Sprint Will Exchange Your 'Safe' Galaxy Note7 For Any Other Smartphone Following Recent Flareup

Galaxy Note 7 with S Pen
Customers that stuck by Samsung’s side during this tumultuous month involving battery-related Galaxy Note7 fires might be losing their patience, but fourth-place wireless carrier Sprint is doing everything in its power to make customers whole again.

When reports of battery fires first flared up, customers were given the chance to get a refund, opt for a cheaper Galaxy S7/Galaxy S7 Edge, or get a replacement Galaxy Note7 that wasn’t prone to spontaneously combusting. However, as we saw this week with a supposedly “safe” replacement Galaxy Note7 catching fire on a [thankfully] parked Southwest plane, there are likely customers that have had enough at this point.

Sprint says anyone that has received a replacement Galaxy Note7 will be given the opportunity to turn their device in and get ANY other smartphone of their choice. “If a Sprint customer with a replacement Note 7 has any concerns regarding their device, we will exchange it for any other device at any Sprint retail store during the investigation window,” said a Sprint representative in a statement to Recode.

As we reported earlier this week, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is “moving expeditiously” to investigate the replacement device that caught fire on the Southwest aircraft, so it’s nice to see that Sprint is giving customers an extended window to determine if they want to abandon ship or not.


T-Mobile will only allow customers [who have already received a replacement Galaxy Note7] to choose another replacement device during a 14-day buyer’s remorse period. Representatives for AT&T and Verizon Wireless haven’t indicated any plans to change their policies at this time.

As for the person that whose Galaxy Note7 is at the center of this new investigation, he has already moved on to an Apple iPhone 7.

Brandon Hill

Brandon Hill

Brandon received his first PC, an IBM Aptiva 310, in 1994 and hasn’t looked back since. He cut his teeth on computer building/repair working at a mom and pop computer shop as a plucky teen in the mid 90s and went on to join AnandTech as the Senior News Editor in 1999. Brandon would later help to form DailyTech where he served as Editor-in-Chief from 2008 until 2014. Brandon is a tech geek at heart, and family members always know where to turn when they need free tech support. When he isn’t writing about the tech hardware or studying up on the latest in mobile gadgets, you’ll find him browsing forums that cater to his long-running passion: automobiles.

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