The Consumerist reports Chris’ sad story:
The supervisor I spoke to started with “So, you have a long haired-cat?” I in fact have a short haired cat. He then said “Wow, I’m surprised that fan turns at all.” I scoffed, and told him he was crazy, and that all the hair in the computer (the very tiny bit in there) was what I sent it in with.
…
Then he gets back on the phone with me and says that the supervisor said that there was SO MUCH cat hair that it’s considered a biological hazard. That’s absolutely ridiculous, and he wouldn’t even give me the number for his supervisor or transfer me to him (why not?).
Now that’s a very creative way of screwing your customer! I’ve owned many a cat in my time, and while some of them do shed like hell, and while that hair does have a propensity to attach itself to computers, I’m not aware of any thermal properties that would destroy a computer — especially given the tame amount HP photographed on Chris’ circuitry. It’s not like he filled his computer up with sawdust. Still, with the volume of PC business HP does, I guess they can get away with booting the occasional customer out of their warranty for no reason, and without recourse. Classy! [Consumerist]
Wana
Sunday, December 11, 2011 at 9:12 AMIt’s a really common occurrence; I have two friends who work in computer shops, and computers regularly break due to clogged up fans and blocked intakes, with the usual culprits being cats, dust and rust (one was mould, go figure).
[doa]
Sunday, December 11, 2011 at 10:18 AMI also see this as a common problem with computers I service, it actually takes surprisingly little hair/fur/dust to cause problems in smaller fans and confined spaces such as in Laptops & Video Cards
Smokers may also cause Warranty issues. It can cause an incredible amount of tar buildup, which then increases sticky dust collection at least 5-10x
Sion
Sunday, December 11, 2011 at 9:46 AMI knew cats were evil
Titsnass
Sunday, December 11, 2011 at 10:02 AMGot no probs with cats, the ones I catch in my yard I feed to the dog, cuts down on buying dog food…. :}
Sicarius123
Sunday, December 11, 2011 at 11:29 AMSucked in to him. Why should HP pay for the damage caused by his cat? Cat people ALWAYS claim “their cat doesn’t shed much”.
As someone allergic to cats, I can tell you all cat owners are wrong unless they have a rex.
Sicarius123
Sunday, December 11, 2011 at 11:33 AMReading the article again annoys me more. “The tame amount” of hair? That PC is new enough to be on warranty and full of that much hair? I’ve opened 8 year old laptops with less dust in them than there is hair on that laptop.
Don’t smoke or have pets inside.
SilentWolf
Sunday, December 11, 2011 at 4:45 PMWell I have a dog and he sheds almost nothing… therefore he will stay inside :3
Kroo
Sunday, December 11, 2011 at 1:28 PMConsidering that hair can conduct electricity, the chance of shorting out circuit boards and micro processors is quite real, and if it does clog up the fan and cook your CPU, can you blame the serviceman for denying a warranty claim? Under the manufacturers warranty, misuse is a reasonable excuse for denying a claim. Who expects their product to be jammed with cat hair? If thats what’s on the inside of his computer, I’d hate to see his house. Get a vacuum for gods sake.
ds22
Sunday, December 11, 2011 at 2:02 PMThis is rubbish, i own 2 cats, one short haired, one long. Working as a pc and apple tech, the culprit in ALMOST all cases is dust. Or perhaps poor choice of fan (Looking at you Compaq [HP] and Sony).
Sayonarax
Sunday, December 11, 2011 at 5:26 PMSeriously? Just another company dodging out on a warranty claim. How much hair does your girlfriend and wife shed. I can assure you, my drain is clogged to hell because of them. So when human hair ends up in the intake, warranty is covered?
Maybe the manufacturers need to start looking in to designing things better; accessible fans that can be removed or replaced for cleaning. Less whine more innovation.
Matt
Monday, December 12, 2011 at 1:51 PMGirlfriend AND wife? and they’re in the same shower?
I like the cut of your jib, sir.
GLac
Monday, December 12, 2011 at 3:52 PMchampion
Sayonarax
Sunday, December 11, 2011 at 5:26 PMSeriously? Just another company dodging out on a warranty claim. How much hair does your girlfriend and wife shed. I can assure you, my drain is clogged to hell because of them. So when human hair ends up in the intake, warranty is covered?
Maybe the manufacturers need to start looking in to designing things better; accessible fans that can be removed or replaced for cleaning. Less whine more innovation.
Mangoman
Monday, December 12, 2011 at 6:17 AMSometimes life just sucks, it sounds harsh but in my opinion its not an unreasonable response.
Its a specific environmental situation created by a users lifestyle choice. I assume cat hair effects other things like carpets, vacuum cleaners….
Macdave
Monday, December 12, 2011 at 7:21 AMYears ago my parents were proudly showing some friends their new Amiga and dot matrix printer.
They were printing something out on the to matrix printer when the paper turned all wet and the printer stopped.
Our cat Marmelaide had decided the new box of clean paper under the desk was her new litter tray.
Zac
Monday, December 12, 2011 at 8:45 AMTBH Ive seen much worse than this and the PC was still running fine, ( well a litle slow, thats why i was called out ) there was about half an inch of dust sittin in the thing, this is probably more the exception rather than the rule though
olearymo
Monday, December 12, 2011 at 9:14 AMaaaaand cue the cat/animal haters.
‘oh, I actually really like (insert animal name). They’re delicious! lololololololol’.
God, people. Try something new.
Lillee
Monday, December 12, 2011 at 9:46 AMIt doesn’t take much fluff and dust to clog up the filters on my tower, and with an overclocked high end system, the temperature increase is noticeable. Enough to bring it over the edge and crash it.
Now I clean my filters quite often so I can imagine that a N00b’s pc would be chocker block after 1year or more. Add to to this a furball’s malting madness and you have a recipe for disaster!
Matt L
Monday, December 12, 2011 at 12:24 PMHP could come up with a better system for better filtered air intake.
TSH
Monday, December 12, 2011 at 3:09 PM*shrug* HP is well within their rights here. More or less, all that a warranty represents is that the device will be free of manufacturing defects which prevent it from working as advertised for a period of time.
How is cat hair a manufacturing defect?
Jarod
Monday, December 12, 2011 at 10:16 PMIm actually on hp’s side. If you clog a fan up it’s gonna hurt the computer. Doesnt matter what does it. Not the manufactures fault.
It’s an expensive learning experience I guess.
joe
Friday, December 16, 2011 at 1:28 PMHP should design their laptops with this in mind. This should not void the warranty under federal law as merchants should supply goods useable under standard operating environments & owning a house cat is common occurance in Australia. If the product cannot withstand such an environment it should be explicitly mentioned in the product manual or advertising material
see: COMPETITION AND CONSUMER ACT 2010
http://www.comlaw.gov.au/Details/C2011C00003