Sonos users be aware

I came across this article on The Register.

It looks like another company is placing profit over loyalty!

1 Like

You find the email address of the Sonos CEO on their contact page. I wrote him an email and expresses my deepest concerns about that move. I would be surprised if something comes back. Will keep you postet.

I would urge every user of sonos to follow @rak example and apply as much pressure as possible. Only then will we see what kind of company we are buying from!

And another perspective is :- This is why I love the open source community!

Yes, I got an email about my old Play:5 becoming obsolete. Although they don’t of course call it that, they call it ‘legacy’, apparently it just won’t be able to accommodate future software updates. To be fair it won’t be obsolete, that is slightly stretching the point, but curiously none of my other Sonos will get software updates if I keep the Play:5.

They are offering 30% off anything new in return for allowing them to ‘brick’ it.

Contact the CEO? Seriously? ‘We’ tried that when they did the same with the controllers a few years back. There was even an on line petition. As far as I know the response was diddly-squat.

I have had Sonos for nearly 20 years, pretty much when it first came out and for a long time I thought it was one of the best purchases I ever made. It even had a forum and community on a par with this one for friendliness and helpfulness.

It’s obsession with Apple was the first sign of a company going from ‘small and loveable’ to ‘big and greedy’.

Hey Ho. That’s the world we live in.

yup it most certainly is!

There is no point in emailing him. Send him something physical, like the fans did when the Jericho TV Series was cancelled.

Several online communities, including the official Jericho forums, launched campaigns in an effort to revive the show. Fans also sent just over 20 tons of nuts to CBS headquarters; this referred to a scene from the season one finale…

2 Likes

@nickrout I like that!

I have a saying which I think is pertinent here:

Hope was in Padora’s box for a reason - it negates action! So it is an ill of the world!

I am not sure what is the right thing to send to Sonos. Something to do with landfills (which is where these devices will end up!)

Perhaps claim the 30% discount and then send the bricked Sonos devices back to Sonos! Here in the UK we have the weee regulations. Perhaps sending the old units will create an environmental bombshell that the press gets a hold of?
I remember as a youngster that beer was brought from the off license by the case and then the empty bottles were returned to the off license. My milkman delivered milk and collected the empties! all that was way back when. Now we go on about recycling and re-purposing and reusing but we used to do that anyway!
I’m starting to sound like a hippy environmentalist now so I am going to shut up - but you get the gist!

The onus has been placed on us to be responsible and recycle but the corps just pump their stuff out

Actually part of the T&Cs of claiming the 30% is that you will return it to Sonos. Or promise to recycle it through a licensed recycling scheme.

Didn’t read it that deeply - recommendation send it back!

I have 7 devices. Two of them being “to old”. A play:5 and a connect. Replacing them is 1.000€. Minus the 30% is still 700€. Whats next? A year later its the play:1 of which I have 3.

I am not willing to shell that out to be able to send him physically one device. BUT. I assume many of us with the old devices have a bridge which they bought which is no longer required. Send him those … .

Regards
Ralf

Actually any junk would do :slight_smile:

You are probably better off writing an email to your senator. There needs to be legislation around bricking hardware and creating environmental waste.

You made me thinking. Is there a way to jailbreak a Sonos device? There is a great set of open source tools out there to create a multi room audio. My requirements are tunein and Spotify. Thats it.

Why building RPi based system when we have decent hardware?

Perhaps https://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?106922-Software-to-Unify-Squeezebox-and-Sonos-IPeng-Others

Looks like Sonos is doing an about face! Got this email today doing some damage control!!

All Sonos products will continue to work past May

We heard you. We did not get this right from the start. My apologies for that and I wanted to personally assure you of the path forward:

First, rest assured that come May, when we end new software updates for our legacy products, they will continue to work just as they do today. We are not bricking them, we are not forcing them into obsolescence, and we are not taking anything away. Many of you have invested heavily in your Sonos systems, and we intend to honor that investment for as long as possible. While legacy Sonos products won’t get new software features, we pledge to keep them updated with bug fixes and security patches for as long as possible. If we run into something core to the experience that can’t be addressed, we’ll work to offer an alternative solution and let you know about any changes you’ll see in your experience.

Secondly, we heard you on the issue of legacy products and modern products not being able to coexist in your home. We are working on a way to split your system so that modern products work together and get the latest features, while legacy products work together and remain in their current state. We’re finalizing details on this plan and will share more in the coming weeks.

While we have a lot of great products and features in the pipeline, we want our customers to upgrade to our latest and greatest products when they’re excited by what the new products offer, not because they feel forced to do so. That’s the intent of the trade up program we launched for our loyal customers.

Thank you for being a Sonos customer. Thank you for taking the time to give us your feedback. I hope that you’ll forgive our misstep, and let us earn back your trust. Without you, Sonos wouldn’t exist and we’ll work harder than ever to earn your loyalty every single day.

If you have any further questions please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Sincerely,
Patrick

Patrick Spence
CEO, Sonos

1 Like

Great result!!

No, it’s what they announced originally before the knee jerk reaction about bricking or no longer working. There’s no about face in that email, just clarification.

As for obsolescence, if you buy a device like a Sonos, eventually it’s not going to be able to continue. They aren’t frozen in time, they continue to evolve and the hardware just can’t keep up. It’s a miracle that this hasn’t happened earlier - it’s only now that devices built in 2005-2011 (noting some were still for sale in 2015) are being transitioned to legacy and will no longer receive software updates.

Nonsense. If I could play music on my sonos 3 years ago, why can’t I play it in 3 years time.