Crappy Bose Customer Service (In India!) - My experience with Triport IE!

[sids911]

All.

My wifey gifted me Bose's Triport IE Headphones on our anniversary, knowing that I was looking for decent headphones. It was a surprise gift for me on that day. She dint know that I was *almost* going to order Mylarones the next day.

Anyways, I got the Triports and to my pleasant surprise, they werent half bad as I thought they would be, even with the characteristic Bose bass warmth.
But they certainly werent worth 5200 INR that my wifey paid.

Anyways, my major grouse is the earbuds that Bose provides. The Bose Triport IE (flawed) design dictates that they are not supposed to be inserted in your ear canal. They just sit over the bowl of your ear, just a little shy of ear canal.
The problem with this design is that they fall out of your ear every once in a while when you are doing some physical activity (like washing a car for example!)

Over there in US, Bose has rectified this issue with providing Headphone stability kit free of cost to the customers. This kit included a lanyard with neck cord, wire clip, an angled plug and redesigned silicone tips.

When I asked about this kit to Bose Customer support, they mentioned they would get back to me about the stability kit and the silicone tips were on chargeable basis.

I reminded them about this after a few weeks, then I wrote a strong mail citing lax support for not even replying back. On this, they replied after a few days, that the stability kit was complementary ONLY for US customers and same wasnt available for Indians.

I am quite surprised to hear this. I shudder to think what happens to Bose customers who are charged the moon for their lifestyle products and then would not be provided necessary upgrades that ONLY US customers enjoy.

Its not that we pay less anyway!

For the kind of money they charge, stay away. You have much better options in the market WITHOUT their hyped yet flawed designs.

[tsk1979]

Boss is well known for making products not worth the money.
Guess in India they throw in shoddy service along with it.

[Nikhilb2008]

This isnt shoddy service.

I dislike present Bose products as much as most audiophiles (though I am not one ), but the title is very misleading.

The policy of Bose India might be not to give the stability kit complimentary. This policy is stupid. But in no way related to Customer Service.

[tsk1979]

Its shoddy service. The product has a defect which is acknowledged by the company in its home country(due to fear of law suits), but yet they refuse to rectify a known defect free of cost.
This shows the attitude of the management towards customers in this country

[bottle]

try contacting bose usa and provide feedback. might be that it will filter down to india

[greenhorn]

I was once part of a group buy for Creative EP 630's a year ago. I talked a female colleague out of buying a pair of bose triports and into the EP 630's. Her hubby asked her to thank me personally for managing to talk her out of buying bose

[sammyboy]

That surely is horrible service. I mean do the US customers have a different set of ears that it was specially designed and given to them and not to Indians?
This reeks of "second grade service for Indians only" kind of tag

[NetfreakBombay]

Originally Posted by sammyboy

This reeks of "second grade service for Indians only" kind of tag

And this is a company founded by an Indian.

[sandeepmdas]

Nikhilb, imagine you order a meal from a Dabba, and you want him to put a pinch of salt in a dish, and this guy is asking you to pay extra for that. What would be yor reaction?

[given2fly]

So did you say that they will go to court for selling such crappy products & not backing them.

PS : OT, but try out Ultimate Ears as an option for replacement (They are customizing on-stage solutions for bands like U2, Incubus, RHCP, Linkin Park, etc). I am using Super.Fi3 Studio. They are far better than anything in ear-canal available in Indian Markets though bass is a little low. I will recommend Super.Fi Pro5 (EB if you like bass). They are as good as competing Shure. Another excellent option is Denon AH-C551K In-Ear Headphone.

[sids911]

Originally Posted by Nikhilb2008

This isnt shoddy service.

I dislike present Bose products as much as most audiophiles (though I am not one ), but the title is very misleading.

The policy of Bose India might be not to give the stability kit complimentary. This policy is stupid. But in no way related to Customer Service.

There are actually two parts of this story;
1. Flatly denying Indian customers what they deserve (Ever heard of country specific recalls for widely acknowledged problem?).
2. Very very lax and late response for customer queries ( If I were to show you the time that they took to respond my mails, you would be shocked).

This I call Shoddy service. You cant expect this in this day and age. Not from Bose not from Ahuja.

[given2fly]

Again, when I bought my ear plugs, I did get the following peace of mind which is rare in consumer electronics goods like an earphone. But this following statements says about the confidence that a small comapny like Ultimate Ears shows. They even cover the cables (detachable on higher ends) wherever it is necessary.

"UE Consumer, LLC (the “Company”) warrants this super.fi™ product (the “Product”) against defects in material or workmanship in the Product’s earphone external shell or in its earphone internal components for a period of two (2) years from the date of original retail purchase. f this Product is determined to be defective during the warranty period, the Company will, at its sole option, (1) repair the defective Product at no charge, using new or refurbished replacement parts, (2) exchange the defective Product with a Company product that is new or that has been manufactured from new or serviceable used parts and that is at least functionally equivalent to the original Product, or (3) refund the original purchase price paid by you for the Product. When a Product or part thereof is exchanged, any replacement item becomes your property and the replaced item becomes the Company’s property."

I am one happy customer of theirs and would recommend this product to anyone who is looking for it.

Disclaimer : I neither work for them nor do I have commercial interest in this. Just an overwhelmed & happy customer of UE.