A Kalihi woman says she wants answers after her Samsung smartphone nearly caught fire while it was in her hand.
The woman’s phone was a replacement sent by Samsung Electronics due to a global recall for the same problem. The company recalled the Galaxy Note 7 model after customers said the battery overheated and caught fire in some cases.
Samsung offered customers like Dee DeCasa replacement phones, but now there are reports of problems with the replacements themselves.
We spoke to DeCasa and her husband Mel on Sunday, and they said they feel the phones should be taken off the market for good.
DeCasa says she was checking emails and surfing the web on her phone when it sparked in her hands.
“Then, boom! The thing just popped and then smoke started coming out,” she said.
DeCasa then ran to her husband and he says the phone looked like a small firecracker about to go off. “It definitely was sizzling,” he said. “Smoke was shooting out, smoke was spraying out. It wasn’t just coming off it, it was literally spraying out.”
The couple suffered no injuries. They say the phone wasn’t charging and it wasn’t plugged into any power source.
We reached out to Samsung and they sent us this statement, saying:
We are engaged with the DeCasa family to ensure we are doing everything we can for them. Even though there are a limited number of reports, we want to reassure customers that we are taking every report seriously.
Just last week, a Southwest Airlines flight in Kentucky was evacuated due to a smoking Galaxy Note 7 phone that the owner said was also a replacement.
DeCasa said “personally, I know other people that have told me they’re waiting for theirs and I just don’t want that to happen to them.
“I love the phone, but will I buy another one? Heck, no,” she said.
From the Associated Press:
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Samsung’s crisis with its Galaxy Note 7 smartphone hit a new low on Monday as the company confirmed that it has made production changes, following reports that newly released versions offered as replacements for recalled fire-prone phones have also overheated or caught fire.
In a statement and in a regulatory filing, Samsung Electronics said it is “temporarily” adjusting the Galaxy Note 7 production schedule and production volume to “ensure quality and safety matters.” The company added that it will issue an update when more details are available.
But Samsung fell short of confirming or denying earlier media reports that it had halted production.
Earlier in the day, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency was first to report that Note 7 production was suspended.
Before the reports of production suspension emerged, U.S. phone retailers AT&T and T-Mobile had already opted to stop giving new Note 7 replacement smartphones to consumers.
Samsung and U.S. authorities are investigating reports of the new Note 7 replacement smartphone catching fire, including a Samsung phone that emitted smoke and forced a Southwest Airlines flight in Kentucky to evacuate passengers. The Consumer Product Safety Commission is investigating the incident.
The production change suggests fresh trouble for Samsung as it awaits U.S. authorities’ investigation into the replacement phones. It had promised that its new Note 7 devices with a green battery icon were safe.
The reports of replacement phones catching fire raise doubts over whether the battery is the only problem in the fire-prone smartphone as Samsung initially said. When it issued a global recall on Sept. 2, Samsung blamed the batteries supplied by one of its two battery suppliers and assured consumers that other parts of the smartphones were fine.
