Warranty Claim experience for WF-1000XM4 with depleting right bud

[Hugo1001]

Hey all. 

Would like to share my experience of a warranty claim on my XM4s that fell foul of the one sided battery depleting issue that I see others had earlier this year on the UK forums and successfully claimed and replaced. 

I've had my WF-1000XM4's now for 18 months. Bought new for €240 at the time. They have been first class and wouldnt trade them in for another unit. In September after updating the firmware, the right side earphone started to deplete in less than hour even in ambient. A quick look through the community forums I can see that is a common issue and not fixable through firmware.

Raised the claim form and sent over to SCS. 

Took some time before the reply came that I had liquid contamination on the usb port on the case and they refused to continue past the visual inspection. But I could buy a pair of XM5's on settlement of £160 and surrender of the existing XM'4s.

There's never been contact with water and the battery case works perfectly and so went back and asked to repair or replace the buds but got this reply from SCS.

"The technician has advised that we cannot replace the left and right earbud as they would need to be paired with the charge case.  As the charge case is not operating due to liquid contamination, we would not be able to pair new ear buds with the charge case"

I was getting point black refusals before calling and asking to send back.

It took over 3 weeks for the earbuds to arrive back. On return I charged the case - no issues with the case, lit up orange and then green 2 hours later. I open the case, take out the earphones and turn on bluetooth on my phone. My unit doesn't sync to my earbuds that are saved to my phone but instead finds a different pair of xm4's. I check my tablet and the same thing. The case has the same serial as the one I sent but I can't tell if the same can be said for the earphones. Certainly a different bluetooth unique ID would suggest a new PCB board or indeed a different unit?? 

Regardless, I pair the units to my phone and the new sound connect app. 100% charged. I go running and in less than 10 minutes the LEFT bud depletes as opposed to the right bud which was the problem bud and the reason for sending to SCS in the first place. Charged them again and paired and exact same. In 5 minutes left bud had depleted and switched off.

So, back to SCS on the same claim by email. Again, liquid contamination on the case, and to raise a new complaint via the website. They confirm I received the unit I sent as per the serial number on the case. No reply to how they are different bluetooth ID. I reply that the bluetooth pairs to the earbuds, not the case and they appear to be a different unit. Last correspondence today - again flat out - liquid contamination, can't help me, raise a new complaint via the website.

So that's where I am. Left with a pair of XM4's in worse condition than the pair I sent for repair after 2 months.

Does anyone on the forum have any suggestion about what to do next apart from binning them and moving to a different brand?

Thanks