I call bull on this -- the plastic halves of the earbud casings are ultrasonically sealed together; you have to break them apart to get at the guts (and IIRC th

I call bull on this -- the plastic halves of the earbud casings are ultrasonically sealed together; you have to break them apart to get at the guts (and IIRC the battery is also soldered in). Just look up the iFixit teardown; they're completely unrepairable. My bet is, they are just swapping them out with refurbs and writing off the loss against their AppleCare earnings.