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Thousands of Note 7 Phones Still in Use On Verizon, All Non-911 Calls To Be Rerouted To Customer Service (cnet.com)
Thousands of Verizon customers continue to use the Galaxy Note 7 smartphone, the carrier said. This despite the widely publicized recalls spurred by battery fire concerns and a software upgrade designed to kill the phone by preventing it from recharging. From a report: "In spite of our best efforts, there are still customers using the recalled phones who have not returned or exchanged their Note 7 to the point of purchase," a Verizon spokeswoman said. "The recalled Note 7s pose a safety risk to our customers and those around them." So now Verizon is fighting fire with fire, so to speak. The carrier plans to reroute all non-911 outgoing calls to its customer service line, and it might bill the holdouts for the full retail cost of the phone.
" They have likely decided that alienating a small portion of their customer base is worth avoiding such liability."
I have never seen evidence that Verizon cares about alienating all it customer base.
Do you have your clothes dryer vent professionally cleaned every six months? Did you know that, in the US alone, 2,900 home clothes dryer fires are reported each year and cause an estimated 5 deaths, 100 injuries, and $35 million in property loss? By comparison, only 96 credible reports of Note 7 fires exist, causing 13 burns and damaging property 47 times, making the known-defective Note 7 roughly 30 times safer than a non-defective clothes dryer. Are you willing to accept the responsibility in case your clothes dryer results in injuries and death to others? Just to avoid a MINOR inconvenience?
Oh, I should stop taking my clothes dryer on planes?
A single unit in my condo complex had a major fire due to a faulty fan. The complex was built to code and fire damage was limited to the source unit, and a little to the unit above (vinyl flooring got too hot). However, our WHOLE complex had to move out for 2 months while they repaired all of the smoke damage done to many units in the building. Burning rugs and mattresses release a lot of toxic soot, and firefighters opening the fire proof doors to ensure everyone was out allowed enough smoke to travel and stick to everything.