Same with the pair I gave my father.
German friend visited with some 700's. (I think that's the model number; the sleek but uncomfortable redesign of a couple of years ago.) When he visited again the following year, their ear pads where likewise blown out.
In contrast, I have multiple models of inexpensive Chinese ANC headphones whose ear pads have survived significantly longer.
And, the official Bose ear pad replacements are $40 on Amazon (if they're even real...).
I don't buy Bose, anymore.
I've found them indistinguishable from the OEM ear pads.
Thank you. I was doubtful about the third-party replacements; I'll give them a try.
I still think it's scandalous that Bose ships them with such a crap failure rate.
(If they're expected to fail like this, then at least ship them with a few replacement pairs included. At least that would be honest, and at the price they charge, probably still profitable. /s )
I've kind of standardized on Bose headphones because even though I hate crap like that, they're so popular that there's a big ecosystem of replacement parts, batteries, etc.
It helps that the earpads have been unchanged across multiple generations: QC25/35/45 and I think their new ones as well. Everything but the Ultra and NC700. So I expect replacements should be available more or less indefinitely.
I didn't even buy them, work did, so it's not like I'm trying to justify the $349 MSRP (At the time).
The only thing that bugs me about them having to keep a micro usb cable around.