"The Warehouse never gets filled": Can you hear it? Do they last?

A couple months ago, my mother got a pair of wireless headphones for free, with purchase, from DSW Shoes. I got around to trying them last month and have not used them since. There is a reason why they were free and there is a reason why they suck.

DSW Shoes collaborated with Vivitar and came out with "true wireless Bluetooth earbuds", which come with a Y charging cable and the pair of very light weight, totally cheap feeling, earbuds. They totally look like knockoffs to the (minimally basic) $20 headphones but can go up in price to be something a little more special.

Upon looking at the total box, the earbuds can "answer calls", play "up to 1.5 hours" and have a "distance range up to 30 feet". I never attempted to answer calls with them, but sure as hell is hot, they lasted a total run time of an hour and a half. That was after I charged them over night and made sure both could sync to my phone.

Which is another story in and of itself.

As they are two separate buds, they connect to the phone as such. The experiences I've had with other (basic) models is as such:

Charge earbuds.

Turn on earbuds

Go into Bluetooth settings on phone

Connect earbuds.

Play music or watch videos.

End of story.

Not with these suckers. As there is no explanation to make one a master and the other a slave, you're going to have to figure out which piece is actually the one that'll work with your phone. Meaning, if you're expecting to "plug and play" with both, you are not going to get that. One bud works for everything while the other one sits in your ear just to look pretty. It's turned on, but no one is home.

So I had to do some internet digging to find out that other people are having the same problem - why is only one bud working and the other is not? Because they aren't really meant to work together unless you connect them.

Wait... so every other earbud system I had, that automatically connected to each other... wasn't supposed to happen? The earphones were supposed to be single use only and not connect together and play in stereo, only mono? Cut the crap. No suh... I don't believe it.

Anyway, someone posted a hack on how to sync both left and right bud together, so even in the phone settings, it shows up as one unit instead of two. So I did that, powered them down and charged them again. The next day, I brought them to work and tried them.... to put them in my pocket 90 minutes after turning them on... and I had 7 hours left of my day (I work 8.5 hours Monday to Friday).

Let me tell you.. knowing you have a pair of headphones in your pocket all day and you can't use them because they're dead, is a total bummer. I knew from the box, they wouldn't last all day, but how many times does the "up to" really means "we're serious"?? Apparently, this one time.

I can't even link a similar product to Amazon because these are so cheap, they don't exist. And I wouldn't want to, as I would tell you not to buy them. It's not worth whatever price they would be. Free is free, but my mom still had to buy a pair of shoes (that she wanted anyway) for them.

I know I didn't mention the sound - it was not so great, especially when I was outside, on a golf cart. Turning the phone volume all the way on high, they sounded like they were on level one. Inside a building, the same level (high) is loud, yes. 50% sound, to me, is about 40% loud. When lowered to 20 per cent, it's like background noise where you can hear everything around you but what's in your ears.

Listen, I'm hard of hearing as it is. I look to find form and function in everything I own, including the fact I want a good pair of cans for my ears. If a pair of earbuds can't turn my brain on with knowledge during the day, I don't need them. I know I tell people I don't want to pay over $100 for headphones, but I also don't want a pair of cruddy $10 ones either. I want something to be affordable and last, as well as have good sound - both for listening to audio and making calls. I don't want my friends to keep telling me that I sound like I've got marbles in my mouth as I'm trying to tell them a story underwater.

And that's the other problem I'm finding with Bluetooth technology. Even my $69 JLab headphones don't act correctly when I'm on the line. If I'm driving down the boulevard in my cart, because I've got a mass of trees around me, the Bluetooth functionality fails while I'm talking. Yet my phone is in my pants pocket, a mere 2 feet from my ear. The range goes wonky in the woods, much like trying to get an AM/FM signal in the basement of a cement building. But sometimes, even in the most uncrowded of areas, people tell me it's hard to be understood. The worst is when I'm on a Skype call - doesn't matter if it's a video call or just an audio call. People say it can be jumbly.

So why should I continue to find the right kind, if that is hard to get? No, I'm not buying the pods meant for my phone. Have you seen those prices? For a running time of 4-5 hours with one shot of battery? I'll stick to the JLabs for now. Thanks.

Anyway...

I got storm pictures and I got bird friend pictures. As Emi said when I texted her the photo of the bird in the water, "bird friend bird friend bird friend bird friend bird friend bird friend".