has now joined them.
Just like with Sprint’s offer to return the new run of units, AT&T customers need only walk into their local AT&T store with their Galaxy Note 7, whether it’s from the original run or a replacement, and they’ll be able to walk out with another device. AT&T has not clarified whether customers can simply get a refund instead of a new device, but with Sprint, only a new device is allowed, so it can be assumed for now that the same will be true of AT&T’s policy. Verizon has yet to issue a statement, so their normal return policy likely applies, and T-Mobile has stated that their usual 14 day return window applies to the replacement units.
While the Southwest Airlines incident was highly publicized, it is still only one incident, and still under heavy investigation. It is unknown at this time how it happened, whether the new Note 7 units have an issue or whether that one particular unit slipped through the cracks, or had simply combusted as cell phones are sometimes liable to do. In any case, the offer is only open during the active investigation, so anybody wanting to step away from their replacement Galaxy Note 7 and grab something else should make their way to their nearest AT&T store soon.