Not great & "hassle free warranty" not hassle free
I really wanted to love these ear buds. The features Soundcore offers are awesome, especially the ability to customize controls, so was really hopeful the these would be a good replacement for my favorite earbuds of all time, the Soundcore A3i. Unfortunately, the A3i is discontinued & the A40 seemed like the closest replacement. Shipping was crazy fast and they were on a super great sale, but they were buggy right out of the box. Bluetooth randomly cuts out, sometimes completely disconnects, but sometimes stays connected with no audio playing. I tried all the troubleshooting tips with no success, so contacted Soundcore. Because they are less than a week old, I expected a "quick & hassle free" solution, probably just a simple return & refund. Customer service answered my email right away, which was great. They submitted a request for them to be sent back, which was approved, and then said I would need to send the old pair back to be evaluated and then they would decide if a new pair would be sent to me. This doesn't seem very hassle free to me, especially on a defective item. I asked for a straight up return & refund, which was politely denied, which seems like BS to me. So, basically Soundcore has my money, and I have no earbuds after they are sent back & then I'm at their mercy for a replacement. I also don't love some of the features of the A40 that I would have ignored if they worked well. There is no way to power the ear buds on and off unless they are put back in the case. In the past, a long press has always worked to power on or power off the earbuds directly, which is handy, especially when they loose connection like mine have been doing,,so you have to carry the case around in order to reset them. I don't like that, and I also don't love the touch control on these in general. The battery life is also about half what they claimed, even with ANC off, which is also annoying. Maybe this is also a problem because mine are defective, but still annoying. Overall, I'm disappointed with both the earbuds and Soundcore's response. I also just purchased the Sleep A30. Hopefully I have better luck there
