A lawsuit filed in the US District Court in Oakland, California, is based around the frustrations of five plaintiffs who found that Apple's Powerbeats 2 and Powerbeats 3 headphones did not perform as advertised.

To make matters worse, Apple is refusing to honour warranty commitments to repair or replace the failed units, presumably on the basis that would provide a customer service and would hurt Apple’s margins.

The complaint seeks $5,000,000 in damages and class action certification, in order to represent thousands of similarly afflicted Beats customers who fell for Apple’s misleading adverts.

In widespread advertising and marketing campaigns, Apple touted that its costly Powerbeats (which retail for $199.95) were 'BUILT TO ENDURE' and are the 'BEST HEADPHONES FOR WORKING OUT', the complaint moaned to the court.

"But these costly headphones are neither 'built to endure' nor 'sweat & water resistant,' and certainly do not have a battery that lasts for six or twelve hours. Instead, these shoddy headphones contain a design defect that causes the battery life to diminish and eventually stop retaining a charge", court documents said.

The complaint attributes the shoddiness of Apple's Powerbeats headphones to cheap components.  The complaint said that Apple's Beats Solo headphones cost $16.89 to make and retail for $199.95: a markup of more than 1,000 percent. With that sort of mark up, you'd think Apple would replace the faulty units without thinking.