Problem with EarPods

[Sister Owl]

Hi everyone!
I have an unusual issue and need some advice and opinion.

I live in Ukraine. For some unclear reason Apple doesn't sell iPhones in my country. But I wanted no other smartphone, so I bought an iPhone in Paris, at Opera Apple store. The thing itself was fine, worked (and still does) OK, no issues with it whatsoever. But I forgot to check the EarPods:-( Besides, I didn't attach any importance to the headset because usually included headphones are garbage. When I returned home, I tried the EarPods out of curiosity, and it turned out, it is an OK headset! I mean they are fairly usable and convenient, worked fine with all my iThings.
But it also turned out, mine was broken, bad jack.

I tried to replace them, but there's no Apple store in Ukraine. Reseller won't replace them because they don't sell iPhones, and official service center won't replace them either because I don't have some warranty paper thing that only Ukrainian reseller can give (at Paris Apple store they gave me the receipt only), but the reseller won't give me the warranty thing because, again, they don't sell iPhones.
I won't be visiting Paris in near future.

So, my question is this:
What should I do to get the bad headset replaced?
Maybe I should write to Apple directly? Or, my friend soon will be visiting Barcelona, maybe if there's an Apple store there, they could swap the headset? (I have the receipt for my iPhone).

Thanks!

 

[maflynn]

Just buy a pair of regular earpods, there are much better products out on the market then what apple gives you.

 

[Sister Owl]

Well, I already have a couple of good headsets, it's just that I feel a little pity these are broken Thanks

 

[ross1998]

Well, I already have a couple of good headsets, it's just that I feel a little pity these are broken Thanks

Maybe the resselers sell the earpods by them self? In US stores like radioshack have apple earpods for 30 dollars

 

[Sister Owl]

They are good as included headphones, but I'm not sure if they are worth 55 dollars the Ukrainian resellers sell them for. They do cost $35 on the black market, but I decided to try to do something about the ones I already have first.

 

[darster]

Just curious, and a bit off topic. I will travelling to Europe this summer, including parts of eastern Europe. Do they have microsim cards in Ukraine, or did you have to cut a sim card to fit the iphone?

 

[Sister Owl]

Just curious, and a bit off topic. I will travelling to Europe this summer, including parts of eastern Europe. Do they have microsim cards in Ukraine, or did you have to cut a sim card to fit the iphone?

In Russia, there are microsims and nanosims from any carrier, AFAIK (but you may have to go to carrier's office to get the smaller sim, I'm not sure). In Ukraine, only one carrier offers microsim cards and nobody offers nanosims, so I had to cut sims for my iPad mini and iPhone with scissors It's very easily done so in any case you should not worry about size of a sim-card.

 

[darster]

In Russia, there are microsims and nanosims from any carrier, AFAIK (but you may have to go to carrier's office to get the smaller sim, I'm not sure). In Ukraine, only one carrier offers microsim cards and nobody offers nanosims, so I had to cut sims for my iPad mini and iPhone with scissors It's very easily done so in any case you should not worry about size of a sim-card.

Thanks!

 

[larzy]

Have you tried looking at Apples support page? I once had my earphones replaced by Apple. Even though we don't have an official Apple store in Denmark (though Apple retailers). They sent a new pair, as well as a return envelope with prepaid UPS shipping.

 

[Sister Owl]

Have you tried looking at Apples support page? I once had my earphones replaced by Apple. Even though we don't have an official Apple store in Denmark (though Apple retailers). They sent a new pair, as well as a return envelope with prepaid UPS shipping.

Thanks for idea! Unfortunately it didn't work. As they told me, the earphones need to be sent to France to repairs, but they don't accept international shipping Then some Senior Advisor came and told me that they cannot help me and I should contact Russian or Polish support (Apple doesn't even have Ukrainian website, and no Ukraine in their list of support contacts, so I contacted US support). Russian and Polish support don't have web chat, it's phone only. I definitely won't be calling there, I think it's useless and will cost probably even more than the darn EarPods.
Apple doesn't care about Ukraine Totally understandable. Not very pleasant experience though.

 

[lordofthereef]

I wouldn't go as far as saying that Apple doesn't care about Ukraine. The fact of the matter is that setting up shop in a country requires a whole bunch of legal junk. I would suspect that since they don't have an official presence in Ukraine, their hands are (legally) tied. I know that even warranties between countries are handled by the country you bought the phone in (ie I buy my phone in the states, visit the UK and need warranty replacement, they will ship a phone from the states to the UK and ship my broken unit back to the states).

In any case, all this effort for a pair of $30 headphones that, by your own admission, aren't very good and you already own better? We got my wife's iPhone 5 used and the guy forgot to throw the earpods in the box. He offered to meet me again the following day, but I told him they weren't worth the fuel it would cost for me to come back (it was only like ten miles lol); he can keep them.

 

[Sister Owl]

Well, I think you're right. I know it's difficult to do business in this country (I mean, many tried and failed, like Ikea and others), so it's not all Apple's fault I guess.
Thank you guys for help!