I'm going to follow this topic. It is always entertaining to see someone try to use a public forum to punish or get even with a big, national company. There is always a missing piece in the puzzle.

I've all but stopped buying from B&H. It used to be that I could save some sales tax in exchange for long shipping to the west coast. I'm now getting better delivery times and shipping prices from Amazon and WalMart!

What was the price you paid compared to the price in an Apple store at the time? Were the airpods deeply discounted?

You would think B&H would be above this kind of action. While in cameras, they do sell grey market alongside USA models they tell you when it is a USA accepted product and do not try to hide grey market goods. They usually show grey market goods as having a 1 year warranty through B&H rather than through Nikon or Canon. This truly surprises me, not that they sold a knock off item, but that they would market them as a genuine Apple product. Even more surprising is that they would not make good on a deceitful practice regardless when the product was purchased. This definitely is a black eye for B&H. If you purchased this product in good faith that it was genuine Apple product, how were you supposed to know it was a fake? Are we supposed to take every item we purchase from them to a dealer and get it certified genuine or not? This is something I would not sit still for and write the owner of the company a letter stating that you will not let this drop. You can find the names of the principals of the company by looking them up on Wikipedia. I would send letters to the president, CFO, COO, head buyer, and a cc to the better business bureau. There might even be legal troubles for a company that misrepresents product like that.

I'm going to follow this topic. It is always entertaining to see someone try to use a public forum to punish or get even with a big, national company. There is always a missing piece in the puzzle. For example, was it a "special deal" on a "gray market" version. (I think I've seen B&H do this with some lenses and they are clear to explain the reason for the low price.)

I've all but stopped buying from B&H. It used to be that I could save some sales tax in exchange for long shipping to the west coast. I'm now getting better delivery times and shipping prices from Amazon and WalMart! The last camera I bought was from Costco which has a 90 day satisfaction return guarantee.

What was the price you paid compared to the price in an Apple store at the time? Were the airpods deeply discounted?

I believe they were just released around that time and supplies were short. I order all my camera equipment from b and h so it would make sense to order from them if they had stock. In answer to your question do i think they as a corporation would comit fraud my answer is no. I’ve bought from them for 40 years and until now never had a problem. That’s quite a good track record. I’m just having trouble believing they sold me something as a legit Apple product that apple would not service now i feel cheated and that’s the problem.

Folks from some things I have read it is entirely possible that B&H was scammed by a distributor who sold them knock offs as genuine iPods and that was two years ago. The real Apple Products only have a one year warranty so you wouldn't get anything done for them either. The problem seems to be finding someone who will work on the knock offs. There are bound to be people who will repair things like that. But at the present time with the supply chain shortages, esp chips, parts may just not be available.

My personal opinion is we need to get back to US made products and components as much as possible. And of course other countries like Japan that we can count as friends and partners - not China who are at best a major rival and at worst an enemy.
There is one other thing I think you are missing. I paid for genuine apple airpod pros and received something that is obviously not as good. That’s the wrong that needs to be corrected. Possibly if I got the genuine product it might never have broken and I wouldn’t be looking to get them repaired in the first place.
I would rather pay a bit more for a US made product that has good support and is more durable than a cheap Chinese product. The only exception I can think of is something meant for "use once and discard" where quality and performance are not very important. I have bought cheap tools for a once in a lifetime repair and then given them away or to the metal recycler. But for tool types that are used regularly I buy good quality brands, maybe not what a pro who uses them daily would get, but fairly good quality. When I was a kid and spent time on my Grandparent's farm I used hand tools originally purchased generations ago (the farm was in the family since 1791).