Samsung Electronics in South Africa contracted a third party to destroy all Galaxy Note7 devices, which had to be recalled from the channel just hours before they were due to go on sale locally, according to a company executive.

Craige Fleischer, who heads mobile for Samsung in Southern Africa, said in a podcast interview with TechCentral on Friday that the phones had to be recalled from retail stores, making for a big logistical challenge.

“It was with our partners, in our warehouses and in some instances even already in store,” Fleischer said. “We were literally around 48 hours from commercial launch. One or two devices did sneak out, even though we had signed agreements that they wouldn’t sell, the cash sales do sneak out… It was really difficult.”

Samsung decided to recall the Note7 on a worldwide basis after reports emerged that a problem with the batteries in the phones was causing them to overheat and in some case even catch fire. The recall cost the Korean consumer electronics giant an estimated US$6bn.

“We said we would ensure that all our partners and anyone involved would be in the same position as they were prior to the launch, so we had to reprint broadsheets at our own cost, we had to do reverse logistics to bring those devices back, so, yes, it was quite a ‘logistics symphony’.”

Advertising campaigns that were booked for the Note7 launch also had to be paid for. The media space was used instead to market the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge phones.

The phones were disposed of locally in a compliant way to ensure they didn’t cause any harm to the environment, Fleischer said. He declined to say how many devices were destroyed, saying this would provide insight into market share, which Samsung doesn’t disclose. — (c) 2017 NewsCentral Media