John Lewis/Apple refusing repair of AirPods after they caught fire

[BrickSeal]

Hoping for some advice!

I bought some AirPods from John Lewis in March this year from John Lewis. They came with a 2 year Apple warranty and another 1 year from John Lewis.

Recently, I was charging them, with a cable that I had used regularly for other devices, and I happened to notice they were very very hot. So hot that they burnt me when I picked them up and they melted the charger into them and it was smoking.

I contacted John Lewis who said they would send them to Apple for repair but a few days later I got a message to say the port was damaged due to corrosion damage and not covered by the warranty and I’d have to pay £63 to fix them. As a small aside note, they did say one of the AirPods was broken and would fix FOC. They reckon it’s due to a faulty plug but how can they or I prove either way?

I am so confused on where I stand. The charger has been fine with other devices and the AirPods don’t come with an official cable so I couldn’t have used anything else. I’ve looked after them and I’m gutted that they’re not going repair them when it should be covered - what’s the point in having a warranty?!

I’d really appreciate any advice by anyone who’s been in a similar situation!

The damage was almost certainly caused by a faulty charging plug and/or cable. If it was an Apple plug or cable then they will repair. If not this is the consequence of using cheap sub standard products.

Different charger cables put out different amounts of electrical current, so if you used a cable from a laptop (that takes more power) then this could overload the AirPods.

I am afraid if they are saying the port was damaged then you've not got a leg to stand on really. Either the cable damaged the port or something else got into the port

Was it an apple certified charger? If not then I fear you are not covered.

It wasn’t an Apple charging port - it was an Anker one (which I thought was ok!)
Lesson learned! Thank you all for your responses, really appreciate it!

How did they know you didnt use an apple charger?

I think them not selling them with chargers then punishing you for not using the charger ridiculous

You could try contacting Anker if you have confirmation from Apple their engineers consider it was damage caused to the charging port by the charger. If you knew that as a slam dunk then there’s a good argument they’re liable. However, proving it was a faulty charger won’t be straight forward (they could say they don’t know if it was an issue with the port or a surge that did it, for example) and getting them to pay out on the AirPods is very highly unlikely to happen - worth a go to see if you at least get the cost of the charger back, though.