SEOUL, October 13. /TASS/. The Russian division of Samsung Electronics is ready to exchange Galaxy Note 7 smartphones bought in Russia from ‘grey market’ dealers, a source from the company’s Seoul headquarters told Tass on Thursday.
"The Russian service center (Samsung) is also ready to exchange Note 7 bought in Russia unofficially," the source said of the flagship Galaxy Note7 that are massively recalled because of battery problems making the phones catch fire.
Earlier, the headquarters told TASS there had been no official sales of Note 7 in Russia.
Samsung Electronics representative Mikhail Goryunov told TASS earlier that the company offers Russian owners of Samsung Galaxy Note 7 smartphones, received through pre-orders or purchased outside Russia, to contact the company’s representative office in Russia to replace smartphones with other models or top get a refund.
On September 2, the company announced it was massively recalling the Galaxy Note 7 worldwide following reports that the phones can catch fire while charging. Samsung’s losses amounted to some $1 billion as a result. Later Samsung announced that the trouble had been cured, and the company began exchanging the earlier purchased Note 7 with new ones. However, as it was found out later, the problem persisted. On October 11, Samsung Electronics announced that it stopped production of its Galaxy Note 7.