Verizon Changes Its Mind and Will Kill Samsung's Galaxy Note 7 on January 5th (theverge.com)

Verizon has just announced that it plans to roll out Samsung's upcoming Note 7 update, which permanently stops the recalled smartphone from charging and disables its wireless radios, on January 5th. Only last week, the leading US carrier took a controversial stance when it said it would "not be taking part in this update because of the added risk this could pose to Galaxy Note 7 users that do not have another device to switch to." From a report on The Verge: The company was particularly concerned about nuking the Note 7 during the holiday travel season, something that its US rivals also seemed to take into consideration when scheduling a roll-out date for the update. AT&T is waiting until the very same day. Sprint will release it on January 8th. And T-Mobile's going first among major US carriers on December 27th. Verizon still seems to think it's making the right decision pushing things off a bit for the same reasons. "We want to make sure you can contact family, first responders, and emergency medical professionals during the holiday travel season."

Comments

It's been months, give it up

[Virtucon]

It's dead, get your money back and get something else. I can't imagine anyone wanting to cling onto this burning POS.

Re:It's been months, give it up

[fafalone]

First off, the danger is known and given the odds of having a fire hazard device and the fact the cause has been established and can be prevented with care, the risk falls within the levels of many other products we're allowed to own.

Second, and more important, I hope they get sued into the ground for this. It is absolutely unacceptable that a product you purchased can be force bricked at the manufacturer's whim. They're intentionally destroying your property. It's like not taking your car in due to a recall notice then the car company shows up and you wake up to a crushed cube in your driveway.
They absolutely have the right to, and probably should, ban the devices from connecting to the cellular network by blacklisting the IMEI like a stolen phone, but the right to just destroy it completely is an extremely dangerous precedent.

Nobody SHOULD want to continue to use that phone, but that shouldn't give the company that made it free reign to destroy your paid-for private property at will.

Re:It's been months, give it up

[trudyscousin]

First off, the danger is known and given the odds of having a fire hazard device and the fact the cause has been established and can be prevented with care, the risk falls within the levels of many other products we're allowed to own.

Second, and more important, I hope they get sued into the ground for this. It is absolutely unacceptable that a product you purchased can be force bricked at the manufacturer's whim. They're intentionally destroying your property. It's like not taking your car in due to a recall notice then the car company shows up and you wake up to a crushed cube in your driveway.
They absolutely have the right to, and probably should, ban the devices from connecting to the cellular network by blacklisting the IMEI like a stolen phone, but the right to just destroy it completely is an extremely dangerous precedent.

Nobody SHOULD want to continue to use that phone, but that shouldn't give the company that made it free reign to destroy your paid-for private property at will.

I couldn't disagree with you more.

An "extremely dangerous precedent" already has been made, which is the release of a device that has proven to be susceptible to fire and explosion. Don't forget that this particular conflagration (a Li-Ion fire) burns under water.

That's one's prerogative to carry such a bomb in one's pocket, until the possibility of injury or death to those surrounding one exists. Given this, these devices need to be neutralized, and 'updating' them so that they can't be recharged seems to be a solid approach.

Looking at the bigger picture, this isn't about you. It sucks that you're out the money you invested in your device, but wasn't there a program in place to obtain a replacement (besides the abortive attempt to effect replacement with the same device)?

Re:It's been months, give it up

[thegarbz]

and the fact the cause has been established and can be prevented with care

No it can't. There is nothing you can do to prevent it. Phones have blown up with little charge, with a lot of charge, while not on charge, while not on, and in every other category you can think of.

Second, and more important, I hope they get sued into the ground for this.

They won't. In fact what they did should be grounds for cases against them to be thrown out. Pro-actively working to get a known dangerous device out of people's hands, offering not only a full refund but also breaking people out of contracts, and giving discounts on other devices is about as socially responsible as it gets.

It's like not taking your car in due to a recall notice then the car company shows up and you wake up to a crushed cube in your driveway.

No. It's like getting an email to tell you that in 100km your car won't start anymore and to drive it to the service centre where you will get 100% of your original value of the car back along with a discount on a brand new car.