Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 may be heading for a second recall in the future following a recent report of one of the exchanged safe units catching fire on a flight, but it seems that carriers may not be waiting around for Samsung to issue another recall and request that sales of the device be stopped. A new report this evening states that AT&T is considering the notion of halting all further sales of the Galaxy Note 7 across their retail channels, meaning the US’ second largest wireless carrier would no longer be carrying one of Android’s biggest flagship series phones, which would likely be a pretty big hit to Samsung, Android’s largest manufacturer.
Of course, the writing may have been on the wall with the numerous reports of bad devices that lead up to the initial recall last month, and it likely doesn’t help that Samsung’s reputation has probably been damaged a little bit due to the issues with the phone. An earlier report from this afternoon highlights that a survey issued to customers by Branding Brand found 34 percent of Galaxy Note 7 buyers would not be willing to buy another Samsung device in the future. Granted, it’s important to keep in mind that the survey contained the answers of what was likely a small portion of customers who purchased the phone, but the results of the survey are still alarming.
While the decision to stop sales of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 on its network is not final, it’s said that AT&T could decide on what to do as early as this evening, which suggests that it may not have been made in haste, and is potentially something that AT&T has been considering for a little while. If sales through the carrier are halted, it’s also being stated that AT&T would stop doing exchanges of the safe replacement units that Samsung sent out after the first recall. AT&T along with all the other major US carriers have already put new exchange systems in place, and AT&T is said to only allow customers to exchange safe Galaxy Note 7 units with another phone entirely if they decide to stop selling the phone altogether.