Sony WH-1000XM4 warranty evasion (are Sony headphones waterproof and can they be used for sport?)

I've recently bought a pair of Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones at £350 which includes noise cancelling and are excellent for working in café and other busy environments.

During Coronavirus lockdown it made sense to use these headphones for exercise whilst trapped in the house. Within 6 months the headphones weren't charging properly and a few weeks later completely failed.

I raised a warranty call with Sony and was pretty annoyed such a high value pair of headphones had failed so soon, but since they were only 8 months old and under warranty at least I'd get them repaired.

Wrong.

Having sent them back to the Sony repair centre SONYUKTEC in Pencoed, Wales I waited a while and was finally told that the unit had failed because of water damage. I was quite surprised as they'd never been outside the house except for a flight and then they were in the case the whole time outdoors. I told them I'd only used them indoors for work and exercise during lockdown.

They pointed out that Sony headphones weren't supported for exercise:

"...if you use the headphones during exercising (outside or inside, doesn´t matter), they will most probably get damaged"

And that by using them for exercise I'd "misused" the product and voided my warranty! Not only that, the headphones can't be repaired and were going in the bin.

Surely that can't be right.... as a consumer I think using headphones for exercise is a pretty reasonable expectation, and also that given the environmental concerns with waste Sony wouldn't make headphones that just get binned after 8 months....

I messaged Sony presales and Sony Centres directly to check if this was true, as you can see both stated that the units can be used for sport. Clearly this is a win - either Sony sales are illegally misselling the product by providing misleading information, or the warranty department was trying to illegally evade the warranty, either way I'd get a refund...





Wrong.

Sony admitted they were in fact providing misleading information but didn't really care. The headphones can't come in to contact with water (the small print says even touching the headphones with damp hands can break them), and any kind of dust will also cause catastrophic failure.

They told me I could go ahead take legal action if I wanted but they weren't going to discuss the matter any further.

Pretty poor show from Sony. You have been warned - use Sony headphones for exercise and you'll likely be out of pocket a few hundred quid.


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