WH-1000xm3

[high52kojak]

So the headband on both sides of my xm3's has cracked, which can and has resulted in the headband coming away from the body, and exposing the wires, very easy to break, not good!  The very thin plastic has cracked in normal use, I am by no means heavy handed with them.  It looks to be a design flaw in this area.  Why Sony uses such thin and weak plastic in this area?

Sony also refuse to look at this matter as it doesn't fall under warranty as it's "cosmetic damage"!?  No way.

This is not what I expect from a £300 pair of high end headphones.

Should have stuck to Bose. 

[EdwinaU]

Hi there,

Welcome to the community.

You could look into the repairs service as another option. If you decide to the information is here.

Best wishes,

Ed

[Skylark001]

Thank you for warning other owners of this weakness.

[The_Black_Rose]

Hi High52kojak,

That's very unusual. I have tested the headphones that my friend owns before and they seemed perfect. I've also heard positive feedback about them.

Have you tried sending them in to Sony to inspect them?

Cheers,
The_Black_Rose

[Burgey69]

Exactly the same issue with mine, only 6 months old.

Took them back to john Lewis and they sent them off to Sony who said that it didn't fall under the guarantee and would cost £85 to repair! 

[Burgey69]

£85 is for one side

[X45721]

Hi,

I have had the same issue, in exactly the same place on both sides of the headphones.  If you look on the US Sony Community site there are users also reporting exactly the same problem, which suggests to me that this is a design fault or a manufacturing issue.

I'd only had the headphones for 6 months when I experienced the issue.  I am always very careful with the headphones and I only use them for a couple of hours a day on the train and always put them back in the carry case.  

I sent the headphones to Sony and I was also told that they will not fix this under warranty as it is physical damage.  I agree it is physical damage, but in my view it was due to poor design or a manufacturing issue and NOT as a result of mis-use by me.

I have had one conversation with someone in the US Community who had the same issue and did get their headphones replaced so there is hope but I can't recommend these to others and based on Sony's response I will not be buying their products in future.  

[high52kojak]

It's crazy isn't it.

I understand that issues arise in design and manufacture, it happens. But the way Sony are ignoring this problem is not good, they shouldn't just ignore it and say it's damage and not covered by warranty.  It's clearly a design flaw.

Poor customer service reflects very badly on a company. 

I've always rated Sony but after this issue I won't be buying anything else from them. 

[X45721]

I am currently getting about 2 messages a week from people reporting the same problem on the US community site, so there is increasing evidence that this is a common problem.

[BogdanM13]

This is absolutely incredible, everyone is having this problem in the exact same spot of the product and Sony is just trying to throw it under the rug!

I have encountered the same exact issue described here - https://community.sony.ro/t5/portable-audio/wh-1000xm3-headband-cracked-while-stored-in-carrying-cas...

And a lot of other people do!

I have contacted Sony support in my country by phone, email and website ticket but everyone is telling me it´s damage I caused and I need to pay 90+ EUR for the fix. Sony Support is outsourced through a company called SYKES and they are bragging what a good financial gain they help Sony with in their reports - https://www.sykes.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/sonypresentation.pdf

These outsourced call center agents and email representatives DO NOT work for Sony and they refuse to pass the issue to actual SONY people. It´s incredible that these topics have so many people complaining and Sony tries to tell us there´s no problem with the product and to pay for the repairs out of warranty in their overpriced service centers with overpriced parts!