Xiaomi says Redmi Note 9 Pro/Pro Max that exploded is due to ‘customer-induced damage’

Xiaomi has said the phone exploded due to external forces and has classified it as “customer-induced damage”. However, the company has not explained what this ‘external force’ could have been.

Pictures of the damaged phone that a customer shared on Twitter.  (Twitter/Priyanka Para)

If you have been checking the news lately, you might have heard about a Redmi Note 9 Pro/Pro Max unit that was damaged and another Xiaomi smartphone that caught fire. In both cases, the people involved took to social media to complain about the incident and now Xiaomi has replied to one of them. Priyanka Pavra posted on Twitter that a Redmi Note 9 Pro/Pro Max caught fire and shared a picture and the Redmi India Support team responded to her post. The company has said that “initial investigations” have revealed that the ‘blast' occurred due to external forces and they have classified it as “customer-induced damage”. However, they have not explained what “external force” could have lead to this.

I purchased this phone in the month of December for my younger brother and today few mins back it's start smoking he was scared and he throw water on it because he already saw to many add about phone blast. @RedmiSupportIN @manukumarjain pic.twitter.com/8yn2Zt9YqR

— priyanka pavra (@PriyankaPavra) April 28, 2021

Pavra mentioned in the tweet that she had bought the Redmi smartphone for her brother in December last year. On April 28 her brother suddenly noticed smoke coming out from the handset. Since he had read quite a few reports about phones exploding, Pavra's brother threw the phone into the water. The images posted by Pavra show burn marks on the back of the phone, the display is also seen to be damaged and the glass on the back of the device is cracked too. Of course, the device is no longer functional.

Now that Xiaomi has said that the smoke was caused by “customer induced damage” it is unlikely that they are going to offer a replacement or a reimbursement. A spokesperson from Xiaomi told 91Mobiles in a statement that they are in touch with the customer to resolve the matter.

“At Redmi India, customer safety is of utmost importance and we take such matters extremely seriously. All our devices go through various levels of stringent quality tests to ensure that the quality of the device is not compromised at any level. At this stage, our team is investigating this case to determine the cause. Based on our initial investigation, the damage was caused due to external force, and thus, classified under ‘customer induced damage'. We are in touch with the customer to ensure that the matter is resolved at the earliest,” the statement read.

This is not the first time people have reported Xiaomi phones catching fire/exploding. A Redmi Note 6 Pro in a retail store in Gujarat started emanating smoke and the technician threw the phone out to avoid damage. There was a second case of a Redmi Note 7 Pro heating up in a customer's pocket. The customer managed to pull the phone out and throw it on his bag just before it caught fire. While the customer was unharmed, the bag caught fire and was completely burned. In this case, Xiaomi said that the device was already damaged before it was brought to the service centre and they gave the customer a new phone and bag as compensation.