HP Says Cats Void Your Warranty

Advil said:
If it's under warranty, and the fan doesn't hold up, no matter why they need to deal with it.

And that is NOT a lot of hair/dust. I clean out laptops and desktops that look a lot worse than that every day.
Click to expand...

well you must be trying to fix something, they are trying to void a warranty.
 
If it were like completely clogged with cat hair, sure I understand HPs point, but come one that's like 10 hairs in the picture. Brush it away and continue the repair :|
 
All you folks siding with HP probably have a melt down when someone touches your screen, your food touches other food on your plate and, throw out bottled water when it's past it's best if used by date.

This isn't a bio hazard, it's just another excuse to screw customers and save a nickel. If I was the OP, it's the last of my money they'd get.
 
Magnus said:
All you folks siding with HP probably have a melt down when someone touches your screen, your food touches other food on your plate and, throw out bottled water when it's past it's best if used by date.

This isn't a bio hazard, it's just another excuse to screw customers and save a nickel. If I was the OP, it's the last of my money they'd get.
Click to expand...

Peas should not touch carrots. It's against God.
 
ITT: Everyone siding with the customer based on one picture and his opinion and his opinion alone :rolleyes: It could be drenched in cat piss, have hair in all different sorts of places, etc.. etc..
 
muzzle79 said:
As for biohazards, I worked at a large repair facility back in the early 00's and it wasn't uncommon to receive Microwaves that weren't functioning, only to open them and find hundreds of cockroaches! Immediately we triple plastic sealed them and sent them back to the store of origination with a big biohazard label as well as a pamphlet on how to rid you home of infestations.

Some people are just sick. I won't even get into the "in home repair" scenarios.
Click to expand...

That's just freakin' nasty. Bugs don't usually bother me, but cockroaches pretty much always mean you live like a slob. Disgusting.
 
I'd side with HP if there weren't so little cat hair.

Too little to void a warranty in my opinion.

I'd never buy an HP product anyway. Did that once and learned my lesson.
 
I have a family member that somkes and has a cat . I Have to clean it out side every 3-4 months so it doesn't die. He has killed 2 motherboards from it killing the northbridge fan. Smokers computers are 10x worse then pet computer's. Well unless you count that time I found 4 inches of bird dander in the bottom on a Desktop computer. Yay that was sooo nasty. Or the time I found old Taco cheese in a desktop. You name it I have seen it at some point lol
 
Cats can be disgustingly filthy animals. The air in a cat owners home can be quite noxious. I wouldn't touch that laptop with a ten foot pole.
 
Cobalt35 said:
Worked in a computer shop a while back and someone brought a laptop in that "didn't work any more." Turned out he'd left it open under his bed and his cat pissed all over it. The smell was so bad we sealed it in several plastic bags and refused to work on it.
Click to expand...

See, that I could side on the repair shop on like in your case, but in this HP case a warranty rejection is absurd.
 
GoldenTiger said:
See, that I could side on the repair shop on like in your case, but in this HP case a warranty rejection is absurd.
Click to expand...

Just to qualify that statement, assuming it's not far worse than the picture. We don't know the whole story here, of course.
 
What ever happened to: "the customer is always right?"

Anyway......HP is a bunch of sissies, period.

Look, you took the entire laptop apart to get to the guts.
We don't know what the actual problem was, anyway.
So while those HP douches had the copmuter apart, clean it out for Christ's sake, reassemble it, and give it a whirl.

I do not disagree with photographing the innards and maybe speaking with the owner about what you found if it might contribute to the issue, but just declaring the warranty void over that tiny bit of hair is pure bullshit.....plain and simple.
 
Issues like this are part of the reason why HP is not at the top of the best customer service list.

They don't go the 'extra mile' to make customers happy! Do you think this guy will ever buy another HP? Probably not. Well there's one future sale HP is missing out on. Now take all the people that have read this and also won't buy HP just because of it...

Take care of your customers and they WILL come back, time and time again.

If HP is going to have a problem with this, why couldn't their response be a 59.99 fee for excessive hair, dirt, dust, or whatever. Call the customer and let them (the customer) make the call, if they don't want to pay the extra fee, only then send it back unfixed. This is just one way they COULD have handled it. But they didn't, they just flat out denied warranty service.

Ever since Dave and Bill passed away, HP has been going downhill, slowly, but steadily.
 
One of my csts broke my laptop screen by jumping on the closed lid hes a big heavy kitty. hp repaired it withour question, catsand laptops don't mix.lol the cats over attacking my Christmas train now .
 
The most dangerous thing you're going to get out of dry pet hair is the same dust mites that you're inhaling hundreds of every hour.

Biohazard...lol
 
As the kead of desktop tech support at a large satilire manufacturer I saw lkots of stuff inside a computer, wierdest was a mouse nest with a whole family of mice.. we put them in a cage and they were our mascots . Insects are attractedto electronics I once had a load of ants inside my external dvd burner was so wierd .
 
I don't see how any technical person can side with HP on this.

There is no way that the small amount of hair shown caused the failure, and you can't just speculate, show that the fan does not spin at full speed, and demonstrate where there are signs of heat failure.

People are allergic to peanuts too, that doesn't make a PJ sandwich a biohazard. Put a 3 cent elastic mask on and latex gloves and you'll be fine. Its cat hair, not a new form of airborne super AIDS, Christ!

I will certainly not be purchasing any HP products if corporate doesn't respond to the issue.
 
What the laptop owner DIDN'T show you was the rotting fistful of smallpox-laden syringes he had stuffed in his laptop, the cup of anthrax plugging up the fans.
 
I was a PC repair tech for years, and only WISH I could refuse a repair due to some of the sick shit I found INSIDE computers. Top things I hated when working on customers computers.

#4, Stupid customers that would "mod" there computers. If you dont know much about computers, DONT OPEN IT UP AND TINKER!!! Its like someone who doesent know about car engines tinkering around with the carb. You just dont do it! I had 1 customer fill his entire computer with RUBBER FOAM!!! He was scared of dust. Its too bad his CPU OVER HEATED!!! He also taped up every hole on the PC to keep dust out.

#3, pet hair. Not as bad as #2, but bad. Im alergic to cats, so working on a cat owners PC was bad for me.

#2, smokers. ICK!!!!! The inside of computers get a sticky with a thick yellow film. It kills PS fans and CPU fans. Just working on a smokers computers took YEARS off of my life, and the smell!!!!!!!!

#1, bug bomb. Yep. BUG BOMB! 1 customer saw a roach crawl into there tower. So she took off the case, set a bug bomb off, and closed the case. WHITE IT WAS RUNNING!!!!!

I could write a book on some of the shit I found. One computer was hit by lightning. That in itself is odd. But that computer was owned BY A CHURCH. Wow! Then I found out that the church NEVER PAID FOR THE COMPUTER!!!! True story!

But ultimatly, all of them I had to repair. Even one with a living black widow spider making its home in it. Still had to repair it.
 
Ducman69 said:
I don't see how any technical person can side with HP on this.

There is no way that the small amount of hair shown caused the failure, and you can't just speculate, show that the fan does not spin at full speed, and demonstrate where there are signs of heat failure.

People are allergic to peanuts too, that doesn't make a PJ sandwich a biohazard. Put a 3 cent elastic mask on and latex gloves and you'll be fine. Its cat hair, not a new form of airborne super AIDS, Christ!

I will certainly not be purchasing any HP products if corporate doesn't respond to the issue.
Click to expand...

Respectfully, you know nothing. Notebooks work within a very thin thermal envelope. A thin layer of dust can cause a lot of problems. It gets onto the copper fins and works as an insulater, keeping the heat in. Also, the photo does not show you the facing surface of the heat sink itself. If the blades of the fan are covered, that means the copper fins are and that keeps air from moving. Combined with the thick later on the copper, and all you have is a lap heater, not a lap top. Nothing a good 2" paint brush and some canned air wont fix though. Unless the owner ignored the warning signs and kept using it, causing dmg to the CPU or other components.

Something like this typically is a 5 min fix. Dust it off, or replace the fan/heatsink at worst. Then there is that 1% that have perm dmg due to overheating and the customer's lack of action. A CPU will take a LOT of abuse before it blows, and will give you PLENTY of warning (heat, loud fan constantly, locking up, crashing). Customers who contenue to use there computer when its over heating and locking up constantly should not be covered under warrantee.

I dont think they would of denied this customer if it was a simple 5 min fix. Since they wont spend the time to dust off the fan, im guessing the main logic board is fried, and the only way that could happen is if the customer ignored the warning signs and just let it happen.
 
I've been fixing computer for 12 years and I am torn.

On one hand I totally support HP's right to refuse warnaty for overly contaminated hardware. too much hair can easily fry parts, and that shouldn't be HP's responsibility. I'd offer to repair it at a charge instead of shipping it back though.

On the other hand, I do not see this amount of hair and dust as that big of a problem. There's not that much of either in there from the pics we have been show. I feel for the dude with the laptop, but he really should have cleaned it before shipping it off.

Also, I read the consumer reports article and the way that guy talks, It kinda pushes me more towards HP. He feels entitled to a new computer and insists that whatever problem he's having is a factory defect.
I beg to differ. If he's had that thing in working condition for long enough to accumulate that much dust on the fan and near the vents, then whatever failed wasn't a defect. It suffered a premature failure but that usually happens when things are abused or not taken care of.
 
Phone%20Cat%20-%20HP%20Say%20Cat%20Hair%20Void%20Warranty.png
 
i think some of you guys who are siding with HP are missing an important point here.

getting cat hair inside a computer if you own a cat is a fact of life. probably same for a lot of dog owners, i've never owned a dog.

to clean that you'd probably have to open the computer and there you just voided your warranty.

so clean your computer, voided warranty. don't clean your computer, voided warranty. this is nothing more than another copout for HP.

and take a look at that pic. there's hardly anything in there!! if you're that allergic to cats what the hell are you doing repairing computers?
 
even if it wasn't a lot, if it was enough to stop the fan and to overheat, well sorry HP is in the right, although they should have just spelled it out for what it was, owner abuse. I've seen similar but it wasn't cat hair, it was because the guy put it on something really shaggy and the strings and fuzz from the carpet stopped the fan.

The worst I can remember was a computer that had it's fans fail due to red clay. The owner lived on a dirt road and sat the computer near a window. The clay turned to mud when it rained as several areas on the case and board had actually started to rust, which you wouldn't notice until the case was cleaned out.
 
Gibbage said:
Respectfully, you know nothing. Notebooks work within a very thin thermal envelope. A thin layer of dust can cause a lot of problems. It gets onto the copper fins and works as an insulater, keeping the heat in.
Click to expand...
ME major UT Austin, certified Dell repair technician back in the day, and am familiar with building and overclocking computers all the way back to the old Celeron 300a.

This amount of hair is not a problem, that laptop will automatically shut itself down when reaching a heat threshold, as well as monitoring the minimum speed of the system fan. If thermal failure was suspect here, make an attempt to prove it, which they didn't even attempt as they declared this a "biohazard", which is absolute nonsense and doesn't require consulting the CDC to come in with bright yellow sealed suits to haul away.
 
Monkey34 said:
I call lameness on this one.

If that's all the hair, this is a sad attempt to refuse warranty work.

Bio-hazard?? Really? What's next? Dust? You know, a lot of people are allergic to dust........better start voiding those warranty's too. Be careful everyone, many household cleaners, toiletries, air freshener, tobacco smoke......all hazards. Next is swabbing the case for contaminants.

Lame.
Click to expand...

All I know is it was so toxic they lingered around the scene snapping photos. I guess they probably had to get decontaminated first and put on their hazmats though first.
 
desktop I can agree with, laptop on the other hand....come on now. common sense people
 
Like I said, I cant see why a tech wouldent take 5 mins to take it out back and blow it out if it was "just hair". They even went so far as to brake it down to take photo's of each component! THAT takes more time then just dusting it. I have no proof, but considering it takes more time to brake a notebook down and document it in photo's then it does just to hit it with the bad side of a shop-vac, im leaning on the side of thermal dmg. Also, if it was a "biohazard" the LAST thing you want to do is disturb it MORE by removing as many components as you can. Then again im sure these guys are paid by the hour. 5 min fix, or a 3 hour brakedown and photo catalog?

P.S. I date back to the IBM PC XT 8088, but I dont tend to brag about it like im sporting a nerd chubby. It even had a 20MB MFM hard drive. God I loved hearing that thing spin up. Sounded like it was from some Sci-fi movie.
 
The part of this that really blows my mind is that the laptop was an Elitebook. HP states the Elitebook to be "Aircraft-inspired construction designed for a business rugged lifestyle for those needing maximum reliability and durability." The Elitebook has always been marketed as the laptop to have for tough (e.g. a factory floor) situations.

But apparently all of that is negated by cats. Somebody better tell all the veterinarians!

I'm with the customer on this one. Unless the computer was completely clogged with cat hair, I don't support the "Techs can be severely allergic to cats, and so this is a biological hazard" excuse. I live in a part of the country that gets a lot of pollen in Spring. Pollen gets into everything. Should somebody refuse to warranty my computer because they are allergic to pollen? Is pollen a biological hazard?

People are saying "The customer should have cleaned it out." If it was so easy, why didn't HP take a minute to do it? They don't have the facilities for cleaning some hair out of a computer? It just sounds like BS to me.

I can totally understand that some things (e.g. tar from smoke, insects, etc) are hazards, but I don't agree about cat hair.
 
Cyraxx said:
ITT: Everyone siding with the customer based on one picture and his opinion and his opinion alone :rolleyes: It could be drenched in cat piss, have hair in all different sorts of places, etc.. etc..
Click to expand...

I was siding with him based on the 18 photos in the linked attachment from the original article.
 
Not siding with HP on this one. Sorry. But this is a slippery slope. If HP can not decide to not fix a laptop under warranty unless the warranty spells it out. Like when water is spilled on it. As noted about Dell, HP does have different levels of warranty up to the ADP, Accidental Damage Protection. If "cat hair" is not listed in the warranty as an exception to warranty service then the contractual agreement is on the laptop owner's side.

I agree the guy should be cleaning his laptop with compressed air regularly. We have 4 cats and 3 dogs. I clean all laptops, have 4 of them, and my desk top PC on a regular basis.

HP is still obligated to abide by its warranty language regardless of whether the laptop owner cleaned it or not.
 
i guess it pays to own pets and you need to be responsible for your pet period..

I dont feel sorry for this guy , i feel sorry for the laptop
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top