Before any official recall was announced, Samsung offered replacement devices or refunds to owners of potentially explosive Galaxy Note 7 phones, but some customers maintain that the company still left them hanging without a smartphone for too long.

A lawsuit, filed in New Jersey district court, claims that owners of recalled Galaxy Note 7 devices suffered “economic damages” as the result of the prolonged and confusing recall.

According to the lawsuit [PDF], when Samsung initially announced an exchange program for the devices, it advised customers to discontinue using their Note 7s, despite not having a replacement phone available.

The plaintiffs claim that Samsung told customers they would have to “wait several days, or even weeks in many cases, before receiving a replacement smartphone.”

Additionally, the eventual recall of replacement devices — and discontinuation of the phones — further created confusion for customers, at times leaving them without a phone for a second time.

As a result, customers allegedly incurred “monthly device charges and monthly plan charges” for an unusable phone that could not be exchanged.

The suit claims that the class has incurred millions of dollars in fees. The suit seeks reimbursement of cell phone service fees.

“While Samsung has offered consumers replacement phones or a refund, it has failed to reimburse consumers for monthly costs associated with owning an unusable Note7,” McCuneWright, the law firm representing the case, said in a statement.

[via Gizmodo]

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