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I always wonder with "gates" like this: how many people (what percentage) are affected? For example, I never had an issue ever with my AirPods Pro since I boug

I always wonder with "gates" like this: how many people (what percentage) are affected? For example, I never had an issue ever with my AirPods Pro since I bought them six months ago. Does that make me the outlier? Or is it just that 1% have issues, but they are very vocal about it (for understanable reasons)?

richman777 6y ago
It took a bit down to get to someone like me too. Have had no issues since day one and now I'm going to be insanely critical of them.
mvkel 6y ago
I’m curious too. I bought the pros when they came out. While the water resistance continues to be terrible, I haven’t had audio issues
noir_lord 6y ago
Disatisfied people tend to be more vocal. Something I learnt many years ago when I worked in sales was that a happy customer might tell one or two people but a pissed off one will tell everybody. That said it doesn't negate the underlying issue if it's a real one.
- dx034 6y ago
  A Reason why Apple is affected relatively often is the huge volumes of products they ship. No other manufacturer ships that many identical phones and probably no one has shipped that many identical headphones over such a short time frame. Even a problem affecting only 0.01% has a sizeable number of affected customers if you ship 100 million devices. If you only ship 1 million, that same problem is much less likely to find public support. Apple already has good quality control (my opinion) but to reach the same level of public complains as other companies, they need to be several magnitudes better.
  - miahi 6y ago
    There is also the expectation of quality, given the branding, price and the presentation. If a $50 pair of headphones break, it's not a big deal. If a $300 pair of headphones break (repeatedly, it seems), you start to talk about it.
  - mqus 6y ago
    This would be an explanation if most people wouldn't report that the replacement had the same issues, which points more to an engineering problem than a 0.01% rate.
  - pmontra 6y ago
    Quality is a broad concept. Warranties are probably more about durability and cost of replacement. Two manufacturers giving the same period of warranty (no matter how long and no matter the number of items they sell) probably expect the same failure rate or service costs as % of their margin. The functionality can be much different though.
usaphp 6y ago
Apple sold over 60 millions AirPods. Even if 0.01% is affected - thats 6,000 negative complaints for you. The page that is linked to the post has about 200 quoted complaints.
- mstibbard 6y ago
  Most people won't post about it though. I had this exact issue (replaced the left airpod 2 weeks ago) but hadn't posted about it. Until this post, anyway!
  - sbuk 6y ago
    Significantly more won’t post about their product working as expected.
vijucat 6y ago
FYI: > How Widespread is This? > It seems this is very widespread. Just a quick internet search turns up tons of people having the same issue. Sadly, most people think it is specific to them, that they've done something wrong, or they're waiting for a firmware update to see if that fixes it. See https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/airpods-pro-rattlegate.2233658/ https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/airpods-pro-rattlegate....
- jmull 6y ago
  That doesn’t really answer the question. They’ve sold tens of millions so a rare and obscure problem is going to turn up tons of people. I’m sure there’s something going on, but it’s very hard to tell how widespread it is. Apple knows, but won’t tell world. If they start an out-of-warranty replacement program, that will be a hint.
CubsFan1060 6y ago
Happened to me... twice. Both time Apple replaced them quickly with no fuss.

richman777 6y ago

It took a bit down to get to someone like me too. Have had no issues since day one and now I'm going to be insanely critical of them.

mvkel 6y ago

I’m curious too. I bought the pros when they came out. While the water resistance continues to be terrible, I haven’t had audio issues

noir_lord 6y ago

Disatisfied people tend to be more vocal. Something I learnt many years ago when I worked in sales was that a happy customer might tell one or two people but a pissed off one will tell everybody. That said it doesn't negate the underlying issue if it's a real one.

dx034 6y ago
A Reason why Apple is affected relatively often is the huge volumes of products they ship. No other manufacturer ships that many identical phones and probably no one has shipped that many identical headphones over such a short time frame. Even a problem affecting only 0.01% has a sizeable number of affected customers if you ship 100 million devices. If you only ship 1 million, that same problem is much less likely to find public support. Apple already has good quality control (my opinion) but to reach the same level of public complains as other companies, they need to be several magnitudes better.
- miahi 6y ago
  There is also the expectation of quality, given the branding, price and the presentation. If a $50 pair of headphones break, it's not a big deal. If a $300 pair of headphones break (repeatedly, it seems), you start to talk about it.
- mqus 6y ago
  This would be an explanation if most people wouldn't report that the replacement had the same issues, which points more to an engineering problem than a 0.01% rate.
- pmontra 6y ago
  Quality is a broad concept. Warranties are probably more about durability and cost of replacement. Two manufacturers giving the same period of warranty (no matter how long and no matter the number of items they sell) probably expect the same failure rate or service costs as % of their margin. The functionality can be much different though.

usaphp 6y ago

Apple sold over 60 millions AirPods. Even if 0.01% is affected - thats 6,000 negative complaints for you. The page that is linked to the post has about 200 quoted complaints.

mstibbard 6y ago
Most people won't post about it though. I had this exact issue (replaced the left airpod 2 weeks ago) but hadn't posted about it. Until this post, anyway!
- sbuk 6y ago
  Significantly more won’t post about their product working as expected.

vijucat 6y ago

FYI: > How Widespread is This? > It seems this is very widespread. Just a quick internet search turns up tons of people having the same issue. Sadly, most people think it is specific to them, that they've done something wrong, or they're waiting for a firmware update to see if that fixes it. See https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/airpods-pro-rattlegate.2233658/ https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/airpods-pro-rattlegate....

jmull 6y ago
That doesn’t really answer the question. They’ve sold tens of millions so a rare and obscure problem is going to turn up tons of people. I’m sure there’s something going on, but it’s very hard to tell how widespread it is. Apple knows, but won’t tell world. If they start an out-of-warranty replacement program, that will be a hint.

CubsFan1060 6y ago

Happened to me... twice. Both time Apple replaced them quickly with no fuss.