The Galaxy S9 and S9+ may be some of the best smartphones available today, but that doesn’t mean they are without problems or complaints. Calling issues are one of the major complaints many users have against the new Galaxy flagship smartphones. Given how vital the calling function is to a smartphone, it is understandable that users will be angry when their brand-new flagship smartphone fails at the most basic function.
Frustrated with the Galaxy S9’s calling issues, some users in Israel have filed a class action lawsuit against Samsung Electronics and its regional importer Suny Cellular Communications Ltd. The lawsuit mentions that the plaintiff purchased two units of the Galaxy S9+ and had been facing calling issues on both of them. It is worth pointing out that even one of our units has issues like calls going mute abruptly and having distortions from time to time. Here is how the issue is described in the petition:
The applicant has discovered that during cellular conversations, the user encounters alternating loss of hearing on the other side of the call for a few seconds at a time (usually between 5 and 10 seconds). In other cases, the fault is expressed in a fragmentary sound (which creates a feeling of distorted reception) that does not allow for an audio conversation at all, and requires the severance of the conversation and the creation of a renewed connection.
Apart from the above calling issues, the petition also mentions that Samsung has removed the ability to record calls by popular third-party software. The plaintiff says none of this is informed to the customer during the unveiling or marketing of the devices.
Updates reportedly failed to fix the issues
According to the lawsuit, when the complainant reached out to the network operator Cellcom regarding the calling issues, the operator informed that the issue is not related to the network but the software on the device. The operator also informed that Samsung is working on a software update to fix the issue. The plaintiff also reached out to Samsung who acknowledged the problem and said two software updates had been released to address the issue. According to the plaintiff, however, none of the two updates seem to have fixed the calling issues.
The petition also says that the plaintiff did some investigation and concluded that calling issues are not because of the software but due to the incompatibility of the processors used in these devices with cellular networks in Israel. The petition doesn’t offer any details about the nature of the investigation and how the plaintiff arrived at the above conclusion.
The petition alleges that “out of greed or at least negligence,” Samsung continued selling the defective devices even after being aware of the calling issues. The lawsuit is requesting the court to entitle the members in the suit to return their phones for a full refund along with compensation for each day the devices were in use.
Let us know in the comments section if you are facing similar issues with your Galaxy S9 and S9+. You can read more about the lawsuit here.
