So I bought a Motorola S9 Stereo Bluetooth headset about 2 months ago to give me something to listen to while I am out hiking around Grandfather Mountain and Linville Gorge. This was actually the least expensive headset I could find, coming in around $50. I'm not totally in love with it, mostly because it doesn't fit my head very well, but it does sound great and that's what really matters. It also has plenty of battery life to get through even my longest hikes, so I've been pretty happy.

The second-to-last time I took it out, I got up to Shanty Springs in a record-breaking time, and set it down on a log to fill up my water. When I put the headset back on, the right-hand side's buttons were totally useless. Those are the forward, back and play/pause ones. I figured it was just a software thing, but then I tried turning up the volume, and it didn't work either. The volume down button was fine though, and after setting it to lower than I'd like, I quit messing around with it.

The next day, I was hoping it would be working after a fresh charge, but alas, the buttons are dead. Yesterday I finally got around to getting it fixed. I jumped online and searched for "S9 Buttons" and somehow Google knew exactly what I wanted and filled in "not working" for me. That's never a good thing, by the way. I read through a few forums, and just about everyone had a very similar experience to mine. Too much sweat and the thing breaks. They all also complained about Motorola's terrible support and how they'd never buy a Moto product again.

Now I'm a computer retailer, and repairman. I have to deal with warehouses and manufacturers all the time about disfunctional products, and I have to say that if they all operated like Motorola has, I'd be a very happy man. Without even a question, the representative told me it would be done as an Express Warranty Replacement, where they get a credit card from you, ship you the product and either you ship them the old, broken one back or they take your money. This is by far the prefered way to handle replacements. You don't have to worry about the packaging or the manuals/accessories that they may or may not want back. You just ship them whatever they ship you, in that box, and you're good to go. You'd be surprised how difficult that process can be with some companies.

So, while your S9 headset may not be quite as sweat-proof as you sell it to be, at least your support is solid, and I give you props for that Motorola.