I have this issue. The Apple store ran a diagnostic and confirmed it. My original purchase was over three years ago. However, I have already had my AirPods replaced within the first year, and that replacement occurred less than three years ago.
I know that the support document says the time window is based on the original purchase date, but if the product is defective, this policy seems anti-consumer. Basically Apple replaced my original defective AirPods, with another pair of defective AirPods that they have acknowledged on their website based on the manufacturing date in and was validated by the diagnostic ran at the Apple store.
The store representative told me to call the online support, who they said may be able to override the policy. But they refused even after confirming that the replacement AirPods fell within the manufacturing defect window.
Has anyone else faced a similar issue? I’m thinking of escalating via email to see if I get a different response.
I just went through a similar experience yesterday and today.
TLDR:
- Apple won't repair or replace if it's outside of the prescribed date ranges. No exceptions apparently possible, no matter how far up you escalate your complaint.
- Their out-of-warranty replacement fee is insulting and anti-consumer (It's just $6 less than brand new headphones!).
- I escalated through Apple Support as high as possible, but they have zero authority to do anything.
- Apple Support (3 different people) were patronizing, slightly rude, and completely unhelpful. I was the model of politeness by the way. They hung up on me!
- Good news: After all of the above pain, the blue sticky tac solution worked perfectly! Wish I had found this thread before I talked to Apple! THANK YOU to
Ikeda Kazuto for the great suggestion!
Long version:
My AirPods Pro (1st generation - purchased July 2021) exhibited the symptoms described at
https://support.apple.com/en-ca/airpods-pro-service-program-sound-issues initially, and then it got worse and became a hum (almost a whistle) in the right ear to the point that the headphones were unbearable to use. Note that this occurred for me either with ANC on or off.
I went to the Apple Store Genius bar, who ran their diagnostics. Result was that both left and right buds failed their test, thus confirming the issue existed. However, because I was 11 months over the 1-year warranty and my headphones (according to their diagnostic) were produced *after* Oct 2020, there was absolutely nothing they could do for me other than offering me an out-of-warranty replacement fee (which is completely insulting because at $115+tax per headphone, it's only $6 less than just buying brand new set of headphones at full retail price!)
I escalated my complaint to Apple Support via chat, and then re-escalated to their boss via phone call, and then asked to speak to THEIR boss, but was blocked from proceeding further, and he hung up on me. To be clear, I was incredibly polite throughout all interactions... but the Apple support people, both at the store and on the phone were definitely not trying to be pleasant. I saved the transcript of the online support chat just to re-read it to be sure. They should train their staff not to be patronizing jerks even if they are powerless and forced to read scripts in answer to every question.
Not once during my interaction did anyone of these Apple "Geniuses" suggest just fricken cleaning the darn microphones! That might actually have been helpful! All they could do was repeatedly (and somewhat obnoxiously) read their [lack of] service script to me.
Again, thank you to
Ikeda Kazuto for providing the solution that apparently Apple wasn't smart enough to think of! You saved me from buying new headphones!
