After being lambasted on China Central Television (CCTV) for selling defective smartphones such as the Galaxy S3 and the Galaxy Note 2, Samsung Electronics has released an official apology and said it will issue refunds for consumers who have paid for the fix and will also repair other faulty devices for free. It also extended warranties for units of the said device models purchased before November 30, 2012.
The Chinese state TV aired an investigative report pertaining to a possible firmware problem that crashed handsets, damaging the memory chip of Samsung devices. The Korean company was also heavily criticized for its warranty and repair policies.
The report of the CCTV could have gone a bit overboard as it puts spotlight on consumers who continue to experience the problems cause by the firmware bug. Samsung released a patch for the said issue last year. The state media also highlighted that the repairs of the devices cost between $130 to $330.
About 14 percent of Samsung's total handset sales comes from China, the fastest growing economy in the world today. The country is also home to the biggest smarpthone market today and Samsung's second quarter sales report for this year revealed that it has an 18.3 percent share.
"We welcome the criticisms from the media. Due to problems with the management that caused inconvenience to customers, the company wish to express its sincerest apologies," Samsung apologized.
"The issue can be prevented through a simple FOTA or firmware over-the-air software update," the statement clarified.
The company statement also mentioned that it will replace units that are deemed unrepairable due to the bug.
Samsung is not the only company that has received criticism by China's state media. Apple was also in the same position when the Chinese media accused the iPhone and iPad maker of biased warranty policies. Reports back in March suggested that Apple favored customers in the United States compared to Chinese consumers. Apple was forced to revise its warranty policies and apologised a month later.
The Chinese state media did not only target technology companies. Starbucks was also criticized for pricing its coffee beverages higher in China, compared to the prices in the United States.
In a related news, Samsung Electronics was slapped a $340,000 fine in Taiwan over claims that it paid people to run fake stories that will criticize the products of its rivals, including HTC.
