Cath Kidston laptop cover broke my laptop!!

Aggie26

Last week I took my personal laptop to my office to do some design work. I put a CD with some work photos into my computer to use them in the design, then at lunchtime I closed the laptop, slid it into it's case and locked it in a drawer while I went out.

After lunch, I went to take it out of the case and found that the care label inside the laptop cover had become caught in the CD drive. I carefully removed it, but the CD drive has been damaged and will no longer eject the disc. I'm told it may need a new optical drive - which will cost me around £120!!

My question is, can I ask Cath Kidston to pay for this, given that a design flaw in their product (i.e. the label being sewn into the side seam, rather than the bottom seam where it could do no damage) has caused the problem?

All advice gratefully received!

bris

Why, it was you who didn't take care when closing the cd tray. I can't see why it is a design fault.

vuvuzela

Aggie26 wrote: »

Last week I took my personal laptop to my office to do some design work. I put a CD with some work photos into my computer to use them in the design, then at lunchtime I closed the laptop, slid it into it's case and locked it in a drawer while I went out.

After lunch, I went to take it out of the case and found that the care label inside the laptop cover had become caught in the CD drive. I carefully removed it, but the CD drive has been damaged and will no longer eject the disc. I'm told it may need a new optical drive - which will cost me around £120!!

My question is, can I ask Cath Kidston to pay for this, given that a design flaw in their product (i.e. the label being sewn into the side seam, rather than the bottom seam where it could do no damage) has caused the problem?

All advice gratefully received!

Wouldn't it would depend on which way you put your laptop in as to which side had the DVD drive and the label, and it's up to you to check ?
I can't see how the label could have worked its way in to a closed DVD drive slot and how this would have caused damage.

As for the cost - what make and model of laptop is it ? If it's a standard one and you have an IT literate friend, replacement drives might actually be closer to £20 quid & a few beers for the to fit it for you, instead of £120.

gregg1

Aggie26 wrote: »

Last week I took my personal laptop to my office to do some design work. I put a CD with some work photos into my computer to use them in the design, then at lunchtime I closed the laptop, slid it into it's case and locked it in a drawer while I went out.

After lunch, I went to take it out of the case and found that the care label inside the laptop cover had become caught in the CD drive. I carefully removed it, but the CD drive has been damaged and will no longer eject the disc. I'm told it may need a new optical drive - which will cost me around £120!!

My question is, can I ask Cath Kidston to pay for this, given that a design flaw in their product (i.e. the label being sewn into the side seam, rather than the bottom seam where it could do no damage) has caused the problem?

All advice gratefully received!

Given that you are a newbie I don't want to be rude but have to say, it is entirely your own fault that this happened, not Cath Kidson.

Did you not look at the cover properly when you bought it and work out for yourself whether it was suitable for your particular laptop BEFORE you used it?

At the very least you perhaps could have taken more care when you put it away. Sorry if that sounds a little harsh but that is how I see it.

mattyprice4004

Remember, it's always someone else's fault.

Aggie26

Ok, I haven't really explained properly...

The laptop is a Macbook Pro, so it doesn't have a CD drive that pops out, it's just a slot in the side. I put the laptop away in exactly the same way as I always have (have had the cover for about 2 years) it just happened that this time the label somehow worked it's way into the CD drive. It would've happened as I was taking the laptop out of the cover (if it had got stuck being put in, I wouldn't have been able to put the cover on).

The laptop cover is sold as suitable for a 13inch laptop. There's nothing on the label or the packaging to say 'cut this out before using, it might damage your computer'... and as many of you have said, you can't see how the label would get into the CD drive, so I admit it never occurred to me that this could happen. However, as it's sold as protective covering for all 13 inch laptops, I would've thought that the designers would have made sure it was in fact protective, and put the label somewhere where it couldn't get caught/suggested the customer cuts it out before using the cover. It probably didn't occur to them that this could happen either, but equally as product designers aren't they supposed to consider all possible issues and do what they can to avoid them?

Oh well.

DCFC79

If it were me I would make sure the label wouldn't get caught whilst putting a disc in OR cut the label in size so it wouldnt reach where you pop discs in.

angelil

Cath Kidston do make specific covers for MacBook, so not sure if they would have adapted their covers for this reason. Makes me wonder why you didn't buy a specific MacBook cover from them...

In any case, I agree with the others: it's an unfortunate occurrence that's nothing to do with Cath Kidston. I would also shop around for quotes regarding the cost of fixing the CD drive, as I reckon you can do better than £120.

dalesrider

I'm going to guess that the CD is stuck in the drive then. As I can see no other way that a bit of material could cause enough damage to a slot to require possibly a new optical drive.

Five ways to eject a stuck CD or DVD from the optical drive



Ejecting the stuck disc can usually be done in one of the following ways:



1. Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the left mouse button until the disc ejects.



2. Press the Eject button on your keyboard.



3. Click on the Eject button in the menubar.



4. Press COMMAND-E.



5. If none of the above work try this: Open the Terminal application in your Utilities folder. At the prompt enter or paste the following:





/usr/bin/drutil eject



If this fails then try this:



Boot the computer into Single-user Mode. At the prompt enter the same command as used above. To restart the computer enter "reboot" at the prompt without quotes.

Nice source here

pulliptears

MBP's are a bit prone to having CD drives get stuck. Mine has been fine but my son's has had its moments. I released a CD from his a few months ago by holding down the eject key and shaking the machine downwards until the CD 'fell out' enough to grab.

terra_ferma

Aggie26 wrote: »

Last week I took my personal laptop to my office to do some design work. I put a CD with some work photos into my computer to use them in the design, then at lunchtime I closed the laptop, slid it into it's case and locked it in a drawer while I went out.

After lunch, I went to take it out of the case and found that the care label inside the laptop cover had become caught in the CD drive. I carefully removed it, but the CD drive has been damaged and will no longer eject the disc. I'm told it may need a new optical drive - which will cost me around £120!!

My question is, can I ask Cath Kidston to pay for this, given that a design flaw in their product (i.e. the label being sewn into the side seam, rather than the bottom seam where it could do no damage) has caused the problem?

All advice gratefully received!

First of all welcome to MSE, as you can see we are a friendly bunch and welcome newbies with open arms, giving sensible and well informed advice

I can't comment on the legal side of things, but there is nothing to stop you from writing to the company and complain, you may get a good will gesture. Make sure you escalate to a senior level, beyond general customer service.
I think what happened to you may have happened to other people, can't see many users looking for a label just in case it may get caught in the CD slot...