Dell Fixes Ultrabook That Smelled of Cat Urine 133
Sockatume writes "The BBC is reporting that Dell's Latitude 6430u Ultrabooks have an interesting characteristic you won't find in any Macbook Air: the palm rest emits an odor like cat urine. An issue with a manufacturing process is thought to be to blame. Although Dell has assured potential customers that the issue has been fixed, reports in the Dell support forum indicate that units with the novel fragrance continue to ship out to users. Dell staff state that the palm rest will be replaced by Dell at no cost, but only if the unit is still under warranty."
Macs had a similar issue not long ago (Score:5, Interesting)
It's ironic that the story would say you won't find this issue with a Mac Book air.
It wasn't too many years ago that iBooks had an issue where they would smell like body odor after the case had begun to oxidize.
We still have one. It still stinks.
I guess they were thinking most nerds wouldn't notice?
Re:A Feature! (Score:5, Interesting)
Actually, my experiences with Apple's (in store, at least) support has been extremely positive.
#1: yes, this is somewhat true. Though it's more like "deny it's a widespread or manufacturing defect".
#2: not really relevant to in-person support. If you ware just going to whine anonymously on a forum good luck anyway.
#3: My girlfriend is on her 4th iPhone 4S now. First she dropped (finally overpriced AppleCare comes in handy), second the mic went bad, 3rd wouldn't charge. Clearly some manufacturing issues on the last two but at least they replaced them with new phones (not refurbs... I guess another advantage of AppleCare) with no questions asked. Further, she brought in a 5+ year old Macbook (one of those white plastic ones) that had a (literal) battery meltdown. They replaced the whole case, battery, and even the keyboard (damaged by our cat ripping off a key). Again, no questions asked, no charge. Finally, they actually replaced the glass on my iPad a while back after my cat knocked it off a table (yeah, what's with my cats and Apple products... though it is ironic the original article is about Dell and cat piss...) at no charge. Guess my sob story was good, because I was expecting they'd charge ~$200 (in which case I would probably have done it myself).
Moral of the story is, yes, Apple will NEVER admit they do anything (in design or manufacturing) wrong, but they DO tend to stand behind their products...
Re:A Feature! (Score:4, Interesting)
This hasn't been my experience with Apple either. I had a Macbook Pro (17" 2008) that was affected by an issue with a bad nVidia card causing a black screen on boot up. nVidia claimed the issue did not affect my Macbook. Apple investigated and found a significant number of those Macbook owners who were affected, and warrantied the repair anyway. My Macbook Pro was 3 years out of warranty in late 2012 when I had this happen to my Macbook (it was 4 years old at the time), and Apple replace the motherboard free of charge, no questions asked. I made an appointment, brought it in, and they offered the repair to me after troubleshooting it on the counter.
I have also gone in with a missing key on a keyboard, and they replace it free of charge. I also had an iPhone fresh from the factory with markings on the case when I took it out of the box. I found this when it was shipped to my home. They replaced it with a new one, again no questions asked.
I do know that Apple always tops the satisfaction survey and has for the last decade. There's a reason for that, and it's certainly not due to poor service.