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Australian consumer group CHOICE is happy that Samsung has decided to stop production of the Galaxy Note7 a week after it won a Shonky Award from the group for the second year running.
CHOICE is calling for an overhaul of Australia's product safety system in the wake of the Note7 affair.
"It was bad enough that Samsung released 51,060 potentially dangerous smartphones into the market in August only to recall them weeks later. To then release faulty replacement devices defies belief," CHOICE’s Head of Media Tom Godfrey said.
“If it wasn’t so serious, it would be a joke. No company should be consistently releasing products which burst into flames and pose a major safety risk to consumers.
{loadposition sam08}“We believe Samsung’s ongoing failure to put safe products on the market reinforces our call for reform to Australia’s product safety system. The system needs to be more transparent, proactive and agile, with consumers given better access to information about product failures.”
Samsung was awarded the gong at the 11th annual CHOICE Shonky Awards in Sydney last week, a little under a year after it received a similar award for its dangerous top-loader washing machines.
“It’s pretty disgraceful that we’re back in the same place within 12 months, with another Samsung product that poses a major incendiary hazard,” Godfrey said.
“Samsung has failed basic product stewardship and we think they can do a lot better.
“When a product such as the Galaxy Note7 smartphone has a problem that makes it dangerous, this is likely to be considered a major failure of the consumer guarantees found in the Australian Consumer Law. This means the consumer decides if a repair, replacement or a refund is right for them.
"Given the company has stopped producing the devices, and there have been instances of batteries exploding in other Samsung models, why would you mess around with anything other than a full refund?"
