Sony WHXB900N Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones (Grade A Refurbished)

I bought these headphones as a Christmas gift for my girlfriend last year. I wanted to get her a high quality pair of over-the-ear headphones since she is on Zoom most of the day for work. I had never bought Sony headphones before, but the reviews were fairly strong and seemed to justify the >$200 price tag. For the first 8 months, I thought I had made a good decision. My girlfriend loved the sound quality, and the noise cancellation and microphone quality were both pretty good. One day, when my girlfriend was putting on the headphones for work, the plastic piece connecting the right earpiece to the frame broke away from the rest of the headphones (see photos). I was surprised because my girlfriend took great care of the headphones and used them exactly as intended. I have owned cheaper over-the-ear headphones (Sennheiser) that have lasted me over 10 years without breaking, so I was not expecting a higher-end model to break after barely 8 months of normal use. Since the headphones broke within a year, I figured that the 1-year warranty would cover repair/replacement at least. Unfortunately this was not the case. When I looked more in-depth at the Amazon reviews for this product, I found that there were multiple other customers that experienced the same issue that occurred to my girlfriend's headphones (also breaking within a year in a similar way) and experienced terrible customer service without repair or replacement. My experience was very much in line with those customers and it completed eroded my confidence in Sony products and the company overall. Here are some of the lowlights: 1. Most Sony products are “covered” under a limited 1-year warranty. The warranty excludes physical damage, whether accidental or not. I spent a good amount of time arguing with Customer Service that the headphones falling apart in less than a year is not physical damage, but clearly a defect in material or workmanship, which is word for word from the Limited Warranty (“This Limited Warranty only covers product issues caused by defects in material or workmanship during ordinary consumer use.”) But customer service claimed it was physical damage and thus not covered under the warranty. By the way, they came to this conclusion without seeing a picture of the damaged product, despite me offering to send them pictures. It was almost as if customer service did not care about the underlying issue and was only looking to find some reason to invalidate the warranty… Based on all the exclusions they include in the Limited Warranty, it seems that the only purpose of Sony warranties is to give consumers the illusion that they are protected from quality control defects in Sony products, and then pulling out the rug from under consumers with their broad and vaguely-worded warranty exclusions that invalidate almost any product issue brought to their attention. 2. Customer service assured me that Sony implements rigorous quality control for their products. If this was an isolated incident, I could potentially believe that claim. But based on other reviewers having their headphones breaking within a year under normal use in the exact same way, this does not appear to be an isolated incident. Despite repeatedly asking customer service to pass on this issue to Sony’s headphone department, they seemed to sidestep this request and assure me that it was not a quality control issue. Although customer service never directly stated it was the user’s fault, if headphone quality is not at fault, they are implying it was user mishandling of the product, which I found both frustrating and insulting. Finally, after much insistence, customer service agreed to make a note for the headphone department. Whether that request was actually passed on or not, I will never know… Customer service did not offer me any opportunity for follow-up or any assurances that if a fault is found, they will reach out to me to honour the warranty. So I don’t have great confidence that my request will actually lead to an investigation or resolution of any kind. 3. Customer service made it virtually impossible to escalate the issue to a person of authority at Sony. From the first phone call, they actively discouraged me from escalating my issue, stating that the national Sony customer service phone line will tell me the same information that they told me (basically that I am out of luck). I was able to escalate the issue once, but then reached a dead end at the national customer service line. At least at that number, I reached someone that had the authority to offer me a “discount” for a new pair of Sony headphones. The first person I talked to offered to discount the price to $55 to buy a replacement pair of the same headphones. I was not satisfied with that offer, since my endgame was for them to refund/replace the product free of charge, but I would have considered the offer. Right after the customer service agent made the offer, the line disconnected and I could not get back in touch with the same agent. After waiting half hour for a callback from the agent (since they had called me in the first place and knew my number), I decided to call customer service again and ended up talking to a different person. After going through the same long-winded discussion with them, they offered me a 15% discount (which is just over $200) to buy the same or similar pair of headphones and couldn’t explain why the other customer service rep had offered me a much better deal. Needless to say, I did not take the offer. I can buy a good quality, longer lasting pair of headphones from another company for much cheaper, and not have to worry about a product warranty that covers nothing.. Before this experience, my impression of Sony was neutral/positive. I have owned a PS4 for 5 years and did not run into any big issues with that product, and never had to deal with Sony warranties or customer service. So if you don’t experience any issues with a Sony product, Sony may be fine for you. But after enduring a poor quality Sony product and an arguably worse customer service experience, I don’t want to buy a Sony product ever again until they improve their product quality, consumer protection policies and customer service. I hope this review helps at least one other person not make the same mistake that I did. On a related note, Sony is currently being sued in a class action lawsuit for consumer fraud and breaking warranties for defective PS5 controllers. Go figure. TLDR: Sony headphones broke after 8 months of normal use, which suggests poor quality/design. It was not an isolated incident as other product reviewers observed this same issue in less than a year. The limited warranty covers nothing since the headphones falling apart constitutes “physical damage” as opposed to a defective product. The customer service department cannot do much for you and only after escalating the issue will they be “generous” enough to give you a 15% discount to buy another pair of Sony headphones that will likely also break within a year. Avoid Sony headphones at all cost. More broadly, avoid Sony at all costs if they continue to offer poor quality products, tenuous warranties, and terrible customer service.