Jitterbug phone recalled for 911 failure

By: Brian Dolan | May 25, 2009

GreatCall’s Jitterbug service just had a major setback — the easy-to-use mobile phone service makes use of one phone, the Samsung “Jitterbug” and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced a voluntary recall of Samsung “Jitterbug” phones sold between March 2008 and May 2009. That makes for a voluntary recall of some 160,000 Jitterbug phones.

The reason? Some of the phones — when in a no service area — display an “out of range, try again later” message, meaning the phone don’t connect to 9-1-1 emergency services.

The “Jitterbug” cell phones with model numbers SPH-a110 and SPH-a120 with version BB14 software can fail to reach emergency services when needed, according to the US CPSC.

Jitterbug users can call Samsung for a free upgrade, but this voluntary recall is likely to undermine some trust in the Jitterbug brand. The emergency button on the Jitterbug phone has been touted as one of the early examples of succesful wireless health services.

What’s more, Jitterbug founder and chairman Arlene Harris said that the company was not yet profitable as of February and would require more funding than she had originally expected. While the financial details of the closely held mobile phone service remain undisclosed, this recall won’t help the company along the road to profitability.

Best case scenario for Jitterbug at this point is that Samsung pays for the recall, because the fault seems to be with the device itself. No word yet on who will recoup these costs.

Also, just two weeks ago GreatCall won a TripleTree I award for its easy-to-use phone service and emergency button.

For more, read this article from UPI

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http://mobihealthnews.com/2374/jitterbug-issues-safety-notice-about-recalled-samsung-phones/ Jitterbug issues “safety notice” about recalled Samsung phones | mobihealthnews

[...] we reported on the voluntary recall that the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced for s… sold between March 2008 and May 2009. Some of the phones could potentially fail to connect to 911 [...]
Trisha

I agree to this review. My mum had her Jitterbug before and she experienced how awful it is not to be able to contact 911 when she needed to call for help. She was very upset because her main reason for buying this phone is to be able to call for help when she is stuck in an untoward situation. But the phone fails to perform its function. She said Jitterbug is a useless phone for seniors though it has large keys and is simple to use.

My mother is right, because seniors become more vulnerable in every passing year; they also need a reliable device that can call for help in times of emergency. Anyway, it’s also non-sense even if Jitterbug attempts to correct this mistake because many of their customers were already dismayed by the phone’s flaw so they turned to another device, the Just5 phone. Unlike Jitterbug, its emergency S.O.S. feature can always be count on.

Bravo Just5 phone!

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