You know what I hate, Mr. Anderson? It's the smell. I feel... saturated by it

[An Haddock]

Working in a computer shop I'm reasonably lucky to not have to deal with hygiene issues very much. However one thing that drives me up the wall is a computer that comes from a home with one or more heavy smokers in it.


I should preface this by saying that I smoke a bit myself, but I always do it outdoors or at least next to an open window. But some of our customers take the nicotine cake.


Around once every couple of months we'll get a computer in that smells like it came from a home where the owner smokes two packs a day. Simply wiping down the computer case with alcohol and a soft rag will turn up bright yellow gunk. Then, to avoid the reek of concentrated cigarette smoke polluting our shop, we take it out back and blast the bejeezus out of the interior of the case with an air compressor. Sometimes wipe down the interior of the case with some alcohol as well.


The owner of the shop had a partner a few years ago who is an older fellow who does smoke about a pack a day. Sometimes he'd take a computer home to work on it and when he brought it back it reeked of cigarette smoke. I've never been to his apartment but the owner swore if you wiped a clean white rag on the wall, it would be yellow with nicotine gunk. He'd finally had it with that nonsense and bought his partner out.


Any other epic tales of smelliness?

I know we have a dentist we do a lot of work for and he once told me that one of the worst things you could experience in a dentist office is drilling/cutting into a tooth with an absess <sp> because it's packed with gas and smells horrible... like concentrated tooth gunk.

I worked for a few years at a dog kennel, so I've had to pick up more than my share of crap in its many forms. When you walk in the door at 7 in the morning and that smell hits you... yeah, that's not fun.

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

First of all, love the Matrix reference in the title.

Secondly, yes I do. Working in a games store that accepts trade product I have the privilege of seeing consoles in all matter of condition. You name it I've probably seen it.

- Bugs in systems (dead or LIVE)
- Makeup covered consoles
- Consoles with an unidentified white substance on them
- Consoles that stink to high heaven
- Systems with dried foodstuffs caked on the outside (or even worse IN the disc drive)
- Consoles filled with more dust than you could ever possibly imagine
- Consoles that have had names or other designs etched into them or drawn on to them
- Systems covered with stickers

As a related funny aside, oftentimes a customer will bring me a system that has one of the above issues complaining that it "doesn't run well anymore" When I ask when they cleaned it last, the answer is usually "never" or "what?". There's very few people out there who know how to clean a game console, which is really sad because it's such a quick and easy process.

[An Haddock]

- Bugs in systems (dead or LIVE)

- Consoles filled with more dust than you could ever possibly imagine

- Systems covered with stickers

I can totally sympathize. We do work on Xbox 360's as well.

Once in a while we've gotten systems with bugs, although I have a friend who has a computer shop in Florida and he's found snakes and lizards inside cases.


I've seen HORRENDOUSLY dusty systems. For a while I was running a contest where the dustiest system over a period of 30 days would win a free canned air.

Damn... I used to have a photo of the dustiest case I ever saw but I can't find it now. I swear the dust bunny in this thing was so big it was bigger than my hand.

[protege]

Damn... I used to have a photo of the dustiest case I ever saw but I can't find it now. I swear the dust bunny in this thing was so big it was bigger than my hand.

That would be a dust *elephant*

My company's server usually had dust in it. Why? Well, that POS had to run with the case side panels off. Otherwise, it would overheat

[Sheldonrs]

...
-Consoles with an unidentified white substance on them...

Aim for the floor people!

[dalesys]

The floor people are shaking their fists...

[siead_lietrathua]

The floor people are shaking their fists...

you have made my day *laughing*

[fireheart]

Aim for the floor people!

Damn you Sheldonrs!

Ï've encountered reusable bags (there's a ban in my state on the standard plastic bags...they either need to be heavy plastic so therefore reusable, the polypropylene type or derived from, burlap, canvas or calico, or a biodegradable one that meets the standards) with the following in them...or my coworkers have:

-Smelling like cigarettes.
-A week-old package of ham (it was from the deli and a couple of slices)
-Smelling of booze.
-Cockroaches and other insects. (someone else had a spider)
-length of tinsel. (THAT made me laugh)
-pet fur.

[BlaqueKatt]

Any other epic tales of smelliness?

building with 30+cat cages 8 litter boxes per cage, 40 cats per cage day after a 3 day weekend(litter not changed on weekends)

currently microbiology/food testing lab-we are deliberately causing spoilage bacteria to grow at very rapid rates-so we can isolate dangerous ones(salmonella, listeria, e-coli, etc), my job has burned out my sense of smell-the place reeks....

[Sleepwalker]

My biggest reusable bag is full of pet fur. My roomate's cats turned out to like sleeping in it as it hung over the door.

[kendiara]

One of my best friends had 12 cats and smoked clove cigarettes...there are still clothes in my closet that contain a whiff of her apartment 6 years, 3 moves and multiple washings later.

[Marmalady]

Not a smell as such, granted, but still enough to make me go 'ewwww'.... My first day in a new job at the local city council, I was shown to the desk I was to occupy, there is the pc I was to use....and the keyboard is covered with black gunk. You know how the keys get grimy with repeated use? which is why they need to be cleaned, well I couldn't guess when this one had last been cleaned. Seriously, you could barely see what the characters were!
I'm not one of these germ freaks but next day I got in extra early and gave that keyboard a birthday.

[Cazzi]

The owner of the shop had a partner a few years ago who is an older fellow who does smoke about a pack a day. Sometimes he'd take a computer home to work on it and when he brought it back it reeked of cigarette smoke. I've never been to his apartment but the owner swore if you wiped a clean white rag on the wall, it would be yellow with nicotine gunk. He'd finally had it with that nonsense and bought his partner out.

I once looked at a PC as a favour for a work colleague *shudder*, He was a heavy smoker of home rolled cigs & boy did that poor computer suffer for it. When I opened it the inside as covered with the nastiest stickiest smelly tar going! Add to that all the dust that had been sucked in &

I used to smoke back then.. outside.
I've even helped in the redecoration of a neglected old pub that my employers had taken over which hadn't been decorated or had the walls washed down for ages & even that was no where near as bad as the inside of that poor PC

[Midorikawa]

I once looked at a PC as a favour for a work colleague *shudder*, He was a heavy smoker of home rolled cigs & boy did that poor computer suffer for it. When I opened it the inside as covered with the nastiest stickiest smelly tar going! Add to that all the dust that had been sucked in &

I saw a computer that actually died of smoke inhalation. The tar killed the fans, which made the computer overheat, and eventually killed the computer. It was in for a cleaning, and it was back when I ran my business. The tar was caked on so thick inside this computer that in areas, you couldn't see metal any more, and you could chip it off the sides of the case, and the fan housings like some horrendous sculpture.

I have no sense of smell, but I'd imagine that it smelled horrid. Come to think of it, my poor dog refused to come near me when I had the computer in my hands (ran the business out of my house) She gave me that "hi, but go away" look she gives you when she knows you're about to do something "mean", like shove a pill down her throat.

I couldn't even save the hard drive, as it was too caked in tar and the vent holes on top and sides were plugged causing a head crash. I just dumpstered the computer and quoted her on a new machine. Poor thing was only a year old, too.

[KellyHabersham]

We used to have a family come into the library where I hated getting their returns in the bookdrop, because at least one person in that home smoked a nasty-smelling cigarette brand, and their books were always covered in that smell. This family hasn't visited the library in awhile, but unfortunately we get a lot of materials returned smelling like the nasty cigarette brand........some items I've had to wipe down with Lysol and air them out before putting them on a truck to be shelved.

(and just for the record, I don't have an issue with cigarette smoke odors, but definitey I've noticed that the brand makes a difference)