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Samsung Electronics Co.'s scramble to replace Galaxy Note 7 phones quickly appears to have backfired, damaging its reputation in the eyes of consumers.

The South Korean phone maker rushed to manufacture and distribute new Note 7 phones to replace the 2.5 million devices it recalled last month because of inflammable lithium-ion batteries. But after reports of several new phones overheating in recent days, Samsung on Monday temporarily halted production and U.S. phone carriers including AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and T-Mobile US Inc. said they would stop distributing replacement Note 7s.

"In my however many years in the market I have not seen a recall like this," Verizon Chief Executive Lowell McAdam said Monday. "This is a real black eye for them, but at the end of the day they will recover."

Consumers might not be so forgiving of two back-to-back crises.

Shawn Minter was a devoted customer, the owner of a Samsung TV, washer and dryer, multiple tablets, and a Note 7. But he says his replacement Note 7 caught fire on his nightstand early Sunday morning.

"I'm really taken back by the fact that the replacement phone is the actual phone that exploded," said Mr. Minter of Richmond, Va. "I feel let down by a company that I've spent thousands of dollars with. I put my trust in Samsung and it's like, they kind of lied." He has gone back to using his old Galaxy Note 5 phone.

The damage to Samsung's brand is likely to be much greater following the halt in sales and production. "The first time, there would have been little impact," said Matthew Quint, director of the Center on Global Brand Leadership at Columbia Business School, adding that consumers understand that mistakes happen. "But a second time, you're definitely going to see some long-term impact."

In addition to the Note 7, Samsung has also been dealing with complaints about its washing machines. The company has been in "active discussions" with U.S. officials to address potential safety issues of certain top-loading Samsung washing machines manufactured between March 2011 and April 2016.

Samsung did not respond to requests for comment.

Samsung and safety authorities have not confirmed the model of devices that have emitted smoke or melted in at least five recent incidents, including one on a Southwest Airlines Co. flight. Samsung and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, which authorized the recall last month of 1 million phones in the U.S., said they are working together to investigate the new incidents.

When Note 7s began catching fire, two weeks after the August launch of the top-of-the-line phone, Samsung failed to coordinate efforts with the CPSC, leading to conflicting information and confusion.

Samsung then began to work with the CPSC, and the official recall was launched last month. Consumers were given the choice of trading in their phone for a new one or getting a refund.

Samsung ramped up production of more Note 7 phones with batteries made from a different manufacturer. Within 12 days, Samsung had shipped 500,000 phones to stores, the company said. Samsung said about half of the phones were exchanged through the voluntary recall as of last month.

Now consumers are left wondering what the real source of the problem is. There are doubts about Samsung's initial assertion that the fires in the original devices were the fault of one battery supplier.

Product safety experts said the rapid development of technology products has made it more difficult to weed out problems. "Tech is moving so fast now that it is hard for safety agencies to keep up," says Pamela Gilbert, a partner with Washington's Cuneo Gilbert & LaDuca LLP and a former executive director of the CPSC.

Other recent recalls of less ubiquitous products have taken months, such as with combustible hoverboards earlier this year, which also had a lithium-ion battery problem.

"The process to vet Samsung's replacement was as quick as it could have been," says Ms. Gilbert. "The question is whether it was too quick."

Write to Georgia Wells at Georgia.Wells@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 10, 2016 18:35 ET (22:35 GMT)

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