Magsafe adapter nearly caught on fire?

[Ultraviolet]

When i turned my macbook on yesterday i happen to glance down at the adapter to notice i could see a glowing and smoke escaping from the top of the adapter near to where it connects to the macbook.I quickly took it out and unplugged it, then went to researching why it nearly caught on fire and to my amazement this is a known danger!

After inspecting it there appears to be a hole in the protective moulding which i think is from it melting as i hadn't notice any issues with it before.

I'm going to the apple store today to talk with someone and hopefully they will be able to replace it for free since it is such a known problem. I was wondering how often this happens? Apple has acknowledge there is a problem. I'm a little worried that if i hadn't have been in the room, a full blown fire could have started.

I'm at uni so this is a big problem as i can't afford not to have a working computer and i definitely can't afford to pay the £59 to replace it!

some info, my macbook is over a year old i purchased it in sept 2008. I hadn't noticed any problems with the adapter up until yesterday.
Has anyone else had a similar problem? Did apple replace it free of charge?

The guy i spoke to on the phone said they would definitely replace it free of charge but this would depend on them coming to the conclusion that it was a fault with the adapter and not accidental damage.
I hope i'm not to blame . I don't see how i could have damaged it and not notice especially because there was smoke escaping when i plugged it in yesterday.

http://www.appledefects.com/index.php?s=magsafe
It looks a little like the second image on this page only the hole is smaller. probably because i noticed the glowing and smoke straight away. the hole is also closer to the connector. Does this sound similar to anyone?

It hasn't damaged my macbook, thankfully!

 

[miles01110]

I had this problem and my adapter was replaced for free. The next day I got a call from an Apple engineer wanting to know some details about the incident, but it didn't have any bearing on the replacement. There's little chance you'll be denied a replacement.

I'm going to the apple store today to talk with someone and hopefully they will be able to replace it for free since it is such a known problem. I was wondering how often this happens? Apple has acknowledge there is a problem. I'm a little worried that if i hadn't have been in the room, a full blown fire could have started.

some info, my macbook is over a year old i purchased it in sept 2008. I hadn't noticed any problems with the adapter up until yesterday.
Has anyone else had a similar problem? Did apple replace it free of charge?

The guy i spoke to on the phone said they would definitely replace it free of charge but this would depend on them coming to the conclusion that it was a fault with the adapter and not accidental damage.
I hope i'm not to blame . I don't see how i could have damaged it and not notice especially because there was smoke escaping when i plugged it in yesterday.

 

[northy124]

This has happened twice to me now, first time was outside the one year warranty but as the UK is in the EU I used the we are in the EU, I should have two years argument, didn't go so well (the f***ing idiot at the call centre was a d*** who couldn't speak English to save his life) and I was forced to buy a new adapter (it was either £50 for Apple Care or £15 for a charger, pretty simple to see which I chose), the second time was more recently it really took the biscuit as it was even worse than the one before just bought another one costing £30 which looking back, it would of made sense to get the Apple Care (I just thought it couldn't happen twice, how stupid of me eh).

All in All the Magsafe's are crap IMO and outsourcing to India is a PITA when calling the call centre.