With Samsung set to lose $5 billion in operating profit and with its consumers’ trust in tatters, the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 troubles just keep coming, even though the device is no longer available. Now, the latest trouble to plague the company comes in the form of a class action lawsuit in New Jersey, which focuses on recovering cell phone contract fees for customers who were left without a usable smartphone for weeks, due to the first voluntary Galaxy Note 7 recall.
The suit has three initial plaintiffs, all of which say they were left without a phone for several weeks due to the recall. This happened after Samsung and the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued a recall on September 9th of all Galaxy Note 7 devices in the US and requested all users to power down their affected devices. The company only started offering replacement units to its affected customers on September 21, leaving most users without a phone for over a week. The suit also notes that Samsung didn’t have enough replacement Galaxy Note 7 units immediately available for affected users. The suit alleges that Samsung informed consumers that they would have to wait for several days, and even weeks in many cases, before receiving a replacement smartphone. During that time, Samsung failed to provide consumers with an adequate replacement, and consumers continued to incur monthly device and plan chargers from their respective cellular carriers.
According to Motherboard, it contacted Samsung but a spokesperson from the company stated that it does not comment on a pending litigation. The case has been filed by McCuneWright law firm, which is currently representing a class of iPhone 6 and 6 Plus owners suing Apple as their devices came with an engineering defect. As for the plaintiffs of this suit, they are John Waudby of Nevada, Robert Spuntak of Pennsylvania and Mohammad Ibrahim of California, all claiming monetary damages as a result of the oversight. On top of that, 100 other class members have joined and it is estimated that damages stand at $5 million, without taking into account the interest and costs incurred. The counts are breach of warranty, fraud and breach of the duty of good faith and fair dealing.