I hate chatty flyers

Dear Bose,
You probably remember me, the girl in Elkhart, Indiana who bought your Quite Comfort 3 headphones this summer. Well, I thought I'd write to let you know how they're working out.

I probably didn't tell you when I placed the order on your website, but I chose your headphones because my extensive research showed them to be the best in reducing noise. And, boy did I have some noise that needed reducing this summer.

My across-the-street neighbor (the one who sits in her front yard to keep an eye out on the comings and goings of the neighborhood), got a puppy. She'd sit in her lawn chair, in her front yard, getting that puppy all worked up playing ball and chasing sticks. Now, this woman has a huge back yard and if she'd taken the dog to the back yard, I probably wouldn't have been able to hear the yapping. But, since the barking was happening in the front yard, not only did I hear it as it was happening, but I got bonus echo barking as the sound bounced off of the house behind me and came back. I have a huge problem with repetitive noises and decided my options were:
1) start a neighborhood feud between those who think barking puppies are wonderful and those who can't stand the barking,
2) miss out on the summer by staying inside to avoid the noise,
3) spend $350 on noise reduction headphones.

Long story even longer... I chose option three. I wore the headphones outside quite a bit this summer, got a nice tan, a great garden, and remained on good terms with the neighbor.

Now, I'll get to the point of my letter. I flew to North Carolina Tuesday and took the Bose QC3's with me, along with my MP3 player loaded with a new Jeff Lindsay book. I noticed that the headphones cut out all of the airplane noise. They also allowed me to hear my book without using the volume booster I bought at Radio Shack which nearly popped my eardrums on a flight last year.

But, your darned headphones did absolutely nothing to block out the chatty guys behind me on my flight from Cincinnati to Charlotte. I turned up the volume on my MP3 player as high as it would go, but I still couldn't escape their hour-long conversation about football stadium grass. I so wanted to turn around and scream, "Man I don't care!"

Your QC3 headphones also didn't block out the conversation between the English guy and the American gal behind me on my trip back last night. I heard every detail about his past three weeks of sightseeing as well as all of her suggestions on must-see tourist attractions.

I sure wish you'd add a bullet point about this shortcoming in your product specs so others, with my same hatred of chatty flyers, will know that spending $350 on your headphones won't provide the peaceful salvation they desperately need after one canceled flight, two delayed flights, a crashed hard drive and crappy airport food.

Your pal,

Sharon