Despite my doubts, Samsung followed up late last night with a formal recall of the Galaxy Note7. Readers will recall that there have been several dozen instances of these phones catching fire during charging. Late last week Samsung suspended sales of these premium phones. Now:
Samsung Electronics Australia is today taking the proactive and voluntary step to recall 51,060 Galaxy Note7 smartphones. The recall is in response to the recent announcement by Samsung Consumer Electronics global regarding isolated battery cell issues with the Galaxy Note7 device.
It has provided instructions about what to do:
Samsung Electronics Australia advises all customers who use a Galaxy Note7 smartphone to power off their device, return it to its place of purchase and use an alternative device until a remedy can be provided.
Customers who have purchased a Galaxy Note7 from Samsung are entitled to a new Galaxy Note7 (and a courtesy device until replacement Galaxy Note7 stock arrives) or a full refund. The delivery of a replacement Galaxy Note 7 to customers is expected within three to four weeks.
Alternatively, customers who have not purchased a Galaxy Note7 from Samsung can approach their place of purchase to discuss their remedy options.
So those who purchased from Samsung have a certain path. Those who purchased from other retailers, less of one. But reputable retailers will be certain to jump into action with their own arrangements.
The promised courtesy phones will be available from Wednesday 7 September.
While Samsung says you should power off your device, I’d suggest doing a full backup first. The odds are low that yours is the one that will blow up or burn down while you’re doing this. But to reduce the odds further, remove it from any case you have to ensure the most effective air cooling of the phone.
And, of course, if there is anything at all sensitive on your phone, you will want to perform a full factory reset before handing it over, to make sure it is entirely wiped.
I don’t have a Samsung Galaxy Note7 to hand, but the procedure for backup and factory reset will be very close to this: Go to “Settings”, then “Backup and Reset”. At that point you’ll want to choose “Back up my data” to your Samsung account. You will see that below that is the complementary “Restore” function, which you’ll use on your replacement phone. After you’ve followed the instructions there and the process is complete, scroll down to “Factory data reset” on the same page, select that and follow the instructions.
Oh, also, don’t forget to pop out your SIM and any memory card you might have added. And, as a kindness to Samsung in its time of trouble, take your power supply, cable and any other accessories that came in the box back with you.
