Earlier this month, Verizon pushed out an update to cripple Galaxy Note7 devices, rendering the flawed device unable to charge. Apparently, there are a number of customers who were able to successfully evade the update, so the United States' largest carrier is taking the next step and will begin effectively blocking Note7 phone calls.
In a conversation with Fortune, Verizon revealed its plans to forward all outgoing non-emergency calls to its customer service department. The carrier says that there are only a handful of customers still using the device, relevant to its total number of subscribers, but it wants to be sure all Note7 devices are off of its network. By forwarding all non-emergency calls, the phone is essentially useless as a phone, but it's unknown if Verizon is planning to kill the device's SMS and data features as well.
In addition, Verizon is also contemplating charging holdouts the full retail cost of the device. It appears the carrier has already issued refunds to some owners of the Note7 regardless of return status, so it seems many hold-outs are essentially using a free phone, which obviously Verizon is not to pleased about. The device's retail cost from Verizon was $864.99.
Thus far over 90% of Note 7s have been returned by their owners, but it seems Samsung and the various carriers won't rest until it's 100%.
Source: Fortune
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