Samsung on Tuesday issued an update on its ongoing Galaxy Note 7 recall effort, saying more than 60 percent of impacted devices in the United States and South Korea have already been exchanged.
The figure was up from reports last week that just a quarter of the 1 million defective Note 7 devices in the United States had been exchanged since the recall was issued by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) on Sept. 15. The sudden uptick could be due, in part, to the arrival of 500,000 replacement devices in U.S. retail stores in the middle of last week.
According to Samsung, though, the replacement level in the United States and Korean still lags behind that in Singapore, where more than 80 percent of customers have participated in the exchange program.
Despite concerns about how the recall would impact brand loyalty, Samsung said around 90 percent of Note 7 users have chosen to pick up a replacement Note 7 rather than switching to a different device. The company said it was “humbled” by customers’ loyalty to the device.
Samsung first halted sales of the Note 7 on Sept. 2 after initial reports of a “battery cell issue.” Samsung and the CPSC then issued a power down notice on Sept. 9, which was followed by official recall notices in both Mexico and Canada.
The phones were subsequently recalled by the CPSC after more than 90 reports of overheating batteries were recorded in the United States alone, including 26 cases where consumers were burned and 55 instances of property damage. Additional reports of the Note 7’s battery exploding or catching fire were reported in South Korea and other locations around the globe.
Samsung on Tuesday continued urging customers with outstanding devices to power down and bring in their device for an exchange. The best place to go, the company said, is to the retailer or carrier where the device was sold.
