Disappointed with Ear 1 quality and Customer Support

Nothing_533

TLDR: No service support for out of warranty product from Nothing.

Really sad to write this post but I feel, being an early member, investor and an avid advocate of Nothing products with friends and family, I need to highlight the challenges I faced as a customer.

Bought Nothing ear(1) a few weeks after launch in early Sept 2021. But that one failed within 1.5 months of usage. But got a replacement under warranty, more details in old thread: https://nothing.community/d/1043-issue-fixed/93
Exactly a week after the 12 months warranty was over, in mid Sept 2022, I noticed the volume of the Right ear bud is slightly less as compared to left one. It felt like volume was at 90% in right bud in comparison to the left one. After few days it slowly started decreasing further and to a point that right ear bud is around 50% now. Anyone who tried the ear(1) in home, confirmed the same that yeah right ear bud volume is very low.
Contacted nothing customer care. The tech support executive requested me to visit the nearest Service Center. As the nearest service center is far from my home, I requested if a courier pickup can be arranged, I am okay with paying the charges or if I can courier it myself. He said as it’s out of warranty I have to go to service center.
So today, on my only holiday, I went to service center after an hour of driving. This is a shared Service Center supporting multiple brands( I counted 7: JBL, Nokia, Boat, Noise, Ptron, Flex and Nothing). So, obviously it was very crowded. Waited for 130 mins for my turn. Within 10 seconds got a response, Oh this is out of warranty we don’t service these for Nothing brand! I said there might be some misunderstanding, Nothing customer support requested me to visit the service center. No one was ready to talk or listen to me, they just wanted me out of that place. Finally after struggling for 45 mins, I was able to get hold of the service center manager, he said it’s Nothing company policy so we can’t do anything. I said but I was requested to visit service center. Manager spoke with couple of guys, I think one of them was from Nothing. Manager said please call customer service again and ask them to say the same thing.
So I called again Nothing customer service, explained everything about how I called earlier and now I am at service center. No one is willing to have a look at my device and half of my Saturday is already gone in this back and forth. Can you please speak with them as this is a registered service center mentioned on your website. Then came the biggest shock. She said, as the product is out of warranty i.e. 12 months, NOTHING can be done from our end! I was confused, so again checked because exactly opposite was said by other customer support executive few days back. I was not ready to believe that Nothing policy is to throw the device once it’s out of warranty. Such premium product can’t just have a shelf life of 12 months. I have multiple buds at home with family members from different brands, all of them are 2 to 4 years old and way cheaper than ear(1), but still working fine. So requested her, can you please email me what she is saying, as I am hearing this for the first time for any brand that service center won’t entertain you if your product is out of warranty.
And indeed I got an email within 5 mins. I’ll let the email screenshot speak for itself:
Somehow, I still don’t believe that Nothing will do this to their customer for an year old product. Technically, this ear(1) is only 11 months old as my original one was replaced after 1.5 months. Now I am not sure what more I can do, I have tried customer support few times. Visited service center and spent more than 6 hours for someone to have a look at my ear(1) and provide support.
The worst part is, if this is actually the policy and I have to just throw my ear(1) after warranty is over and they have some issues. I am really disappointed, not because I lost my money. More because I literally forced my family, friends and office colleagues to buy ear(1)s. Atleast 6 have bought these after my strong recommendation. Not sure now what I’ll tell them 😐

20thwin

The same happened to me. They gave me a replacement which was faulty. When I went to the service center again, they said it was out of warranty and we cannot help. The funny part is I got the replacement in Sept 2022, while my bill was for July 2021. The new replacement was faulty too. This is a horrendous experience.

preethamyellamelli6568

20thwin same thing happened to me! Such a waste of money for trusting this company

MohdIsmail

Hey @Rudi i wants to ask that if ear 1 will be out of warranty they can be repaired or not. I think was thinking if they can be repaired then why service centre guys did not repaired the ear 1. Or if they cannot be repaired please tell the reason why they cannot get repaired.

Nothing_533

Adding @manu and @MeghaVishwanath . Will appreciate your inputs.

manu

Hey, the ear (1) comes with one year warranty and we replace the affected part within warranty period and we don’t repair parts. Reach out to our support team if you need any further information.

Nothing_533

Thanks for the reply Manu.

Two ear(1)'s died within 13 months for me. As an investor hoping I am the unlucky one. But time will tell, next 6 months more and more ear(1) will be out of warranty. Let’s see how ear(1) survive the test of time for quality.
Takeaway is to throw ear(1) in dustbin post 12 months if you face any issues. Ideally as a company which compares itself with Apple in all the product presentations, we should have better standards for service and repairs. Customer should have an option to pay and atleast get a single ear bud replaced. Like in my scenario, case and left ear bud is working fine. I will be totally happy to pay to just get right ear bud to be repaired or replaced at a nominal cost.

manu

We are working on addressing this, share your number, and we will give you a solution.

20thwin

manu I am facing the same problem.

manu

Share your contact on private message please, we will resolve it.

tanzsanks

manu

I faced this issue today, Bought my first pair on November 2021 (Diwali sale), used them for a while. My right earbud got problems and stopped charging so I went to the Malviya Nagar, Delhi Service Center to get them repaired. Rather than repairing them, they replaced them. Now I am facing the same issue.

Today I visited my nearest Nothing store hoping to get some solution to these. I was told they they’ll be replaced and I’ll be given ear 2 by paying 4k plus replacement and was asked to wait as the serial no. on the original bill and buds did not match. I told them it was replaced once, they checked and yes, they were replaced but they could not find the entire call-in log of the device, they asked someone to get a report on these buds, once recieved they told me that these buds are refurbished so we cannot replace them, Why was I given refurbished buds when they had to be clearly replaced and why can’t they be changed to ear 2 when I’m ready to pay 4k over the buds. Kindly help me resolve this issue.

Waiting for your response.

KushagraChaudhary

I know i am a bit late on the thread, but i am facing a similar issue, where i first got replaced earphones under warranty, and just about 8 months since that, both of the buds’ back cover(where you find the touch controls), started seperating on its own, showed it to the service centre, but they were soo reluctant to even listen to me,

As a DIY, i put thin rubber bands on them,

One day, suddenly, one of the buds stopped working, Left one.

Then, contacted the customer care, and they too said the same thing, well, TBH, being one of the early birds myself, i am a bit disappointed on Nothing’s after sales,

The buds are really great in sound, and all i want is to use them again, as they were, GREAT !!

Please, provide me with some support on my product!!