These Apple Earpods appear to be fakes. I ordered three of them which I received today and all of them sound noticeably worse than ones I’ve previously purchased or received bundled with old iPhones.
You can actually physically see that they don’t match official Earpods because they lack the second bass port slit at the bottom of the stems, which all my old and recent official Earpods have and are pictured in all listings of Earpods on Woot and Amazon.
If it weren’t for the absent bass stem slit I wouldn’t have known for sure. Did anyone else receive Earpods like these?
They should be authentic but they’re not retail versions. If you’re unhappy with them reach out to Woot! Customer Service. To speed things up, let them know if you prefer a return/refund or a replacement (if possible).
Please allow 24-48h for them to respond.
Browser: Use the Woot! Customer Service form.
Woot! App: Choose Account from the bottom navigation and then Support.
Self-Return: Items without Li-Ion batteries can be self-returned within 30 days. Go to your Order Details to get started. The return label will be emailed from UPS.
Note: Woot! Customer Service replies go to the email address on your Woot! account, not your Amazon login email if used/different.
I understood that they wouldn’t be retail when I ordered them, but I have had non-retail Earpods in bulk packaging and I’ve never had them missing bass ports. Even the picture of the bulk packaging Earpods on this website has them, but mine do not. I uploaded an image to show what I’m talking about.
Earpods I received
https://imgur.com/a/Vv4jYc1
Product image
https://imgur.com/a/6O8y8KN
Thank you. That helps. I’ll send a note to our buyer to review this.
Is this resolved? Should I trust that they are genuine Apple products?
Considering that I sent the email at 1am this morning, no.
Just received mine, I can confirm they are fake, not made by Apple at all. Not just the packaging is low quality, but the earbuds are not the same as my official apple ones either
Yeah, I mean also of note is that the packaging was dirty, as you can see in the picture I posted, especially the plastic sleeves that are meant to hold the plastic shell shut and one of my cases was cracked. I first just attributed most of this to being old warehouse stock, but it really is kind of gross. I can also tell the cable quality is a bit lower and there are other minor differences from authentic Earpods you can’t really photograph.
They do seem like pretty close counterfeits, but I hadn’t even imagined Woot now being owned by Amazon that something like this could happen. What happens to all of the people who may have unknowingly purchased counterfeit products now?
It’s been a week, have you heard back from the buyer? I bought two of these back in March. Mine have the bass slit. I tested my bass slit, covering vs uncovering, they sounded noticeably different. So, I probably got genuine earpods.
I would like to know if there is any update.
Sorry you got fakes but thanks for posting so others will know. I bought one in March, and the sound was great. Good wired earbuds are getting harder to find, so I came back in April and bought a 3 pack that I put away for backup. They are all still in their packaging. I just checked and all have the bass slits. I would have never thought to check for them. Good catch! 
Good to know that it’s not everyone, though I did get three sets of fakes so there may be a fair amount of more recent orders that got them.
Were the ones from March also just the plastic shell without the retail box?
I did get a refund for the fakes, but I would like to know when and how the issue with the fake ones has been sorted out so I can reorder them with more confidence.
No box, but there’s a clear wrap around piece of cellophane like stuff with a pull tab. The tab starts where the arrow is. The ends are open. I can remove it by sliding it off to the side to get in the case and carefully slide it back on.
First of all, thank you for alerting us of the fakes.
Both of mine came with no retail white cardboard box. The plastic case has the apple logo impression on the back. The bass slit worked. I tested mine by covering and uncovering the hole. The difference was noticeable. I also shone a flashlight through the earpods and no lights can be seen on the other side. The plastic is thick enough to not let lights pass through. My earpods look and feel genuine. I got mine back in March.
I also want to know if the problem is sorted out so we can order with confidence again.
Mine did have the cellophane wrap with pull tab, though one of them did not and then another one actually had two put on it in different directions.
They also do not have the Apple logo on the back of the plastic case nor anywhere else.
The fakes that I have are likely using different drivers than real Earpods, so they probably would sound different regardless of the bass ports, to be fair.
Though, I did only inspect them enough to notice they were missing because the bass, and audio in general, was very noticeably worse than the real ones I use currently.
I find it very concerning that ThunderThighs hasn’t updated us on what’s going on with the fakes situation. I don’t think we will ever hear what really happened, bad vendor, bad buyer, bad shipper, or just honest mistakes. I’m ok with that. All I want to hear is that whatever happened is now sorted out and we all can order with confidence again.
Woot screws up from time to time. I ordered a refurbished Logitech crayon 1st gen and got a brand new 2nd gen. My good friend ordered a set of first gen Echo earbuds and got 3 sets. Woot customer service told to keep them all and do not return. Most recently I ordered a two-pack product and only got one. I got a full refund even though I got half of the order. Also, last year, I ordered a brand new 2TB M1 iPad Pro for $749. I thought it could be a price error but Woot honored it. I was skeptical but it really was brand-new with AppleCare and all.
Woot customer service has always been great before and after Amazon took over. So, it’s really strange that Woot can’t tell us that the issue has been fixed (or not?) so we can reorder with confidence.
UPDATE
Sorry for the late response but I’ve only just heard back myself.
The vendor confirmed that there was some bad units in his inventory. These have been pulled and he’s confident about the remaining inventory.
I ordered another set of three after the inventory issue was supposed to be sorted and received them a couple days ago. This order was better, though not completely without issue.
All of them seem to be legitimate or at least close enough that it would be difficult to tell. All three sets came in the case with the embossed Apple logo and have the two bass ports at the bottom of the stem. Generally they sound about what I would expect and are comparable to the Earpods I already own.
The one issue I have with this shipment is that while two of them came with the cellophane wrap holding the case closed, but one did not. The set that did have the seal not looked a little scuffed and the right earbud was completely dead. Seems like they may have been repackaged, which isn’t great when these are supposed to be in brand new condition.
I’m not sure what I’m going to do about this order yet. I might end up seeing if the Apple Warranty works for the ones that came broken, just to make sure that I finally have three working units like I ordered.
I was reluctant to reorder after the fake issue. Now I definitely will not reorder until I see a few comments confirming that all issues are resolved.
Woot customer service is really good. When I order some feminine products that were advertised as a pack of two and received only one pack, woot gave me a full refund. These earbuds are advertised as new, I’m sure you will either get at least a partial refund if not full.
I ordered pack of 3, even though mine have bass ports, but I feel these are not genuine Apple since the sound is thin and unbalanced (right one is louder, left one is softer), the mic voice when I place a call is distanced and hollowed, the clicks are hard, not smooth as the genuine ones that I used. Since they have Apple warranty, I will bring it to Apple’s authorised service center and have a check.