Apple Leaves Customers Smoking

Apple cares for your health… NOT!
Fact is we really wouldn’t give a damn about this story if Apple just had it in writing that smoking may violate your “AppleCare” agreement.

But no, Apple does what Apple pleases and thanks largely to the fanbois, they get away it it.

This gets added to my list of why not to buy Apple products (full disclosure – am writing this on a MBP).

Unless you’ve just arrived in 2009 on a time machine, you know that smoking isn’t good for you. Did you know, that smoking isn’t good for your computer, either? It’s true, at least according to Apple. Two readers in different parts of the country claim that their Applecare warranties were voided due to secondhand smoke. Both readers appealed their cases up to the office of God Steve Jobs himself. Both lost.

Back in April, Derek copied us on his e-mail to Jobs:

I took my mid 2007 apple macbook (black) into the Jordan Creek Apple Store in West Des Moines, Iowa, on Saturday, April 25th, because I had been experiencing some issues with it overheating, and figured the fan was bad. After some initial testing, they took the computer in for work under my Applecare plan, which has over a year remaining on it.

Today, April, 28, 2008, the Apple store called and informed me that due to the computer having been used in a house where there was smoking, that has voided the warranty and they refuse to work on the machine, due to “health risks of second hand smoke”.

Not only is this faulty science, attributing non smoking residue to second hand smoke, on Chad’s part, no where in your applecare terms of service can I find anything mentioning being used in a smoking environment as voiding the warranty.

Jobs’ office did not help Derek, but he resolved some of the problems himself by disassembling his Macbook and cleaning it out with a can of compressed air.

A few months later, reader Ruth wrote to us with an identical complaint after trying to have her son’s iMac repaired at a local authorized repair center

I bought an iMac for my son (for school) along with the extended Applecare warranty. A month ago, it quit working. My son took it to the authorized Mac service center. The “tech” informed him it would be ready in 48-72 hours. Five days go by and he’s heard nothing, so I called. They informed me that his computer can’t be worked on because it’s contaminated.

When I asked for an explanation, she said he’s a smoker and it’s contaminated with cigarette smoke which they consider a bio-hazard! I checked my Applecare warranty and it says nothing about not honoring warranties if the owner is a smoker. The Applecare representative said they defer to the technician and my son’s computer cannot be fixed at any Apple Service Center due to being listed a bio-hazard.

This computer cost approx. $3,000, with the extended warranty. I’m all for destroying cigarettes and putting big tobacco out of business (yes, I’m a reformed smoker), but to label a computer a biohazard because one is a smoker is going a bit too far in regulating who can have the warranty they purchased honored. Shouldn’t there be some disclaimer stating that they won’t honor warranties from smokers?

Ruth appealed her case to Steve Jobs’s office, which also declined to repair the iMac. In another letter, she wrote:

Dena [from Jobs' office] did advise me that…

Read the rest of the article on Consumerist

And a related article on Ars:

Smoking could be hazardous to your Apple warranty

If you are a smoker and have a Mac, Apple may choose not to honor your warranty. Is the reasoning legit or is Apple just pushing an agenda?

If you’re a Mac user and smoking is your crutch, you may want to leave the room the next time you light up. According to multiple users, as reported by the Consumerist, smoking in the vicinity of your Apple hardware is enough for Apple to deny you service, even if you are under warranty. In at least one instance, a customer challenged the decision by bringing it to the office of Steve Jobs, but without any success.

In the first case, a black MacBook was taken into the Jordan Creek Apple Store with overheating issues. After some time at the store, the customer received a call from an employee saying that the warranty had ben voided due to “health risks of second hand smoke.” In another instance, an iMac brought to an Authorized Apple Service Center met a similar fate when it was labeled a “bio-hazard” by the technician. Apple responded to the customer’s complaints by saying that nicotine was on OSHA’s hazardous substance list; as a result, the company would not make an employee work on the machine. A third account, which also ended without service, also cited OSHA in the explanation.

Read the rest of the article on Ars

We bet if Apple could, they would void the warranty/AppleCare for anyone who writes against Apple.. umm, like eZee.se.

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