My experience with pretty much any consumer company is the opposite? They generally help out.

Random example: I had an expensive Sonos speaker just the other week that broke in a move across the Atlantic. Sonos support helped for nearly an hour trying reset options, then gave me a 30% discount coupon for any product, even though the speaker was long out of warranty.

How did they help? Your expensive speaker is still broken. All they accomplished is making it likely to get another direct sale. Anybody can get a 20% discount on almost any Sonos product by buying it retail instead of direct.

> Your expensive speaker is still broken.

Well, they didn't break it. Why should it be their responsibility to replace something they didn't break for free?

Now if the product was defective or something, sure, but this is asking way too much.

I wasn't asking for anything. I wouldn't expect much help from Sonos, and, indeed, and the OP got what I'd expect.

If pressed, I'd wish at least an aspiring boutique manufacturer like Sonos would make service manuals and replacement parts available. But again, I wouldn't expect them to do that unless they were forced to. (And it may not have been viable or cost effective for the OP in any event.)

I don't think the expectation is to do it for free, but it sure would be nice if companies could repair their expensive products for less than the cost of a new system.

Modern electronics is just planned obsolescence + replacement.

It's really hit or miss, and kind of depends on the product category, and the manufacturer. Sonos has an uphill battle convincing people to even think about an option other than AirPods. Some manufacturers will give their support reps tremendous freedom to just send free shit out for positive word of mouth.

Apple is in no need of positive word of mouth, and in fact thrives despite a very vocal subset of consumers that are adamantly against anything Apple does (sometimes rightly, sometimes wrongly).

That is, Sonos has to work to keep you a customer, but plenty of Apple customers will just buy Apple no matter what.

I don't think Sonos really cares either. Their shuffle has been broken forever (you simply can't shuffle a playlist on Google Assistant), my Roams frequently randomly disconnect, they tried to alienate half their userbase with the S2 update and only changed their tune with massive outcry, the desktop app auto-update doesn't work on Mac... I can go on and on. I tried to report these issues to support, and then to their beta community, and every single thing I reported was ignored for years. Shrug.

I really like their hardware but their software is so bad it's making me want to quit their ecosystem altogether. Their support is bad too.

I dunno, I own nearly like a third or half of Sonos's product line, and have had numerous software and UI problems with them. Their support has never been very helpful and I just gave up. Giving you 30% off an expensive new product isn't really the same as just repairing it...

Maybe, but I know that Google or Samsung don't care about me. There has never been any pretence that Hoover give much more than a Walmart greeter level of concern for you, Microsoft would throw you under a bus for an extra cent.

Americans seem to think that Apple really cares about them and not just in a way to extract as much as possible from your wallet.

Apple would throw you under an Airbus...

In Europe you’d be covered under consumer protection laws.

I have no idea how a case like this would play out in the US. But it certainly feels like something that should be illegal.

Of course it's not legal. OP's property was damaged by store staff.

Also, in the US there's implied merchantability warranties, and most people have no idea it exists. If your expensive high quality headphones die a week after the one year warranty ends, implied merchantabilty still applies, because people expect headphones to last several years if treated appropriately.

OP needs to go back to the Apple store and say "I came in with a working airpod and case, and left with nothing working. Please make this right."

If they refuse, say "my next stop is small claims court for your staff damaging my property."

They'll just shrug at you and say okay.

In the US nothing happens. We only protect our rich people, not our consumers

A climbing equipment company (camp) replaced a carabiner free of charge for damage I had caused to it due to my own fault.

It's a few bucks of aluminum, but they've guaranteed more loyalty than they already had.

Actually, that's a good point... outdoor companies tend to be great at that!

Patagonia repaired/replaced damaged clothing for me, Yakima and Specialized sent me free parts, NiteRider fixed a bike light, ReeLight sent me a replacement from overseas, Osprey replaced a backpack after my dog chewed it up... all for free.

Maybe it's just electronics companies that's bad at this stuff