So here we are in 2025 and already we have two of the most respected and expensive brands in Bluetooth being revealed as questionable. First, of course, things kick in with the Pi8’s that I brought up. Their battery life drain issues are all over Reddit and yet they act like they are unaware and better yet take no responsibility for the issues nor are willing to send you a replacement for them. They spend all their time trying to discourage you from pushing for a replacement at all costs. They don’t care that the product is $399. They don’t care that you have had their product for less than 6 months and there are already multiple people reporting that something is wrong. They have your money and the product is out of the door. As far as they are concerned, it’s most likely that you did something wrong, bought it from an unapproved location, or anything else they can come up with to avoid taking responsibility.
Well, fast forward to today, and what do we have? Yet another company that overcharges for their product based on their name, Bang and Olufsen. Their latest overpriced earphones, the B&O Play Eleven earphones have been said by their company to be the very best and in quality. It is way their products are $500, they claim. And to justify this claim, they even say that their product, unlike all others out there, has a replaceable battery. So no more just throwing your earphones out the door and into the trash because the battery finally stops charging. No, their product will last you for years because the battery can be replaced when it fades out.
The problem is, they forgot to tell you two things. One, if you were to attempt to change out the battery, you wouldn’t find a way to do so without being a tech who knew out to take the earphones apart. And the biggest thing they forgot to tell the public, while claiming that they had our backs is that the battery isn’t actually replaceable as they claim. So when a consumer hears things like replaceable batteries, we think this means that within reasonable abilities, we the customers should be able to accomplish this. We believe this will save us the time and waiting period to ship something to the manufacturer and wait for it to be fixed and shipped back. Not the other way around. It’s very misleading indeed. And even though this was put into place to meet the EU laws for the “right to fix”, it doesn’t. In fact ifixit site said this…
“These earbuds are so unrepairable, in fact, we don’t even think they’ll meet the upcoming 2027 EU Battery Regulation”
Once again, this is a shame. Companies like Bang and Olufsen and Bowers and Wilkins have some of the most expensive earphones and headphones on the market today. And yet, we don’t get the service we should from them nor the truth. Companies need to be held responsible for these things and not just excused and supported by the fans no matter what they do simply because you believe something expensive, should be put on a pedestal. In fact, companies like this should have a much harder scale of grade because they charge the most. It’s like the more expensive they are the less they are held to the same standards as everyone else is. We deserve better from these companies, or we should seriously reconsider buying their products.
Tech-N-Things 