Dell Laptop Burns House Down

Nuclear Elephant writes "The Consumerist is running a story about a house burned down by a Dell laptop. 'My 130-year-old former farm house was engulfed in flames, with thick dark smoke pouring out of the windows and roof... Hours later, after investigation the fire marshal investigator took me aside asked me if I had a laptop computer. Yes — I told him I had a Dell Inspiron 1200.' It was determined that the laptop, battery, or cord malfunctioned after its owner left for work, leaving the fire to spread through the entire house. All attempts to contact Dell have failed. 'I have tried to call Dell to at least notify them of my problems, but each time I have called I get transferred into an endless loop of "Joe" or "Alan" all speaking a delectable version of English I presume emanates from Bangalore. I have been outright hung up on each time I get someone who speaks a reasonable version of English, or sounds like they might be in charge of something. Promises of call backs have gone, of course, unreturned.'"

Pshaw!

[Bwana Geek]

That's nothing... An iPod killed my family!

Re:Pshaw!

[wirelessbuzzers]

Well, we knew from the beginning that the iPod was Apple's killer app.

Ouch

[somekids]

And we thought the exploding batteries were bad..

Guess they'll have to drop the upcoming commercial

[edwardpickman]

Burning Down the House may have been a poor choice for a new a theme song.

It's not a bug, it's a feature!

[c0d3h4x0r]

This is the new combined security and power-save model in Vista. Your PC can't get infected by spyware, no one can hack your home network, and you won't use any power, if the computer just burns the whole place to the ground.

I think it's in the Screen Saver settings someplace:

"[x] Enter Burn-House-to-Ground mode after [ 30 ] minutes of inactivity."

Re:Pshaw!

[Anonymous Coward]

Get a lawyer and stop trying to call their customer support line, you tool.

Obligatory Simpsons quote

[c0d3h4x0r]

"Well, this is your problem right here -- this thing's set to EVIL!"

Is this a first?

[Anonymous Coward]

Is this the first Slashdot IAAL post?

Re:Let's assign blame accurately

[hwyengr]

And really, what is Dell supposed to say to claims of "you've burned my house down?"

"Dude, you're getting a fire extinguisher!"

Simple. Caveat Emptor (paraphrased)

[heptapod]

Now, should we initiate a recall? Take the number of laptop batteries in the field, A, multiply by the probable rate of failure, B, multiply by the average out-of-court settlement, C. A times B times C equals X. If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one.

Duh!

[Derek Loev]

He obviously forgot to install a "firewall".
... Ok, I'm leaving.

Dear Slashdot Poster

[Leuf]

Please refrain from impugning our client regarding this incident, or we will be forced to take action against you.

Sincerely,
The Law Offices of Fluffy, Lightning, and Mr Jingles

Re:Ouch

[Korin43]

This is what Dell calls an upgrade ;)

Re:Pshaw!

[ari_j]

Yeah, it was just a regular bitchfest instead.

Re:Just curious...

[mojodamm]

Yeah, especially if they were planning on using that laptop to do it.

ObPython

[Xenographic]

An iPød bit my sister! :]

Re:Guess they'll have to drop the upcoming commerc

[greg1104]

No big deal, they'll just use "We Didn't Start the Fire" instead.

Re:Is this real or a hoax?

[raphae]

Damnit. I've been reading the past 45 minutes and NOW you say this!?

Damnit.

Re:Pshaw!

[Curmudgeonlyoldbloke]

...and their spelling is terrible!

Re:Pshaw!

[mikael]

Though it is, perhaps, naieve to think that one fire will spark a product recall,

I'm sure this will fire up Dell's media communications division to launch a blitzkrieg campaign to warn all users
of the dangers of laptop batteries.

Re:Pshaw!

[Anonymous Coward]

That's the point. There was no right department because there was nothing they could do for him.

Press 5 to talk to our Exploding Battery Issues Department

Obligatory Beavis and Butthead quote

[Anonymous Coward]

Fire! Fire! Fire!

Re:Pshaw!

[pdabbadabba]

Yeah...as far as I know, Tom Cruise still has his citizenship :(

Re:Agent for service of process

[Anonymous Coward]

It's his fault for leaving it plugged in to the mains while he was not present. Or does common safety not apply in the US ?

Mains, eh? Other side of the pond, what?

Let me guess, elecrical equipment in your country is so unreliable that you throw the main panel switch each time you leave the house. Just in case.

I bet that's a bitch for anyone who wants to run a server out of his house. I can just see the page posted by the ISP when the server owner is away and the server is offline -- "Sorry, the sysop elected to walk down to the end of the road to pick up his mail as he just saw the postman bicycle off. He expects the system to be available again from the time of his return until he leaves for afternoon tea in the local pub."

By the way, since your equipment uses 220 volts, therefore uses lower amperage and correspondingly skinny wires, why do you use those big, honking plugs that we'd consider overkill if used to power the New York subway system? Or maybe the electric chair.

Re:Pshaw!

[TClevenger]

To date an online petition has never changed anything.

That's not true at all. I signed an online petition and starting getting lots of spam.