Why do I have to specify the room name when using Alexa?

@charlespick,

Just in case you need it… the Sonos ‘Move’ speaker demonstrated in the video is called ‘Portable’ it’s in the Amazon Alexa Enabled Group called Lounge - if you look back in the thread here you will see a screenshot of the entire group from my Alexa App. So that hopefully provides you with some context in relation to the lamp next to the speaker (called Janes Light) that you see working without room name. I also demo the music playback too on the speaker (again with no room name used in the instruction).

Hope that assists.

@charlespick,

By the way, did you ‘highlight’ the point to the Amazon Support Rep. about the two "playback options” that are associated to an "Amazon Alexa Enabled Group” and what it says in that area of their Alexa App…

 

The problem is I can’t get the Sonos into an Alexa enabled group. The only eligible devices that show up with I configure the group is my Echo Pop. 

I got the video. Going to send it to Amazon. If they give me any problems then idk what’s wrong with them. This is literally exactly what I can’t get my own to do. 

Thanks so much!

Does Sonos support ever frequent these forums? It seems roundabout but I think the only option is going to be for someone at Sonos to go bother Amazon. Amazon support is still giving me the runaround on email and isn’t even talking to me on phone support now. I call, tell them the issue, they say they’re going to check, then the call disconnects. This is ridiculous. I love everything about my Sonos speakers but if I can’t get this working I’m going to have to return all of them. 

Sonos Support, no. They work off of the phones. The only Sonos folks who frequent these forums are Forum Moderators. 

I spent a total of 5 hours on the phone with Amazon today. They contradicted themselves a million times. Either the last person I spoke with would be a really good scammer, or there is an actual update being delivered to their “technical team” now and we’ll hear back from them soon. 

Customer service reps are often the last ones to get any ‘real’ information. 

Did my video help at all @charlespick? You’d think once they had seen things working with my setup, that they’d realise something was awry with your Amazon account and grouping?

@Ken_Griffiths you would think? It’s clear that all the level one techs aren’t capable of or aren’t allowed to think critically. I explained this multiple times and they didn’t get it. Their email and phone teams are also completely split it seems. So the email people requested the video, I provided it, and they basically told me to call and stopped responding to me. The phone team I don’t think was able to watch the video. I was thinking about streaming the whole 5 hours yesterday on twitch. The whole thing had the same energy as Kitboga scambaiting people. I had to explain this very basic feature of Alexa to basically everyone I talked to for the first 4 hours. The conversations all want the same way pretty much, except nobody’s story was the same about the status of that “technical ticket” as they kept calling it. Some said it was waiting for a reply from the technical team, some said they had replied and there was no way to reply to them again. They all had the same move, they would say they would get a supervisor or look for additional resources, put me on hold, and the call would drop exactly 5 minutes later. I made some “progress” I guess in that after I got hung up on about 5 times whenever I would call back someone would answer “Hi Charles this is ___ from the technical support leadership department.” I would explain the issue and then they would connect me with the “escalations team.” The first two people on that team said that someone would call me back in 24 hours, which I’ve heard before. Never happens. The 3rd person I talked to on that team was the last person I talked to yesterday, who gathered some more information and screenshots to send to that technical team again. At least that’s what they said. We’ll see.

It's frustrating when a promised change takes longer than expected.

Which is probably one of the reasons Sonos doesn’t give out timelines, since, in software, they’re incredibly difficult to keep.

Update, I am very happy. I called Sonos and got a Tier 2 callback, they fixed the issue with Amazon and it’s working!!! Love Sonos now.