14 DAY TRIAL // Chinese state broadcaster CCTV has downright slammed tech giant Samsung Electronics for “discriminating” against consumers in China when handling the global recall of its latest flagship smartphone, the Galaxy Note 7.
Reuters reported that CCTV posted a commentary piece on its website yesterday evening and stated that Samsung's behavior towards Chinese consumers was “full of arrogance” during the recall process.
On September 2, Samsung announced a global recall of 2.5 million Note 7 units. The South Korean company stopped selling such smartphones and launched the global replacement program soon after. However, China was one of the countries not included in the recall, since Note 7 units sold in the country had a different battery supplier and didn't record overheating problems.
In a statement from September, the company announced that 1,858 Note units had been sold in China during the test scheme conducted before the official launch and recall. Samsung China sold Note 7 units with ATL batteries, while the rest of the world received smartphones with batteries manufactured by Samsung SDI, which had overheating problems.
Chinese consumers are reportedly discontent
After the global recall was announced, Samsung issued a brief statement saying that most smartphones sold in China didn't need to be replaced. Even so, CCTV stated that “Samsung's discriminatory policy has caused discontent from Chinese consumers.”
Over the past few days, there have been some reports of issues with batteries in replaced Note 7 units in China and Samsung did apologize to Chinese customers for failing to provide enough explanation regarding safe Note 7 units in the country.
By contrast, Samsung officials apologized in a video and in numerous statements to consumers in the US and even offered additional compensation to customers from the states, and other countries as well.
However, Samsung is one of the top smartphone makers in the US, Europe and other regions, while in China it gradually lost its market share in the past years. Once the top phone seller in China, the phone maker dropped to the 6th position last year, in favor of local brands like Huawei, Xiaomi, and Oppo.
The South Korean company has yet to respond to the CCTV commentary piece.