Samsung renews its efforts towards making amends with the disappointed Note 7 owners by offering Note 8 or S8 upgrade at half their original price. This offer is currently limited to South Korea while other select countries including the US are expected to join the party soon.
Eligible Note 7 customers can get a free upgrade to Galaxy S7 and then trade-in their S7 for a discounted price on Note 8 or S8 when either of these phones becomes available in the market. In other words, all S7 owners will be paying just the half price on the chosen model when they join the upgrade program, without any extra charge for upgrading.
If you are still unconvinced, check out Reuters' literal translation of a press release from Samsung Korea:
- Note7 owners choose any variant of the Galaxy S7 as their replacement and elect to join an upgrade program.
- As part of the program, they will only pay roughly half the cost of the replacement S7 when considering the partial refund they receive during the exchange process.
- When the S8 and (later) the Note 8 are released, these customers will send the S7 back to Samsung and receive their new generation phone free of cost.
The free Note 8 or S8 upgrade becomes available subject to a couple of conditions, wherein the eligible candidate must have paid up half of the monthly installments on the S7 and registered with the upgrade program on or before 30 November.
However, it must be noted that the upgrade program is still pending Samsung's final confirmation with the carriers and vendors. Although the expansion of free upgrade program to other countries (including the US) has not been confirmed, Reuters has reported that offers "in other markets will be dependent on the situation in each country."
Samsung's move aims to revive customer trust and loyalty in the Note series, after the Note 7 debacle threatened to tarnish the company's brand image across the world.
