WH-1000XM3 headband strap broken under normal use

[Deeko76]

Bought the WH-1000XM3 headphones in July this year, very happy with them. Using them today as normal and adjusted the straps as you do - then the left strap  broke off under completely normal use. This has me worried after reading a few other posts for the same issue on this forum as Sony will probably want to charge me to fix this because of the low quality materials they have used in £300 headphones? I bought them from Amazon and notice a few reviews on there with the same issue reported.  The left strap broke in this case and no longer adjusts. Amazon directed me to Sony for warranty purposes but have the feeling I will need to push Amazon for a replacement instead. Wanted to let people know about this and to think again before buying them. 

[HannahEd01]

Hey guys, I know a friend who had a similar issue and got his repaired under the warranty after inspection, so if your got inspected and you were asked for a repair cost I believe it must be a physical damage from pulling too hard or something. Anyway, try to send it for inspection for those who didn't maybe you just got a faulty one.

[BogdanM13]

Well I guess he either had a lot of luck with the reps, procedures are different for your country or you have some direct Sony support/service center. I had mine inspected at an authorized service, not direct Sony because there's no such thing in my country and they said that under Sony guidelines, absolutely any kind of external crack, scratch, snap or otherwise deformation or rupture of material is to be a paid fix by the customer. I guess how „pulling too hard” would be an appropriate explanation for just gently taking the product out of its supplied carrying case.

[Miccus]

As your story is about your friend, I'm assuming you don't actually own a
pair of these headphones and therefore have no actual experience to back up
your assertion that an assessment of physical must mean they were pulled
too hard. I can't tell you how irritating your comments are you don't know
what you're talking about I'm afraid.

[Pentium_Gladio]

According to Sony support, this is physical damage, which means that it will be an out of warranty service. You can check other options with the retailer for example, they might have other options.

[OlaBaystream]

 

 

Yep, exactly the same here.. Tiny 1mm thick piece of plastic shot off while removing them from my head, after that, another crack appeared at the bottom of the same part. All normal use, been treating these expensive headphones like porcelain babies.

Obviously both poor design and poor plastic quality. 

Outrageous that Sony won't own up to these obvious mistakes. 

Refund, or a bag of replacement parts, cause this is going to continue to happen. 

[Joe_Dohn]

Hi @OlaBaystream,

Have you tried reaching out to the Sony support reps?

- JD

[greggaton]

Thought I'd give a quick update on where I got to with this:

I emailed Sony Customer Services (SCS) to complain about the way I'd been treated by the Service Centre.  For good measure I copied in the heads of Sony Europe and Sony UK & Ireland.  

That didn't get a response so I chased after a couple of weeks.  Shortly after, I received a helpful email and phone call from someone in Sony's Consumer Relations Office.  They said they were the highest level of customer service and could sort out issues. They told me to sent the headphones in to the repair centre, and they would issue an instruction to look out for them.  They also said the repair centre would assess them free of charge, and do a free repair if they felt it was a product fault rather than physical damage.  

I sent them in a few weeks ago, and thankfully received the repaired headphones (with no charge) back a couple of days ago.  My damage was very slight - with only the narrow strip of plastic broken near the top of the adjuster - so maybe that persuaded them it was not a case of physical damage.

The email address for the Consumer Relations Office is cro.en@eu.sony.com .  I'd suggest giving them a try as they were much keener to resolve the issue for me if they could.

Good luck!

[HannahEd01]

Hi greggaton , thank you for sharing this helpful feedback, this is what I was saying guys, from experience (me and greggaton ) if the product wasn't physically damaged it should be repaired under warranty. And Vise versa. Good luck to all of you.

[BoutTime]

Same problem here. Both left and right sides. Couldn't work out what had happened at first. Very disappointing. Great headphones but very poor build quality and design.

[HannahEd01]

Hey BoutTime, there was an issue with many sets and Sony told customers to send their units for inspection, if it's a fault from them they will repair it under the warranty.