Open Letter to Samsung On Note 7

Dear Samsung,

First of all, thanks for your continual effort towards innovation and the cool features in Note 7.

Unfortunately, there were some imperfections, which you had rectified it swiftly, however, the same problem persisted.

Phone that caught fire is not something new. iPhones have their fair shares of such incidents — well ahead of Note 7.

The number of reported cases of Note 7 is puzzling and does not make any sense, both demographically and statistically. Most appalling are the recent claims about newly exchanged Note 7 that caught fire.

This ended with yet another recall and the advisory note for all Note 7 users, including original and exchanged sets, to power down their phones and not to use it.

Blindly calling for Note 7 users with replacement phones to shutdown and not to use it, is in fact, another form of irresponsible act. Today, how many people can shutdown their phone for 2 hours? Not to mention indefinitely.

Given the demographic of the issue, the initial claims about faulty batteries from a specific manufacturer does not stand well. If the claim is true, there should have been an even distribution of reported issues across the World. In this perspective, Samsung had not been transparent on this.

Samsung produced numerous versions of Note 7 phones as follows:

Source: https://www.techwalls.com/samsung-galaxy-note-7-sm-n930-model-number-differences/

Could the issue be due to a specific variance of the phone? Was the initial global recall a play-safe act that also recalled phones that are not directly affected, thus skewing the distribution? Was the ‘faulty exchanged phone’ exaggerated due to specific cultural inclination for prank?

If Samsung had, on the very first instance, provided the details of each individual case, including:

1. Version that exploded
2. Country of incident
3. Distribution channel (e.g. Telco involved)
4. Damaged phone surrendered for forensic (Yes/No)

The issue would have been much more manageable.

Lithium technology in general are subjected to such risk. iPhone also had a long history of such incidents.

I hope Samsung can understand that this is no longer about the reputation of the company or the phone itself, it is about the general well-being of the public as a whole. If Samsung continues to perform a blind recall or advisory note to shutdown and not to use the phone — without providing actual distribution of the issues, the company’s ability to manage crisis would be doubted. How could anybody continue to trust Samsung, as a company, to care for the well-being of their users?

It is now not just the Note 7 phone itself, it involved the associated accessories, the inconvenience; worst, the fact that the Note 7 users are viewed as ‘monsters’, carrying a phone that could explode anytime— All thanks to Samsung’s inability to manage the situation well.

If an iPhone can explode during delivery, there is no reason why the Note 7 issue could not be due to some telcos’ improper storage and distribution of the Note 7 itself.

In short, Samsung is not matured enough to handle such situation; on the other hand, Apple had managed this really well, attributing individual cases to consumers.

Refunds of Note 7 is underway, there is no details on how Samsung is going to compensate the Note 7 users and their associated Note 7 specific accessories (such as screen protector, telephoto lens, S View standing cover, chargers, etc.), as well as the great inconvenience; most importantly, the branding of Note 7 users as being silly consumer s— one who bought a sub-quality product at a premium price. Remember: People bought premium phones to showoff and be cool, not to be shamed or subjecting themselves to ‘special’ treatments on board the plane!

This blind recall had greatly angered many Note 7 users. Some of them would actually prefer to continue using it if Samsung had categorized the issue accordingly and recall affected versions based on statistical evidence rather than the current blind recall. If Samsung had taken this approach while continuing supporting the other variants, this issue will not be as big as today.

Let’s see how Samsung is going to pacify their Note 7 users.

[Side note: Since Samsung had used the same battery supplier as iPhone, and with the numerous iPhone 7 explosions happening around the World, let’s see how different the actions that these 2 major phone makers take. Samsung, this is yet another skill that you need to “copy” from Apple — watch closely and learn the ropes!]

[This article also appears on: Medium]