People would be better off selling their older gear on eBay, assuming it’s functional. They’ll get more than the discount offered by Sonos, and someone else will get to enjoy the older device.

(The Port is so disappointing -- and expensive -- that there’s no chance I’d trade a Connect for it, even for a straight swap. While I like my Amp, my Connect:Amp looks better and is built from better materials. So, I’m keeping that too!)

Wouldn’t you need to make the same claim against any company that is selling audio equipment that could be considered an improvement over what consumer’s might currently have?    The fact that a piece of equipment is better than what you currently have, whether it’s because of features, price, or whatever, is going to tempt a person to get rid of their current speaker and upgrade to something more current.

Is your issue more around the fact that the Sonos program requires you to brick your speaker essentially, so that it can’t be resold or given to someone else for use?

All companies play their role and need to up their game when it comes to recycling, reducing waste, being efficient with energy etc. But Sonos' trade in promo highlights the issue extremely well. Forcing the old speakers to become waste. Most of the products are in mint condition as new, still working. 

That depends on what you’re selling and what you’re buying with discount.  If your selling an old ZP80 for example, I’m guessing $100 would be a great deal.  But if you wanted to apply the discount to a playbase for example, you’re getting a $210 discount.

Although the wording says 30% off any new Sonos product, I find it hard to believe that they would allow and make a profit from this scenario. The wording in the T&C is weird.

But anyway I'm more concerned with the by product

But for how long?  The amount of memory in the ZP80 and ZP100 is so small it is inevitable that at some point Sonos will no longer be able to maintain compatibility with the current system.  I don’t know if that point will come in 6 months, 2 years. 5 years or whenever, but come it will.  A ZP80 would need to be a virtual giveaway for me to purchase one.

I think the point is that Sonos are eesentiallu making currently functional electronics equipment a waste product.

If or when Sonos decide to stop supporting these products then offering the same thing then would be a lot more palatable - ethical even.

To make it even more unpalatable, I think this old equipment you can trade in includes the likes of this:

https://www.johnlewis.com/sonos-connect-wireless-music-system/p230973910

Yes, you can still buy it.

Last I looked, the program was completely voluntary, so the only person making the decision to make “currently functional electronics equipment a waste product” would be the user.

While there may (will) come a day when the older products are obsoleted, and if Sonos offers a discount for those, you have a point.  But we aren’t there yet. 

And of course, a discount on an upgraded product was exactly what was begged for by many in the “Save the CR100” thread.  Damned if you do . . . 

Thank you, I hadn’t realised that. Man that’s so corrupt and morally wrong. Throwing away working products at the same time as manufacturing the exact same product. 

Waiting for an official Sonos reply...

Correct, it is voluntary. But retailers themselves don’t care about the state of the planet and only care about their personal profits. Sonos should take the responsibility of making sure that if there is going to be waste that it’s recycled correctly (or even better reused by people)

Would you partake in the program if they took half your discount and used it to recycle the item?  

Are you speaking from a customer perspective or retailer?

The discount should be applied to the customer, the retailer makes enough margin as is so don't need to receive any more incentive IMO. The 'waste' products should be allowed to be reused or at very least be recycled responsibly (meaning that Sonos makes sure that it happening correctly) even better Sonos could collect the old products reusing the components if applicable. The products should be shipped back in the same lorries that are making the deliveries therefore not contributing or minimal to pollution.

So the customer still receives the full discount and the burden of recycling is all on the retailer/manufacturer?

Great, now that we’ve established that it is just about the bottom line for all parties involved, let’s haggle price.

Do you not agree that Sonos should make sure units are being recycled as should?

Sonos can set whatever discount they want but as the biggest party they need to be responsible (as much as possible) for the use of their products and correct disposal

In my humble opinion, manufacturers should be responsible for the waste they create, and the consumer should be responsible for the waste they create.  By whom this particular waste is created is where we probably should agree to disagree.

However, I find it slightly ironic that you claim the “retailers themselves don’t care about the state of the planet and only care about their personal profits”, yet you yourself are not willing to forego some of your discount in order to save that very same planet. 

Sonos isn’t manufacturing Connects anymore.  This are from previous runs that have not yet been sold at some retailers.    These units probably do have a lot of life left in them, and honestly it would be pretty silly buy one and  trade it in for a new Port.  I don’t imagine a lot of people would be doing that, or a Connect that was purchased in the last year or two. 

I'm happy for forego discount. All of my Sonos products have been bought at retail price. If they were going to offer a 30% discount they could do a 15% discount and the remaining 'saving' in stead of it going to the customer they could use them funds to recycle.

I think I'm more bothered about that they're recycling perfectly working products. Why can't they do a trade in but retailers can sell the 'used and approved' products..

Thanks for joining in and asking questions. I’ll make sure to pass along your feedback on this program.

@lewisc , it sounds like your main question is on why we’re asking that owners recycle these devices instead of taking it back ourselves or allowing the devices to remain functioning. As you know, this offer is for first generation products that have been replaced by more powerful, capable products in our line-up that introduce new experiences. While we’re proud of how long our products last, we don’t want these old products to be the first experience a new customer has with Sonos if gotten off of a second hand market. We hope that in upgrading to the latest and greatest, people will recycle responsibly, and we feel it’s the right decision to make recycling a condition of this offer. We are prioritizing environmental responsibility and encourage our users to responsibly recycle their deactivated products through local e-recyclers. Lists of local certified e-recyclers can be found online, such as here: https://www.google.com/maps/search/e-waste+recycling

Certified e-recyclers adhere to sustainability policies and practices for managing electronics, including the reuse of materials, energy recovery and responsible disposal. Recycling locally is more eco-friendly and sustainable than packing up products and shipping them back to us. That said, our goal is to keep players out of the landfill, so if local recycling isn’t an option, customers are welcome to ship it back to Sonos at our expense.

Thanks for the generic reply. I get that you want new products out there but you are throwing away perfectly fine usable items. The ‘old’ products are exactly how they were when you originally sold them, there’s nothing wrong with them, they are still as good as they were.. it’s just that newer (debatably better) products have been released. You could have offered a used and approved 2nd had scheme or something.

‘condition of this offer’ - may be a condition but you’re not enforcing it or even asking for proof from retailers

‘ship it back to Sonos at our expense’ - If retailers can’t be bothered to recycle they’re definitely not going to go to the effort of creating a shipment + shipping individual products back to you is extremely in-efficient and bad for the environment. If this was a serious option, products could be taken back to the distributors on a weekly basis on the same lorries that make the deliveries. 

I’m obviously not fully in the loop and don’t know anywhere near the amount to really make a judgement but it just seems from the outside that Sonos as a $1billion+ company you could be doing more..

Oh fer cripes sake, can’t you read?  - IT’S THE CUSTOMER DOING THE SHIPPING BACK TO SONOS!!!!

IMO one reason to take these old products offline is they are going to phase out support of older products. This will help reduce the the number of pissed off customers when they pull the plug- they will be bricked like the cr100 and iPod dock.  

While they may not be manufacturing them any more, up until a few weeks ago this was the latest Sonos product to enable you to hook up your AV system to your Sonos system.  In nobody’s book should that be classed as old or first gen.

So while people would be ‘silly’ to buy one and trade it in, it’s highly possible they could buy one and be prompted shortly after by Sonos that their brand new product old and suitable for an upgrade.  That’s frankly ludicrous.  They could then reasonably come here and see that, yes, Sonos do class their new Connect as old and first gen and worth nothing like the money they’ve literally just paid.  With a ‘reassurance’ that Sonos will try to support it as long as they can - but an admittance in writing that’s it’s really old tech……...

Did they really send it out to Connect and connect:amp owners? (Thought it was zp units)

Yes.

Here too (among many others)   https://www.androidcentral.com/sonos-offers-30-new-speakers-its-new-trade-program

Don't be rude. That's not what Sonos' T&C's say that was sent to retailers.