SAN FRANCISCO–It seems Samsung’s problems are far from over.
The company announced Monday evening that it would stop selling Galaxy Note 7s, its flagship smartphone, altogether, and said consumers with original Note 7 devices or replacements they obtained after the recall should turn off the power and seek a refund or exchange them for different phones.
Soon after the Galaxy Note 7 hit stores in August, some users reported that their phones were catching fire. Samsung officially recalled the phones last month, blaming faulty batteries for overheating the phones and causing them to ignite.
Replacement phones released on September 19 were supposed to solve the problem, and users started swapping in their old devices for new, supposedly safer versions.
But customers have been reporting the same dangerous problems with their new phones.
Last month, a Chinese customer said his replacement phone burst into flames while charging. This week, an American user reported his replacement phone catching fire — even though it wasn’t plugged in. And on Wednesday, smoke started billowing from a replacement Galaxy Note 7 aboard a Southwest Airline plane before it departed, prompting the flight’s cancellation.
The news comes one day after two major carriers–AT&T and T-Mobile–announced they would stop offering replacement Note 7s to customers.
Last week, Verizon and Sprint said that they will exchange new Note 7s for other smart phones in light of the troubling reports. AT&T and T-Mobile took that a step further by not even offering the replacements.
With reporting by CNN and the Associated Press.
