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Samsung Hit With Class Action Lawsuit Over Exploding Galaxy Note 7 (vice.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: Samsung's Galaxy Note 7 troubles are continuing -- the company was just hit with a class action lawsuit in New Jersey focused on recovering cell phone contract fees for customers who were left with an unusable phone for several weeks. The suit has three initial plaintiffs, who say that they were left without a phone for the several weeks between when Samsung and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission originally issued a recall and told consumers to "power down" their devices (September 9), and when the company began offering replacement devices (September 21). It also notes that Samsung didn't make enough replacement devices immediately available -- which is probably a good thing considering that the company ultimately had to recall those as well. "Samsung informed consumers they would have to wait several days, and even weeks in many cases, before receiving a replacement smartphone," the suit alleges. "During this time, and as a result of Defendant failing to provide consumers with an adequate replacement, consumers continued to incur monthly device and plan charges from their cellular carriers for phones they could not safely use." The total recall and destruction of Galaxy Note 7 phones is unprecedented for a modern smartphone, so there isn't much to look at in order to project whether the case will succeed. "Samsung has agreed to recall and reimburse the cost of the device, but their customers have had to continue to pay on their data and voice plans during the time they had to make their device inoperative until they received their replacement device," Richard McCune, one of the lawyers representing the class, told me. "That is the loss that the case is focused on."
Samsung are already taking a massive financial hit over the failure of the Note 7, so there's no punitive sense in bringing this suit. The plaintiffs won't receive much compensation, maybe a $20 credit for their next phone bill. Only the lawyers will get anything out of this.
I'll wager there were emails requesting that customers at least be exhorted to "use only Samsung manufactured and approved chargers" - and since we've all known certain Android apps to eat battery like candy, I'll wager there were more than a few internal emails warning that certain apps could be dangerous as well.
The Bene Gesserit understand the correct response. The courts need to tell Samsung: "You will pay."
It was clearly the battery, not the charger board or anything else. The photos all show it was the battery that burned, not the charging circuit. There's nothing in the case to puncture the battery, so flex and knocks are unlikely to be the cause. It was not the processor getting hot and lighting the battery, they are in different places and the fire was nowhere near.
Last I heard there were two possibles and an explanation for why the replacements sometimes went up in flames too:
Impurities in the battery, these act like discharge focal points and generate heat. Known problem due to poor manufacturing quality. The initial failure was focused on one supplier of batteries so this still seems most likely.
Unwanted induction from the wireless charger generating heat in the wrong place. Unlikely, fire was not correlated to use of the induction charging.
The swapped batteries are more likely to be imperfect (e.g. a little bit of glue left from the old battery and you have a pressure point on the new battery, do that 2 million times and you've got the same problem you had in the first place, a lot of imperfect phones).
The charger is unlikely to be an issue, since the charging circuit cleans it up and it was unfried. Third party Chinese chargers are very electrically noisy and you shouldn't use them regardless. They skimp on capacitors.
So after five years that settlement will net you a $20 check or coupon good for $20 off your next Samsung phone.
I have lived through this, it is not anything to sue over. I traded in my Note 3 for a 'bad' Note 7, had it for about 2 weeks until the first recall. I took it back and immediately got a replacement/stand in S7 Edge (which I really didn't like). The 'safe' Note 7's came out and I went back to the store and got the S7 replaced for the 'Safe' Note 7. AT NO TIME did not have phone service, just lost my lunch hour to sit through the replacement process. I still have my 'safe' Note 7 and am holding on to it until the LG LV20 comes out in about a week or so. Sorry Samsung, I am giving up on you, just not going to get another temp. replacement phone. I slow charge the Note 7 overnight and keep it in a double layer of pyrex dishes.
Leave it to a few asshats from Jersey to sue.
Samsung gave every a $25 bill credit already that covers a month device payment so a suit is unneeded.
'Cause there's a lot of butthurt going around on the Note 7 forums. Jesus - it's a phone. A nice one, but still just a phone. I get it if you were one of those weird edge cases where you got stuck in Bora Bora after the recall but before you had to fly home. Or you traded your Note 4 for $200 to get it and now you can't get your original phone back. That sucks - no doubt. Or you tried to save $100 by buying one off of Craigslist and now it's hard to return. I'm going to call that a "learning experience," but I digress...
I had two of them, they were great. I was sad to hear of the full recall because there's nothing out there like it in functionality. But, in the end, I'm basically in the same position I would have been if the Note 7 had never come along. If I'd wanted a replacement I could have, like 90% of the people out there, called up my rep and had them ship me a different phone, and send my N7 back in. In fact, after the second one, I did. And it will take an entire month for them to credit me for the phones I sent in. But in the end I pretty much used a Note 7 for free, and got a $25 "we're sorry" credit and a $225 "please choose one of our other phones" discount ($75 from Samsung, $150 from the seller). If you can't tell, I'm finding it hard to see the value in such a suit, and I kind of hope the judge tells them to go pound sand because the lawyers are the only ones who are going to make any money in the deal.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
That was lucky!
https://techcrunch.com/2012/11...
>"Samsung Hit With Class Action Lawsuit Over Exploding Galaxy Note 7 "
Except none of them "exploded." Burned, perhaps... but that doesn't sound sensationalistic enough.
I hate lawyers. When they get through, we will pay $1500 for a cellphone.
The charger board itself doesn't have had to catch fire to be the source of the problem, it could simply be the thing that ended up overloading the battery such that a short while later the battery runaway heating cycle became noticeable in the form of flame...
I'm pretty sure the fires all had something to do with either the charging or power management firmware, after all batteries from two different manufactures had the same issue... plainly the issue is not the battery itself.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I have a note 7. Getting my pixel xl today. I went through the first exchange as well, i pre ordered back on aug 3rd. Yes its been a pain in the ass but samsung and verizon made it as painless as possible. I received a 25$ credit sep 21st for the first exchangex and i got one for preordering the pixel as my 2nd exchange. Not omly that, most carriers are refunding/crediting any payments on the phones made sonfar as well, including taxes. How much more can they do? My accessories (gear vr amd wireless charger) were refunded without a problem. I was refunded 100% for the phome and accessories and got 50$ ontop for my trouble. Considering the massive scale of the problem and the "evil giants" involved, it was handled pretty well.
Shouldn't they be suing the carriers who continued to charge customers even when they knew the phones they sold their customers couldn't be used? Let the carriers sue Samsung if they can/want.
their phones broke, they were offered a full compensation, and should take it. It's more than what f.ex. Apple would do.
Perhaps a hotspot where the cpu is located.
love is just extroverted narcissism
Due to all these issues Samsung has been having with devices, I see Apple banking huge on Samsung's misfortune which is a bit saddening for Android users.
We love these devices!