The US. Consumer Product Safety Commission has officially recalled 1 million Samsung Galaxy Note 7 smartphones at risk of exploding.
Last week, the CPSC said it was working with Samsung to recall phones and urged all Galaxy Note 7 owners to shut the phones off and cease using them. That notice came a week after Samsung issued a voluntary recall of the product, after dozens of consumers reported Galaxy Note 7 devices catching on fire.
In its official recall statement, CPSC says that:
Consumers should immediately stop using and power down the recalled Galaxy Note7 devices purchased before September 15, 2016. Contact the wireless carrier, retail outlet or Samsung.com where you purchased your device to receive free of charge a new Galaxy Note7 with a different battery, a refund or a new replacement device. Go to www.samsung.com for more details.
On a press conference Thursday, CPSC said that the only phones eligible for a replacement/recall are those with affected battery components. The CPSC estimates that’s 97 percent of the phones in the U.S., so if you have a Galaxy Note 7, it is probably affected.
“Last week our message was to power down the phone, now it is to get that phone replaced or refunded,” a spokesman for the CPSC said on the call.
In order to determine if your phone is one of the recalled models, you’ll need to locate the IMEI on your phone, and call Samsung to find out if it is eligible for a replacement. If it’s part of the recall and you bought from a carrier, you need to go to the carrier. If you bought from Samsung, take it up with them.
When asked about Samsung’s decision to try to do a voluntary recall on its own, the CPSC spokesman said it was mostly focused on getting important information to customers. But he did get this dig in:
“As a general matter it’s not a recipe for a successful recall for a company to go out on its own. In my mind, anyone who thinks that the best way for a recall is for a company to go out on its own needs to have more than its phone checked.”
When we know exactly how it works we’ll let you know. The unofficial recall has been a total disaster, so we hope this one will go more smoothly.
[CPSC]