In short: Some Galaxy Note 9 pre-orders still haven’t reached their new owners in the United States, with a number of consumers now waiting for their Android flagships for over a month. Several individuals took to the company’s official product forums to complain about the development, claiming the firm’s customer support service is evasive when questioned about the reasons behind the delay. One customer who placed their Galaxy Note 9 pre-order on August 11 says they keep being given different explanations for the ordeal. All confirmed issues are related to pre-orders placed directly with Samsung; individuals claiming to be affected say they have so far only been offered a $25 discount code on their next purchase as an apology for the issue. ” What a joke! Do they really think I am going to buy anything from them again,” wrote one disgruntled customer.
Background: The Galaxy Note 9 officially hit the store shelves on August 24 and can already be purchased on a global level, with the device being carried by both Samsung itself and its distribution partners, including wireless carriers. No widespread supply issues with the Android phablet have been reported in any part of the world and even the newly spotted problems appear to be relatively limited in scope and aren’t believed to be affecting more than a dozen or so American consumers. Regardless, this isn’t the first occasion on which the U.S. branch of Samsung had logistics issues over the course of 2018; back in March, some of its customers who ordered the Sprint versions of the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus ended up receiving them with wrong SIM cards issued by Verizon.
Impact: Samsung is unlikely to release a public response on the matter unless the newly reported issue ends up being more widespread than originally thought. As things stand right now, the incident is unlikely to affect the company’s commercial performance in any significant manner, though it remains to be seen whether the affected customers end up receiving more generous compensation than the initially offered coupon codes.