Travel Technology - Bose Customer Service Decline - Quiet Comfort II

I use to think Bose had very good customer service, but I was disappointed with how we were treated today at the Short Hill, NJ Bose Store.

The 1st pair I had a few months back developed a static noise in the right earpiece and I easily exchanged it at the store in Paramus, NJ without problem. I was impressed with their helpfulness.

My headphones broke again on my flight home from CLE Thursday. The headband plastic just snapped apart and I noticed other cracks on the other side as well. I went to the Short Hills store and asked if they could replace the headphones. The manager on duty said that they would, but they didn't have any in stock. He gave me a card with the number to call for the repair department.

I wasn't looking forward to my upcoming work trips and vacation without my Bose. This month alone I have EWR-CLE-EWR, EWR-NRT-EWR, EWR-GRU-EWR scheduled. I had an inkling that they just didn't want to exchange them for me, so I decided to go back as ask if they were sure they didn't have any for sale even.

Well, they open a cabinet FULL of new Quiet Comfort boxes. Just a few moments earlier they said they were out of stock.

I completed my purchase and will use these while mine are sent out for repair. I'm planning on taking advantage of their 30 day satisfaction guarantee since I am not satisifed at how I was treated.

I use to think Bose had very good customer service, but I was disappointed with how we were treated today at the Short Hill, NJ Bose Store.

The 1st pair I had a few months back developed a static noise in the right earpiece and I easily exchanged it at the store in Paramus, NJ without problem. I was impressed with their helpfulness.

My headphones broke again on my flight home from CLE Thursday. The headband plastic just snapped apart and I noticed other cracks on the other side as well. I went to the Short Hills store and asked if they could replace the headphones. The manager on duty said that they would, but they didn't have any in stock. He gave me a card with the number to call for the repair department.

I wasn't looking forward to my upcoming work trips and vacation without my Bose. This month alone I have EWR-CLE-EWR, EWR-NRT-EWR, EWR-GRU-EWR scheduled. I had an inkling that they just didn't want to exchange them for me, so I decided to go back as ask if they were sure they didn't have any for sale even.

Well, they open a cabinet FULL of new Quiet Comfort boxes. Just a few moments earlier they said they were out of stock.

I completed my purchase and will use these while mine are sent out for repair. I'm planning on taking advantage of their 30 day satisfaction guarantee since I am not satisifed at how I was treated.

1) For $300 a piece they ought to have an excellent customer service;

2) The breaking of the headband plastic seems a recurrent complain here - leading one to believe there's a problem with the engineering design of the gadget;

3) For $300 I'd probably have done the same thing ;)

I have the older model of the headphones, and I noticed that the rubber around the ear pieces has come apart. I have to take them to the boise store here in Annapolis,MD. I am going to MIA tomorrow, and CHS next week .What I really need them for is KBP in April. Will let you know how it works out.

Well you are just dealing with a bad sales person. I have a pair of Bose 2 headphones and there is a design problem with the sides breaking. Ihave owned mine for about a year. I took mine up to a local Bose store and asked if they could fix the problem as I travel alot. I gave him my headset and he went to the back and opened a new pair and gave then to me,in all of about 5 minutes. ^

I have had my QC IIs for about a year and a half. I've always treated them very delicately and carefully. After about 4 or 5 months a piece of plastic on my headband snapped off. I was completely baffled as to how it could have broken. I've never put any unusual amounts of stress on the plastic.

It's interesting to learn this is a common problem. Since mine are a year old I'm probably SOL in regards to getting them replaced. Or do you think they have a "recall" or something similar on the product for this defect which applies to me as well?

I will never buy another thing from Bose. I have a pair of the original quiet comfort headphones. About 13 months after I purchased them, at $299.99 the ear cushions came off. I rolled them back on but they would not stay. I called the customer service number and was told that it would cost me $70 to have them replaced, plus shipping each way.

When I mentioned that it seemed exorbitant to charge me a fifth of what I paid originally the CSR said that's the way it is, and there was nothing he could do about it. I bought a set of Phillips NC headphones for about $60 and use them all the time.

What a ripoff! Not only will I not get the Bose devices fixed, I never miss an opportunity to mention my experience.

Well, as I and others have posted many MANY times on these boards, I cannot be more pleased with the dozens of Bose QC and QCII that I have bought.

I still use my original pair from about what, six or seven years ago? My father, still has his pair and uses them about once a week. I have to say, my originals are my favorite and have flown about 600K miles with me in the past 6-7 years, possibly more.

I have bought about five pair as gifts, including four pairs of the QCII,s which I initially didn't like since the sound is a bit differant. My #1 1K GF loves hers, as does her mother, father and two sisters.

I have had one pair go bad, it developed a ticking in the left earpiece, BOSE replaced it NQA in about three days.

I had another paid, the QCII of #1 1K GF break,(honestly, I think this was poor use) and BOSE simply replaced them and sent her a new pair.

Yes, I had to show I had purchased them and that they were under warranty.

One pair, was technically, out of warranty, but the 800# replaced them anyway.

I have to say, I would certainly buy them again, and have had very good customer service when I needed it. Professional, courteous and resonsive. I cannot speak for the retail locations, they are probably run under a differant umbrella, and I can certainly imagine a retail store, which has purchased their inventory not wanting to make good on a company warranty claim - although, I have read posts here of course where it does occur frequently.

300$, yeah is a bit rich, but worth every cent IMHO, and the opinion of 1000's of fellow FT'ers around the world. Not to mention all the FF'ers who fly frequently.

I hear from folks all the time who feel they were not treated fairly at the lower level of the sales chain when they had a complaint.

My advise is always the same. If you feel you have a legitmate complaint, take it as far up the line as available (this depends on the size company you are dealing with). Your complaint should be carefully documented in advance, inclluding all key factors (who, what, where, when, why, how, how much, etc).

In a retail environment, if the sales person in the store won't help, speak with the store manager. If you still don't get satisfaction, speak with the owner or corporate office.

If dealing with phone CSR's ask for their supervisor. Not satisfied, ask them for the name of the manager of their department.

If all else fails, I have on several occasions looked up the name of the CEO/President of a corporation (if it is a public company, this info is always available) and found the main number of the company Corp HQ. Most major compaines that deal with the public have a staff assigned to the CEO's office whose responsbility is to deal with customers that feel their complaints have not been properly addressed. These folks usually have authority to resolve an issue that is not available to someone at a lower level. Does not always work, but you have nothing (except the cost of a phone call) to lose.

In the case of Bose:
President: John Coleman
US HQ: Framingham, MA
Tel:508-879-7330
http://biz.yahoo.com/ic/40/40673.html

I may have messed up. The plastic headband on mine broke in early December. Just snapped as I was taking them off. I didnt know where the reciept was so I figured I was just screwed and didnt contact the company. I cant say Im particularly pleased by this, but I can still use them at least. It would give me pause before buying something else from them. My Sony noise reduction headphones cost about 1/3 as much, have been used harder and still work and appear fine.

I doubt you'd have a problem - just take them into your local BOSE store or kiosk at the airport and ask for a replacement pair. I've done it twice. Once when the plastic piece broke and the second time because the replacement pair had a strange twinge in the left earpiece that went away but was bothersome. I was officially under warranty, but was never asked for a receipt or any other documentation. They offered the new pair and whether I wanted a new case or just the headset. They even went out of their way to give me the battery and test them before handing them over. ^ I wouldn't hesitate to buy another BOSE product or QC II headset.

I will never buy another thing from Bose. I have a pair of the original quiet comfort headphones. About 13 months after I purchased them, at $299.99 the ear cushions came off. I rolled them back on but they would not stay. I called the customer service number and was told that it would cost me $70 to have them replaced, plus shipping each way.

When I mentioned that it seemed exorbitant to charge me a fifth of what I paid originally the CSR said that's the way it is, and there was nothing he could do about it. I bought a set of Phillips NC headphones for about $60 and use them all the time.

What a ripoff! Not only will I not get the Bose devices fixed, I never miss an opportunity to mention my experience.

Sorry that you were treated so badly. I wonder if I would have paid $70 for ear chushions. :eek:

As I stated in my former post that I would see how Bose treated me for the ear chushions that came off. I took it to the Bose store we have in the mall. The sales person said that he did not have the covers in stock. He called the customer service desk for me. I ordered the covers, and he stated that they would be in in three days. They charged me $36.00 including shipping. (I can't see $70 for a replacable ear cover.)The package came yesterday with the ear covers and the inside scrums if i needed to replace them. It took all of 5 minutes to fix them and they are as good as new. I used them for five years going overseas once a month. It was worth the $36 for the quiet on the plane. ^

I´ve had the plastic bit break on two of the new QC2s - it seems to be a very common issue, and I hope they engineer a replacement part that is more durable. In the meantime, I have called Bose CS on both of them - both nominally out of warranty, as they were over a year old, both purchased direct from Bose. No worries in either case - I was instructed how to pack them, given a RMA number (crucial!) and wihin ten days had a brand-new QC2.

I can only praise Bose for how they have handled my broken QC2s.

Like JDiver I've had two pairs of QC2's break on me - on both, the left side plastic disintegrated / cracked after about 8-9 months of very careful use. The local Bose store exchanged both without too much hassle, but each time the salesperson acted like they'd never seen it happen. When this pair breaks, I think I'll print a copy of this thread to take with me when I go to exchange it.

Has anyone tried preemptive measures to prevent the breakage? Maybe wrap hockey stick tape around the plastic "bars"?

It wasn't preemptive but could be used that way. I use the plastic ties for my luggage and always have some with me. When my headset broke, I wrapped one of those around the arm to hold it all together and then clipped the end off. It worked great and I had no problem using the headset with that in place, except having to slide it back into place occasionally.

To Follow Up

I phoned Bose tech support and they gave me an RMA number for an exchange. They said that this is a known defect and will be replacing it for the life of the product. I'm assuming that means every-time it happens forever, or until they go out of business.

I sent my pair in overnight and received a new replacement via ground service 3 business days later, just in time for my EWR-NRT flight. The new ones appear identical to the model I had, but maybe there was an internal modification.

I also recently took the pair I bought from the Short Hills store back. While I was doing the return, another guy came in with the same defect. He purchased his from the store and ended up getting his replaced no questions asked. That made me a bit upset again, but I didn't say anything.

Glad the return worked out for you. Maybe the short hills store was given a better definition of customer service since you were there ... i purchased my headset through the mail and have returned it to a store without a problem. I even asked at an airport kiosk and they said they would do the exchange, as well (short hop, didn't bring them on the trip).

WOW! that is good news, I would get that in writting though. Nice to know, since I had this defect once on #1 1K GF headphones. They replaced, but said I needed the receipt within a year. Luckilly, I buy at LEAST A pair a year as gifts.

I too have an issue with Bose Customer Service.

I bought a pair of QCII towards the end of January in the US. I was going to buy them anyway but saw that they were giving about a free Bose CD player with QCII headphones that month.

I paid for the QCII and enquired about the CD player. The salesman told me that the promo was very popular and that they had ran out...But if I write my address down here then they'll post them to me.

I pushed the point that I was not a US resident and that they would have to be sent to me overseas. I was told that this was no problem. Well, it seems that it is as now 10 weeks later I still do not have them.

I emailed customer service and within 24 hours I received a personal reply stating that they would follow this up but will need to speak to the salesperson and they will get back to me in 3-5 working days. It has been 10 working days now and nothing.

Seriously, pick up the phone speak to the salesperson for a few minutes and then email me back! How hard is that????

I too have an issue with Bose Customer Service.

I bought a pair of QCII towards the end of January in the US. I was going to buy them anyway but saw that they were giving about a free Bose CD player with QCII headphones that month.

I paid for the QCII and enquired about the CD player. The salesman told me that the promo was very popular and that they had ran out...But if I write my address down here then they'll post them to me.

I pushed the point that I was not a US resident and that they would have to be sent to me overseas. I was told that this was no problem. Well, it seems that it is as now 10 weeks later I still do not have them.

I emailed customer service and within 24 hours I received a personal reply stating that they would follow this up but will need to speak to the salesperson and they will get back to me in 3-5 working days. It has been 10 working days now and nothing.

Seriously, pick up the phone speak to the salesperson for a few minutes and then email me back! How hard is that????


even though your experience here is with BOSE, i would put the experience with a one off promotion in a differant category as with regular customer service. Trust me, you are missing NOTHING from the free CD player that came in the box with many QCII's for a period.

But, this type of product promotion is usually done by a totally differant group, marketing, sales at a minimum, and even sometimes fullfilled by a third party. Regular customer service is trained to deal with product issues, and regular and even unusual types of service that may come up. They may simply not have the protocols in place for someone who was told they would get a CD player, but didn't since the promo had ended or they ran out, and are not in country and have to receive something international, which most likely requires a supervisor or higher approval.

I bought a pair of the QC II's about six months back and as others here have reported, recently had an issue with the plastic that covers/supports the sizing mechanism snapping loose. As luck would have it, while arriving home to LGA today, I had the headphones with the case and most of the accessories on me. I remembered there was a Bose kiosk in the central terminal so I headed over and saw the salesperson at the kiosk demonstrating the features of the QCII's to an AA captain. The AA captain said he would take them, but the salesperson graciously reminded him that all AA crew get 10% off Bose purchases and free shipping if purchased directly from Bose. Figuring that was a pretty decent discount, the captain started gathering his belongings.

After waiting for three or four minutes for the salesperson to finish up, I explained to him my dilemma by showing him the loose piece. He cut me short and almost immediately produced a new pair and handed them to me, taking my old pair and putting them behind the counter. The captain who was still gathering his belongings saw the whole event unfold, looked bewildered, almost as if he did not believe such customer service still existed! Heck, I didn't believe it myself considering I didn't even have to produce the reciept.

As I walked away with a smile on my face, I heard the captain turn to the sales rep. and say "I've changed my mind, I'll take them now. By the way what's your name?."

Kudos to bose Customer Service! ^

I bought a set of Phillips NC headphones for about $60 and use them all the time.

If you have the model I have (HN-100), they're absolute garbage. I bought a pair back in July, as I did a whole lot of flying from that point on, and by November, they had broken. I used them everyday, whether flying, or while at school so I didn't disturb my roommates, and I treated them fairly gently.

The inner casing on the headband, right above the earcup just shattered. I duct taped it up so they'd work, and eventually the earcup itself fell off (my own fault, nothing Philips could have done to keep that from happening)

I figured that I had managed to mistreat them somehow, so I picked up a new pair off of Ebay for $15.

Within two and a half months, the EXACT same thing happened, and I made sure that I was treating them as gently as I possibly could.

I tried to submit a warranty request, but according to Philips' website, they don't sell headphones, let alone my model.

When I put in the exact model number, it told me I wanted a CD player, or something like that.

After reading reviews on CNET, apparently this problem is very common.

All I know is I'm not buying headphones from Philips ever again, for any reason.

I've never had a problem getting them replaced at a store as long as I had my receipt with me and it was within a year of purchase. The last time I went, they claimed that they had made a design change to fix the problem, but they still broke after a few trips.

I do have a theory on why they seem to break more for some than for others: I know that my head is a bit larger (not freakishly large mind you, and lets skip the swelled head comments :P) than most. My QC2's tend to break more often than others that I know with smaller heads. I have noticed that the structure that goes over the top of my head seems to be under a bit of stress the entire time that I am wearing them. My guess is that the plastic becomes fatigued over time and the added stress incurrred when they are taken off or put on is enough to cause the failure to occur. If you look at how the assembly works, it is obvious that there is a very weak spot where the breakage occurs. Simply bad design.

I have had my QC II replaced twice - once for some static, and one for the plastic breaking. Both times, the exchange was done quickly with no hassle or receipt.

...Each time the salesperson acted like they'd never seen it happen.Same here -- when I called, they acted as if they had never heard of this before. One side crakced and broke and the other was severely cracked and ready to fail. I got an RMA, and a new pair shipped to me right away. No cracks have appeared on the replacement yet...