1/5

posted Jul-25-2011

I am warning you, DO NOT PURCHASE ANYTHING FROM EAR PLUG SUPERSTORE !!! At least NOT custom ear phones or custom molded tips. Check out epinions website for more unsatisfied customers. EAR PLUG SUPERSTORE WILL NOT uphold their policy. Here it is, directly from their website :

Our return policy for custom fitted ear plugs and ear molds is for fit only, not for function. If the custom fitted plugs or molds do not fit properly on the first try, we will remake them at no charge if you send us another set of impressions, but we cannot refund your money. In this manner, fit is guaranteed for 90 days from the date of purchase.
I am a musician and audio engineer and I love listening to music at the gym. I emailed EAR PLUG SUPERSTORE about getting CUSTOM EAR PHONES. They did not tell me that they could send me a kit for free to make the molds, so I assumed that I had to go to an audiologist to have them professionally made. This is what I did when I had my custom ear PLUGS made several years ago by a different company. The cost of having the audiologist make the molds was $50. The cost of the CUSTOM EAR PHONES was close to $200.

The CUSTOM EAR PHONES they sent me fit poorly, sounded like garbage and had a ton of noise if I used them with my iphone (no noise with ipod). Those would have to be re-made regardless of the sound quality issue since the fit was all wrong. I asked if I could get CUSTOM EAR TIPS to use for my Etymotic ear phones and they said they would do that, but not refund the difference (the TIPS were cheaper than EAR PHONES which had electronics in them). I was fine with that because ultimately I wanted to have excellent sounding and fitting ear phones. And it was a better deal for them since it would be cheaper to make.

This time I used one of their home kits and made the molds myself. I sent them the molds and I was told they looked great. A few weeks later they sent me the TIPS that attach to my ear phones. One of them was uncomfortable after about 20 minutes and the other one did not SEAL shut. If you are familiar with ear phones designed to seal into your ear canal, you know that if you don't have a seal, you lose all of the bass response. It completely defeats the purpose of the ear phone design. Try this, put on your ipod ear phones on in a noisy environment and as you are listening, cup the palms of your hands over your ears and press against your head gently. WOW, sounds MUCH better, right? You've blocked out the noise while increasing the definition and bass response of the music.

EAR PLUG SUPERSTORE was very polite and helpful and willing to make a new set. After all, they will remake them at no charge according to their website. They told me they were committed to getting it right. I used their home kit again and a few weeks later I received my 2nd set of ear phone TIPS. These had the same problem except that the one that sealed would painfully pop unsealed if I moved my head too far in one direction.

At this point, EAR PLUG SUPERSTORE told me that I should go to an audiologist to have the molds made. Since I had already done this and paid for it myself, I asked if they were going to pay for me to go to an EAR PLUG SUPERSTORE approved audiologist. They were not affiliated with ANY audiologists and were not willing to pay for me to go to anyone. I didn't see the point in ME paying to go to an audiologist when I had already done that and the molds were no good.

Several months had gone by and I had completely lost confidence in EAR PLUG SUPERSTORE, so I politely asked for a refund - that's when everything changed. Not only were they not going to give me a refund, they were completely ignoring my emails. I asked that my situation be moved up to higher management, I wanted to speak to the owner, nothing. If they didn't want to give me a refund, then they needed to send me another kit, but they refused. So basically, if your custom ear tips or ear phones or ear plugs don't fit well the first time, you better hope they get it right the second time. And whatever you do, DON'T ask for a refund. I had to call them and give them a fake name to get to Tammy, one of the people I was dealing with. Why did I do that, I asked her? Well because they were IGNORING MY EMAILS, of course. SO UNPROFESSIONAL!!!! So Tammy tells me that that they would NOT make any more tips and that she would send me ONE pair of the crappy tips they had already made. So I had to choose between a pair that didn't seal or a pair that was irritating after 20 minutes do to a bad fit. OH, and don't forget that painful pop that would occur if I moved my head. Awesome!

Since I have a job and things to do, I don't have time and it would not be worth it to sue EAR PLUG SUPERSTORE. However, fortunately I have downtime at that job and I am more than willing to spend an hour typing up this review to post on as many review websites as I can. I have never reviewed a product before, but I do rely on the reviews online. If one person reads this and chooses not to do business with EAR PLUG SUPERSTORE, then my time was well spent. What was not well spent was every dime EAR PLUG SUPERSTORE received from me so I could have a pair of "custom" ear phone tips that completely suck.

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