Samsung’s explosive nightmare continues. Multiple reports from Galaxy Note 7 owners have surfaced online claiming that the Korean company has refused to compensate them adequately for damages suffered due to the faulty devices.
The British journal The Guardian covered three of these stories more in depth, and they all shared similar details. Samsung seems to be concerned only with recovering the devices but not with compensating owners for their damaged or destroyed property.
The reports come as Samsung faces a severe backlash from users around the world. While the internet has created hundreds of memes out of the controversy, airlines have taken the issue more seriously. Samsung Galaxy Note 7 handsets are now banned from most of the world’s top air companies.
Samsung redirects users to its insurance company but does nothing
Three different users in the United States shared their experiences dealing with Samsung after having their Galaxy Note 7 devices catch on fire.
One of the accounts was from an Illinois man and his wife over a month ago. John Barwick woke up startled by the flames coming out of his wife Joni’s Galaxy Note 7. He immediately reacted, trying to get the handset far from his bedroom and damaging floors and furniture with fire and chemicals in the process.
Barwick got in touch with Samsung, and they said they would contact him back again to look into the issue. The man was then referred to Samsung Fire & Marine, the insurance branch of the South Korean giant.
The damages to Mr. Barwick’s house totaled an estimated $9,000. The insurance company refused to pay the amount, offering compensation based on a lesser item value instead. Samsung did this in spite of the fact that the Illinois couple provided evidence of the incident in the form of pictures and more.
Shawn Minter and Wesley Hartzog also suffered similar fallouts with Samsung. The two men have families and, in the case of Mr. Hartzog, the damages include entire parts of his house, vehicles, and valuable objects.
Samsung proceeded in the same way as with Mr. Barwick, referring them to Samsung Fire & Marine first and later refusing to comply with the complaints. In all three cases, the Galaxy Note 7 owners reported that the company insistently tried to retrieve the exploding devices before anything else.
Samsung may swap faulty Note 7s for S8 or Note 8 smartphones
Despite these isolated incidents, Samsung seems like it has its heart in the right place. The company has previously offered discounts as high as %40 off devices like the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge for affected users. In some cases, Samsung even swapped the smartphones for free.
New reports straight from Korea suggest that Samsung may be planning to compensate users with yet-unreleased devices. The tech giant is reportedly considering offering Galaxy S8 and Note 8 devices for ex Note 7 users in the future.
Samsung has yet to put out the fire on the whole PR scandal. The company has its hands full already, dealing with unexpected billionaire losses and more exploding Note 7s around the world.
Source: The Guardian