Anyone out there own a Dell Latitude 6430u Ultrabook? Better check if it smells alright.
Amongst the worst complaints that customers could make about a product is that it smells like cat p*ss so we can only imagine that computer manufacturer Dell are embarking on a huge PR clean-up campaign after it was revealed that a number of owners of a particular Dell laptop have made just that complaint in recent weeks.
Anyone who has had the misfortune to have encountered the smell will know that cat pee is a particularly foul and unmistakeable odour and it is no surprise that a number of owners of the offending laptop – the Dell Latitude 6430u Ultrabook – have had their claws out about it.
According to the Guardian, Dell first became aware of the problem in June when a customer made a complaint on a Dell support forum, saying “the machine is great, but it smells as if it was assembled near a tomcat's litter box. It is truly awful! It seems to be coming from the keyboard”.
When one customer makes the complaint you could almost dismiss it as being the fault of the customer themselves but it was subsequently followed by a string of similar complaints from Dell customers from all around the world, making it clear that there was something amiss in the production process.
Take this rant from another Dell customer, for example:
“Well .. here I am Sunday doing some work on the couch and my wife says ,"What stinks like cat pee?". I said ... I think it’s this laptop ... she puts her nose up to the keyboard and BAM! It really stinks.”
Dell did send out replacement laptops to customers affected but the replacements smelt no better - Irish customers would probably say them smelt, literally and metaphorically 'cat' - although the problem, Dell say, has now been fixed, with SteveB, a senior technical consultant, posting on the Dell forums that “If you order an E6430u now, it will not have the issue,”.
That better be the case Dell, or urine trouble, urine real trouble.
