It's been uncovered in federal court records that dissatisfied customers have filed what's believed to be the first US class-action lawsuit over exploding Galaxy Note 7s. The suit, which was filed in the US District Court in Newark, N.J., accuses Samsung of fraud and breach of warranty and good faith.
What's strange, however, is that the customers aren't seeking any damages over the units that actually caught fire. Instead, they're seeking compensation for Samsung's alleged mistreatment of customers because they had to keep paying their contracts while waiting for replacement devices to arrive.
After Samsung stopped selling and manufacturing the phones in early September, “consumers discontinued using their Note7s only to find out that Samsung did not have replacement smartphones available,” reveals to the suit, whose three named plaintiffs are from Nevada, Pennsylvania and California.
“Instead, Samsung informed consumers that they would have to wait several days, and even weeks in many cases, before receiving a replacement smartphone,” it alleges, while “consumers continued to incur monthly device and plan charges from their cellular carriers for phones they could not safely use.”
The suit also claims that loyal Note 7 customers in the US “incurred millions of dollars in fees” as they were left without a safe phone to use. We're not entirely sure the class-action status will be approved by a judge, though, as we believe that Samsung has been fairly accommodating throughout the lengthy recall process.
We'll have to wait and see.
