Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Auria, your customer service needs some serious help.

Dear Auria,

I am sad to say I am not a fan of your product, but even more, I am extremely disappointed in your customer service. 

The only reason I even have your product in my possession because my very adorable, sweet, and gullible mother bought them for me at an expo. It was the first time she was getting to see me run and she wanted to get me something special. I left her alone for 5 minutes and that was all it took. She had bought them and she was so proud of herself for getting me something that would make my running life more convenient, what was I supposed to do? Being that your product is not cheap, I felt bad and did not want to disappoint her because she was so excited.  

I wore them a handful of times at the gym and for 2 half marathons as a last resort. Of course, I wasn't pleasantly surprised. They continued to fall out of my ears and annoy me the entire race. For my 3rd half of trying to wear them, I noticed the right earbud had blown out. Now don't get me wrong, this happens to me alllll the time. But I'm also a New Yorker. My iPod is my sanctuary and headphones to me are like sunglasses; you buy the cheap ones because it's inevitable that they will break. But again, I only used your product a handful of times and kept them in a safe place, there was no evidence that I treated them like a normal pair. 

At the Rock-n-Roll Philly expo this weekend, I tried talking to your rep about maybe replacing them. I understand and respect your warranty, which is 6 months and I've had your product about that long. Your rep tested out my earbuds and agreed not only was the right earbud dead, but there was something funky going on with the plug. When I told him I got them in April, he rudely pronounced since it had been 7 months, which was clearly out of your warranty, he could offer me a "deal" of $20 for a new pair. I'm not sure where your rep went to school, but April to September is 5 months and very much within your warranty. When I told him I did not love the earbuds and didn't think they were worth another $20 (I didn't even bring up the fact that his math was wrong because I was in such shock at his rudeness), he became even more offensive and told me it was my fault, not the clearly malfunctioned product's. 

Now, if there needs to be an explanation for your earphones to fit correctly, I think you need to better train your reps to tell people that. I am sorry my mother wanted to surprise me with a gift and I did not get the full explanation about how to properly wear your headphones. I would have loved to wear your product correctly and rave about how amazing they were, but because your rep wanted to make a few extra bucks and make a customer feel uncomfortable, I can only say your malfunctioning product is not worth the cost and your company really needs to work on its customer service.

But don't worry, I went to FYE and bought some $12 Sony headphones to wear and guess what? They stayed in my ears the entire race. 

xoxo
Abby

PS- showing a video of people jumping up and down at an expo with your headphones in for 5 seconds is not the same thing as running a half or full marathon with them in. I'm pretty sure any runner can tell you that. 

3 comments:

  1. Dear Abby,

    I recently won some Auria earphones in a blogger giveaway. I have used them now in 2 races and they did stay in. This is not a letter where I sing their praises!

    I also have been using them during training. When I run in the summer heat I tend to sweat, as I imagine most runners do. Ever since a particularly hot, sweaty run my earphones do not work properly. To listen to music I have to actually start the iPod THEN plug in the headphones. And if I have multiple playlists my iPod gets a life of its own and randomly changes songs. The volume controller on the earphones does still work, but that's it. I can't change, start or stop my music with the fancy feature they advertised. This is all do to sweating and them getting damp. What would happen if I tried these during the winter and it was raining? I'm glad they were free. I like that I can control the volume with the cord. My joy stops there. When they completely fizzle I'll go back to my cheap ones that I've been using for 2 years and are still working.

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  2. Wow! What a miserable experience! I've never understood customer service people who don't, you know, put the customer first. Especially when they're asking for something totally reasonable.

    I hope you've forwarded this to them?

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  3. Fly, That's interesting you say that because I ran the Providence half in the rain with them and that was the last time I ran with them before the speaker blew.

    T, I definitely emailed this to them. I am waiting for a response and I would be happy to keep everyone updated.

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