Investigations by Samsung has revealed, that a large percentage of the reports that one of their Galaxy Note 7 smartphones had caught fire were fake, none of the bogus reports came from Australia.
The investigation has exposed several customers who were trying to benefit from a recall of the device which genuinly had a battery problem. A report prepared by Samsung investigators reveals that
a total of 26 “false reports” were lodged with the Korean phone maker.
Of these 26 reports, Samsung only actually received 12 handsets, none of which were faulty. In a further seven of the cases, Samsung was not able to reach the supposed victim. And the remaining seven alleged customers either cancelled the complaint, or purported to have thrown their handset away.
Here’s a breakdown of false reports by country, Australia is not among the Countries where fake reports were identified:
USA – 9
South Korea – 3
France – 2
UK – 1
Canada – 1
Singapore – 1
Turkey – 1
Vietnam – 1
Croatia – 1
Romania – 1
Iraq – 1
Lebanon – 1
United Arab Emirates – 1
Czech Republic – 1
One of the reports f
rom South Korea involved a supermarket worker who claimed that their phone exploded, but Samsung wasn’t able to get in touch. Meanwhile, a Canadian user found a picture of a Note 7 catching fire and pretended that it was his own. And the user from Singapore said that they threw the phone out of the car after it caught fire – but was not able to prove this ever happened.
Samsung announced the Galaxy Note 7 on August 2, to widespread critical acclaim.
But just one month later, the South Korean tech giant issued a global recall for the new device. An internal investigation uncovered a serious battery flaw that was causing some users’ handsets to spontaneously catch fire.
The Galaxy Note 7 features a 5.7-inch QHD display, an oct-core CPU, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, an S-Pen stylus, a USB-C port, wireless charging, fast charging, a 3,500mAh battery, IP68 water resistance, an iris-scanner, and a 12-megapixel camera. We gave it a 9/10 score in our review, praising its brilliant display, impressive camera, and excellent battery life.
The Galaxy Note 7 is expected to go back on sale in Australia shortly.
