When the three other major carriers in the US announced their plans to issue an update that would effectively disable the Samsung Galaxy Note 7, Verizon was the only carrier to not come on board with the plan. Their reason was that they did not want customers to be out of a phone during the holiday season.
They later changed their minds as they then set a date for the 5th of January in which the update will be pushed out. Now it seems that the carrier is really pushing for its customers to turn in the phone, and in a report from Fortune, it has been revealed that there are still thousands of Note 7 handsets on Verizon’s network that have yet to be returned. So much so that the carrier will be taking drastic steps to force customers to turn in their devices.
This will be done by redirecting outgoing calls made from the Note 7 to Verizon’s customer service. This will be applicable to all phone calls save for those made to 911 emergency services. The idea, we can only imagine, is to inconvenience and frustrate customers to the point where they will give up and just bring the phone in.
In a statement made to Fortune, a Verizon spokeswoman said, “In spite of our best efforts, there are still customers using the recalled phones who have not returned or exchanged their Note 7 to the point of purchase. The recalled Note 7s pose a safety risk to our customers and those around them.” That being said, Samsung US has estimated that about 96% of Note 7 handsets in the wild have already been returned.
Filed in . Read more about Galaxy Note 7, Samsung and Verizon.
