The adage it won’t happen to me seems to be a prevailing attitude among Samsung Galaxy Note 7 owners – or at least over one million of them that refuse to turn in their device. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission (US CPSC) has teamed up with Samsung in a second attempt to have customers return their Galaxy Note 7s after replacement devices also were having issues of overheating, but about 40-percent of their owners seem to be avoiding the issuance of a return order. Samsung even sent out fireproof bags for owners to use when returning them.
Last Tuesday Samsung announced that it would cease production of the Galaxy Note 7 and not sell it this year. They are even discussing dropping the ‘Note’ naming altogether, and there has been further discussion about abandoning the Galaxy Note device completely. Hopefully, it will not come down to eliminating the Galaxy Note series. Once Samsung can determine the exact cause of the Galaxy Note 7s design flaw, they should fix it, and move on…people can be very forgiving, especially because the Note fills a unique niche that no other phablet has been able to do. You can see in the graph below from a study by Apteligent that there is 7% more usage of the Galaxy Note 7 than after Samsung’s first recall back in September. You can see where there was a slight drop in usage after the second recall, but 40-percent have still not heeded all of the warnings.
It is understandable that many want to keep their Galaxy Note 7s in hand, but is it worth the risk to possible personal damage or property damages? The Galaxy Note 7 is a sleek device – possibly one of the nicest looking smartphones ever developed – and if you had yours for over a month with nary a warm spot, it is easy to get a false sense of security. However, they have already been banned on all US flights and cruise ships – and even FedEx and UPS have put bans on flying the Galaxy Note 7 and issuing ground service only. There are sure to be more places that prohibit the device for the safety of all concerned.
As much as you love your Galaxy Note 7, it may be best to follow Samsung and the CPSC pleas to return the device so it can be properly disposed of before it reeks havoc on your life.