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.

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).

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.

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?

B&H may not have been aware that they were counterfit when they were originally sold, in fact may not have known till now. A large number of retail firms have been hit with counterfit products over the last few years, even the biggest (Amazon, Walmart and many many others, large and small). Will be interesting to see if they do something to help the situation, especially in the "public eye". I would not directly fault any of the sellers, this sort of thing usually is the result of bad characters in the middle of the supply chain, distributors who may have been unaware as well. Hopefully you will end up in a happy place. As many may realize now, the "supply chain" for all products is a long and winding road, sometimes a bit bumpy.....

I'd bet most major manufacturing and distribution companies have to deal with this more often than you would imagine.