It has been a season full of ups and downs for Samsung. On one hand, the Korean tech company managed to outsell Apple last quarter and topped customer satisfaction ratings. On the other, the Galaxy Round exists. The latest dip on this rollercoaster month is a familiar one: some Samsung devices are malfunctioning. Earlier this month, Galaxy S4 return rates in Germany jumped after an issue with the batteries began killing phones.
Reuters reports that a new issue has now arisen in China, where China Central Television (CCTV) “said internal multimedia cards cause the software on Samsung Electronics Note and S series smartphones to seize up.” Samsung has since announced that it will be replacing any broken smartphones for free and will even refund customers that have attempted to have their phones fixed at Samsung service centers. Although the issue appears to be a serious one, CCTV says that this is just one symptom of a much larger problem with Samsung’s consumer practices in China.
“As far as management problems caused inconvenience to our customers, we offer our sincere apologies,” stated Samsung Electronics on its Chinese website.