IE2 and Sountrue IE Ultra defective cable

[saft555]

I bought the IE2 headphones, took extreme care of them always even stored them in the case they came in. Then after 2 years the cable just started to become sticky and started to peel off on it's own. I thought, well they are kind of old... so I decided to purchase a new pair, this time the Soundtrue IE Ultra in USA in 2017. And the same thing happened after 2,5 years. Since that can't be a coincidence anymore, I talked to customer support in Germany. First they mentioned that the headphone was from 2016, they didn't even consider when I purchased the goods, but when it was manufactured. Claiming that it's out of warranty (because of the manufacturing date and not the purchasing date) and that it had to be my issue as this does not happen to Bose headphones, they just extended a voucher for me to exchange my headphones for new ones (same model though) at a discounted rate. 

I was not sure about the exchange... after all, why should I pay if I actually took great care of both headphones and both just had the exact same issue. Then I decided to verify if I was the only one out there with the issue... so I went to Saturn and Media Markt stores to validate that, not only did I find out that I was not alone, but even the Bose representative told me: "Oh, this has already happened to me in 4 different Bose headphones, this problem only stopped until I switched to the wireless headphones".

So I talked again to customer support in Germany, explained to them what I did, the testimonials I gathered and letting them know that they have a quality issue. They negated it, based on the following argument: "how would Bose exist if they would oversee these quality issues". After negating the issue, I asked them for 2 options at least: 1) Exchange/repair the merchandise free of charge, as it is evident now that there is a quality issue (even if they negate it); 2) Grant me the same discount amount, not the percentage, but the amount e.g. if the 50% discount was equivalent to 45EUR, I just wanted the same 45 EUR, available to me only after I return both damaged headphones, but to use them in a different item. That way I could use the money to purchase what the sales guy told me: the wireless headphones that wouldn't brake after 2 years. After all, I don't come back to Bose every 2 years with the same complaint and keep paying to get a defective item.

Compliant with German standards, they were not flexible at all. Didn't offer any new solution but did not accept any of the proposed either and finished the call with a nice statement: "Well since we cannot reach an agreement I will just end the call" .

I do like the brand even with such poor German customer support. I am still loyal to it and I hope that you can help me here. All I want is functional headphones that won't not break down on it's own.

Please let me know if you need photos of both the IE2 and Sountrue IE Ultra heaphones or anything else from my side.

[Hector_B]

Hello saft555, 

Thank you for posting and sharing your experience with us today! We are deeply sorry to hear that you have had this issue occur twice with your headset and I can say that this is not something I have personally heard of before. 

We aren't able to assist with exchanges or any service options via the community so this isn't something we can assist you further with. Even via private message, this isn't something we can dig into as our community team only has the customer support tools for Bose USA. 

I would highly recommend reaching back out to Bose Germany via this link here, to explore all of the service options that are available to you. I'm also deeply sorry that this isn't something I can personally assist you further with.

[saft555]

Hello Hector.

If you haven't heard of this before, I do suggest to read more in the forum. You will see that a Ukranian user posted the same thing about his IE2 defective cable.

Additionally I said that I bought the product in USA. I fly quite often there, hence I could open myself some time to take care of this in the next visit if necessary over there. Can you help me now, then?

Don't know if you noticed from the first message that customer support in Germany is far from supportive. 

Thank you in advance for actually trying.

[Hector_B]

Thanks for your reply @saft555 and for making me aware of other forum threads. 

Yes, our customer support team would be able to look into this further for you when you return to the USA and will be able to explore all the service options available to you.

However, as you are stated you are outside of warranty this isn't something our community team can directly assist with due to us not being able to assist with payment information. This means that you would need to contact our customer support team via this link here. 

I do completely understand that you are frustrated with the support by Bose Germany, but due to your location this would be the only team that can assist you currently.

[saft555]

Hi Hector,

Could you please explain me the purpose and assistance I can expect from the community?

For some reason after reading twice in a row, reasons why I should not expect to be helped by you (the community), it seems that I might be not understanding the purpose of this community to begin with.

I hope you can help me better to understand this.

[Jeff_G]

Hi saft555, 

The Community is a forum for other members to discuss Bose products. Issues that are posted can be answered by other product owners or by the moderators of the Community. 

As moderators, we are able to assist with general troubleshooting but are unable to provide support with regard to exchanges/services/anything that may require a monetary transaction. This includes part orders, non-warranty repairs or exchanges, new sales orders or refunds.

As advised by @Hector_B, your issue is not something we can assist with, so we would recommend you get in touch with support in your region for further support. 

Thanks. 

[saft555]

I understand if the community cannot help me to solve the issue directly, however to whom should I report a faulty customer support policy, when customer support themselves are not willing to listen?

According to the customer support representatives, the brand quality is meant to be so great, that this issue cannot take place in the first place. The community blog and Bosé sales representatives prove them wrong, but apparently there is no communication between all these parties. Customer support remains blind to the fact of their poor quality, trying to make customers "lease" Bosé products instead of providing solutions. 

Your solution, is exactly what I did already with in the first place: "go to customer support". The fact that you don't even intervene to inform customer support that this is not an isolated matter and that their response should be different or at least open to new options, drives me back to step 1: "going back to a customer support unwilling to acknowledge this poor quality".

If the use of the community is just to exchange opinions on Bosé products... well I hope every user out there that reads this, understands what they will be up against, the lack of customer understanding, the scheme to lease faulty quality products and a company that is not willing to look out for they customers, even by sharing information within the company.

[BBrub]

I also have the same issue.  In fact I had to wrap the cable to keep if from completely disintegrating ... after I took meticulous care of my headphones.  Needless to say ... they went from my favourite Technology accessory to ... my great disappointment.

I'm just starting my discussion on this with Bose .... any suggestions on how to get a fair resolution?

[Lorie]

The cable housing on my soundsport has split as well.  I love the earbuds, but I'm afraid they are going to malfunction if I keep using them.  I wrapped the cable in electrical tape (came off after a few wearings) then bough liquid plastic, but that also was a flop.  I saw that someone else was thinking about using heat shrink tubing, but how would I get it over the buds...and I'd need to recover the entire cable.  Any ideas about how to fix this?

[saft555]

Hi, 

Unfortunately I don't. As you can see from the discussion with the moderators, neither Bose or the community moderators are actively doing anything as to solve the issue. Not even sharing communication about the issue.