Review on Plantronics 38541 02 Headset Cable by Elizabeth Oliva

From the way you look at this unit I don't want to worry about another Bluetooth device that needs charging, programming etc. The seller gets 5 stars for the price of 12.83 I paid in June 2013 as it is the best price I have ever seen. I've paid up to $30 elsewhere for the same cable. The cable made by Platronics gets 1 star. I've been using Platronics binaural headsets since 2006. In fact, I still have one of the ones I bought in '06 and it still works to this day. ! I use the headset every day in my office with the original 2.5mm jack and it works great! That being said, I am (was) a big fan of Platronics and have constantly raised and recommended the headset. Ever since mobile phones switched to 3.5mm jack I have used many converters and they are all crap! Including super expensive apples broke within a week. So when Platronics released this 3.5mm cable I was very excited and thought my dilemma was solved. I am sorry to say that ALL THESE JECTS ARE POOR QUALITY. I've had 5 of them in the last 1.5 years and they all start to fail within a few months, it's like there is a gold stripe on the connector itself that wears out and then the connection disappears. It's not the wires in the plug that are loosening, it's the plug itself. If I press the plug against one side of the other and hold still it works, and also if I insert a small piece of paper on one side with the socket , I can connect. This is not my phone as it is the same on other devices such as the last 5 from Platronics. I called the company several times to let them know about this issue and they seemed disinterested and upset with my review hence the reason for this negative review. I suspect something has changed at Platronics since I bought another identical headset for one I've been using for 7 years, only the new one seems cheaper and I assume I had to buy 5 of these cables and the answer I received from the company is that I am afraid that the quality of the old headset may be a thing of the past. That doesn't mean they might be as good as their competitors as most companies keep making things crappy as consumers care less and less about quality and just low price. On the other hand, I hate buying cheap crap that's destined for the landfill. I wouldn't mind paying $30 for this little cable if it was the same quality as the old one. However, I plan to buy another one after completing this review as my 7 year old headset still works perfectly. Update August 2013: It's already broken. Less than 2 months. This is an item that I use on my Iphone every day, so it gets a lot of use. But I had a 2.5mm jack that I used on my old phone that lasted many years with the same use. So the quality is obviously gone. Platronics hasn't just succumbed to the temptation to produce cheap junk destined for the junkyard for a short-term boost in sales :(And this supplier selling that junk has priced it down $3.81 in the last two months raised, if being "green" is important to you, you should boycott companies that do shit like this device.