By Quentin Langley
Recalls are never good news. You recall products because they are in some way defective. In the case of the Samsung Note 7 the product is also unsafe. The company is advising people to back up data and stop using the device, turning it off permanently. That's not good.
But with any recall, how you handle it is critical. In 2006 Dell handled the recall of some batteries which were inclined to go up in flames - a product safety issue rather similar to that faced by Samsung - in an exemplary way. Four years after the event, the top four matches on Google for "Dell battery recall" were all information from the company about how to return your batteries. Even ten years on, the second match is still information on the recall from the company.
Right now, Samsung has the first Google match after news reports, which is not bad performance. The current information about the recall is simply telling people to back up and close down their products with promise that information about a replacement product will follow.
In the early stages of this crisis it is hard to tell if they are going to match Dell's performance at what was the largest product recall up to that date, but let's see.
One other thing to note. Dell was not the manufacturer of the batteries: Sony was. But they were sold as part of a Dell badged product, so Dell, quite properly, did not seek to pass the buck but owned up to its responsibilities. Samsung, so far at least, has done the same.
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