Kudos to Bose

If you have read some of the previous blogs, you will know that in an attempt to drown out my heavy panting and wheezing, I feel the need to wear some sort of headphones and crank up the music loud.  I tried multiple earbuds, some with wires and some without.  Noise cancellation and not.  I broke several sets of them... apparently if you sweat profusely while you are panting, you can drown your earbuds and they don't seem to like that.  So, I finally decided to go with a set of earbuds that are designed to get wet -- made for sports.  I chose Bose, because I was very happy with my noise cancellation set until I killed them.  Of course I was using them "off label", so it is hard to blame them.  I found the Bose SoundSport  and purchased them at Best Buy.




As you can see above, they were $150, but I thought it important enough to buy them anyway.  They operated well right out of the box.  Paired nicely and easily to my phone.  Kept a charge for about 4 hours of continuous use or 3- 4 runs depending on the length of the run.  he sound quality was great, as you might expect from Bose.  I could take phone calls with them also.  They fit well in my ears and stayed in there nicely and comfortably.  They charged quickly... about an hour.  Worked great -- until they did not work at all.  I had them for three months and they simply quit working.  They did not turn on.  They did not hold or accept a charge.  DEAD.  Awesome!!

I figured I could just take them back to Best Buy.  After all, I had a digital receipt on my phone.  Easy, right?  Well, I missed the return by date -- BY ONE DAY!  So, I thought I was out $150 and that was the end of that, but -- THE REASON FOR THIS BLOG POST  -- in case some of you did not want to read any of the rest (of the fluff :)) -- is that Bose showed great customer service.

I called Bose and gave the serial number off of the ear piece.  She said, "I am so very sorry that you are having difficulty!  Please accept our apology and allow us to replace your headphones.  All we ask you to do is take your existing headphones and mail them back to us using the UPS return label that I am sending to your email address right now."

I printed the email, placed the headphones in a box and sent them to Bose.  Two days later, I got an email that stated that my product had been shipped and was on the way.  One day later, I received a brand new set of Bose SoundSport wireless headphones.  EASY!! SIMPLE!!  DONE!!

They had not yet even received my return yet.  But sent me the replacement any way.  No questions asked.  No problems.  I was very impressed.  I thought good customer service was dead.  Not at Bose, apparently.

I ran yesterday with my new headphones.  They worked great.

I can forgive the fact that the set that I purchased originally broke.  Things happen.  Nothing is perfect.  No business gets it right 100% of the time.  There will always be minor issues and sometimes major issues.  It is an inevitability.  The difference maker is the company that makes it right.  Don't make excuses or find a loop hole, just make it right.  Don't make it hard, just make it right.  In my estimation, this is the difference maker in a company that will survive or not.  But, it is simply my opinion. Carry on.