If you’re one of the millions of people who bought a Samsung Galaxy Note 7, you’re walking around with a ticking time bomb in your pocket. Your amazing, super smartphone has a faulty battery pack that can spontaneously combust in a flash of smoke, searing heat, smashed glass, and bending metal. Your Note 7 could explode in your hands while you check Facebook, against your face during a phone call, or next to your bed while you sleep at night.
That’s pretty terrifying.
You’re probably wondering where or how you should sign up to return your Note 7 or get a refund. Well, don’t ask Samsung. Although Samsung did issue a recall, it has been poorly organized, terribly communicated, and even more disastrously executed.
A long string of failures
At first, Samsung called on all Note 7 owners to return their phones immediately, but failed to offer much guidance on how to do so or what to do while you waited for a replacement Note 7, which might never arrive. U.S. carriers like Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile stepped in to offer Note 7 buyers the option to replace their Note 7 phones with a Galaxy S7 or S7 Edge. Some even offered full refunds or exchanges for devices around the same price point. However, each carrier offered different options, so customers got a different story from everyone they talked to. Samsung wasn’t much more helpful, and the best you could do was a phone call to customer support.
The continued production, sale, and advertising of the Galaxy Note 7 is indefensible.
Then came the Consumer Product Safety Commission with its full U.S. recall. The CPSC declared that Galaxy Note 7 owners could get a full refund or exchange and advised customers to go to the store where they bought the Note 7 to resolve the issue. Again, it wasn’t easy or clear for anyone and Samsung failed to step up.
Finally, Samsung set a date for the arrival of replacement Note 7 phones. Happy customers picked up the “safe” devices and went home. Then, the replacement phones started exploding.
Every major U.S. carrier has now ended sales of the Galaxy Note 7 and will no longer sell replacement devices. You would think Samsung would end all sales of the Galaxy Note 7, stand up, apologize profusely, and shepherd its loyal customers through this dark time with clear communication, assistance, and replacement devices. It has not.
Samsung has only temporarily halted Note 7 production while it figures out what to do.
Samsung, let us tell you …
Samsung must kill the Note 7
The continued production, sale, and advertising of the Galaxy Note 7 is indefensible. It’s time to get serious, Samsung. Your reputation and the security of your most loyal users is at stake.
I’m telling you this because I love the Note series. I loved the Note 7 most of all, and that’s what makes this loss so crushing. There are millions of people who feel the same, and you’re letting us down. Here’s what you need to do.
Change the Galaxy Note 7 landing page into an apology letter. After all, Note customers are your most loyal fans, right? You built an empire off their love for your giant phablet series, so treat them with a scrap of respect. After you grovel publicly, include a call to action. Say, “We care about our customers’ safety, so we implore you to return your Note 7 today and get aGalaxy S7 Edge for free. Here is your shipping label.”
Oh, and maybe update the Galaxy Note 7 recall page so the info is up to date and correct. It was last updated on September 20 — back when the so-called “safe” Note 7 was about to ship. That is not OK. It’s wrong and reckless.
Also, acknowledge that some of your customers won’t touch a Samsung phone with a 10-foot pole and explain that full refunds and exchanges for other phones are available. Then, tell your customers how to get that refund easily. Sync up with carriers and every other retailer who sold your phones to get the right info out there, so the return, refund, and exchange process goes smoothly.
Don’t stop there
Samsung, you need to turn every Note 7 ad into a public service announcement, asking users to return their Galaxy Note 7 phones immediately. Give them a simple five-step plan on how to return the phone and get a new device. Blast an email out to every single Samsung customer who registered a Note 7 with the same info.
The Galaxy Note 7 may be dead, but the Samsung brand doesn’t have to be buried with it.
If you stand up for Note fans everywhere, we’ll be with you when the Note 8 comes back bigger and better than ever before. But so far, you’re doing everything poorly and showing very little care for the people who paid nearly $1,000 for your phone.
Get it together.