Profound Sadness - My Airpods Max Stopped Working!

Two weeks ago, my APM headset (USB-C) stopped working.  They stopped pairing but I also noticed that they appeared to stop charging, as well.

This was disappointing, but I'd been having problems the past 6-8 months with pairing, so I expected them to eventually die.  Them being not-pairable was a blessing because that meant they were not usable...a broken headset would be something Apple can't ignore, right?  

I'd also been removing the pods from the headset harness to clean the hardware connections, which would temporarily fix the pairing issues (that eventually stopped fixing the issue).

So, I went to Apple's support pages to make an appointment at the nearest Apple Store.  That was intitially problematic, because the support page didn't consider a pairing issue to be an issue, so it wouldn't allow me to open a support case. (WTF!)  I tried a second time and it excepted my case - I was able to make an appointment.

I visited the Apple Store and told them what was going on.  They attempted to charge the headset (waited a few minutes after connecting it to power) and saw that it wasn't charging.  It still had power but was not charging.  They then checked to see if it would go into pairing mode - it would not.  They told me that they'd keep the headset and send it out to a service center.  They told me that they'd have it maybe five to seven days.

That seven days sucked.  I'm so used to my APMs that using any ohter headset sucked.  I have a Steel Series headset, a Skull Candy Venue, and a Beats Studio Pro...they all suck compared to the APM.  The next best thing was probably the Skull Candy.  The BSPs have better sound, but the headset is old and beat up - the band is slightly warped.

Seven days later, they called me and said I could come pick them up.  At the Apple Store, they told me that they had to replace the left-side pod, as it had the BT module (and power, I believe).  The new pod still had protective plastic on it.

It felt soooo good to be able to pair my APMs again, without jumping through hoops.

As well, none of this would've happened without AC+.  I have Apple Care + on the headset and it's something I wanted since the headset is not cheap.  I'm glad I did, because they might have fixed it but would've charged me if I didn't have AC+.  I paid $0 for this repair.