I bought 3 pairs of QC20s. Each of them fell apart in less than a year, despite absurdly careful care. There's a design flaw where the wire connects to the battery pack. Tape could only hold them together for so long.
After 3 failures I vowed to not buy another one, despite the exceptional sound canceling. I switched to a cheapo $30 Samsung pair I bought at an airport, beat it to hell and back, and it's in perfect shape years later.
It's true, the build quality is bad and my coworker has the same exact issues as mine (rubber coating came off the casing, volume up button stops clicking but can still be mushed down to use). The battery pack casing started to open up and would cause line noise, especially when charging.. I glued the case back together and it seems to be better now. I think I could have used the soft case more, instead of keeping them bare in my pockets, but it seems inevitable that they'd fall apart anyway. I can't really recommend them because of these issues, but the noise canceling is one of those magical life upgrades for me.
After 3 failures I vowed to not buy another one, despite the exceptional sound canceling. I switched to a cheapo $30 Samsung pair I bought at an airport, beat it to hell and back, and it's in perfect shape years later.