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2011 17" MBP caught fire this morning.

It's good that nothing happened to you or your home, but you really should put a little money toward a home insurance, you never know what could happen!

Also, you can post photo on this forum using your phone, at least on an iPhone you can.
 
Freida said:
almost 24 hours and still no pics. i find it hard to believe to know that your computer went on fire and you go to forums to talk about it instead to run to the apple store. IF what you say is TRUE then you are really not dealing with it properly. On the other hand, if you are attention seeker then yes, this is the way.
I mean really, your computer was on FIRE!!!! Do you really have to come here to talk about it? Get your bum ASAP to the apple store and stop whining about something that happened in the past (the hdd issue). Or is computer on FIRE not big enough reason for you that you have to add in other issues? OMG RUN!!!
If what you say is true then you will get a new computer and apology.
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Calm down, why are people bagging on the OP? He's handling it just fine, IMO.
 
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Thanks OP. Now you can silence (most) of those people who are skeptical of nearly everything almost all the time.

Glad nothing bad happened to you and your home. If it is the charger that's the problem that'd freak me (and a bunch of other people, I guess) out because I constantly leave my laptop plugged even when I'm not at home using it. :eek:

Out of curiosity, would you know if the wire on your magsafe had its insulation coming off? Before the fire, I mean.
 
offgray said:
Thanks OP. Now you can silence (most) of those people who are skeptical of nearly everything almost all the time.

Glad nothing bad happened to you and your home. If it is the charger that's the problem that'd freak me (and a bunch of other people, I guess) out because I constantly leave my laptop plugged even when I'm not at home using it. :eek:

Out of curiosity, would you know if the wire on your magsafe had its insulation coming off? Before the fire, I mean.
Click to expand...

Happened to me. No fire, but melted charger
No fraying, but it was slightly brown like a marshmallow. I wish i had pix. I had chocked it up to dirty hands but maybe it was slowly melting from the inside out?

----------

OP does have a different charger though. Mine is from 2012 air
 
offgray said:
Thanks OP. Now you can silence (most) of those people who are skeptical of nearly everything almost all the time.

Glad nothing bad happened to you and your home. If it is the charger that's the problem that'd freak me (and a bunch of other people, I guess) out because I constantly leave my laptop plugged even when I'm not at home using it. :eek:

Out of curiosity, would you know if the wire on your magsafe had its insulation coming off? Before the fire, I mean.
Click to expand...

No, it looked perfect.

UPDATE:

Just got back from the Apple store. Complete waste of time, despite what people thought might happen. They asked me many questions (what else was plugged in, surge protector, any injury, any other damage, colour of the smoke, etc etc etc). I was then told the charger would be replaced for free, but they couldn't give me a direct quote for how much it would be to fix it until an engineer looked at it. It would be $310 minimum though. They also asked if I'd be willing to let an Apple engineer visit my house and inspect it??

I don't want to pay that much money to fix a machine that I no longer trust in my home. I would constantly be worried about it.

I also asked Apple if I could purchase a different computer at a prorated price (exchange it for this one), and was denied.

I think there are more cases of this happening than the internet leads us to believe, because based on the way they treated me, it seemed like a fairly common thing. The guy even specifically said a lot of the chargers do this, and sometimes it just twists inside of the metal cap and you can't even tell that it is fraying.

Bummer, but thanks for all of the suggestions. I guess it's pretty hit or miss with Apple stores, but I highly recommend against the one in University Village, WA.

EDIT: After some careful trimming and cleaning, I was able to get the carpet to the point you can barely tell anything happened, so theres some good news there :)
 
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Definitely email Tim Cook, which will be routed to Executive Relations and they WILL provide a solution for you. My 2008 uMBP had hit a point where it had $10k in repairs (thank god for Applecare) including 3 logic boards and the Apple store still denied a replacement. Emailed ER, they handled the store and had them order me a brand new CTO replacement, which I'm still typing on today.

ER will fix it, forget the store. You tried, and didn't get a satisfactory resolution, so up the chain it now goes.
 
gixxersixxer said:
No, it looked perfect.

UPDATE:

Just got back from the Apple store. Complete waste of time, despite what people thought might happen. They asked me many questions (what else was plugged in, surge protector, any injury, any other damage, colour of the smoke, etc etc etc). I was then told the charger would be replaced for free, but they couldn't give me a direct quote for how much it would be to fix it until an engineer looked at it. It would be $310 minimum though. They also asked if I'd be willing to let an Apple engineer visit my house and inspect it??

I don't want to pay that much money to fix a machine that I no longer trust in my home. I would constantly be worried about it.

I also asked Apple if I could purchase a different computer at a prorated price (exchange it for this one), and was denied.

I think there are more cases of this happening than the internet leads us to believe, because based on the way they treated me, it seemed like a fairly common thing. The guy even specifically said a lot of the chargers do this, and sometimes it just twists inside of the metal cap and you can't even tell that it is fraying.

Bummer, but thanks for all of the suggestions. I guess it's pretty hit or miss with Apple stores, but I highly recommend against the one in University Village, WA.

EDIT: After some careful trimming and cleaning, I was able to get the carpet to the point you can barely tell anything happened, so theres some good news there :)
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This might seem like an uphill battle to you, but I would seriously be considering hiring a lawyer if I were in your shoes. Or go to a different Apple Store, at the very least. Their response to this issue is really not right.

The treatment you have received for something that could have, realistically, put you out of house and home, is completely inadequate and borderline criminal/fraudulent. I suspect it's a matter of trivializing the issue or making it seem like a mundane occurrence in an attempt to deflect blame or to simply make you feel like you're making a mountain out of a mole hill, or that it's somehow your fault.

But seriously, I think you need to make some noise here because, with all due respect, it seems to me like you're allowing a rather enormous, blameless corporation to walk all over you and there's something incredibly... irksome about that, to put it diplomatically.
 
johnnylarue said:
This might seem like an uphill battle to you, but I would seriously be considering hiring a lawyer if I were in your shoes. Or go to a different Apple Store, at the very least. Their response to this issue is really not right.

The treatment you have received for something that could have, realistically, put you out of house and home, is completely inadequate and borderline criminal/fraudulent. I suspect it's a matter of trivializing the issue or making it seem like a mundane occurrence in an attempt to deflect blame or to simply make you feel like you're making a mountain out of a mole hill, or that it's somehow your fault.

But seriously, I think you need to make some noise here because, with all due respect, it seems to me like you're allowing a rather enormous, blameless corporation to walk all over you and there's something incredibly... irksome about that, to put it diplomatically.
Click to expand...

I have an appointment at another Apple Store tonight at 8:30 (1 hour), and will see what they say. I'm not really a "noise-maker". I've worked on enough mechanical stuff to know that defects and problems happen at times, sometimes out of our control. They may be a big company, but I don't think they deserve to be sued over a fluke defect. I do think the least they could do is put credit towards another computer though, at the VERY least, express some concern or apologize.
 
gixxersixxer said:
I do think the least they could do is put credit towards another computer though,
Click to expand...
Go to that other Apple Store:

1.) Tell them that under the advice of an attorney you are making your 2nd attempt to rectify this on your own.

2.) Tell them what you want. Don't wait for somebody to ask you. (Whatever you feel is fair - think this through carefully).

3.) Write down the store manager's name. Also, anyone you talked to and what they said. Documentation is critical.

4.) Ask for the contact name and number of the "corporate" office.

5.) DO NOT allow Apple to dispatch anyone to inspect the wiring in your house.


I know you don't want to sue and I agree - defects happen and there is no intentional malice on Apple's part. But seriously, if your mac or charger ignited internally then you owe it to yourself to seek some kind of restitution. You did nothing wrong here.

at the VERY least, express some concern or apologize.
Click to expand...
They won't apologize for this. Their training prohibits this because an apology could be misconstrued as an admission of fault.
 
Krazy Bill said:
Go to that other Apple Store:

1.) Tell them that under the advice of an attorney you are making your 2nd attempt to rectify this on your own.

2.) Tell them what you want. Don't wait for somebody to ask you. (Whatever you feel is fair - think this through carefully).

3.) Write down the store manager's name. Also, anyone you talked to and what they said. Documentation is critical.

4.) Ask for the contact name and number of the "corporate" office.

5.) DO NOT allow Apple to dispatch anyone to inspect the wiring in your house.


I know you don't want to sue and I agree - defects happen and there is no intentional malice on Apple's part. But seriously, if your mac or charger ignited internally then you owe it to yourself to seek some kind of restitution. You did nothing wrong here.

They won't apologize for this. Their training prohibits this because an apology could be misconstrued as an admission of fault.
Click to expand...


Honestly, I don't think I'm confrontational / aggressive enough to do most of that. I will however go in, get documentation, get manager names, (if they're in, it is labor day), and hope for peaceful resolution.

As for letting them in my house, was never and will never happen. I was honestly startled they even asked.
 
Speak up and get this fixed. No compromise. I don't care how big Apple is or how small you think you are everytime someone is content with sub-par treatment it gets worse and worse. It may seam like a pain, Ive been through the lawyer game (not with Apple) and its a point of principle. You could have lost allot more and products just blowing up is not cool. Keep us updated.
 
In this situation, escalate with customer relations. forget the Apple store. theyre idiots, clearly. Unless this other store pulls some magic out of their ass, get on the phone will apple corporate.
 
gixxersixxer said:
Honestly, I don't think I'm confrontational / aggressive enough to do most of that.
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At the very least take your case to somebody at corporate via email. Send those pics. It looks to me like the MagSafe is the culprit. There have been other instances like this.

Be polite (of course) and again, KNOW what you want for compensation. If that would be a credit toward a new purchase then think of a number and ask for it.
 
Yeah do your due diligence of going to the apple store for a resolve. but being on both sides of Apple retail and corporate...corporate has a lot more push to get things done.
they'll help press the issue on getting your machine repaired under your warranty and help allow to purchase applecare for your Mac.
 
Krazy Bill said:
Just Google Magsafe charger fire
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It looks like most of those are related a different version of the charger?

I am at the Apple store right now, and for whatever reason, the computer turned on! o_O

However, the display is completely blank. Absolutely bizarre. Updates to follow. Genius is speaking with manager while I am waiting.
 
gixxersixxer said:
It looks like most of those are related a different version of the charger?

I am at the Apple store right now, and for whatever reason, the computer turned on! o_O

However, the display is completely blank. Absolutely bizarre. Updates to follow. Genius is speaking with manager while I am waiting.
Click to expand...

Keep us updated! Hope you get a new laptop. This is a pretty crazy incident...

The LVDS cable was probably burnt out if there was fire in the computer. Would explain the blank display.

This incident makes me feel pretty bad about using my chinese fake charger (which have reported incidents of failing). It runs hot as it is!!! Gonna go see how much real apple chargers are.
 
Issue resolved.

Just returned from the Bellevue Apple Store, in a much better mood.

Went in, got a genius (Ken) who was unrushed, and attentive, and told him the story. He listened, and was respectful the entire time. I told him directly I was not interested in repair and if there were any other options. I specifically asked if I could do a credit for the cost of the repair towards another computer. The repair actually ended up being quoted for $755!

He went to talk to his manager for quite some time, came back, and presented me with two options: The credit towards another computer (what I had asked for), or a brand new machine. After my experience with University district, I was NOT expecting this. Given the nature of the incident, they exchanged my 2011 MBP 17" with a 15" Retina MBP! I personally went up to the manager and thanked him. Extremely friendly, and actually gave me the time of day. I'm not a very aggressive/direct person, so this was much more than I was hoping for.

The specs on the new machine are:

15-inch: 2.7GHz
with Retina display
2.7GHz quad-core Intel Core i7
Turbo Boost up to 3.7GHz
16GB 1600MHz memory
512GB flash storage1



They also threw in a $50 gift card! I asked for none of this, just a small credit towards a new computer, but given the incident, Ken (genius), and Kevin (manager) were more than happy to help me.

Alls well that ends well, I suppose. I managed to cut up and clean up the carpet to where you can't even tell there was damage. Thank you for everyone who posted in this thread convincing me to not settle, and get my butt into an Apple store. I honestly would NOT have gone in had the people in this thread not posted.


It is very strange that one Apple Store had such terrible service, where another one was more than happy to keep and satisfy a customer. Especially in a situation where much more grave consequences could have happen.

All that being said.. shall I crack her open? :)

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Specs:

IMG_2920.jpg


Honestly, I loved my 2011. The 17" screen, tons of ports, and DVD drive were all very appealing to me. But I'd rather have this 15" that hopefully won't catch fire than a computer that does.
 
Mac Write said:
Hope you got lots of photos of the damage for a reminder and I hope you got AppleCare for your new rMBP. Do an unboxing video.

What where the specs on your 17" MBP?
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Everything was maxed on the 17" except RAM. I'm not an video guy, but I will grab some photos.

I do have photos of all the damage as a reminder. :). I'm going to refer to my previous charger as my Magunsafe. (Seriously though, ironic that it has safe in the name) From what I'm researching now, the newer chargers do not have the same issues, which is making me feel a lot more comfortable. One thing of note that I was told at both places:

If you have the style of magsafe charger I had, your cable can still fray without any visible indication! Twisting can cause the inside of the wires inside little metal sleeve to fray, yet be invisible to the eye. There is a possibility that this is what caused my fire.
 
Well played on Apple's part, a replacement given to a customer is better than facing a law suit.
 
Antgb84 said:
Well played on Apple's part, a replacement given to a customer is better than facing a law suit.
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Perhaps. Their hush money (err laptop) made me happy, and given the situation, that's all that matters. I wouldn't have sued, but had this had a different ending, everyone who saw this thread may have slightly different thoughts about Apple, which could have influenced future purchases. A company taking care of a customer is beneficial for all parties.
 
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