The handling of the recall outside the US was even worse. For instance, after reports of exploding phones started circulating in China, Samsung claimed that the phones distributed in that country were not defective, and insinulated that the owners had deliberately mistreated the devices:
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2016/09/20/samsungs-attem...
To be fair, they probably didn't expect their other supplier of batteries to have another, totally different flaw that caused those batteries to catch fire too.
When you ship a product to millions of customers, you don't "expect" or assume anything. You have your own people, on your payroll, test parts before they get used.
I'm having trouble thinking of a more poorly organized recall in consumer electronics:
- Samsung initially refused to work with US regulators (CPSC) to coordinate a recall.
- They didn't communicate to customers the danger of the situation until after people got burned and there was widespread media coverage.
- They didn't work with carriers to allow returns in stores. People who bought their Note 7's through their carriers weren't clear on how they could return the phone. In some cases, the store employees even told customers that they couldn't swap the device.
- For those who managed to swap their phones, the replacement had the same issue. They had a defective battery because they rushed Note 7 develpment -- you'd think they would have learned not to rush the recall...