Warranty Not Being Honored on Headphones from ebay C.O.W. - Any Ideas?

Waffles on 08/10/2019 - 12:14

I purchased headphones from https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/422297 late last year (so still within 12 months warranty)

For the last month or so they've been increasingly choppy in the audio. It seems to happen even when the phone is less than a meter away from the headphones.

I reached out to C.O.W. but got no response. Looks like they don't operate anymore.
I reached out to eBay - they refuse to do anything (not surprising). Their solution was to just wait forever until the seller responded or (presumably) my warranty expired. I get that they aren't the seller but they're making a decent amount of money given they take zero responsiblity or offer any support.

I contacted Sony who agreed there was a fault, but didn't recognise C.O.W. as a legitimate reseller.

Per the first comment in the post, someone said they'd had an issue with exactly this. I took the response from smoo7h at face value and, to be honest, didn't really think it would be an issue for an australian company to get a return anyway for warranty.

The question I guess now is there anything I can do? PITA to lose $228 when 3 companies were involved and none are inclined to help.

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Comments

  • [Deactivated] on 08/10/2019 - 12:22
    +1

    Grey import - Sony Australia would be in serious breach of contract with their distributors if they were to step in.

    The only avenue you can pursue with a grey import is with the seller themselves. In many cases, the sellers aren't in Australia so that may be futile. Worse still is if the seller is insolvent.

    You may be able to squeeze something out of eBay if they have some kind of buyer protection.

  • BertieBrown on 08/10/2019 - 12:23

    What was Sony’s exact wording to you re; illegitimate seller?

    • whooah1979 on 08/10/2019 - 12:36
      +1

      Unauthorised resellers can't claim repairs from the local manufacturer.

    • Waffles on 08/10/2019 - 12:36

      To be honest it sounded more like they hadn't heard of them. They didn't ask for ABN or anything they simply said something along the lines of "the only ebay sellers you should buy from are like Sony Ebay" and suggested I should have bought it from somewhere like "Harvey Norman"

      • djkelly69 on 08/10/2019 - 12:56
        +1

        Pretty sure the ACL says you can pursue retailer or manufacturer for warranty claims, so maybe just tell Sony they were a gift or something? Unless they are claiming they are grey imports, they (Sony in Australia) are the manufacturer so are responsible.

        Also the COW rep/employee that posted in the thread you linked was on here 2 hours ago, so maybe try them as well?

        • Waffles on 08/10/2019 - 13:17

          Sony didn't refer to grey import once. I've just PMed the COW employee and mentioned this thread. Thanks!

        • dizzle on 08/10/2019 - 14:12
          +3

          If they are not an authorised reseller then Sony did not sell the product to them. Whether they are grey import or purchased from another reseller they are on-selling goods and therefore Manufacturers warranty does not necessarily apply. The manufacturer may choose to honor it, but that's up to them.

          From the ACCC website:

          Exceptions to the consumer guarantees
          The consumer guarantees do not apply to goods or services costing more than $40 000 that are normally used for business purposes (for example, installing industrial air conditioning to a factory premises).

          Additional exceptions apply in some circumstances. These include:

          goods bought from one-off sales by private sellers, such as a private garage sale or school fetes
          goods purchased at a traditional auction
          goods purchased to be resold or transformed into a product that is on-sold
          services for transportation or storage of business goods, or
          fitness for purpose of professional services provided by a qualified architect or engineer.

  • Kaz0551 on 08/10/2019 - 13:06
    +5

    From COW website

    Manufacturer’s Warranty

    All our goods are official local Australian stock. Warranty will be covered both by the local Australian manufacturers and by us. If the manufacturer’s warranty is one year, we automatically extend this to two years free of charge. During the standard manufacturer’s warranty, you can either contact the manufacturer or contact us to handle all repairs. In the second year, and if it is out of manufacturer’s warranty, you can contact us to handle all repairs thereafter.

    • Waffles on 08/10/2019 - 20:49

      Awesome, if they reply via any of the means I've used

  • Sunny84 on 08/10/2019 - 14:24
    +1

    Have you asked sm007h who is the C.O.W. rep?

    sm007h
    Member Since
    29/11/2012
    Last Seen
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    Location
    Sydney
    Website
    www.crazyorwhat.com.au

    • Baysew on 08/10/2019 - 14:36

      They seemed to be quite vocal on original deal post -

      lovbargain on 04/12/2018 - 10:33

      be aware COW's sony headphones might not be Sony AU stock. I bought one from COW which developed issue, however Sony AU refused to repair.

      (Employee) sm007h on 04/12/2018 - 12:27

      What??? Our stock is all Aussie stock, if there was an issue from Sony repair centre you could have contacted us and we would have sent an email to Sony head office to verify the stock. There should not be any issues with the stock whatsoever!
      NOTE: I have direct accesss to Sony, so I can email the product head of headphones to verify that our Sony products are all official Australian stock. Please PM me if you have this issue with the Sony repair centre.
      DOUBLE NOTE: In all our eBay listings, we have placed "OFFICIAL AUSTRALIAN STOCK" at the start of the description. If there are any issues with our products, you can do a eBay or PayPal dispute.

      • Waffles on 08/10/2019 - 14:46

        In my mind I figured even if Sony did have issues with warranty I'd go with C.O.W. to get them resolved anyway. Usually I find manufacturers are more difficult with warranties than retailers anyway. I'd also say through from this response it's fair to assume that there shouldn't be an issue either way.

    • Waffles on 08/10/2019 - 14:44

      Yes, per an above comment I did try that.

      • Sunny84 on 08/10/2019 - 15:21

        What did the rep sm007h say?

        • Waffles on 08/10/2019 - 16:10

          They have not yet answered eBay messages, emails or ozbargain messaging.

  • [Deactivated] on 08/10/2019 - 20:25

    How thorough have you been in determining the headphones to be faulty? Just curious.

    Have you tried not only connecting to another device, but also away from main place used?

    Some odd interference and glitchiness possible in wireless realm, especially in 2.4GHz band and not just wi-fi.

    Example: I have one particular bluetooth speaker, fraction-of-second dropouts maybe once/twice per minute, connected to one device, no other issues with any other's. Device mentioned fine with all other headphones/speakers kicking around the house and fair few of those at this point.

    Maybe you or your neighbour has a bluetooth tap-controller in the garden? It may be seeking to connect with your headphones, to make sure that you've washed behind your ears??
    :)

    Best of luck with warranty service if actually required.

    • Waffles on 08/10/2019 - 20:48
      +1

      I've tried same headphones on a different device (still issue). Different headphones on same device (no issue). I've activated 'priority on stable connection' through the app. Sony declared it faulty. Though the Sony take was happy enough to declare it faulty.

      It seems to be mostly in busy areas. So may indicate a 2.4ghz saturation. Particularly if I cover my phone with a hand it'll just cut in and out. But anecdotally it's getting worse.

      It's typically when I'm walking around.

      In any case I feel that if headphones can't maintain a connection when my phone is in a pocket with audio from local (as opposed to streamed) music then it's not really fit for purpose.

      • thebadmachine on 09/10/2019 - 20:08

        This may be obvious but try ‘forget’ the headphones from BT settings on all devices you paired it with.
        Then perform a hard-reset on the device (look online for how to).

        Then pair it with your main device again and see if there is any improvement.

  • Waffles on 04/11/2019 - 09:49

    For people who want closure on the anecdote:

    The C.O.W. rep finally got in touch and again insisted they were an authorised reseller. While I was a bit disappointed they took so long to reply they were helpful and said to call Sony back and insist and also get a case number so they could follow it up with head office.

    When I called back with more certrainty Sony sent me a form email to provide invoice and purchase info. I told the C.O.W. rep who said to pursue that first but they'd follow up if they needed to.

    A week went by with nothing so I called Sony who said they had "just processed it today" and would email me in a couple of days.

    Too many days after that I reached out again and the person I spoke to said they couldn't fix the headphones so they'd just send out a new pair and to await tracking info. No email and 2 days later a courier arrived with a new pair of Rose Gold headphones.. I had black ones before :(

    I had to contact Sony so many times and wait on the line but I guess I'm now up a pair of headphones I hate the look of?

    My thoughts:

    Ebay offer so little support, compared to places like Amazon who always seem to just get things done. I don't think I'll ever purchase from ebay unless 1. it's under $5 or 2. It's from a big name store like TGG where you can contact them more directly.

    Sony support was awful. The online chat doesn't have a queue so you have to keep clicking "open chat" and hoping you can get a spot. The phone always took at least 10 minutes of on hold. They told me the wrong info at the start and then kept on not following up when they promised they would. Though, to be fair, in the end they did just sent new headphones. It's just disappointing they're such a gross colour. I did contact them about it and they said I can send them back but I'm just sick of it and don't want to wait any longer for headphones that work.

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