Some owners of faulty Samsung Galaxy Note7s are furious that the South Korean electronics giant has refused to cover the costs of fire damage, caused when their devices combusted.
A report in The Guardian said at least three owners had expressed their unhappiness over the way they had been treated by the company.
One owner, John Barwick of Marion, Illinois, was in bed on 8 September at 3am when his wife's Note7 exploded on the nightstand.
The resultant fire damaged the nightstand and sprayed chemicals all over the bed, mattress, curtains and carpet, Barwick told the newspaper. He estimated that it would cost about US$9000 to replace the items that had been damaged.
{loadposition sam08}But Samsung has been unwilling to cough up this amount.
Barwick told The Guardian he had called Samsung 45 minutes after the incident and was promised a call back in 24 hours. When the company failed to contact him, Barwick called again and emailed pictures of the damaged phone.
Love this... #Samsung #Note7 pic.twitter.com/0Ga2F3ALmF
— Lee (@Hotdesigner) 14 October 2016
Later, he got a call from Samsung who asked him to contact their insurance company, Samsung Fire & Marine. The only thing they were willing to do was to pay the depreciated cost of the items that had been damaged in the fire caused by the Note7.
In another case, Wesley Hartzog, a firefighter from South Carolina, blames his Note7 for a fire that has left his house unliveable. He had left the device plugged into a wall outlet in his garage.
When the Note7 blew up, his garage was destroyed. His motorcycle, 4WD, lawn mower, bicycles and a rocking chair were badly damaged. Replacements are needed for a water heater and electrical wiring.
Initially, when he contacted Samsung, Hartzog claims he was told that he would be given hotel accommodation and meals to tide over the period.
"But the next day Samsung Fire & Marine insurance called me and said it wasn’t going to happen. I feel that was really unprofessional," he told The Guardian.
A month has elapsed since Hartzog's phone went up in flames but he is still negotiating with Samsung. The company is now paying for him to stay temporarily in a condominium.
And, in a third case, a man from Richmond, Virginia, saw his Note7, which was unplugged and sitting on his nightstand, give off a red flash and burn, sizzle and melt.
Shawn Minter told the newspaper that thick smoke was released into his house where he lives with his wife and eight-month-old son.
Though Samsung has repeatedly promised Minter that it would send someone to investigate, nobody has turned up. In support of his claims, Minter showed The Guardian several text messages.
He claims Samsung was only interested in retrieving the phone. "Once I told them I was giving the phone to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), they went dark."
Samsung has since referred him to its insurance company.