Bose Quiet Comfort 3 headphone charger not working?

A few years back i was travelling a lot for business and the Bose Quiet Comfort 3 seemed like a great idea for inflight use due to its noise cancelling effects (it radically reduces the aircraft noise). Having purchased them, i proceeded to change job, and wasn't travelling anymore so in the draw they went. Now they get taken out for holiday trips about once a year. Recently i went to charge the battery using the supplied charger and i noticed the light wasn't coming up showing it was charging. Now i knew it wasn't the battery because i'd used the headphones the night before and they worked, but the light on flashed on the headphone indicating that the battery was low.

 I proceeded to try to narrow the issue down. This charger uses swappable plugs to suit various worldwide standards used. I swapped the plugs but still no light indicating a charge was being applied…

.. A closer inspection of the charger showed one of the pins was stiff and no longer had a spring to it. The next day i rang Bose customer service and was disappointed to learn that the part was past its two year warrenty. Having explained that i hadn't used them much and thought Bose should at least offer me a management discount on a replacement (they want £44 for a new charger!) i was surprised to hear that Bose is completely inflexible to its warrenty. It appears to believe that two years i more than enough. I told them that they had lost a customer and i would no longer be purchasing Bose in the future since now i know how they feel about their customers and that i payed too much for a product that breaks so quickly (i probably changed the plug 10 times in total).  

So Bose has abandoned me.. and now i'm on my own. What are my options? 

1) Fork out £25 for an official Bose replacement charger (yes you can find them new on Amazon for £25, so Bose are even daring to charge 56% more. Thats crazy customer service.

2) Buy a knockoff version from ebay for £15 (two pin model)

3) Fit it myself

Not having anything to loose i started with 3) - and guess what? - it worked flawlessly. The good news too? - You don't have to open the charger. What did i need?

1) some kitchen aluminium foil
2) some scissors

What did i do?
Step 1) Cut two small strips of aluminium - they don't have to be pretty. 
Step 2) inserted those into the grooves of the plug to compensate for any contact issues.
Step 3) Plugged the plug into the charger
Step 4) Saw the light Glow = Success!!!

So now i have to say that working with electricity can be dangerous and you should always be aware of the dangers involved. Any adjustment to the designed operation of the Bose plug should be monitored for excess heat, of which i found none. Also having made this adjustment i will never let it charge when i'm out of the house. Just as an added precaution. But its working, and i don't foresee any problems with this solution so i for one am happy, no thanks to Bose.



Comments

  1. I had a similar problem which cost me 40 pounds to figure out... for ages the battery charger when plugged in would show a red light for 2seconds and then not show a light. The battery wasn’t charging. Naturally I thought the battery was dead as its about 8 years old... so I bought a new one for 40 pounds. When this also didn’t charge... sane thing... red light turns off... I realised it must be the charger. Upon very close inspection I noticed the tiny 3 charging pins in the charger that connects to the battery were a little bit bent... a slight adjustment with a screwdriver and guess what... it works fine !!!
    I wish I kept the box for the new battery... but on the bright side... I’ve got a spare battery now for verrrry long trips.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Very good written article. It will be useful to anybody who usess it, as well as myself. Keep doing what you are doing for sure i will check out more posts.
    apple watch bands Australia

    ReplyDelete
  3. When you say the grooves of the plug the photo does not show where! Probably being dense! Please show a photo.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular Posts