Smoking may void Applecare warranty - Page 3

You know this? Care to provide any evidence? Especially, considering the story that we are responding to specifically says "One reader received a response advising that "nicotine is on OSHA's list of hazardous substances and Apple would not require an employee to repair anything deemed hazardous to their health."

No, I am not. You are saying that 1+1 = 3.

But guess what? That's as legal as your right to smoke.

chances are the person came into for a bar appointment cause the machine overheated, crashed, whatever. the tech opened it and found the gunk and in the course of probing found out that the person was a heavy smoker and very often smoked while at the computer. A quick poke with a pen tip or such was enough to know that the gunk and dust was everywhere and as accidental damage it was not covered by AppleCare. the tech probably then told the person they could try to clean out the gunk but it would likely require a full strip down which is not a service that they do, nor do they have somewhere that could and when the person balked and asked for a manager they were told that it wasn't a covered service and additionally cigarette tar and nicotine is listed by OSHA as a hazard and as such the company can't make an employee work on the machine and be exposed to such substances.

and the peeved customer decided to rant off to make Apple look like dicks for turning them away .

if your computer is filled with potentially hazardous materials and toxic crap, you need an exterminator, not a repair shop.

It's Apple's job to repair your computer, not clean/disinfect it. If you're a pig and don't take care of your crap it'll eventually catch up with you.

So should Apple supply Haz-Mat suits for the computer that come in from nuclear lab? How about biotech firms working with a dangerous virus, or should they just trust the customer that the computer is dead and send them a new one?

These are completely legal activities yet you cannot expect Apple to supply the tools/garments necessary to work on computers coming from these types of environments. If the user contaminates the computer with harmful chemicals, biohazards... then Apple is not responsible to service them _even_ if still under warrantee! And in my opinion even if the potential failure would normally be covered.

If you contaminate your computer, that's your fault not Apples!

KRR

I found a site that has a bunch of photos of disgusting computers. http://www.thecomputerwizard.biz/photos.htm

Here is one of the worst photos. It's a nasty combination of tar, dirt, dust and mold. Anyone who thinks that warranties should cover this or thinks that a computer company should force it's employees to work on computers in such a state is delusional.

A couple of points:

1) No computer coming in for repair, especially after any length of time, is clean and pristine inside. If being clean is a prerequisite for warranty service, most computers would be denied coverage.

2) If it really is an OSHA issue then why have we not heard of this issue before? Keep in mind every consumer electronics device could potentially be exposed to this kind of environment yet there just doesn't seem to be any examples of a TV or whatever not being repaired because of "environmental toxins cause by the user".

3) Nicotine probably has a very low precipitation rate on surfaces. The gunk in the computer is much more likely tar.

4) Aqueous liquids can instantly damage electronics. That's why spills can automatically void a warranty. By contrast, vapors don't cause failures in that way. Similarly, people don't instantly die from tobacco smoke, cheeseburgers, or a beer. However, you can certainly die almost instantly from drowning. Consequently, trying to connect this whole issue to water damage just doesn't work.

Apple shoots people they don't like...

"Well sure... I see no problem with that..."

I'm guessing there must be SOMETHING that Apple might do that would cross the line right?!!? Killing baby puppies perhaps? Flipping the bird at nuns??

I mean Apple HAS to be in the WRONG sometime right?!?!

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/smokekills

And for the story, I can understand it is bad to use your computer as ashtray and agree with Apple in such case.
But the reason "smoke is dangerous so I do not want repair your computer" sounds like a joke and very arrogant to me: isn't a company supposed to make customers happy.
I mean, it's not like they were sniffing plutonium...

I do not smoke and usually ask smokers next to me to stop; but I can understand people who smoke while using their computer: isn't tobacco supposed to reduce stress ?

What kind of an idiot are you? Assuming you're a smoker, you must not do much house cleaning, or you would have noticed the all the brown sticky scum covering EVERYTHING.

I read a report that in the summer, you know if you've been there, the air in Los Angeles is brown and apparently worse then smoking. Not second hand smoke but smoking. So if your anti smoking and live in LA, that's pretty funny, although not really.

Anyway Apple really? Is that a US thing as try going to Europe where they smoke in the stores, trains. The US is so restricted. No wonder companies out source. Kid blows off a finger with a firecracker, instead of punishing the parents, let's outlaw it.

People need to take responsability. I remembervworking working for Capitol Records in Hollywood. They used to smoke in all the offices. If you own a company, can you legally allow smoking or has the govt. gone that Nazi?

At least in film production they still smoke. Youdon't t like it and suddenly they will find a reason to let you go.

All theses laws and tar being dangerous? I hope Apple gets sued and loses. Why extreme leftist non tech genius said eewwww with their sweaty palms said I'm not fixing that. Oh brother. This is the type of person that has eveything sqaured and to many shoes. More apple PR. Can we at
least see a picture?

Peace all.

This is just silly.

This from the same company that uses slave labor in a communist country.

*applause

I'm a non smoker and always have been. But this story has to be a joke. Unless a computer has fire, smoke and water damage, how could cigarette smoking damage a computer beyond repair - OR - prevent employees from repairing the computer.

My advice to these 2 consumers: If you have a reasonable case, SUE! for breach of contract, breach of warranty, unreasonable conduct and discrimination based on lifestyle or handicap.

Gimme a break. In case you hadn't noticed, Apple is taking stands on issues which are important. The health of their employees is very important. Putting the responsibility for the effects of smoking back on the smoker is NOT unreasonable. If fact, it's the RIGHT thing to do.

Those who insist on being STOOOPID and smoke like chimneys around their computer equipment should realize what damage they're doing, not only to their equipment, but to the technician who MIGHT have worked on it.

You want the warranty coverage? QUIT SMOKING! Simple.

Just so everyone is clear, this would not void the warranty on all smoker's computers, only ones that are so full of tar, that is inhibits working on it. Likely it is a judgement call on the part of the service technician. Just keep your area around your computer clean. A DJ taking a computer into a smoky bar for 4 hours is NOT going to cause a warranty to be voided (that DJ ought to consider supplemental insurance on the equipment protecting it from beer spills anyhow). They are talking about systems that look like the one we've got pictured in the comments thread here. You won't see this being enforced only because the system smells a little bit like a cigarette. I have seen computers returned to the store after being in the possession of the customer for 12 hours smell like a pack of Marlboros, those are the people that should be concerned about the long term affects on the computer.

No, it's YOUR attitude that is unbelievable. Relying on "legality" as a benchmark for "right" and "wrong" is a luxury we as a society can no long afford. Apple is not waiting for a silly law to be passed to say that they're going to protect their employees' health. They're doing the right thing.

When did Singapore become a communist country?

Are those iPhones in hand?




No. Chinese factories that make Apple products are more healthy. At least when compared to those factories making drywall for the US housing market, or dog food and baby formula, or lead paint in Childrens toys. Although, now that I think about it, I wonder what is truly going on in those iPhones?

Not healthy!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2007/aug/13/china

http://www.chinacsr.com/en/2007/04/0...g-food-recall/

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/16/wo...ia/16milk.html

http://www.chinalawblog.com/2009/10/..._makes_us.html

"nicotine is on OSHA's list of hazardous substances and Apple would not require an employee to repair anything deemed hazardous to their health."

Good enough for me. I assume it was a bit more serious than yellowing of the case.

Uh-uh. No, make that haha. So, what is Apple relying on when they say: " ....nicotine is on OSHA's list of hazardous substances and Apple would not require an employee to repair anything deemed hazardous to their health."

Boy do you watch to much CNN or what. I don't smoke pot but the paper companies in the late 1800s saw hemp as a threat, so Tindale or Hammermill outlawed it. I also have an under cover narc friend one is narc, the other DEA, drugs are made illegal because you cannot patient a plant, opium, where all the morphine to codeine started, so since you can't patient it, outlaw it. Who wins? The pharmacutical companies.

Read about prohibition. How it created the mob. Go back further and you'll see tin cans that read for a busy mom and baby, opium candy to help you relax and thatbwas less than 100 years ago.

Go to college. Learn. Read. Absorb. Let your mind be open for a change. I like to use food as an anlogy. What does it feel like to be hungry? You can't explain it right. But you eat and feel satisfied. Same with smokers. I used to be one. But again. There are way to many rules in this country. O remember visiting holland. It was beautiful and we went up this windmill and saw a skull and cross bones. That's it. Meaning you can go around the rope but you could also die. In the US, that display would be off limits, protected by 5 feet of glass and unresponsible parents allow laws to be changed due to their bad patenting and we all pay. You'll see. Someday it will affect you.

First of all, if someone wants to smoke cigarettes, that's their choice. I don't, and I really don't care for it, but I don't aim to run anyone's life for them. I have enough of a time keeping myself out of trouble. I don't mind working on a computer that has been smoked around...warranties are something else.

I don't know how much harm the compounds left behind in a computer would really cause to someone working on it. It seems feasible that any person could have a problem, even if it was no more serious than just being "grossed out". I know I've worked on more computers than I can count that were owned by smokers. The worst one came from a guy whose apartment walls should have been bright white but were actually dull yellow. I could not see any identifying marks on any component part in the system. I also couldn't make out any of the fan paddles.

No matter how much you might like to smoke, you might stop when you looked inside anything in your home that has a fan going inside it.

I really didn't want to touch it. I had no idea what to do about it. So I threw it in the dishwasher after making some preparations. (Bet that got your attention, didn't it.) Chucked it on there with a ton of detergent, the hottest possible water temperature setting and the longest wash cycle I could pick. It was not completely successful as the system smelled of cigarettes afterwards, but it was a 9000% improvement from what it had been. Stuff was the right color again.

More recently, I inherited a Dell Dimension V350 PC that had a lesser form of the same disease, and I decided to show the world one way to fix the problem: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahhSDEgkqQ8 . If that sort of thing interests you, please go and watch.

At the same time I fixed a fax machine that faxed entirely in black. Yep, you guessed it. A fine line of cigarette residue covered the optics, making it impossible to read a document.

I guess smoking residue trumps poor working conditions. Interesting indeed.

As per Apple's standard hardware Warrantee decrees, i.e., "This warranty does not apply: (a) to damage caused by use with non-Apple products; (b) to damage caused by accident, abuse, misuse, flood, fire, earthquake or other external causes, the presence of a sufficient substance to cause the computer to malfunction, is sufficient to negate the service.

Although having a machine come in for service with such visual evidence to conclude that the primary cause of failure is due to using it in a 'smoking' environment of any degree, proclaiming that "nicotine is on OSHA's list of hazardous substances and Apple would not require an employee to repair anything deemed hazardous to their health." may in part not be totally accurate. Certainly, the employees refusal to repair the computer under warranty is perfectly within their rights and Apple's position to protect their employees where it might be deemed a health hazard to any extent is equally valid.

Having been on both sides of the desk, I would be embarrassed to bring in a computer gunk'd up with something that I was responsible for. If they refused to honor the warranty, even after personally cleaning and returning it myself, that would be my problem.

On the other hand, having to stick your face into something somebody else basically crapped in, is not what anybody should be forced to do.

Keep in mind that some non-smokers can enter a locked 'smoking' room and be unaffected at all. Whereas, others become totally repulsed at even the thought of touching the door nob.

It's actually *part* pf poor working conditions.

To air is human.

I whole-heartedly agree. I can't pour wine or soda on my computer and expect the warranty to cover the damage.

Agree 100 percent. I have opened up a couple of PC boxes that were owned by smokers and it was disgusting. I won't do it any longer as I don't want to have contact with that kind of filth. To think people actually put that in their lungs.

I do feel that if Apple is unwilling to repair the items, then Apple should refund the Apple Care purchase costs.

There is a saying that people living in glass houses should not throw stones.

Currently, there are virtually thousands of US products on recall, e.g., FDA*, Auto, Consumer products** , which evidence somebody's lack of care for the health of the people they want to sell to.

* http://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/default.htm
http://www.autorecalls.us/
**http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prerelnov09.html

Worse, it is cowardly.

"Many things" ??? ... Such as?

Like you buy your wife a life insurance policy and decide to kill her:

Naturally, you wouldn't expect to collect on the policy if you were found guilty of the crime, but you expect the premiums be returned to you?

this is ridiculous, there is no proven health risk from second hand contact. I love your products Apple and I don't smoke but this is asinine.

Water is also on OSHA's list. Water is toxic.

Sorry. Smoking is not perfectly legal in California. You can't smoke in bars and restaurants. Second hand smoke affects the workers who have to work there. In my fair town of Santa Cruz, you can't smoke on Pacific Avenue nor can you smoke on the city owned beaches. All related to the hazards of second hand smoke. Yes, it has been banned in certain areas.

Must be a slow news day.

I would love to see a show of hands of which of the posters in this thread are smokers. That would be quite interesting. I personally am a militant anti-smoker, with no exceptions, even if you smoke within the law, it still bothers me. I hate cigarette smoke. Even the slightest whiff disgusts me. In my opinion smokers should have to live out in the desert somewhere like lepers calling out notice of their affliction whenever normal people come within earshot.

Smoking in any public place or place of employment is illegal in Ohio - Ohio voters voted in favor of this ban in 2006.

Never thought there would come a day a would decide never to buy a mac again but that day has come. When I paid my MacBook Pro they didn't say they couldn't accept my money because it was a biohazard so I wonder why they would consider my notebook a biohazard.

A big fuck you to Steve Jobs! What's next? People who eat meat can't send in their Macs for repair anymore?