What is Digg?34 Comments
- Serinox, on 10/12/2007, -2/+15ps3 cant have manufacturing problems yet as there not be made yet
- XxXoldsaltXxX, on 10/12/2007, -5/+16I might sound like an *****, but i think it would have been better for everyone if it actually did hurt someone. It seems like the only way that consumers can put a message through to companies like sony and dell to say that we dont want to put up with ***** like this, is through lawsuits. Its good that they are offering replacements, but this ***** should never have gone down in the first place.
- Archon810, on 10/12/2007, -4/+14Dell is a business and a business usually cares about making money, otherwise heads roll. If ***** doesn't hit the fan, why waste millions of dollars recalling something that ended up OK.
The ***** did, however, hit the fan, so now here we are, Dell stock ate *****, phone lines are inaccessible, and everyone is blaming Dell and Sony. - Avanost, on 10/12/2007, -3/+13Ok... there have been 6 known incidents out of OVER 4.1 MILLION batteries sold over a 2 year period. Yet Dell is stepping up and recalling them now, pro actively, spending who knows how much money facilitating this massive recall, (Though SONY is footing the bill for the actual batteries since they are at fault for the defect). So why are we all hating on DELL over the battery issue? We're they wrong to trust SONY? was it that they waited for 6 incidents out of the millions that haven't had an issue? does that REALLY paint a picture of a money grubbing empire trying to screw its customers? Painting a picture of DELL being some evil empire just because they're the most successful computer manufacturer is simply unfounded. Especially in this issue.
What about the 20 or so issues with the Macbook Pro? no public statements and way more then 6 of them affected. They aren't catching fire, but on a much larger scale there have been several defects, why hasn't Apple stepped up? Apparently it wouldn't matter, Apple having the hip, trendy, liberal image. The company that could do no wrong *Cough* *Cough* ipod slave camps *Cough**Cough* - t3hX, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11Except one person suffering second-degree burns on their legs - using it on their lap.
- AkiraXXX, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9"Laptop Club"
JACK (V.O.)
On a long enough time line, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
Two TECHNICIANS lead Jack to the BURNT-OUT SHELL of a WRECKED LAPTOP. Jack sets down his briefcase, opens it and starts to make notes on a CLIP BOARD FORM.
JACK (V.O.)
I'm a recall coordinator. My job is to apply the formula. It's a story problem.
TECHNICIAN #1
Here's where the infant went through the LCD. Three points.
JACK (V.O.)
A new laptop built by my company leaves somewhere running at 1.8MHz. The battery fails and blows up.
TECHNICIAN #2
The teenager's braces around the DVD burner would make a good "anti-piracy" ad.
JACK (V.O.)
The laptop crashes and burns everyone around it. Now: do we initiate a recall?
TECHNICIAN #1
The father's must've been huge. See how the fat burnt into the keyboard with the polyester shirt? Very "modern art".
JACK (V.O.)
Take the number of laptops in the field with defective batteries (A), multiply it by the probable rate of failure (B), then multiply the result by the average out-of-court settlement (C). A times B times C equals X...
CUT TO:
INT. AIRPLANE CABIN - MOVING DOWN RUNWAY - NIGHT
Jack is speaking to the BUSINESSWOMAN next to him.
JACK
If X is less that the cost of a recall, we don't do one.
BUSINESSWOMAN
Are there a lot of these kinds of accident?
JACK
You wouldn't believe.
BUSINESSWOMAN
Which computer company do you work for?
JACK
A major one. - commiecat, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8I was about to call BS on this article because Dell *did* issue a recall last December. The article notes this (bottom of 1st page) but still writes it as if Dell/Sony were oblivious to the fact.
http://www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/corp/pressoffice/en/2005/2005_12_16_dc_000?c=us&l=en&s=corp
I remember sending an email to all our Dell laptop users to report back with their battery ID. Why does this article imply that no recall was issued for 10 months when they report that there was one within that same timeframe?
I don't think it's so bad for a company to wait for a few incidents instead of making a recall based on one or two (Fight Club, anyone?). Do we even know if the batteries that blew up in the past were listed in the first recall or were they machines built in '06?
I'm certainly in no rush to defend Sony for this but Dell did take measures in that this is their second battery recall in 8 months. The author makes it sound like the two companies knew the batteries would explode and just decided to wait it out or something. - wurzelgummage, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9Who would've predicted that by 2010, "blu ray" was a synonym for decapitation?
- Scruffydan, on 10/12/2007, -4/+9Lucky for them no one was hurt by the fires.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8There have been a couple of apple explosions/fires too haven't there? If dell has a 6:4100000 ratio go bad, whats the ratio of bad apples? More or less?
Since they have a much smaller userbase, even just 2 or 3 would make them more 'dangerous' than a dell, let alone the 20 you say. - wastern, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7the early blu-ray players caught fire routinely....this was a few years ago. I would assume they got that under control by now, but the history is there
- targetX, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6Please digg this as I'm sure a lot of people would like to know about this. I own a Dell laptop myself and was curious as to why Dell acted like this. Now we all know :-) Good article, too bad Dell doesn't communicate this themselve...
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3at least you can get a new battery! by now im sure most have half dead batteries, here is an excuse to get a new free one
- thedead, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3HP has the same problems...except they were forced to recall some batterys!
http://digg.com/hardware/HP_NOTEBOOK_CATCHES_FIRE_PICTURES - rebrad, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Let's get on Dell but yet Apple is still studying the issue. Slow learners or just another anti consumer company? Both are probably true.
- babumuchhala, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3We all should appreciate that they have finally done a recall.
What if they had decided that we will just replace battries that we get complaints for and also maybe pay for the medical bills if any. That way they would have saved tons of money.
So we should appreciate the fact that the recall is being done!!! - jeroenhmg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2rebrad:
uhm, i just participated in a recall on Apple batteries... both my MacBook Pro batteries were exchanged jsut over a wek ago. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4wait wait wait
dell issue a recall for the batteries in December 2005 and they "didn't do anything for 10 months" give me a break
by the way how come not many people have mentioned acer and apple having similar issues with batteries (both of whom buy batteries from Sony) and HP having the same problems? - yoshitx, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Yes, Those evil corporations knew. Every employee from Michel Dell to the janitor knew. Whats more, they all did it on purpose in the name of profits. They didn't care if they killed babies.
--- Give me a break. - djSyndrome, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"They aren't catching fire"
And with those four words, you just answered your own question. - bobothn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Could use a little more work but alot beter then what i was gona do i was just gona post the equation.
- Veretax, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I checked on my notebook (not a dell), but hp did not have it listed as one of the models they were recalling. Very interesting.
- mpeng168, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1let's get corporate america!
- andrewdevlin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Of course they knew about the defect 10 months ago. They had to ramp up production for 4.1 million replacements before they tell everyone!
- ElectricKetchup, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3agreed. Marked as inaccurate
- byp494, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2# Make PROFIT
while ('Cost of Recall' > (Lawsuits + Settlements + Bad Publicity)) {
DO NOTHING
Sit back and rake in the profits
}
# Proced with RECALL
Fake concern over public safety and do a recall.
Try (unsucessfully) to hide fact you knew about the problem for 10 months. - VSKBadCRC, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Yeah, but with any company that sells consumers products or provides a service should own up to their problems. And that goes for all of them, Sony, Dell, Apple, what have you.
If Dell isn't prepared to do what they know needs to be done then they need to find a new business, or stop altogether. It's the risk they took by getting into their field.
But I believe Sony should be held liable for their batteries. It was their manufacturing process and the level of impurities in their batteries that caused the failure, and they have no one to blame but themselves. But I also believe that Dell should be in charge of the recall and dish out the costs for shipping and handling of the battery replacements, while Sony owns up to their ***** and takes a loss on their crappy batteries. - Avanost, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1go to www.dellbatteryprogram.com Enter in your PPID number. (on the back of your dell battery). Dell seemingly has been contacting all of the affected people over the last week, its very likely that your battery is not one of the types that was affected. but to allay your battery burning fears, just check your battery with that website, they'll tell you if its bad or not, and you can simply fill out an easy form for replacement if it is.
- Avanost, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@VSKBadCRC: I would be inclined to agree with you... IF what you're assuming is true. Unfortunately it isnt. "If Dell isn't prepared to do what they know needs to be done" - Sorry they just did last week
"Dell should be in charge of the recall" - Sorry again, but they have been.. ever since they took it upon themselves to start the recall last week.
Also from what ive been reading on the issue, it seems Sony got their arms twisted by Dell in this whole ordeal, they werent onboard with doing a recall so soon or shelling out replacements. Though I will hold one negative opinion on Dell in this whole thing, the fact that they knew 10 months ago of the slight possibilty of this slight percent of batteries being a danger, they should have switched brands or battery types or something... then again hindsight is 20/20. - Absolute0, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4I smell a class-action.
- pornstar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0...so did the Bush administration
- Runesabre, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I bought a Dell Inspiron in Jan 2006. Since then, I have easily received over a dozen promotional emails as well as a dozen more Dell catalogues wanting me to buy more Dell stuff.
I've yet to receive a single notification from Dell about the fact that my battery might cause problems, even possible bodily injury.
It's this kind of corporate irresponsibility that makes me fume. - webgod61, on 10/12/2007, -6/+4Hopefully my PS3 won't suffer from the same manufacturing problems. To be truthful I'm still on the fence.
Here's hoping. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -8/+1But the Dell dude say they are being "Pro Active" on this issue, I have no reason to doubt his honesty after all he is the pinnacle of American businessmen and a fine example of success and what being American and the free land and the oppertunity to succeed!
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is