With a full recall from Samsung expected to be announced imminently, Australian retailers are pulling the Galaxy Note7 from shelves. “Sales of the Galaxy Note 7 have been paused while we investigate,” Samsung has confirmed to Gizmodo, referring to reports of the handsets catching fire.
JB Hi-Fi, Dick Smith, Optus, Telstra and Vodafone have all removed the phone from sale whilst they await further news from Samsung.
Update, 4:15PM 2/8: As well as third-party retailers and carrier partners, Samsung has temporarily suspended sales of the Note7 on its own Australian online store. It’s important to note that there have been no reports of any issues with the phone from Australian users.
“We are waiting on news from Samsung,” a JB Hi-Fi employee told Gizmodo. It was later revealed to Lifehacker that the move was on instruction from Samsung to “quarantine” the phones.
Optus has also halted all sales of the product, with a store representative telling us “we are waiting for instructions from Samsung. Hopefully we hear something soon, it’s a pretty big issue.”
Dick Smith told us it has halted sales of the single-sim model, with the dual-sim version still available for sale.
This morning Telstra stores told Gizmodo they were “out of stock” of the handset, but this afternoon a spokesperson for Telstra informed us it would also be pausing sales of the Note7.
“We are talking to Samsung to understand more about the reports and as a precaution we have paused Galaxy Note 7 sales,” the Telstra spokesperson said. “We will contact existing owners directly if we learn there is an issue affecting their phones”.
Vodafone Australia confirmed it has also paused sales, stating “Vodafone will contact customers if Samsung’s investigation finds there is a fault with the device”.
Bing Lee is still selling the Note7, telling Gizmodo there are “no plans” to pull the product as yet.
To date there are no reports of issues from Galaxy Note 7 owners in Australia.
A Samsung Australia spokesperson could not comment on the recall announcement yesterday, but confirmed that further Note7 deliveries were being postponed in Australia until further notice, telling Gizmodo that “shipments of Galaxy Note 7 are being temporarily delayed for additional quality assurance inspections”.