What..

are you doing trying to burn DVDs and CDs? The feature is clearly just unimplemented so that Apple could push out a better product and I'm sure it'll be fixed in a future upgrade. As for the cable, it's obvious that you shouldn't use electrics anywhere that they could start a fire and just because your cable burned and a few others, it's not the majority of users, in fact, every review I've seen of the MacBook is amazing! Just because the Register hates Apple, they write a new article knocking wonderful Mr. Jobs every second day. What a joke.

As for getting a courier, it IS rocket science, and complaining about the logic board is silly when it lets you do so much cool stuff. Look at PCs, their hard drives burn out every couple of days!

Not surprised

Apple are completly useless at fixing their products. I have an iPod nano, after a few months the headphone sockets stopped working (no apparent reason, not dropped it on the floor, off a 5 story building or in a lake), did the sensible thing and tried several different headphone, including some of apple's own. Nothing. So The courier turned up and took it off to the repair center. As directed I had put a note in with it to tell the monkeys at the repair center exactly what was wrong. I got it back a few days later telling me it was fine and no, there wasn't a problem with the battery. Battery?!?! I rang up again and again and finally got it fixed. That was a year ago and I'm still waiting on my 'compensation'. Next time I think I'll avoid the iPod section.

ouch

Wow, now that's what i call a rotten apple experience. If that really is a common thing they should do a recall on it!

There are a few things in this experience though that can't really be blamed on Apple - a long drive to the nearest store; um... yeah why did you choose to get an Apple laptop then if that's your closes service location.

Not to mention if it's a critical business tool, then why buy something with a consumer-level support agreement? I don't know what the different level's of Apple service are, but in the IBM/Lenovo world you pick something like Onsite Next Biz Day or even 4-hour response and be done with it.

If you don't, like this woman did, then well - duh... she tried her luck skipping a business grade warranty on a business tool and got burned. (lol...)

Your burns are nothing...

...compared to the flaming you're going to get from all the Apple fanbois who are about to descend and blame you for all the problems....

"Charging on the carpet, under the sofa, clearly you're not cool enough for a Mac. You should have hardwood floors and Arne Jacobsen chairs." and similar drivel

And after all that...

You still are working on an apple. BTW I have 7 million pounds "locked up" in an african nation, if you were to send me just £2500....

Only joking, but you are a sucker. P.T. Barnum only wishes he had met you.

Enjoy your non-user servicable, non upgradable piece of crap laptop.

Women! they can be soo lame sometimes.

Oh my God Captain !!!

Fanboys on the Radar, HUNDREDS OF THEM !!!

Boo Hoo

So you got a lemon. Boo Hoo.

Telling people you can't run a business off an Apple because of this is just stupid.

I'm sure you could have borrowed/rented one for a month. Where are your business contingency plans?

Would you have gone fifty-whatever days without a car if that had failed? No, you would sort something out wouldn't you.

Then you complain about a free upgrade to a MacBook Pro? Well there's just no pleasing you is there?

Get Real.

Wait for it...

Wait for it....

Before the flame war starts, I personally wouldn't have touched the "agreement" for no further compensation. While I'm not the kind of person who sues for tripping up in the street, their incompetence cost you a lot of money. And I wouldn't have wanted another Mac after the experience with the first one! If the first one tried to set me on fire I wouldn't trust the second one not to. My first laptop was a Packard Bell (I know, I know!) - they were swiftly added to the list of Brands I Just Don't Buy. I know it's just me and my argumentative self, but I'd have told them to shove the Mac sideways and send me a cheque for my lost earnings.

I've heard some depressing things about Apple customer service. This hasn't helped my views, TBH. You just gave me another reason to resist the iExistence.

If I had a pound for...

If i had a pound for every time i've heard a story like this for any kind of computer on the market i'd be a millionaire.

The authors case is unfortunate, and is presented in a somewhat melodramatic fashion. One has to question the sensibility in leaving a computer to charge under a sofa and on the carpet, aside from potential heat issues it could cause, it also presents a fire risk, something which may have also contributed to the state of electrical damage which occured.

Thing is manafacturing defects and product issues happen to people in general, as do servicing issues. It's just a case of lucking out to have it happen to you, and yeah it would be highly annoying, but keep some perspective.

If it was really a common issue you'd hear a general uproar about it and it would generate a fair degree of publicity, but it hasn't, because for all the people who may have issues, it's still not that common.

Apple's done recalls before for their batteries, but it's something of great expense to a company, and when it only affects a small percentage of people it's often measured as a minor business risk compared to the expense of a product recall

Also sure there was a fair bit of hassle, but the machine the writer ended up with was a far superior machine by comparison, and will be a much greater investment, so in some respects the writer is lucky to have such issues in terms of short term hassle, but long term gain.

And really.... did it take this for the author to realise that leaving electrical equipment near flammable material is not the smartest idea?

I had similar experience with my MacBook!

I thought I was the only one. a) My Magsafe power connector failed at the same spot although I got it replaced before it caused any damage. b) My CD/DVD burner is very unreliable. c) My hard drive crashed several months ago losing ALL my data so I had to use a weeks old backup. d) The machine has failed to wake up from sleep on many occasions. e) One side of the trackpad failed. f) Now the screen on the laptop fills with garbage when using an external monitor although simply moving the mouse pointer to the Macbook screen fixes that. Now the clincher, my first Macbook failed and was replaced under warranty by Micro Anvika, who do their best. This is my second and it has already had most components replaced. Apple refused pay for a new hard drive unless they could have it back, I refused on the grounds I wanted my private data to remain in my hands until I could afford the £900 data recovery fees. Anyway, it's all very complicated but the bottom line is that while Micro Anvika handle repairs and warranty returns very well, Apple (UK) are a nightmare to deal with and do as little as they can to assist. Being my machine is just a week away from a year old, it will be interesting to see how they handle repairing it's current faults.

Scandalous..

..should have bought a dell laptop instead! :o)

Elementary advice

Given the number of Reg incendiary laptop stories, most readers (let alone a Reg writer) know better than to leave any laptop (even the rare non-explosive variety) charging overnight on a carpet, underneath a sofa. Laptops & chargers get warm. Airflow helps keep them cool. Common sense really.

Sounds like you've been unlucky

It happens.

What's the story got to do with "Can you run a business using a MacBook? No, is my answer."?

Nobody's perfect

The sad truth is that most companies these days seem to have crap so called 'customer support'. I guess some bean counter decides that it's cheaper to piss off a few people, rather than offering first class support.

Unfortunately, most computers are made in the far east these days and you inevitably seem to get the occasional turkey.

One point I would make is that if your business depends on use of a computer it's a bit risky to rely on just one machine. You should really have a backup machine in case of problems.

Application

Hi, I'm a freelance writer who bought a faulty computer - probably a first-generation model with problems that have already been fixed in production models. How much will you pay me to whinge about my experiences to your readers? I don't mind sounding like a complete muppet, and because this is an "opinion" piece, I won't have to be fair and balanced, and provide equal coverage to the other side of the story. Thanks for your time, I look forward to hearing from you.

Apple laptop power

Apple laptop power supplies have been and, unfortunately, it seems, always will be terrible. I went through 5 in 3 years on my G3 Powerbook, 2 in 2 years on a G4 iBook and I am on my second in 15 months on my mac book pro. It is pretty much my main reason for buying apple care, so that is an extra wedge of cash for apple upfront for a terrible aspect of an otherwise good product.

What seems to be inadequate is the strain relief grommet. They end up not doing what they should and allow the cables to fatigue and short and this has been the case from time immemorial. They may not look as pretty but the grommets on the Samsungs I use for windows never seem to fail.

Product recall

Never seen Fight Club? Jack (the main character) applies "The Formula" to car write-offs for his company.

a = The total number of products in the field

b = The probability of failure

c = Mean out of court settlement

a x b x c = X

If X is less than the cost of a recall, it's not done. I don't know if this is the real process, but it makes a hell of a lot of sense from an economic standpoint.

Some people are nearly arrested

with similar computer frustrations....

I refer you to http://www.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=USEIC74877020070717

though it doesnt quite specify if it was a shiny Apple product or a generic Wintel box. I suspect the latter as of course the Apple Sudden Motion Sensor would have of course deployed the Steve iParachute.

No such thing as bad PR?

The Reality distortion field is now available to the plebes in the company too.

Obviously Apple believe that there's no such thing as bad PR.

When I did tech support Iomega (not a high point of my career) if a customer said they were a journalist, we were to ignore stats and help them as much as possible.

At least that way if somebody was writing a review of some of our hardware and it blew up, they would say (in theory) that they were treated properly.

Apple know that can get away with anything.

I'm sorry, call this journalism?

El Reg? Whats going on?

This article is clearly of poor quality. I mean, come on, its of the standard I'd expect to find on a mac-bashing forum. Then you wonder why Steve Jobs doesn't invite you to his Playmate parties?

So you bought a lemon, its regrettable, but no company, no matter how much time and money they spend in QA can ensure that every machine comes out fine. IBM, Lenovo, HP, Dell, they've all had their fair share, but I've never seen an article bashing them on the Register.

Terrible service? Okay, some things could have been done better, but Apple didn't have to compensate you for the burn. But you managed to get a laptop almost twice the value of the one you bought, I'd call that a result! Okay, you had to fight a little, but again, Apple didnt have to do squat, simply repair, refund, or replace.

What result exactly would have made you happy? Oh, heres a £1500 laptop and your money back? Come on.

odd

i've been using my MacBook almost every day since i bought it the week they were released last year - it's never had a problem and has so far failed to burn me alive. maybe i should take it back to Apple and complain so they can replace it with a dodgey one that i can then use to swizzle a free MacBook Pro out of them

But!

...the mac came back, the very next day!

Genius customer service debacle story!

Would you like some cheese with that

WHINE.

I'm no apple fan, and perhaps their is a bigger issue here regarding apple laptops and their customer service, but you manage to make yourself sound like an ass, to such an extent I can't feel any pity for you.

And as has been said, if you rely on your laptop so completely (and have access to no other computer AT ALL) then why didn't you get a decent support contract? Their are literally so many ways you could not of lost that 55.5 days, that the only explanations are your retarded, or your completely over reacting to try and get more out of them in compensation.

Not to sound like a fanboy...

Seems to me that you can't run a business full stop, never mind what laptop you have. If you really did turn away thousands of pounds worth of work you should have had a contingency plan for an IT failure, and backups of all the data you said you lost. You can't blame your poor planning on apple - they didn't help the situation but since you were whining about having to act as their personnel manager it seems a tad hypocritical to expect them to be your contingency for free. What if the power to your house had failed and you'd been left with a drained battery and no method of charging? Would you start off saying "Can you run a business using electricity? No is my answer"

The whole tone of this "article" is whiny mac bashing, which is just as bad as the irritating mac zealots.

On a similar vein don't buy Dell for business they're rubbish!

My previous Dell works laptop killed its hard drive within a week. Luckily we had on site service otherwise I would have been without it for a week. Shortly after wards a second drive failed. Then the power supply failed. Eventually the main logic board failed. All of this within six months. I never got around to trying out the DVD burner!

So Ms Turner I humbly suggest you don't buy a Dell either. Or live with the fact that some people do get lemons and that if you have a business you should always have a back up which is why I have a cheap second hand G4 Tower at home and backup data on to a second external harddrive.

Incidentally I've had my iBook for 2 years now and I've never had a problem with it. However I've never buried it in the shag pile at the bottom of a locked filing cabinet in a cellar with no stairs and with a sign on the door saying beware of the leopard!

Support contract

This just goes to show that a decent support contract is not optional if you buy a computer for work. This is unrelated to Apple and applies to all brands of computers. What *is* related to Apple is that I didn't buy from Apple because I couldn't get "on-site next business day" support contract from them.

Enough said.

Title

The exact same thing happened to my own MacBook Pro power cord in October last year, Apple were quick to send me out a replacement (once I had given them my card details as guarantee I'd send the old one back).

Then they lost my return and charged me for the Power Supply, then they suddenly found it a week later and refunded me the money.

Then recently at work 2 of our MBP adapters have done the same thing, this time Apple replaced them without taking a payment guarantee. They've also changed the design where the cable goes into the Mag Safe bit very slightly. There's now alot more plastic covering the wire and I've not had a problem since. However they still won't admit there's a design flaw.

Everybody knows that...

...if your hardware is critical to your business you buy a maintenance contract. This is why Dell is so popular - nothing to do with the operating system at all. Sounds like somebody needs to do running your own business 101.

See

You're just not the right kind of person and the computer rejected you. Macs are not for everybody.

wow!

User buys a relatively expensive piece of kit, which turns out to be faulty and then is fucked about by the manufacturer in an amateurish way.

Somehow this is her fault ?

Admittedly the article is a little whiny - but I think I'd be whining too if I had bought a laptop from a company who can't even organise a f'king courier.

Reality distortion field

Well, apart from those who have already posted (some, in feats of bravery, anonymously), who are plainly either idiots or just trolling for reactive comments, there are some points worth considering:

Firstly, Rob has a very good point about not relying on anything in business. Put simply, if it's vital to your business then you must have a fallback plan available otherwise when (not if) it fails your business will be hosed.

As for comparing a laptop to a car is pretty much nonsense because you can always fall back to public transport, taxis or hire cars - the provision is already there and as a car driver you don't need to make sure you have a spare car on your drive the entire time. Even with laptops, it's possible to lease them for a short period of time or, failing that, just borrow somebody else's.

Likewise, a little (OK, a *lot*) less reliance on one particular vendor or application goes a long way. A computer is just a tool and whatever you do *shouldn't* be dependent on any particular manufacturer's implementation of the tool - you wouldn't find builders stopping work for 55 days just because their Bosch drill failed to work and they only had a Black and Decker at hand (Ok, you might, but that's another matter with builders altogether!). Likewise if you use an Apple laptop you shouldn't rely on either the laptop working perpetually (because it won't) and Apple supporting it perpetually (because they won't). There's a lot to be said for regular backups (which you wisely undertook), and storing data in a standard data format that allows you to use a.n.other tool to continue working.

As for reprehensibly bad customer service and shoddy product design and manufacturing, why do people keep on putting up with this and, more to the point, why are others so blind in their love of a particular vendor (regardless of any failures) that they blindly refuse to recognise that some people have problems or that manufacturer X's new product may actually not be very good?

Statutory rights

I'm not sure what legal consumers' rights you have in the US, but here in the UK I dare say you'd have grounds to demand a complete replacement of the whole unit - certainly by the time the display started to flicker!

I'm repeating the sentiments of many but....

Why on earth did you buy a £700 Mac with no support contract when it is business critical for you?

I bought a Dell Latitude, not because I use it for business, because i wanted the better build quality than the Inspiron. It came bundled with next day on site, which i didn't need, but there was no option to remove it.

The laptop had its share of problems, for a start the casing wasn't straight. This is almost impossible to prove over email, but the thing didn't sit flat on the desk. I mailed Dell, no real urgency on my part, a bloke came to fix it the next day. The screen developed a fault down one side, not sure if it was my fault, bloke came to fix it next day. The battery failed and started to only half charge, new one sent out to me the next day.

What would have been the financial implication of me being without my laptop for a week? £0

What was the cost of each callout? £0

What was the additional cost of this service? No idea, bundled with the laptop, i think about £200-£300 extra for the full 3 years on site support.

If you can get next day support for this kind of price, and you opted to buy something else, then you deserve all you get. Yes, the laptop might have burnt your house down, or might have injured your family, but claims against Apple are handled by the courts, take months at best, and don't help you get working again.

I'd actually suggest you buy a second laptop, for the sake of <£1000 you can pretty much guarantee you'll be able to able to work when you need to.

There is a reason why PC's are good for business critical applications

Phew..... just beaten my way through the mac fanboys.

I don't have any good reason to dislike apple computers, but there is a good reason why we use 100% generic white box pc's (not even things like Dells)

If ANYTHING went wrong with ANY of the PC's or servers in here, I could have pretty much any fault fixed and be back up and running within the hour.

Why? Because there are 4 independant PC shops, a Maplin and a PC World within 1 mile of the office. Because all our equipment is generic white box, there is not a single component that I could not go out and get from at least one of the above places.

Wintel based laptops are probably no better then apple laptops, as you always need to send laptops off to specialist repair companies, so like I say, for anything critical to the business it is must to use generic PC's

dangerous

If you were a US citizen, you would more likely have gone straight for the compensation. Getting an electric shock and being burnt is simply not acceptable. If you had a heart condition or suffer from epilepsy, it could have been serious.

In all my years, I've never heard of someone getting literally burnt by their computer as it spontaneously combusts. It is dangerous and they should issue a recall of the power supplies.

As for leaving a laptop under the couch, I'm sure loads of people do it for security reasons when leaving a room unattended (ie burglars looking through the window). Do all laptops ship with specific safety instructions about not doing this?

As for components failing, muppet customer service, and dodgy couriers, this is all standard fare that we all have to deal with at one time or another. So get over it.

Recipe for you

If life gives you lemons (or turkeys) ...

_________________________________

Smoked Lemon Turkey

1 (14- to 16- pound) turkey

1/2 cup lemon juice

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/2 tablespoon thyme

1/2 tablespoon ginger

1/2 tablespoon rosemary

1/2 teaspoon crushed black pepper

Very small dash of garlic powder

Take about 3 cups of mesquite or hickory chips and soak in water for about an hour. When you cook a larger bird such as a turkey you need to use a water pan circled by hot coals and wood chips. Get your coals all fired up and spread them in a circle around pan filled with water and some citrus juice of your choice. The trick to using wood chips and chunks is to bring the chips to smoke by placing them on hot coals and when smoke appears move to a cooler spot in the grill before adding your meat.

Rub the turkey down with some olive oil and lemon then spread spice mixture over the bird. (I suggest that you do this the night before you cook, but if time does not permit, then just do it while your charcoal is getting ready.) Place turkey breast side up on the center of the grill directly above the pan of water and juice. Place a meat thermometer in the turkey without touching a bone. Cook to an internal temp of 175 degrees. It could take up to 6 hours depending on the size of your bird and the temperature of the coals.

Some DR Ideas

1). Unless you've only recently become a freelance journalist (entirely possible), you presumably had an old computer this Macbook replaced. Use that as your DR machine.

2). Your local library will have some PCs you can use.

3). Internet café?

4). Typewriter.

5). Pad of paper and pencil. You may need a pencil sharpener, don't say you weren't warned.

Awful Customer Services

I am currently going through a similar trail and tribulation with BT, in an attempt to become a customer and have an active landline phone.

The stress is on BECOME, i am not currently a customer, i am trying very hard to give them my money but they are making it as difficult as possible!

Once i do get it sorted i may submit an article to El Reg (if you'll take me!) In the meantime you can read about it on my flat www.lewty.org.uk/blog

Arrrghhh

Hint...If you want compensation, give them a couple of chances to put in decent off, failing that sue.

Here's what I'd do.

PC goes faulty. return. Goes faulty agin, return stating, in writing, that if there are any more issues, you will want a refund. They of course will argue, but ignore then. Then if it catches fire, don't be polite. Write aletter stating that you want a refund an compensation. They have x days to provide a satifactory outcome.

If they fail sue, under a personal injury claim. They will settle out of court to aviod bad publisty. Jobs a good un.

You chose not to, your fault.....

RE: dangerous

"If you were a US citizen, you would more likely have gone straight for the compensation. "

Haven't you heard, Brits don't have the same rights as US Citizens, in the UK is is seen as acceptable for electrical products to occasionally electrocute the user.

Personally unless the thing had put me in hospital I'd do anything to avoid the royal pain in the arse of taking somebody to court.

Sometimes stuff goes wrong and is dangerous, if i live to tell the tale the last thing I want to do is waste the next few months pursuing it legally just so i can say "i told you so"

Play your cards right

I'm impressed you weren't tempted to play the "I'm a tech journalist, so sort this out sharpish or I'll write you up" card. If you did, and this was the result, heaven help us non-journo types.

What What?

Get a grip macboy...

Electricity 101

"As for leaving a laptop under the couch, I'm sure loads of people do it for security reasons when leaving a room unattended (ie burglars looking through the window). Do all laptops ship with specific safety instructions about not doing this?"

Loads of people also have their houses burnt down too or have fires start. but doesn't make it the sensible thing to do. Electronic gear generates heat, and charging units especially so, this is nothing specific to Apple, or even computers, it's just electronics. Leaving electronic equipment around fabrics or giving the unit no room to breathe is asking for trouble.

If it was really a security measure she could've powered off the device entirely and disconnected it from the power. She endangers the life of others under the same roof as hers by creating a situation no Health & Safety officer would ever consider acceptable, as if even a spark flew (which any electronic device has the capability of doing) and it was in immediate proximity to something flammable a fire could have erupted.

I suspect this woman would put a hot iron in a clothes cupboard too unless it implicity had a large warning written in bright red text and all in upper case advising her otherwise.

To the person who posted regarding buying a generic PC, that would be a fair point if the issue was replacing/repairing parts at ones own expense/time, but this is dealing with product faults, and warranty replacements, so having a generic PC would not be any more beneficial in this case, if anything, any problems which occur usually then become entirely your own issue.

And yeah to re-iterate the point others here have said, what kind of smart business person would buy a business critical product and not protect it against any form of risk. To do so is to label the product as having no value to the running of the business. And indeed, intelligence would dictate that one should keep alternatives/back-ups on-hand for where issues do arise so business can continue to be run as smoothly as possible.

You should not run a business of any laptop period

Is this El Reg or Sex in the City? In fact this article reads exactly like the Sex in The City episode where the renouned lead starlet had a "rotten apple" experience. She tries to use an apple laptop for "business" as well. And it gets entertaining when the apple goes rotten. In fact, her saying "It is an apple, does it need backups, I though only PCs need that" should be regularly played to all apple fans.

Back on the topic - well, the truth is that regardless of the brand any laptop is not suitable for business solely on its own. It is a device to provide mobility at the expense of reliability and durability. Anyone in his sane mind should never keep business data on it long term. Sync it to the server, go, get work done, sync again. And if the mobile lemon goes rotten a cheap and cheerful refurbished business laptop can be obtained for sub-250 pounds nowdays. For a business which needs everyday availability that is well within contingency provisions.

Ummm

Firstly, that's quite poor English for a journo.

Secondly, imagine how bad it would have been if you hadn't waved the "but I'm a journalist" flag in their face, they'd have ignored you, so you're not that badly done by.

Thirdly, a word of advice for anyone in this sort of situation, if they don't resolve to your satisfaction within what you deem a considerable timescale then go here: www.companieshouse.gov.uk, it costs a couple of quid to get the home addresses of the board of directors and they really hate being send stroppy letters about how poor their company is at their home address. You'd be suprised how quickly excrement can flow downwards and how quickly things get resolved.

Bad Apples

Got to admit I've had problems with both my ibook g4's and thank God for the warrantee. I've never had a true lemon, but close, though. I've read somewhere that, industry-wide, 21% of laptop and 7% of desktops have warrantee issues. This says a lot about the wisdom of a laptop as your only cpu. I suspect Apple is no different.

See right through all this...

El Reg doesn't get an early iPhone review, much to the chagrin of all involved.

El Reg flames the iPhone, to spite Apple. Determines that we're "zombies" for wanting it... er, sorry, being told we want it.

El Reg further continues Apple bashing by pointing out some reviewer/writer/hack has a bit of bad luck with an Apple laptop.

The correlation we're supposed to walk away with? Apple makes bad stuff.

The real story? Apple doesn't bow to El Reg, so screw 'em.

Consumerist?

Surely this belongs on the Consumerist rather than the register, or are we now taking the SMB to include ill prepared one man (woman) bands as part of the S now?

As other have point out.

1/ DR A mac mini booting to your external cloned drive, keep working

2/ A dell with next day on site repair option.

3/ Post it back to apple, via a courier, to save you driving?

I'm also missing the part where you decided to go to trading standards regarding your dangerous equipment, and the burns it gave you, injury lawers r us would have had a field day.

You got upset, you caved, now you're moaning?

Come on el'reg, this is nothing but a poorly described rant and belongs on usenet rather than on the regsiter...

Nice....

.... recipe, thanks for that, also made me hungry so must go for lunch now.

Oh and yeah what all the others said before, business use means you should have had a contingency plan and sorry you expect far too much from company/customer service reps, your living in 2007. Todays modern society means you aren't entitled to anything and just because you paid for something doesn't mean they have to treat you any different to a dog, wake up to the modern world, it's a crap hole and customers come 2nd from last (I think students are last and they only just rank above out of work actors/actresses who have got to be bottom of the pile).

Hmmmm... smoked turkey

No Common Sense

"I stressed that I often leave my laptop charging overnight under the sofa on the carpet"

Lets see - insulate your laptop with carpet and a sofa whilst on charge, like any laptop (or computer for that matter) it gets hot, it should be placed on a firm surface (like a desk) to allow airflow to all areas - thats why it has feet! I can understand the reason to hide it and that it might fit snugly under the sofa. Its akin to placing night lights on a plastic bath and wondering why you end up with a house fire.

So you slowly cooked your laptop every night and wonder why it failed bit by bit, you ignored the case going yellow and the screen failing and it appears it eventually melted internal wiring causing the power lead to eventually over heat and short out. Surely you notice it was hot when you removed it from under the sofa?

I guess your house doesn't have rcb's otherwise it would have popped them long before you got injured.

No wonder its a nanny state these days, some people have no common sense.

All I can say is RTFM... a few excerpts from it.

Important: read all the installation instructions (and the safety information in Appendix B....) carefully, before you plug your computer into the wall socket.

Apprendix B

remoce the power cord, battery etc if :-

you suspect your computer needs service or repair

The power adaptor may become hot.....Always allow adequate ventilation around the adapter....when possible place on a hard surface to dissipate heat.

...it is normal for the bottom of the case to get warm...place on a flat stable surface...

the bottom of the mac is a cooling surface that transfers heat.... is raised... to allow airflow....

Warning: Do not place your Mac on a pillow or other soft material when it is on

Sounds like Apple did everything they could except suggest that you shouldn't be entrusted with one of their products as you clearly aren't capable of operating it correctly (or any computer for that matter). Apple could have said hard luck you did not follow the instructions in the manual instead they sorted it out.