14 DAY TRIAL // A few days ago, Samsung announced that sales for the Galaxy Note 7 could resume in South Korea on September 28, but it seems that the company has changed its mind. Sales for new and safe Galaxy Note 7 units could start three days later, on October 1.
The Galaxy Note 7 will be made available in South Korea on the first day of October, according to Reuters. The delay was decided in favor of a speedy completion of the ongoing recall process in the country.
Samsung hopes to finish the recall and restart sales in the fourth quarter in order to save earnings, but it seems that the recall process isn’t going very smoothly in South Korea. The company exchanged only half of the Note 7 units sold in the country, amounting to 200,000 phones.
By comparison, the phone maker already exchanged 500,000 units in the US. The recall was announced on September 2 and Samsung intends to replace all 2.5 million units sold worldwide.
Some battery issues were recorded on safe Note 7 units exchanged in South Korea
Recently, South Korean officials requested that Samsung extend the product exchange program until September 30 so that all customers are able to get replacements.
In addition, officials requested the battery supplier to conduct x-ray tests on units prior to shipment and Samsung must subject Note 7 units to additional tests before sending them to end users.
This could also have contributed to the company’s decision to delay sales by three days. Reuters mentions that Samsung apologized and intends to do its best in order to resolve the Note 7 situation as quickly as possible.
Sadly, Samsung recorded some complaints from South Korean consumers. It seems that safe units continue to have battery issues, but of a different nature. The battery in Note 7 units continues to overheat and energy is lost during charging. Samsung has stated that the issues aren’t related to batteries and that only a few isolated cases were recorded.