Maxell's Jelleez Headphones

Dear Maxell:

I haven't the foggiest idea what was going through the heads of your Research & Development department when they created Jelleez headphones.

My old headphones broke on my way to school the other day, so I stopped in Duane Reade and bought a pair of your Jelleez as a temporary replacement. For $8.99 I don't expect high quality goods, but I did expect something that would be functional.  These aren't.

The main problem is that the earbud is way bigger than my ear canal and won't fit in my ears.   I noticed this before I bought the headphones but thought there was just a squishy cushion (why else the name?) around the buds so that they'd fit comfortably.  But no, the buds are actually giant bulbs of hard plastic.  I've had headphones with poor sound quality before or ones that break easily, but I've never had ones that are completely useless.  They're lying on the floor of my room now, where I threw them two days ago.

And the thing I really don't get is that it probably would have been cheaper to make these headphones better.  Didn't it cost extra money to use all that additional plastic to make larger-than-average earbuds?

And another thing: the cord on these headphones is preposterously short. What is Maxell's target demographic?  Short people with gigantic ear canals?

I'm not merely writing this as a complaint letter.  Knowing nothing about how these products get developed, I'm also curious about what process actually goes into designing a product like this.  Any information you have would be greatly appreciated and might clarify to me how a product like this is actually able to get on the shelves.  I can't for the life of me imagine how these headphones could have gotten past a test group of consumers.

Thank you,

Christopher W.

P.S. I noticed you don't have a general e-mail address for complaints available on your site.  If this e-mail is being received by the wrong department, please kindly forward it to the consumer affairs department.