Samsung Accused of Trying to Silence Report of GS4 Fire
The Samsung Galaxy S4 is a smokin' phone
Last week, YouTube user GhostlyRich posted a video to the video sharing site claiming his Samsung Galaxy S4 had caught fire. GhostlyRich, real name Richard Wygand, said that he didn't do anything out of the ordinary with his phone. He plugged the device in to charge via a Samsung-issued charger and went to sleep. He woke up to smoke and saw that the phone's charging port, case, and back plate were melted.
Credit: GhostlyRich
Wygand said that his provider, Rogers, told him to take the phone back to Samsung. Before it would replace the phone, Samsung apparently asked for proof in the form of a video. Unfortunately, it seems Samsung would rather not share that proof with the rest of the world. Wygand posted his video proof to YouTube and sent a link to Samsung. Now, Samsung says it will only replace the device if Wygand takes his video down and promises not to discuss the incident any further.
The letter, which has been posted to PasteBin, also prohibits Mr. Wygand and his family from talking about the settlement or pursuing further action relating to the incident. Samsung has not commented on Wygand's decision to release the letter.
Released in the spring of this year, the Galaxy S4 was unveiled at Mobile World Congress in March. It packs a quad-core CPU, Adreno 320 graphics, a 5-inch display, 2 GB of RAM, up to 64 GB of storage and a 2600 mAh Li-ion battery.
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I hope the guy gets a new one but unless this is as wide spread as the Dell batteries was years ago, it could be a one time manufacture incident and that is bound to happen.
sgs 3 sudden death syndrom (and warranty not covering it if you change your rom).
sgs 4 catching fire (maybe they want to increase the income of the movie).
and you are calling an iphone owner an idiot? lol who is the idiot now?
i can't wait for the sgs 5 suprise maybe it will blow up in your pants and you will lose a leg and stop buying million of their phones, after the sgs 1 i did not buy any of their product.
A year and a half on my S3 and I haven't had a single issue with the hardware.
Any phone from any company can have a one time problem. This is a lot different than the iPhone and Xbox issues hes talking about due to the nature of the problem.
I used to dislike Apple (Not hate). But surely this change my view a whole lot. Nokia, take my money and give me back a revamped version of either a 3310 or 3510i.
sgs 3 sudden death syndrom (and warranty not covering it if you change your rom).
sgs 4 catching fire (maybe they want to increase the income of the movie).
and you are calling an iphone owner an idiot? lol who is the idiot now?
i can't wait for the sgs 5 suprise maybe it will blow up in your pants and you will lose a leg and stop buying million of their phones, after the sgs 1 i did not buy any of their product.
I seem to remember an incident where the iphone had problems with call signal and the solution was the user was holding the phone wrong. Yeah, the iphone is free of problems that's for sure.
A year and a half on my S3 and I haven't had a single issue with the hardware.
Any phone from any company can have a one time problem. This is a lot different than the iPhone and Xbox issues hes talking about due to the nature of the problem.
the guy's just pissed, not stupid (as demonstrated by READING and COMPREHENDING a legal document and making a conscious decision about the proper course of action to take)
as for defective products, yes, I agree any electronic product in general may have a problem. and no, this should not be treated differently. Samsung can tell you to take the youtube video down etc etc, that's fine. but asking someone to sign away all their rights to talk about the incident BEFORE even sending a replacement is utterly unacceptable. I've tried iphones in the past, I'm big on android now, but I have never seen this kind of behavior from a major electronic company as acceptable. and honestly, you shouldn't either
That being said, this reaction from the company is not normal, and the customer did well in revealing that. Someone at Samsung's service dropped the ball (I can't remember reading anything about a general policy like this being in place) and he/she should be fired.
Well, assuming things are as they are told.
It could also be due to a short in the wall socket or USB port he plugged it into. I would like to see the actual cable he used to charge it with as he says its an official Samsung charger but there are no pics or anything of him showing it in the video at all. For all we know he used the Samsung cable but a different block or the Samsung block but s different cable or had a short.
The RRoD on the 360 was a massive issue. It wasn't one or two incidents, it was massive. A large chunk of people had the issue. The iPhone 4 issue with the signal was pretty much every phone if a person held it a certain way.
Of course Microsoft and Apple would jump to replace/fix those issues, of course MS only did it if the 360 was within its warranty period and Apples solution was a free case.
A year and a half on my S3 and I haven't had a single issue with the hardware.
Any phone from any company can have a one time problem. This is a lot different than the iPhone and Xbox issues hes talking about due to the nature of the problem.
the guy's just pissed, not stupid (as demonstrated by READING and COMPREHENDING a legal document and making a conscious decision about the proper course of action to take)
as for defective products, yes, I agree any electronic product in general may have a problem. and no, this should not be treated differently. Samsung can tell you to take the youtube video down etc etc, that's fine. but asking someone to sign away all their rights to talk about the incident BEFORE even sending a replacement is utterly unacceptable. I've tried iphones in the past, I'm big on android now, but I have never seen this kind of behavior from a major electronic company as acceptable. and honestly, you shouldn't either
The major issue I see with it is that the vast majority of these cases are people trying to make a stink in order to get money. If the phone did actually malfunction it typically results from using unsupported batters or chargers or some of the other issues jimmysmitty mentioned.
No one can blame Samsung for trying to avoid a frivolous lawsuit along with PR trouble for something that likely resulted from either user error or intentional tampering. This is a lot different than a simple phone malfunction in which a replacement would be issued immediately since there is legal risk here if the person in question claims some sort of damages. Also, why would someone post a video to YouTube about the incident before they informed Samsung unless they were trying to get attention? That's likely why Samsung went to red alert.
"Released in the spring of this year, the Galaxy S4 was unveiled at Mobile World Congress in March. It packs a quad-core CPU, Adreno 320 graphics, a 5-inch display, 2 GB of RAM, up to 64 GB of storage and a 2600 mAh Li-ion battery."