Complaint Review: earbanger earphones - Lake Elsinore California

Back in October, 2013, my mother and I went to the Arizona State Fair. With a bit of effort on my part, I convinced her to walk with me into the vendors section to see what we might run into. We both love audio electronics & ended up stumbling upon a company called "Earbangers". They had roughly 3 tables full of various electronic gadgets mostly related to earphones, cellphones, speakers & USB devices. Pretty much all of their earphones were on display & most of the display units sounded great.... After trying out a couple models, we ended up purchasing some items, among which was a set of their top-of-the-line earphones made with "African Ebony" wood. They included another cheaper set for free (the EB "Gold Bullet" models), & I couldn't be happier (for now)...

After getting home from a long day at the fair, I tried out the top-of-the-line "African Ebony" earphones on & they sounded AMAZING, just like the ones on display at the booth. Crystal clear highs, solid mids & deep/solid bass. In contrast, I tried the included free "Gold Bullet" set & was immediately disappointed. Both channels sounded distorted when playing the same music at the same volume (as well as any volume below or above that volume). It was almost as if someone had just blasted them until the drivers blew. At this point, I realized that I was not happy with the free set & decided that I would like to take them back to exchange them for a working set.

Moms schedule was busy, so it took about a week for us to make it back up to the fair to do the exchange (mind you, we had to pay to get back in, so it was like we were paying to exchange them). We got there, explained the situation & they gave us another set (the EB "black bullet" model). Naturally I tried them out, & while neither driver was blown/distorted, the sound on this model is a night/day difference from the top-of-the-line model. I'm talking non-existent highs, muddy mids & no lows whatsoever. But in the end, I chalked it up as a loss. They were free & I was just glad I had the "African Ebony" set that sounded great.

After about 2 months of light use at home, I started to experience issues with the top-of-the-line "African Ebony" set. I began to notice the back wooden section hanging loose from the other section, & this was happening on BOTH sides. Bear in mind, I BABY my electronic equipment, so this was baffling to me. I didn't have any super glue & didn't want to mess anything up so I just dealt with it for a day or so. The next thing I knew, the sound shorted out on the left channel. I examined it & realized the cable is so thin/weak that it just de-soldered itself (& once that happens you really can't fix it because of the layout & how THIN the wires are). Reluctantly, I accepted the fact that the top-of-the-line earphones had failed me after only 2 months & I contacted the company to inquire about replacing them.

The owner himself responded to my email not with an empathetic apology but with excuses. He simply stated "that there is a glue issue. The glue loosened up. Metal and wood don't always bond perfectly". RED FLAG: If you already know this, why would you continue to make a product & SELL it to unsuspecting customers when you know good & well that it CLEARLY has a KNOWN design flaw??? Anyhow, he then advised me to ship them out to them with a copy of my receipt & they would happily send me another set of earphones (another model ["Abrams new set"] that was presumably a "new" improvement over the ones that failed). I emailed him back to confirm if "Abrams new set" would include the microphone for calls (just as the "African Ebony" set did) & he never replied to the email. To my dismay, things only went downhill from there.

First off, my mother & I had to FIGHT to get "receipts" when we made our purchases as the booth acted like giving the customer a receipt was completely unheard of... They basically emailed the receipts, & the formatting is so horrible that you literally waste about 10 pages in the event that you ever need to print out one of them. After using up half my printer ink & nearly all of my remaining printer paper, I spent extra money shipping the faulty earphones to the company's California location via USPS Priority Mail & they got there in roughly 2 days.

Nearly a WEEK after delivery, I get an email from the owner saying my replacement set is on the way. Mind you, i've been without my earphones for this entire time, & the cheaper set I had was not cutting it. To my dismay, I saw that he shipped out the replacements via FIRST CLASS MAIL, & (as I expected) they took forever to arrive. The earphones finally arrived, & to my surprise, they shipped what appeared to be the exact same model that I had before (after the owner stated he would be sending me a new model)... As mentioned, if you know there's a design flaw, why keep designing them the same way & then replace the failed earphones with the same exact model??? Anyhow, I tried them on & was immediately disappointed.

As soon as I tried them on, I took note of the sound quality: Non-existent highs, muddy mids & no lows whatsoever. WAIT A MINUTE, that sounds familiar... Is this a dream??? I was baffled as to how a replacement of the same exact model I had before could sound so bad compared to the 1st ones that sounded great... Nonetheless, I put my thinking cap on & drew my own conclusion. Somehow/someway, this company tries to "cut corners" & pull a "fast one" on unsuspecting customers. Rewinding the tape, I realized that they did it by giving me a "free" set that was faulty & sounded like complete garbage... Then they did it again when they sent me what appeared to be the same model I had before, but was REALLY the "shell" of the top-of-the-line set filled with the drivers from one of their cheaper sets... The most insulting part of this is the fact that I was supposed to be too stupid to notice this. I was supposed to put them in my ears & not immediately recognize the night & day difference in sound. Well guys, I noticed, & that’s why you're reading what you're reading right now.

I am not writing this report to bash the company or run their name through the mud... I am writing this report to simply state that there is a trend in the United States that involves making as much money as possible off the customer while at the same time "cutting corners" to save as much money as possible on your end (even if it means lying to the customer & selling them faulty &/or fictitious products). If you want to save money for your company, there are ethical ways to go about it. But when you knowingly sell your customer a product that has a known design flaw, you're making the customer the victim. When the customer has an issue with a product, they spend their own money to quickly send it to you for exchange & you send the replacement via the slowest possible mailing service, you're making the customer the victim. Last but not least, when you take the guts from your lowest quality product & place it inside of the shell of your "top-of-the-line" product just to keep a bit more money in your own pocket, you're making the customer the victim... In the end, when you make it a habit of making the customer the victim in this manner, you're a selfish SCAM artist & prospective customers need to be aware of this before becoming your next victim.

Some might have had different experiences that mine in dealing with "earbangers", & you might end up seeing some posts from those customers here or elsewhere. I'm glad things might have worked out for them, but my experience was definitely not pleasant, & I wanted to share it here so that this can hopefully prevent someone else from being tricked into having their time/money wasted. I will never buy anything from this company again & wish to God that I had never done so in the 1st place. Had I been able to read a review like this before purchasing, I never would have darkened the table at their booth, much less spent over $100 of my hard-earned cash there. Mind you, I didn't pay full price, & the price at their website is a disgusting/sad JOKE after seeing how low quality their products are. So if anything, consider this report as nothing more than an honest effort to do for someone else what I wish someone had done for me: Earbanger products are of low quality, they don't last, the company is DISHONEST about their products (even when replacing them) & in the end no customer deserves to deal with any of the above. BUYER BEWARE/YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED