Samsungs ongoing Galaxy Note7 saga has continued today, with the product recall officially making it to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commissions (ACCC) recall website. The dangerous nature of the recall has also been noted by three Australian airlines with Qantas, Jetstar and Virgin Australia all banning the phone from flights.
According to Reuters, the airlines advised that ‘they had not been directed to ban the use of the phone by aviation authorities’, but had noted the recall of the phone around the world and have banned the phones as a precaution.
After pausing sales at retailers and carriers in Australia last week, Samsung issued their voluntary recall late on Monday night.
That product recall has now been listed on the ACCC Product Safety website, which lists the hazards associated with the recall as ‘The battery in the product may overheat, posing a potential fire/burn hazard’.
The airline ban doesn’t include making customers leave their phone behind but they will bot be able to plug their phones into the USB ports provided for the in-flight entertainment systems. Nor, it would be expected would they be able to use the AC power outlet if available.
Twitter user noted that Qantas had been making announcement on planes today regarding charging the Note 7 on aircraft
https://twitter.com/dcabena77/status/773135347953709056
According to Reuters, Samsung Australia ‘said in a statement that it had liaised with Qantas and Virgin Australia following the recall’.
For the recall of the Note 7, Samsung has noted that over 50,000 units had already been sold in Australia since they went on-sale on August 19th. Globally, Samsung appears to have around 2.5 million handsets in the market, with Bloomberg estimating the recall will cost around $1 billion.
Samsung Note 7 customers are being urged to bring their handset back to the place of purchase. Customers will be issued with a loaner phone until replacement Note 7 units are available in 3-4 weeks, or are being given the option to refund the handset or replace with another device such as a Galaxy S7/S7 Edge.
So far, two note 7 handsets have had issues in Australia. The threat of explosion or fire is very real and it’s highly recommended if you are still using your Note 7 to stop, box it up and take it back to the store. For more information check the Samsung Australia website.
Daniel, you really need to work on the conflicting information you have in your article.
First of all, the heading of your article suggests the phone is completely banned.
Secondly, the first paragraph ends with “banning the phone from flights”, which is certainly not the case. It should be “banning from using the phone on flights, particularly with regards to charging it.”
There are more entries that are misleading that you would do well to clarify early in the piece so that the skim readers won’t be led to believe that their handsets are entirely banned.
Reuters headline: Australian airlines ban use of Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phones after battery fires
So you replicate a dramatic incorrect headline with your own.
I understand that this is a hobby for you guys but why follow blindly the dramatic headlines that are incorrect.
So yes your headline is wrong. They are not banned but banned from being charged.
All you have done here is prove you have done a copy and paste from Reuters without investigating.
A Ban can include a broad ban on charging. You’re talking semantics here.
It’s banned from charging. Use of the word banned is more than warranted in the title.
This isn’t true at all. I flew Jetstar last night to Hawaii. They made it very clear that Samsung Note 7s were to be powered off immediately and to be left off for the duration of the flight and to not be used or charged at all. So while it’s not “banned” from the flight entirely, it’s use is absolutely not permitted, at least on Jetstar. This wasn’t a captains instruction either it was a prerecorded message.
Dan, please correct your article concerning the inaccurate details of the ban. They have not banned the phone. They have banned people from charging the phone. Big difference.
The Tweet you even included in your article makes this point quite clear.