[Phil]

Smoking Near Apple Computers Creates Biohazard, Voids Warranty - The Consumerist

I love Apple. Seriously i do!

if this was any other company you would see lawsuits flying everywhere.....

 

[zidine00]

Smoking kills, you and your apples, isnt that an insentive to stop jk.

carefull smokers or your apples will fall off.

an apple a day, keeps the smoker away.

my apples are smoking.

oh come on ive been waiting all day for these kind of bad puns.

stoping now.

anyway how the hell are they geting away with this,
i expect using your computer will soon void your waranty due to skin partacles going on your keyboard or some tripe.

on further reflection i can see their point, due to tar clogging up the thing and such.

 

[ElijahTW]

Considering the smoker population, this could be a big blow to apple if smokers hear about this.

We can't honor your warranty because it seems your computer has been going a lot of processing lately. Sorry.

 

[xZabuzax]

I don't smoke and i hate the smell of a ****ing cigarette or tobacco, seems like apple is also enforcing peoples to stop smoking(?)

 

[Phil]

Apple wants the left in their pocket

 

[-StrikE-]

Well i quited smoking and can't stand it now, but even so wtf this is to much even for apple...

 

[Phil]

Hey, it saves them money. So all good for them.

 

[Hard core Rikki]

If customer satisfaction means this little to them, they best notify them beforehand how much they hate providing services paid for (like warrantees, included). These corps have been since long enough neck-deep into deceptive practices screwing customers like their good fortune would last forever.

'Saving them money' is not an argument, when these are services included in pricetags.

 

[Phil]

Well do they abide by their own contracts? In this case no. They can get away with it. Actually, this enhances their "perfect image" in a wierd twisted way

 

[Proto]

I think some of the comments in that article give some insight into Apple's position

I think the bio-hazard thing is a load of BS, but the smoking thing I'm not the least bit surprised by, and in fact having worked on machines owned by smokers, I can totally get behind it. I've never seen filthier machines (on the inside) than those used in the presence of cigarette smoke, the smoke lands on the computer components, making them sticky, and attracting immense amounts of dust (which then picks up more smoke, which picks up more dust, and on and on.) I've more than once had to resort to physically scraping the dust-goo off of components that were overheating because canned air (dust-off) didn't have enough power to budge it.

Furthermore, some of the components of cigarette smoke are conductive, so there's every chance that along with heat damage, electrical shorts could lead to the early demise of the computer.

Yes, this should probably be mentioned in the warranty more specifically, but i'm sure it's covered under environmental damage legally speaking.

My sister smokes & her PC was starting to do strange things, so she dropped the thing off to me. (I don't smoke, and smoke makes me sick)

I opened up the case, and it looked like sticky-poop looking muck all over the PC - on top of the processor heat sink (just under the fan) was a layer of this muck. It's like smoke in a solid form. Canned air would not even dint this muck - a screwdriver was about the only thing to work. It finally started to make me sick that I told her it was fried and she needed a new PC - it was beyond fixable.

I would guess the computers in the story was not this bad, but I can see the point of people not wanted to work on them... I will most likely never work on my sister's computer again.

I worked at the Apple Depot in Memphis for almost a year (friggin layoffs), and it was common practice to not work on machines that had horrible tar. Its not so much that they were hazardous (gloves!) but that there was so much that had to be done. Here in Memphis, most of the workers are lazy, and opening a machine and and seeing tar covered MLB, HDD, ODD, and LCD panel is grounds for BER status, no matter what it is. Hell, just the MLB, HDD, and ODD would be grounds for it to be put in requote or sent back as a biohazard. Thats just how it is.

Also, so people can't say I didn't work there and I have no clue what the hell I say, all of the apple techs are NOT apple employees. They are employed by Flextronics, so really no one cares.

 

[Phil]

The last one makes me never want to buy OEM again..

 

[Princess Garnet]

Yeah, I agree with the sentiments that a PC exposed to smoke can be really nasty. My younger brother and stepfather smoke, and their PCs look pretty bad after a while, especially my brother's (my stepfather's doesn't get all too bad considering how much he smokes). My brother's gets pretty bad real quick (he smokes alot too, along with all of his friends in his room), and I warn him "make sure you clean it" (I'd advise monthly myself, but don't let it go more than three or four months, maybe twice a year at absolute most). He doesn't listen. Last time I saw it and mentioned it, I told him it was probably about that time, and he agreed with me, but I know he didn't do it. I told him I'm not cleaning inside it again. It looks ridiculous, and I won't deal with it. Smoke bothers me enough as it is.

Smokers are (or should be) aware of the damage it causes, and it extends past just people. They should have to live with it. If it damages their PC, that's honestly not something the OEM should have to cover for them. I agree that maybe the OEMs should start explicitly stating a policy on smoking itself if this is what they intend to do, because we are dealing with idiots (not referring to smokers, but people in general when it comes to these things). I think too little people understand that smoking does do alot to the inside of a PC. Then again, most people don't know that PCs should ideally be cleaned regardless because of dust, so that doesn't help matters.

 

[-StrikE-]

Well i for one personally never smoked inside the house let alone in front of the PC but anyway, those comments quoted by Proto are overly exaggerated and currently the filthiest most grotesque PC i had seen was owned by a non smoking woman , also i worked on the PC's of a stock broker (been in charge with maintaince on his PC's for years), his work environment (in other words his office) was a cramped office that consisted of a heavy smoker x 2 or x 3 most of the time and while there was indeed dust in the PC and also the case from the pure white turned out brownish, there was non of the so called muck inside the cases. It doesn't really matter if the person smokes or not, what does matter however is how clean or dirty the person is.

 

[Princess Garnet]

So you deny that smoke can cause it's own type of residue? I'm glad you never saw it, but I've seen it all too much, and it most certainly exists, and no, those stories don't seem exaggerated to me. In fact, for people who work in the field and have to deal with it all of the time, that probably doesn't do justice what they've seen. It's a wet-like (but isn't really "wet" per se) physical buildup of smelly tar-like stuff with dust in it.

 

[Phil]

Can't be worse then dead roaches

 

[-StrikE-]

So you deny that smoke can cause it's own type of residue? I'm glad you never saw it, but I've seen it all too much, and it most certainly exists, and no, those stories don't seem exaggerated to me. In fact, for people who work in the field and have to deal with it all of the time, that probably doesn't do justice what they've seen. It's a wet-like (but isn't really "wet" per se) physical buildup of smelly tar-like stuff with dust in it.

I didn't deny its existence my point was that it doesn't matter if the person is a smoker or non smoker but what does matter is there life style, a friend witch works at a PC repair shop once said you can tell a person's personal hygiene level just by looking in his PC and he was right except for some rare cases (i know a guy who keeps a regular maintenance on his PC but his house is a filthy mess), i seen grotesque non smokers PC's and i seen grotesque smoker PC's (though like i said currently the record for the most disgusting PC i seen is currently being held by a non smoking female), as well as vice versa.

 

[PCXL-Fan]

If you can't smoke by an Apple computer a new phrase should be started:

"An Apple a day keeps the doctor away"

Apple is just doing as its namesake suggests and keeping people healthy.

You also can't play many videogames on the Mac, so its attempting to do its duty and get people out door and active. Unfortunately not even Apple can with stand industry pressures of the evil videogame companies.

 

[Princess Garnet]

Oh, I'm not denying that people who don't smoke can have nasty stuff in their PC too, but in general, all else being the same, it will be worse if it's exposed to smoke, as it does do more than people realize. That's all I was saying.

 

[Cid Highwind]

Seeing how smoking can cause genetic mutations, I guess it's acceptable for them to refuse fixing Apples with AMD processors.

 

[Squall-Leonhart]

I've seen the insides of a smokers PC, so with that i support Apple's stance.