A woman was left homeless after her £2,000 Apple MacBook Pro caught fire and burnt down her flat.
Gemma Impey, 23, left the device to charge and went to work as an events manager at a nearby hotel.
But while she was at work she received a call from a the fire service saying her flat had been gutted and her beloved cat Tibby had died in the blaze.
A report from the fire services confirmed that a faulty laptop charger started the fire which broke out at her rented flat in Langley, Slough, in February 2015.
Gemma was left homeless after the fire and was forced to move back in with her parents in Ledbury, Herefordshire.
In the two years since the fire, clothes shop worker Gemma claims she phoned Apple every day demanding a refund for her wrecked MacBook Pro.
She also claims to have sent Apple 500 emails demanding answers but says she has received no response.
Gemma said: “It’s been the worst two years of my life.
“I just feel as though I’ve lost absolutely everything: my flat, my job, my cat.
“I left the flat at about 8.45am in the morning, and remembered that my laptop had no battery.
“The night before I’d been using it to chat with some of my friends on Facebook, and I’d completely run it down.
“I put it down on the floor by the sofa before I left, and stuck it on charge, thinking nothing of it.
“That evening I was planning on doing some online banking, so I imagine that’s why I left it on charge.
“I’d been at the hotel where I worked for about an hour when I got a call.
“At first I ignored them – I didn’t recognise the numbers and just assumed they would be spam calls.
“But when I listened to one of the voicemails, a fireman told me that the flat was on fire and that I should come back straightaway.
“They gave no indication of how severe it was, so when I got there I was completely stunned.
“By the time I got there, at about 10am, the fire had stopped, but you could see the
smoke from about a mile away.
“There were two fire crews there, and people all round the street looking at what had happened.
“A window had been smashed in by fire service who were trying to get in, and we had to wait for the landlord to secure it before I could get back in.
“The landlord and I both went in together, and he just broke down.
“Other than the laptop and the remains of the charger, almost everything was ruined.
“Tibby was in the hands of the fire crew, but apparently they found him under the sofa, crying and shaking.
“The damage done from being exposed to the fire was just too much for him.
“His bowl was by where the laptop was, and there was no obvious escape for him.
“It was awful, on top of everything else, to lose an animal I had become attached to.
“I was living on my own in a studio flat, with no friends nearby, and only bought him as a bit of company.
“Everything in there was lost, including some really important documents. I lost my national insurance card, which, as you can imagine, has been a nightmare to get back.
“It was rented accommodation, and I didn’t have insurance on the possessions that I lost so I literally got nothing back.
“The council instantly ruled that it was inhabitable, and I was made homeless.
“I really suffered badly with stress.
“I wasn’t able to sleep a wink. Whenever I closed my eyes all I could see was that image of the burnt down flat.
“All of my independence was lost. I couldn’t work, I wasn’t allowed to drive and I was on benefits sleeping on my mum’s couch.
“The fire just took everything away from me.”
Gemma says that her ordeal was made worse by her bitter battle with Apple.
She said: “They’ve just passed me on from person to person to person, requesting all sorts of information and not responding when I give it to them.
“They won’t let us speak to the legal team until we’ve dealt with the technical team, but that’s the problem.
“Back in October we sent the charger down to the tech team in Dublin, and they quite quickly confirmed that it was faulty.
“But they still have the charger in their possession, and Apple say I can’t contact the legal team until they have finished their ‘investigations’ with the charger, which they clearly already have.
“After that experience I’ve held on to the laptop – I won’t let them take it away as it’s proof of what happened.
“But it is charred and still has the smell of my old flat. It just brings back the memories.
“Every time I phone to try and progress things I get a different person. I’ve had to constantly retell the story, and it’s just constantly brought back all the stress and trauma of it.
“I’ve been in to loads of different stores, and Apple employees have described my situation as ‘ridiculous’.
“I’ve broken down in store before, but there’s nothing that they can do.”
A spokesperson for Apple said: “We don’t comment on individual customer cases.”
The tech giant refused to confirm whether the charger was an Apple product.
Gemma should read this….she is not alone….this happened a little over a month ago and Apple have replaced the laptop.
medium.com/@dourvaris/my-2015-macbook-pro-retina-exploded-119ea5ea9d1f
Half of the link is missing…………medium.com/@dourvaris/my-2015-macbook-pro-retina-exploded-119ea5ea9d1f
Try this
https://medium.com/@dourvaris/my-2015-macbook-pro-retina-exploded-119ea5ea9d1f#.4s7jxx4as