Saturn refuses warranty for MP3 player headphones

Hi.
The headphones of my Philips MP3 player were broken and I went back to Saturn for replacement/repair (I received the headphones in the same box with my MP3 player).

They replaced my original Philips headphone with an unknown (made "under the table") brand. They said that the law in Germany does not provide warranty to accessories.

The very next day, the headphones got broken (the same problem as the original one: the jack connector).

Is true what Saturn is saying? There is not warranty for accessories in Germany?

it is not true. All products are covered by the manufacturers warranty, the law does not make exceptions (obviously "Verbrauchsmaterialien" won't be covered by any warranty) They should have offered to repair or replace the headphones.

What isn't covered of course, is accidental damage. How exactly did the headphone get broken?

They did replace the headphones


There is no problem with the MP3 player, so why should they replace it.. Go buy yourself some decent replacement headphones.

It is possible that it is considered Verschleiss (wear-and-tear) and that is indeed not covered under warranty. I often have my headphones break in that way, and I know it has nothing to do with the headphones and everything to do with how I treat them (for example, you are not supposed to wrap them around the MP3 player).

The headphone were looking exactly as new. I didn't used the player so much because I have more than one.
The problem was (probably) a broken wire inside the jack.
If you moved the jack in random directions, it worked... sometimes.


Hello!!!
They were Philips headphones!
If Philips is not "decent" then what do you call "decent"?
NASA headphones?

I choose that player because it had the headphones included (they were advertised as very good phones with extra-bass) and because was brand name (well, this didn't help me much).
So, I paid for those headphones, why should I pay again.

Because if you don't, you won't get any new headphones.

You could try stuffing them under your pillow to see if the Headphone Fairy brings you new ones, but I think that's unlikely. More productively, you could try talking to a manager at Saturn. They might know more about the policy than a lot of people who don't work there.

I doubt that headphones sold in the box with an MP3 player would count as consumables ("Verschleissteile"), but I don't know for sure. I would think it more likely that Saturn can optionally replace them with another model of the same quality, and it's up to you to agree to that or not.

Personally I've had very good experience with Saturn's returns policy (Neuhauser Str. branch), though I've never tried in English. Maybe you should try again with a different person and if they refuse, say you want to exchange the whole package, either for cash, credit note or simply another one.

Edit: A broken jack connector isn't that common a problem with new headphones, I take it you've tried them with other audio sources to rule out the MP3 player socket being dodgy? It's much more common for the socket to come away from the circuit board, albeit less so than a decade or two ago.

Yes. I tried them with another pair of head phones (also Philips) but the big ones, not the ones you fit in your years.
Also, I hocked the player to the amplifier.

Philips sucks, Saturn sucks.