Only 4.5 percent of Note 7 owners, or about 18,000 people, received a full refund. (image: Samsung Electronics)
SEOUL, Sept. 22 (Korea Bizwire) – More than 25 percent of Galaxy Note 7 owners in South Korea have swapped their used phablets for new ones three days after Samsung Electronics Co. began a replacement program as part of a global recall over possible battery problems, industry officials said Thursday.
The number of Note 7 owners who have received replacements surpassed 100,000 as of Wednesday, the officials said.
About 400,000 Note 7s were said to have been sold in South Korea.
Only 4.5 percent of Note 7 owners, or about 18,000 people, received a full refund, according to them.
Samsung started selling the Note 7 in South Korea on Aug. 19, but halted sales and conducted a global recall earlier this month following reports of some of the devices catching fire while charging.
Via a software update, Samsung limited current Note 7 batteries to a maximum charge of 60 percent, and has also offered financial incentives to Note 7 owners.
The refund program was scheduled to end Monday, but the Korean government asked Samsung to extend the refund period for the Note 7s to the end of this month.
The Korean Agency for Technology and Standards (KATS), a government agency supervising product safety and standards, announced the extension of the refund period by approving the voluntary recall by Samsung.
The KATS also asked Samsung to send text messages to all of the current Note 7 owners to inform them of how to get replacements and refunds.
In a statement, Samsung said the refund program was formally extended to Sept. 30.
For those who replace their current Note 7s with new ones, Samsung has also been in discussions with the nation’s three mobile carriers to provide 30,000 won (US$27.18) to each of them by crediting th money to their October phone bills, Samsung said.
(Yonhap)
