PREVIOUSLY: Is This Playstation 3 Too Dusty To Be Repaired Under Warranty?
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Whoa. Decaf, dude.
They make laptops that can be dropped twenty feet and run in a sandstorm with no ill effects.
Surely smart people from the same discipline can handle the challenge of making a box that can sit in a suburban rec room without biting the (wait for it… w-a-i-t for it…) dust.
(gleefully taking a bow)
Any engineering types (not corporate apologists/fanboys) wanna take a stab at it?
@Pilam69: You’ll never see any Consumerist tinfoil hat wearer admit they were at fault. It’s ALWAYS the big bad corporation.
Of course, though hey, they didn’t have to spend money on the development of the actual hardware inside either, and those laptops tended to cost just a ‘wee’ bit on the high end too. I wonder how much more people would complain if the PS3 cost 3 grand so it could handle sandstorms.. just because of the odd guy that doesn’t know how to take care of his own stuff.
And I am an engineer thank you very much.
Don’t talk about what you don’t really know.
Unless you’re a process/manufacturing engineer with a background in solid-state and/or consumer electronics, don’t be telling other people not to speak of what they don’t know about, implying that you do. I don’t expect an oncologist to know pediatrics, simply b/c they’re both doctors. Engineering (so I’ve read) are an equally broad discipline.
The difference between you and I is, when I don’t know something, I recognize it as an opportunity to learn, instead of blathering ignorantly.
Again, for fun: anyone that knows the discipline want to contribute? Not Desert Storm-qualified boxes, but something that can handle a particularly feral suburban basement?
@adehus:
If Sony refused to open up the unit then how in the hell did they take pictures of the inside?
So much spin. Shame on consumerist.com and there desire for self-serving publicity rather than good sense. Really no different than any company.
The person who owns the PS3 should never get it fixed.
To say they should have designed the PS3 and placed in anti-dust measures is stupid. The PS3 collects no more dust than any other device in a normal environment.
Its obvious that the person who owned the PS3 had an environment that has a higher concentration of dust than the average consumer.
Its obvious the person does not know the meaning of proper care of any electronic device.
Would you blame Dell, HP, Sony or IBM if the computer started to have problems because of overheating caused by dust blocking the vents in the heatsink?
None of them provide any instruction on how to clean a computer yet people know that using compressed air will be enough.
Would you blame Honda, Dodge, GMC, Toyota for your engine responding poorly because of an old fuel filter?
None of the car manuals state how to replace it yet people know about it when they take in their car for regular service.
The kid lost his warranty because be neglected the PS3 and the environment it was in. There is nothing the kid can do to defend himself against the pictures taken of the PS3.
Also, his story is so inconsistent. First he says that the PS3 wont get fixed because of Dust. Sure, Sony says its a health hazzard.
Then on TV, he goes on to say that when he got the PS3, the Blu-ray drive wasn’t working properly. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out the kid is lying about other things just to make the PS3 look worse.
Also, hes stupid for not contacting Sony to get it fixed when it was having initial problems. He probably staged the whole thing. Took his PS3 to a lumber mill and asked them to sand blast it until it didn’t work anymore just to send it in.
@trai_dep:
process/manufacturing engineer? so what happened to the design process? or did you somehow magically decide that the design process would be extremely cheap compared to the manufacturing costs?
And just to point out a simple fact to you. The process/manufacturing engineer would have nothing to do with the reliability of a product in terms of its design. In terms of reliability their usual responsibility is in terms of ensuring the manufactured products actually fall within the tolerances specified by the design engineers.
Its amazing how people like you immediately assume others who have a differing opinion are not qualified to talk about a technical subject that you yourself are not qualified for.
Sure chances are an oncologist would not be able to perform as a pediatrician, however an oncologist would most likely know what the hell a pediatrician does.
Just to let you know I am an electrical engineer who has worked on failure cases of consumer electronics and the cost-benefit analysis of fixing the failure cases. It is apparent enough to me that you have no idea what are reasonable failure cases to be considered in the design stage of products, nor the actual costs associated with it. I know what I am talking about. You do not. How about learning a bit more before you toss out random arguments.
@Frederick:
So what you are saying is that we should expect any regular consumer electronic to work in say, an open tent in the middle of a desert? I’d like to see you operate some regular desktop computers there and see what happens. Or how about in the middle of rain forest? Granted this was in a regular household (well, aside for the dust level it seems), the level of dust that has accumulated on that machine (which is already after having been wiped according to the owner) is a lot more than what would be on such a piece of machine than anyone else I know. Now the owner of this PS3 claims that because the PS3 is such a dust magnet that its not his fault it collects dust. Now of all the people I know, if anyone of them knows something collects dust easily, they’re dust it off more often.
Now to your analogy. Let’s take a look at watches. Given that its natural for watches to come in contact with water, pretty much all watches are waterproof to the degree of splashes and just getting wet, as long as its not totally soaked for too long. The watches that can actually be submerged into water tend of have this rating on them that tells you how far you can submerge them. Same here with the PS3. Its resistance to a reasonable degree of dust. But just like the computer, if you’re in a dusty area, you better clean it up or there is a chance that the dust will clog up the fans or prevent airflow and its byebye cpu or whatever component that just feels like frying on you. Do computers state that they’re dust resistant? no. But you can sure operate them in places with reasonable dust, and if you’re in a slightly more dusty area, you’d better clean it occasionally or run the risk of something failing. Same with the PS3. It is apparent that the owner of this PS3 operates it in a slightly more dusty area than the average individual. He ran the risk of it failing. I’m sure a number of other people do this as well. He just happens to be out of luck and it actually failed on him. Is this a design problem? Nope. You take a risk. You have yourself to blame.
Now granted this may not be the actual cause of failure, but if they know for a fact that you neglect your PS3, they could rightly void your warranty or charge you more. Its like the insurance industry. If you’re known to perform acts that increase the risk of whatever you’re insuring. You get charged more, or they might not insure it for you at all.
This is totally ridiculous on Sony’s part. PS3 is the most expensive gaming console ever and this is the type of service Sony is providing to their most loyal and core customers?
I was planing to get a PS3 this Christmas but now I will NEVER buy a PS3 or any Sony products again.
@KingPsyz:
I can’t understand how anyone could think that it is just a little dusty. It looks to me like he buried it in dirt. How come others aren’t complaining of the same issue? Maybe they take better care of their expensive electronics. Just cause this guy is slob, Sony should eat the cost? You have to exercise due care under any warranty. Just because your car comes with a 3 year, 30,000 mile warranty doesn’t mean you can go 2 years without an oil change and expect them to replace your car when the engine lock ups. I am so tired of the “entitlemen” customer who believes that he is entitled to do what he wants and someone else should always fix it for him.
I’ll chime in with the others who back Sony on this one. The dirt (looks much more like dirt than dust to me) on the system is way too much for something that Mr. Godshaw claimed he not only took great care of but wiped down pror to sending it to Sony. His changing story and the way he dismissed those who sided against him in the many threads here at Consumerist (calling people idiots is not a good way to win them over) make me think that he’s not being totally truthful.
On a side note- I wonder who was the one that pushed hardest to get this story on to Fox News? Mr. Godshaw appears to also be an actor with several minor roles. Look him up on IMDB. Could this be a case of inflating a story to get face time for both the Consumerist and the actor?
LOL you hung youself by asking for those pics. If anyone gets any console that dirty, they don’t deserve compensation. You look like a moron, and you keep house like a bum. Sony made a good call. But, don’t worry, Punker, or Punker 88, or whoever you think you want to be to scam another PS3 into your trailer park; you think you got away with somethng, but your history is very traceable.
Oh yeah; here’s your pic, reid: doing a publicity stunt to get your dead-as a doorknob carreer back off of the ground.
[us.vdc.imdb.com]
You’re just some hollywood bum looking to star in a commercial or something.
this is sad, absolutely sad. I can understand consumer electronics having to operate in dusty areas and with some dust contamination. My PS2 didn’t look like that after having it for 6 years. I don’t blame sony one bit for not honoring the warranty. I don’t see how someone could sit there and call this a little dusty, it looks like he threw it in a pen and let pit bulls play with it. If lawyers and judges do not laugh this one out of the courtrooms, then our judicial system and legal system are just as sad as this story. This must have been on a slow news day.
Why don’t you get a job like Gary Coleman?
@ivealwaysgotmail10:
I took you up on the offer for pictures of a ‘dusty’ PS3.
[forums.firstgengamers.com]
Food for thought, I live in Arizona, a desert. Notice how my dust isn’t brown?
Looks like any ps3 would easily gather fingerprints, but the dust is nowhere near close
@ivealwaysgotmail10: “And please do not deny me unless your ready to get out your camera and take a few pictures of your Un-cleaned ps3 with a flash.”
Didnt you “clean” your ps3 before you sent it in? Ha, seriously, if theres an outline of dust where your PS3 was…thats probably too dusty. Like ive said earlier, i got my PS3 at launch. It sat on the floor of my dirty dormroom. underneath my desk. There was probably enough dust down there to kill my PS3… but you know what. every once and a while i decided to move my PS3. Why you ask, to CLEAN it. I hadnt thoroughly cleaned my PS3 until I read your story.
So while you may not have gotten what you wanted, you helped me realize i need to clean my PS3 (and every other electronic) more often and more thoroughly.
Also i have eczema (which you should know is a non-contagious disorder characterized by chronically inflamed skin and sometimes intolerable itching) This produces a lot more dead skin than the average human would produce. And again as you should know dead skin is the main component in dust. Therefore, i produce more dust than the average human. But i have to say my PS3 has never seen that much dust. ever. guess what mine still works. So does everyone elses (minus .1% of the PS3 populous). Get over it. ask for you PS3 back. wait 10 days. actually clean it this time. and send it back.
From the NY Times:
“Once again, sales of PlayStation 3 lagged that of its chief competitors. Sony sold 121,000 units of PlayStation 3 in October. It was outsold not only by the Wii (519,000) and the 360 (366,000), but also, again, by the PlayStation 2 (184,000).”
[bits.blogs.nytimes.com]
@viet0ne:
What are you talking about? In the interview i say that i was having problems with the blu-ray drive, this is the reason that i sent it in… i had owned it for a long time, and i put in a disc.. it wouldnt show up…. as soon as i had the issue i sent the console in…. this was all within a few weeks… I’ve owned the console for close to a year. As i said in the interview the amount of skepticism that i have been met with by people like pixelsword is ridiculous. Splitting hairs then trying to say that i am lying about the whole story… Think what you like. I have a desktop computer sitting right next to where the PS3 was and its not any more dusty than average, nor is my tv.
@ anyone thinking this was for publicity, Consumerist contacted me telling me fox business news wanted to do an interview, i did a phone interview and after the internet story was posted they wanted to do the tv segment, i agreed, this is all, You really think my career is going to skyrocket because i was on the news at 3:30am in California? I don’t. In case you didn’t know there is a writers strike going on.
Alot of people don’t understand the point here, The ps3 is an electronic, Ive seen Receivers that look brand new, And ive seen Receivers that are dusty as hell. Yet Ive never heard of someone getting warranty service denied because of a receiver being too dusty!
THE PS3 IS A COMPONENT OF YOUR HOME ENTERTAINMENT CENTER
Can anyone tell me they have never seen a receiver dustier than this? or any other part of a home entertainment center!
Again think what you like, I think that enough people understand my logic that i will have a replacement before long. As i said I’m going to do all i can to get this resolved, if legal action is necessary it will be taken, If filming the opening of the returned system is necessary it will be done, If smashing the crap out of the thing on youtube is necessary it will be done.
There are a few key points that you have to remember,
A. If this were allowed, Then think, 60/40 chance of me getting a technician that deems this too dusty… is that fair? no!
B. Multiple Customer service representatives i spoke to falsely confirmed that there was NO way for dust to void the warranty, even when i said Excessive dust, they said it did not void it. So if this were allowed Possibly hundreds or thousands of customers who called in to make sure this wouldn’t be an issue before purchasing would be 100% mis-informed and would be quite angry when sony told them their machine was too dusty to be replaced.
C. Folding@home is a computations program included with all ps3′s it includes an “auto start” feature to start automatically when your system is idle for more than 10 or 20 minutes… making the ps3 pretty much constantly spin its fans…. are they not expecting dust to collect like this? or are they just expecting us to payback the $ they lost on the console with that 150$?
D. Sony makes ALOT of home Entertainment components, Receivers, vcrs, cd changers, power filters, all of these things sit on racks, or in home theater systems and are almost never moved, they all gather dust, it is a known fact. How would sony handle a receiver like this? they would replace it, i gaurantee you they would never attempt to tell any audiophile that their component was too dusty, they would be met with a chuckle and that person asking when to expect the replacement.
E. I have already made them their money back, i have purchased blu-ray discs, games, the blu-ray remote, 5 controllers. I have an unopened game here because “neil” told me that my replacement should have been shipped within 24 hours, YOU DO NOT TELL A CUSTOMER HE IS GETTING A REPLACEMENT WHEN YOU ARE NOT 100% SURE OF THAT!!!! I ORDERED THE GAME WHEN HE TOLD ME THAT!!!
F. The ps3 warranty assumes that you own a low powered mini-vacuum, and that if you dont have one you will purchase one just to vacuum your vents off once in a while.
G. THERE WAS NOWHERE NEAR ENOUGH DUST AT ANY POINT IN THE PS3′s LIFE SPAN TO BLOCK ANY OF THE VENTS, Not once did i have to wipe the vents because they were clogged, i wiped them off because they looked dusty!
Thanks again to anyone who agrees with me, I appreciate it, Maybe Sony will Wake up soon enough.
@ivealwaysgotmail10: I’m sorry, the manual clearly states that you should “not place the system in an area subject to excessive dust” and that this “may cause the system to malfunction”.
Not following what the manual states is by definition “misuse” and the warranty states that misuse voids the warranty.
By any standards, that picture shows the console has been exposed to excessive dust. My PS3 has been sitting on top of my entertainment centre (not protected inside like yours), next to my TV, running folding@home non-stop since I purchased it 9 months ago, and despite my loathing of dusting, it has nowhere near that level of dust!
You may thing you’re standing up for “consumer rights” but you’re not; you’re hurting those who a) have valid complaints against companies who do not uphold their warranties and b) people like me who take care of their expensive equipment. It angers me that we have to bear the burden of the additional costs placed on equipment to protect companies against repairing misused and neglected equipment, then when it does come to requiring a repair, we are put in a queue waiting for the likes of you to get theirs repaired.
Hopefully you’ll “wake up soon enough” to the fact that if you don’t look after your possessions, you don’t deserve to have them, let alone have them repaired free of cost. We live in an increasingly lazy world and people need to remember it’s not just corporations that have responsibilities, it’s the consumer too.
@ivealwaysgotmail10:
A) I Don’t see where you’re getting that 60/40 number from. In fact this point makes little to no sense.
B) The customer service reps are not the ones taking it apart. The TECH has final say as to what machines are neglected and what are not. The TECH said you machine was neglected. Also, that little paper that came with your PS3 said pretty clearly that execessive dust would void your warranty.
C) Running Folding at home is completely at your discression as if you run it or not. Just because you decide to run your PS3 nonstop doesn’t mean you don’t have to take care of it. You still do. If dust does collect you still have to clean it. Your grabbing at straws here.
D)A ps3 is not the same as a reciever. These are two completely different types of hardware. I put both my car and my bike in my garage, since they both reside in the same place most of the time are you going compare them now too? Also, any decient audiophile would take care of their investment and clean it from time to time to keep this kind of buildup from happening.
E) If ‘Neil’ wasn’t a tech, then you are correct, he shouldn’t have made you a promise about you getting your system back. Is that enough to offset neglecting your system? Thats for Sony to decide on. If you wan’t to make a complaint about Neil himself go for it.
F) After seeing how bad your system looked, maybe its time for you to invest in on. Seriously tho, moving it from time to time to clean it (even if you say everything else is clean) would mean you didn’t need one of those.
G) The vents being clogged isn’t the main reason for the machine to die. Its large amounts of dust IN the machine that cause failures. Lets look back at some of the things you’ve said were possible.
1) “The machine was wiped down before you sent it in, maybe the dust from the inside got knocked out during shipping. (Paraphrased of course)” – That would be a hell of alot of dust in the machine to COAT your PS3 like that. Enough to void your warranty maybe?
2) “That shelf was really dusty that they put it on, dust could have been transfered to the PS3″ – Nowhere near enough to coat the area’s like the SD card reader, or where the CD eject button is. Also there is less dust in the areas where the system would get use (power button / eject button)
I still don’t believe you took care of this system…
Rumors abound:
[www.neogaf.com]
[www.imdb.com]
Nice job, Carey – I was really impressed with your professional delivery.
But gotta say, that Reid guy should get a haircut, trim his goatee and pluck his eyebrows before he hits nation-wide TV again. It’s pretty clear where the “dust” is coming from. At least he didn’t use the PS3 as a forced-air bong…