That's simply not true. I've been exchanging QCs since I got my first pair of QC-1s a number of years ago. I have found that different Bose stores have a varying degree of information about exchange programs -- when I got my latest QC-15s, the first store I went to denied that any such exchange program existed. I called around and found another Bose store near me -- all I had to do was tell them that my QC2s weren't working, they wrote up the exchange, charged me $99 and I left with a brand new pair of QC15s.