Even if the Korean tech giant failed to issue a recall of the recall, i.e. to recall the safe Galaxy Note 7s after the initial recall of the “not so safe” Note 7s, many US carriers and retailers, together with others from UK halted sales of the problematic device altogether. After AT&T led the way a couple of days ago, now Sprint and Best Buy followed suit, with some UK carriers joining the ranks in the background.

Let’s see the official announcement:

Given recent issues reported in the media, Sprint is halting sales of replacement Note 7 devices pending the conclusion of the investigation by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Samsung. If a Sprint customer with a replacement Note 7 has any concerns, we will exchange it for any other device.

These moves are the logical consequence of the supposedly-safe replacement Galaxy Note 7s reportedly catching fire, smoking, burning holes in people’s jeans and the whole nine yards. Samsung is in full damage control mode, as they are claiming that they’re “investigating” the situation. However, they don’t have many options left, except for declaring the Galaxy Note 7 dead and move along, hoping for the best while expecting the worst.

Some of UK’s biggest carriers also released official statements regarding Samsung’s Note 7 fiasco, and after US’s four major carriers suspended Note 7 sales altogether, UK’s Vodafone and EE confirmed they’ll halt the exchanges of the device due to the numerous reports from Canada and the United States of the “safe” Note 7s catching fire in various circumstances. Other UK carriers, the likes of O2 and Three kept quiet until now about the BoomGate debacle, however, they mentioned they’re in direct contact with the Korean company in order to resolve possible issues with their customers.

EE statement

EE considers the safety of its customers to be of the utmost importance. Following recent media reports of further Note 7 issues in the US and Canada, we have suspended Note7 exchanges and are currently in direct contact with Samsung regarding next steps on the matter.

Vodafone statement

Vodafone UK is aware of media reports suggesting that a small number of people have had problems with the replacement Samsung Galaxy Note 7. Quality and customer safety are absolute priorities for Vodafone, so we are in close communication with Samsung, which is undertaking tests on affected devices. We are not aware of incidents involving Vodafone customers who had an original Note 7 and who have received a replacement device. However, we have paused pre-orders of the Note 7 as well as our device replacement programme until such time that we receive satisfactory assurances from Samsung about the safety of the Galaxy Note 7.

O2 statement

Safety of our customers is of upmost importance for us. We have not been selling the Note 7 since Samsung advised O2 in September that there would be an exchange programme for the phone. We are currently in discussions with Samsung and reviewing our options.

Three statement

We are currently assessing the situation with Samsung and we will be seeking guidance from them as to the next steps as the safety of our customers is paramount.

SamMobile