Posted on 11/23/2009 5:26:07 AM PST by webschooner
Apple is apparently telling at least some customers that the amount of cigarette smoke residue inside their computers makes it unsafe for the company to perform warranty service on them, despite the lack of such a clause in the company's warranty agreement.
The Consumerist says the complaint as been raised as far as Steve Jobs' office, with no relief for the customers involved.
The story was reported on Friday, though the Consumerist said it had sought, but failed to receive, any explanation from Apple HQ over a period of months. (The site is part of the Consumers Union/Consumer Reports organization, so I deem the report credible).
(Excerpt) Read more at pcworld.com ...
ping
Class action
$12,000,000 plus verdict.
Here’s the phone number I’m calling after 6 am Pacific time. 1-800-275-2273 (Applecare Support, US). I’m going to just ask them to clear this up. Funny how this all comes out around the time Windows 7 is released, isn’t it?
But I've got to wonder where all this sh*t is going to stop. Earth to Apple: Computers get used in all types of environment. Suppose a chemical company uses one of your laptops to run a mixing machine. Will the chemical residues in the air also void the warranty? How about an auto repair company which has exhaust fumes from cars being serviced? There are a million more examples which all lead one to believe that if you can void a warranty for a bullsh*t excuse like smoking, you can void one for any reason.
Same story also reported here:
http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2009/11/21/some-healthy-advice-dont-smoke-near-your-mac/
OK. I haven’t owned an Apple computer for a very long time. Explain:
1. Are the newer Mac’s completely without a cooling fan?
2. If not, how does a dangerous concentration of second-hand smoke get inside the box?
3. Has Apple gone completely insane?
4. This is an ‘urban legend’, right?
“If not” = “If so”..... more coffee.
I happen to have been in that segment of industry -
“industrial use” is not covered under warranty unless the computer itself is rated for that application.
BTW, I NEVER saw an apple in an industrial use situation. Usually IBM brand rack mount PCs.
Apple is apparently telling at least some customers that the amount of cigarette smoke residue inside their computers makes it unsafe for the company to perform warranty service on them, despite the lack of such a clause in the company's warranty agreement.
That biohazard claim is bulls***, by itself. It's not second hand smoke, it's just a bad smell, now.
That said, smoker's residue inside a computer is nasty, varying from a slight yellowish film to a dark yukky grime that dust sticks to.
Your CPU cooling fan, and other fans can get clogged with it. I've seen cooling vents clogged with dust, stuck into a fuzzy mass.
This was posted last night. The Apple accolytes were trashing anyone who didn’t dismiss this story. I wouldn’t own an Apple or IPod. I would prefer not to own a Windows machine, but the software I need for my business (Industrial Hygiene) will only run (barely) on Windows.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the next generation of Apples will include profanity recognition software, so every time you curse out your computer it digitally records and stores your vile rant. This will not only void your warranty, of course, but provide your Apple with grounds for computer divorce, so that when you bring it in to be fixed, Apple can claim your computer as a ward of the Company, take it away from you, and find some nice, underprivileged (and non-smoking) person to “adopt” it.
All of this sound very silly, of course, but in today’s world, with today’s liberals, it somehow doesn’t seem that far fetched (sigh).
AS a non smoker I will make a few comments.
The safety issue sounds like typical liberal BS.
That being said, there is nothing worse then working
on equipment that is used by heavy smokers.
It stinks, and the insides tend to be yellow and sticky.
I was in the two way radio communications business, as well as a ham radio operator.
I would never buy a used radio from a smoker, and working on one could be the pits. Equipment from non smokers also brings a better price.
I am sure the same would be true for computers.
Then I guess Rush shouldn’t send his computer in for service!
(Shameless plug: I’m the new owner of an awesome MacBook Pro 17”.)
Amazing. Here on Free Republic, there are people who are willing to jump into bed with this uber-liberal Consumer Union owned subsidiary, sight unseen, on the basis of second hand accounts.
Unbelievable. But not surprising, from what I have seen lately.
Yeah. We “Apple Acolytes” just have an issue with idiots who read something on the Internet and jump to a illogical conclusion because it fits their template.
Sound familiar?
No wonder Obama won.
It’s certainly possible that the story is untrue. If so, it would obviously be in Apple’s best interest to quash it by issuing a press release setting the record straight, since the story is all over the internet.
“Then I guess Rush shouldn’t send his computer in for service!’
I guess I missed something. When did Rush start smoking again?
Apparently, it’s not an urban legend, it’s true. There are at least two documented cases of Apple stores refusing to do warranty repairs on smokers’ Macs, claiming “biohazard”. Sounds more to me like the snotty punks working at the Apple stores just didn’t want to do the work.
That having been said...many years ago I worked at a PC repair shop, and had to go pick up a machine (an old Compaq 80386/20 MHz being used as a server—which tells you how long ago this was) that had stopped working. The box sat on a desk in an office occupied by two three-pack-a-day chain-smoking women...at a ready-mix concrete plant.
Yeah, you can probably see where this is going.
When we cracked the case, it was a horrible sight. The entire motherboard looked like it was buried under fuzzy brown snow—we couldn’t read the writing on the circuit board or on any of the ICs, they were buried completely. The fan was so gummed up with brown sticky deposits it would barely move. The inside of the case was discolored. The air input areas were all but clogged with brownish-gray fuzzballs. The floppy drive door would not open. The tape drive was so gummed up it was difficult to insert and remove a backup tape. (It didn’t help that these idiot women just left the same backup tape in there day after day after day instead of rotating them the way we’d tought.) And of course, the stench upon opening it up was so bad, even the smoker who was the primary tech working on it gagged.
We ended up having to wash the case with Formula 409 or some such, and take the chassis outside and blow it out with an air compressor—not a can of air you get at the local CompUSA, a honest-to-God tire-inflating air compressor. THEN we had to replace the hard drive, the cartridge tape drive, and the floppy drive.
I don’t buy the “biohazard” line, but smokers’ computers do take much more abuse than most non-smokers’ do. The tar in the smoke leaves a nasty, gummy residue that’s the perfect media for dustbunnies to get stuck in. Your fans and air intakes will clog faster and your machine will run more risk of overheating.
}:-)4
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