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Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
08:10 PM
cigarettes are bad for some people, not so bad for others. I've been smoking for 8 or 9 years now, and have no diminished lung capacity. I can walk 30 miles in a day without slowing, and i dont really exercise. I can eat a pound of bacon in one sitting, and yet i'm still in good shape. i have ridiculously low blood pressure and i very rarely get sick.
then there are total pussies who can't deal with cold temperatures, with allergies out the yin yang, and a whole other miriad of health problems. they are the kind of people who should not smoke. but there exist many many people who, for whatever reason, are not adversely affected by tobacco products.
i know this is slightly OT since this isn't about smoking itself, but it always needs to be said: the current propaganda on smoking is just that: propaganda. it is simply a small step towards controlling more and more personal aspects of our lives in the name of 'public health'.
11/22/09
11/22/09
But denying warranty coverage because of OSHA is BS. OSHA is between Apple and its employees, and is not an excuse for Apple (or any other company) to violate its agreements with its customers. There are ways of upholding the warranty without violating OSHA (appropriate PPE or hardware replacement). You don't get to back out on legal agreements because it's too much hassle.
11/21/09
Like an idiot, I kept an ashtray right under my iMac. The smoke of course rose up into the iMac and created a haze in the upper left hand corner of the screen. And one of my fans was started running at about half as fast as it should have been. So I didn't put two and two together (for some unknown reason) and took it to a Genius.
His first question was, "Do you smoke in front of your iMac?" And I told him yes, I'm an idiot, and was expecting to pay them clean and fix my fan. BUT they replaced my fan free of charge and cleaned my screen. No complaints here.
11/21/09
11/22/09
11/21/09
Fix the effing machine. Some jerk off wants to pass the job to someone else 'cos it smells bad, have at it, but someone better fix it. If it was my computer, bet your butt I'd be hauling Apple into small claims court for denying warranty coverage. Christ, *biohazard*? With all the other toxic crap inside the computer? You have to be kidding me. You might as well not service computers owned by people with cats 'cos those cat hairs and cat dander get sucked up into the machine and some people are allergic to it.
11/21/09
@AmphetamineCrown:
11/21/09
B'sides, I thought smoking was part of that hipster culture Apple marketed too...
11/21/09
I was just giving an example of what can happen at an extreme. I tend to agree with most everyone else that Apple is being pedantic about this. I doubt that the case was extreme like that. If it was, I could understand Apple, but otherwise I think it's just them being afraid to touch something because it's ''icky''.
11/21/09
11/21/09
11/21/09
11/21/09
I can make sure to you that here in sanfrancisco/bayarea/silicon valley (apple central) smoking (cigeratts at least) is very un-hip and totally not cool,
11/21/09
11/21/09
11/21/09
11/21/09
11/22/09
11/22/09
11/22/09
11/21/09
It's a comfort thing for me- when I'm taking apart someone's computer, I shouldn't have to wear gloves to deal with slimy, discoloured residue.
11/21/09
My point is, one can't pick the components of a job one wants to do. As a computer repairman, one has to clean and repair computers and guess what, it's the really dirty computers that need cleaning and repairing. That's the point of repairing a computer.
11/21/09
You're correct, one can't pick the components of a job one wants to do, but there's also the question of what is considered to be something within the scope of what your job is. Cleaning out computers that are full of gunk, grime, tar, and so forth, in my opinion, is not something a computer repair technician should reasonably have to deal with.
11/21/09
11/21/09
I can definitly see Apple, or any tech company refusing service to an optical drive because of the sensitivity of the lens - old floppies didn't like smoke at all, and I have an old HP scanner with what seems like permanently yellowed glass.
11/21/09
If you have not experienced such an odor, you are in no position to comment on it as a health-hazard.
I cracked open a PC last year that had a quarter-inch of stinky gray sludge from cigarette smoke inside of it. The odor had people retching in the halls.
Within minutes, the entire office was evacuated. My boss had two of us don masks to get the thing outside and into a garbage bag... and then into several more garbage bags because the odor, once released, was just that bad.
We told the customer that his computer was DOA. He asked us to rescue the hard drive, but nobody would volunteer to go get it. Ultimately, my boss went and got the drive. It was dead. The tar had gotten into the works and gunked it up.
We had the windows open for weeks afterwards, yet the odor still lingers in the carpets.
11/21/09
It seems to me a bit akin to a plumber not working because the shit smell is too strong. I've been in bars where people complain of patrons smelling of smoke - and you know what? Until cigarettes are outlawed, that cigarette smell is not going away, so you deal with it as best you can. Sounds like these prima donna techs found a way to not work on those machines - and that is the American Way, isn't it? Finding ways to not do work you do not want to do.
11/21/09
Gross and Hazardous are not synonyms!
11/21/09
11/21/09
11/21/09
Yes, gross != hazardous.
To a degree.
But trapzella's case is certainly one of hazardous. If it really did that much to people, that's a severe health hazard.
Donning a full face mask, gloves, respirator, etc so that you are physically capable of fixing a computer means that you have a hazard. I wouldn't expect those sorts of businesses to be provided for such a place. It would have voided the warranty as well.
@Lizard_King:
If you read other comments, people have noted that this falls under the terms of a proper operating environment.
This is akin to, (to perpetuate your plumber analogy), someone who just shits on top of their shit for weeks and then call a plumber because the toilet doesn't flush anymore. He shouldn't have to clean up somebody else's shit, because it's not only a biohazard, but it's disgusting as fuck. "Cleaning toilets" is not in the job description.
Especially if it's supposedly under warranty, which this case would certainly render null and void.
11/21/09
Maintenence man comes, figures it is just a broken chain, has to siphon out 2 day old shit water and get the rag out by hand. It's just what you have to do.
People that fix bicycles have to deal with urine saturated wheelchairs, white buildup from the body salt in the cushions, because wheelchairs are similar to bicycles, and discriminating is not an option. That sure as hell is not in the job description, but it's done - I've seen it.
11/21/09
I don't side with Apple very often, but in this case, I have to. If the smoke residue was present enough to be noticeable by the technicians, chances are that any damage to the machines was self-inflicted.
11/21/09
Dear Mr. [redacted]
We received your Macbook Pro, serial number W893304EB33, and we were unable to service your machine, as it seems to have a peculiar odor and some questionable residue on the keyboard. As it's being assumed to be biological, we consider it a serious health concern, thus we will be sending your computer back to you. We apologize for this inconvenience.
11/21/09
11/21/09
11/02/09
With basic plans I got domiciliar repair 3 times during a couple of years for my Dell XPS 1330.
Some will argue that the laptop is crap, but all three times the problem was on the faulty nVidia 8400M chipset that overheated and burned. Other than that it's also the best laptop I ever dealt with.
Cases like these really makes a company look very bad, but it's no way representative to the majority of cases.
I also decided to get the laptop from them because I only heard of good cases in Brazil regarding their costumer support.
No questions asked, they make some simple tests, and in my case made a full motherboard replacement and one LCD screen.
And opposite to most other brands, the people who work for the tech support actually knew a lot about their products. So if I made questions about battery life, optional bluetooth chip and stuff like that they actually knew the answer... #laptops
11/02/09
11/02/09