[seantx]

I'm so mad right now I want to stick my head in a microwave.

I bought new HD580s from Amazon about 2 years ago. These were purchased new directly from Amazon and have been on a stand in my living room when not on my head. For whatever reason the headband cracked then eventually broke. Sucks but what do you do? These are great sounding headphones, I've been pleased with them in every way and want them fixed.

Setup a service request with Sennheiser and send them in along with payment for repair ($70 or so including return shipping). They estimate it will take 1-2 weeks for turn around. So far so good.

I call after two weeks. They say they are swamped and it would be another week or so. No big deal. I want them back but once again, what do you do? After another two weeks and not hearing anything from them I call this morning. The nice lady on the phone informed me there are no spare parts available for the HD580s and they can offer me a replacement pair of HD600s. Cool says I. Great says she then informs me that the courtesy replacement price is $299+shipping how would I like to pay.

What? That is so close to retail that it isn't even worth mentioning.

Bottom line is I got about 2 years of service from a $250+ set of cans. Based on what I've read and come to expect these things should have lasted a LONG time and gotten sweeter over the years with more use. I'll never know. I have several pair of cheap headphones that have been around for MUCH longer and have been used/abused like a Tijuana donkey (and about as tastefully) that are still going strong.

Sorry for the rant but this is just beyond frustrating. Guess I'll put these things on the exchange for "parts only" and use the proceeds on a pair of AKG 701s. I was a Sennheiser zealot but that is over as of today. (spit)

 

[nikongod]

1: Grow up. you bought something at the end of its product cycle. Sorry, not everyone maintains back stock on spare parts.

2: Did you think to ask them for a HD600 headband as an equivalent replacement for the 580?

3: The K701 are very very different from the HD580.

 

[K_19]

Yeah. You could easily purchase a HD600 or 650 headband, which IIRC will both fit without any problems (same goes with most other parts, I believe most parts are swappable between these three models).

 

[dcpoor]

akg usa has a pretty bad reputation for customer service/repairs in recent years. I look forward to a possible "AKG Customer (dis)Service" thread from you in the future.

in all seriousness though, try asking them for a hd600 or hd650 headband. if they won't do that, ask for your headphones back and a refund of the service charge and buy one yourself.

 

[seantx]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nikongod /img/forum/go_quote.gif 1: Grow up. you bought something at the end of its product cycle. Sorry, not everyone maintains back stock on spare parts. 2: Did you think to ask them for a HD600 headband as an equivalent replacement for the 580? 3: The K701 are very very different from the HD580.

1. I'm pi$$ed and on a rant. Leave me alone.

2. No. Can you (or anyone else) confirm the HD600 headband will fit the 580s? If so that is an acceptable fix.
3. I know. Have demo'd them and to my ear they are great but decidedly different. See #1.

Seriously, if the HD600 headband works, I'm not even concerned with looks really, it would be great.

 

[Timbre]

I know you didn't get the help you expected, but you can't paint the whole company
that way. I called them several times and the techs there spent about a half hour
looking at different plugs and discussing issues. He did mention that the company told
them that going forward that they can't spend as much time helping customers. In fact
I still didn't get what I wanted, but considering how much time they spent looking for
what I wanted that I can't feel unhappy. If you call back, ask to talk to one of the techs
and explain what happened and ask if the 600 headset will fit and hopefully you will
get the help you need. Sometimes you need to keep calling back until you get the
right people; it's like that in ANY company!

 

[tdockweiler]

This sounds about normal to me. The worst customer service incident I had was when I shipped a dead item back to a company under warranty and they voided my warranty due to "improper packaging"!! I felt like someone took $100 out of my wallet and stole it.

This same company even tries to "upsell" you to a newer model at checkout when you do a warranty claim, but then sells them to you at absolutely no discount. What a joke.

Luckily in the years i've been using headphones i've had almost zero break. I've owned dozens of headphones. I'm pretty lucky. I almost never store my Triple Fi 10 in it's case, so i'm surprised those are still around.

I did however have TWO pairs of Bose Triports break about five years ago. I normally don't care for Bose, but in my case their customer service/warranty service was amazing. All they needed was a number off my headphones and they sent a replacement pair. I think I ended up having to ship my broken headphones in their box they sent, but I don't remember. Of course, you're paying for this extra service.

I think despite having all this luck I might get an extended service plan/warranty for headphones whenever it's offered. It's cheap. I think newegg and now maybe B&H offer it, but i'm not sure.

BTW the best time to buy those are for when you get a TV. I spent a lot on the service plan and my 42" LCD died and they reimbursed me in full. They didn't even want to touch the TV! no joke. I just went into a store and bought a new TV. Of course this was back when a 42-46" LCD cost around $2500-$3000! Sorry..off topic.

 

[d.g]

Quote:

Originally Posted by seantx /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'm so mad right now I want to stick my head in a microwave. I bought new HD580s from Amazon about 2 years ago.

Isn't Sennheisers warranty 2 years as standard?

I would have thought they would have helped you out a bit here...

 

[seantx]

Next time I'm in Chicago you get beer and a pizza at Gino's East.

I called back and spoke with the same lady as before. She was, as before, very courteous and as helpful as she could be. I explained to her about the HD600 headband and the possibility of using it on the HD580s. She was eager to see if it was a workable solution and said she would call me back in 2-3 hours as everyone was at lunch.

She called back five minutes later and had the Service Manager on a conference call with us. He stated that yes it would work but of course it wouldn't look quite right. After assuring him that I just wanted the item to be serviceable and, within reason, didn't care what it looked like they agreed to install the HD600 headband free of charge.

Sooooo. I should have kept the conversation with them going earlier today and we probably could have come to an agreeable conclusion. Mea culpa.

Sennheiser is back in the good column and thanks to everyone on this great site for the suggestions.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Timbre /img/forum/go_quote.gif I know you didn't get the help you expected, but you can't paint the whole company that way. I called them several times and the techs there spent about a half hour looking at different plugs and discussing issues. He did mention that the company told them that going forward that they can't spend as much time helping customers. In fact I still didn't get what I wanted, but considering how much time they spent looking for what I wanted that I can't feel unhappy. If you call back, ask to talk to one of the techs and explain what happened and ask if the 600 headset will fit and hopefully you will get the help you need. Sometimes you need to keep calling back until you get the right people; it's like that in ANY company!

 

[MrGreen]

On a similar subject, in australia sennheiser distributors (syntec?) are denying the best store in the country to advertise HD600, HD650 and HD800 on their websites or forums simply because they have a website.

Awesome.