Sonos & Costco

  • 6 April 2005
  • 38 replies
  • 26063 views

Userlevel 2
Sonos is now available on Costco.com at a discounted price. Intro bundle $1099!

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38 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +21
I know this thread is ancient but they are selling the Playbar now. Sonos Playbar Bundle

NICE... forgot about the website, since they have lots of other stuff that may not be available in-store! Only the Playbar for the moment though... price is the same, but includes wall mount bracket and 6 months of Apple Music.
FYI for fellow veterans of any US military branch. You will soon be able to shop online at the AAFES Exchange. They carry Sonos, tax free and free shipping. I can't log in yet (November 11th), but I believe they may even have discounts on Sonos.

https://www.shopmyexchange.com/
Badge +1
Even so the warranties questions and answers I believe are up to date, no?
I'm sure you are aware that sales tax is due on your purchase no matter where or who you buy from. You'll either pay at the time of purchase or at the end of the year when you file your taxes.

Once again, this thread is 11 years old, so much of the info is ancient history.. Most online providers didn't charge sales tax for any state they didn't have a physical presence in back then. Nowadays, they charge the tax for the majority of states.
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I'm sure you are aware that sales tax is due on your purchase no matter where or who you buy from. You'll either pay at the time of purchase or at the end of the year when you file your taxes.
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I just wanted to note that when you buy at costco, you will be charged sales tax, which will essentially eat up the $100 savings. At an 8% sales tax, $1099 becomes $1186.92.

Costco operates in nearly all 50 states, so you will most likely have to pay this sales tax. However, Sonos operates in only two states, MA and CA, and sales tax is only added if you live there. Now, for those of you in CA, Costco might be an option if you are willing to foreit the warranty service.


Well I didn't in the time I replied. Even If I did I would do it again, I see no harm in continue discussions that cold down, As we can see from @nifoxke, it's still actual :)


Cold (sic) down? It was a one page thread from 11 years ago! It wasn't even hot back then, lol.
Badge +1
Uhh, you do realize this thread and the post you are replying to are over 11 years old, almost as old as Sonos itself?

Well I didn't in the time I replied. Even If I did I would do it again, I see no harm in continue discussions that cold down, As we can see from @nifoxke, it's still actual 🙂
Userlevel 3
Badge +9
I know this thread is ancient but they are selling the Playbar now. https://www.costco.com/Sonos-PLAYBAR-Bundle-with-Bonus%3A-Wall-Mount-Kit-%2526-6-Months-Apple-Music-.product.100375330.html?catalogId=10701&langId=-1&storeId=10301&krypto=MsedLrRsyna4yGnE1KEhP81eH0ECWrT2ZPIs6B%2F4WvohxKzMKC0dSJU1WDEmRpMZ%2Bqk9EQbaHt0gpIxnXVNJOm7EIAH6NQ%2BEYnu8GnfNQyE%3D
Userlevel 7
Badge +21
Yeah., unfortunately it's been about 5 years since I last saw Sonos at Costco here in the US. The last offer was a Play:5 (the first-gen one, obviously) and a Bridge, along with 6 months of Rhapsody service... all for the cost of a Play:5 alone elsewhere.


Impressive 1% discount 😃 sorry I meant no bad but I had to say this :D


Uhh, you do realize this thread and the post you are replying to are over 11 years old, almost as old as Sonos itself?
Badge +1
Sonos IS alive and well in Europe. If you opened your eyes you'd see a very large of UK contributors to the forum - and that's just the guys that list their location.

FYI there is at least one authorised (r)etailer in the UK that discounts a bundle by the pricely sum of £10.


Impressive 1% discount 😃 sorry I meant no bad but I had to say this 😃
Userlevel 2
Sonos IS alive and well in Europe. If you opened your eyes you'd see a very large of UK contributors to the forum - and that's just the guys that list their location.

FYI there is at least one authorised (r)etailer in the UK that discounts a bundle by the pricely sum of £10.
Userlevel 2
Costco is currently not listing any SONOS product.

SONOS offers a 30 day money back return. Does Costco offer a better return policy?


Someone mentioned here earlier that it was one year. I know for a fact that they used to do lifetime on everything and then changed the policy only for computers only (6 months). Heck, even if it was 6 months for the Sonos that's still very good.

Jeff
Costco is currently not listing any SONOS product.

SONOS offers a 30 day money back return. Does Costco offer a better return policy?
Userlevel 2
Are they still selling Sonos systems? I was telling someone about Sonos and they're loyal Costco customers, in part due to the great return policies and I wasn't sure if he could still get one from them.

Jeff
I don't see it for sale at costco.com.

has it been removed, or is it simply hiding from me?!

I do agree though -- the cost savings is almost exactly eaten up by the tax, at least in my case, so you might as well avoid all the trouble and buy directly from Sonos.
Userlevel 2
has anyone tried to buy, register and see if you can get the update on a unit bought from costco yet??
I think it would be safe to assume that there is some complicity on Sonos' part in getting these units distributed through Costco.

[ ... ]

greg


As I said earlier, the gray market is disruptive.

I don't know exactly what is happening in the SONOS and Costco situation, but in past situations I've seen various explainations.

1): The national account wants to be a "one stop, we can get anything cheap" shopping destination and they will cultivate dealers who will "transship" units. Initially the national account will not make much money, but they may eventually approach the manufacturer with "evidence" -- see how much we could sell if we were a dealer?!! Even if they don't sell many units they'll inexpensively boost their own reputation.

2): A small dealer is in trouble and sells its inventory to a national account in an effort to raise cash. For reason 1) the national account will love it and may be able to purchase the units at or below the small dealer's cost.

3): A small dealer wants to pump up it's volume. There are many incentives to do this, mostly economies of scale. If a dealer is selling large numbers of units they may be able to save money on shipping, approach the manufacturer to negotiate lower pricing, or receiving special advertising funds (another way of increasing the dealer's profit).

4): The manufacturer and/or distributor feel that a certain fraction of the population needs an extra bargin before they will buy. These customers won't buy if they can't get "the deal". Unofficially turning your back on a few gray market sales will pump up the volume, reach these hard core bargan hunters, and allow more economies of scale at the manufacturing level.

5): The distrubutor or manufacturer needs some fast cash. A large national account can purchase the whole inventory in one quick transaction. It's much easier than aproaching hundreds of small dealers for a few units each.

6): A distributor in another market (Often Hong Kong) "leaks" units in order to pump up their volume. I've always felt that manufacturers could control this if they wanted to, but they often claim they can't. Possibly because of 4):.

7): The units are some sort of copy. I once discovered some "Maxwell" cassette tapes in a seedy street vendor's bin. The cassette shells were a very good copy, and one could easily miss the "w" in the name. One could go after the seller and importing company, but it is expensive, and takes time. Small companies may not have the resources to protect themselves from this sort of abuse. (If you've been watching your spam lately you know that ROLEX has a problem.)
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Actual wording, no warrantee

'This item is covered by Costco's guarantee to refund your purchase price if you are not completely satisfied. Costco's guarantee applies, even though this item may not be covered by the manufacturer's warranty, because Costco is not an "authorized" dealer of the merchandise.'
I just wanted to note that when you buy at costco, you will be charged sales tax, which will essentially eat up the $100 savings. At an 8% sales tax, $1099 becomes $1186.92.

Costco operates in nearly all 50 states, so you will most likely have to pay this sales tax. However, Sonos operates in only two states, MA and CA, and sales tax is only added if you live there. Now, for those of you in CA, Costco might be an option if you are willing to foreit the warranty service.
Userlevel 2
If some of those "Grey" market sites can send the product to Europe. You guys(Sonos) are gonna loose a bunch of customers. I know for sure, that when i see a site that sends outside the U.S, regardless of it being this official site or another, i am ordering it.

I know you are working hard on the distribution to the rest of the world, but i dont think people care from what store they buy it.

Just my thoughts.
Userlevel 2
John/Mike/Sean/Graham/anybody (from Sonos), how about ending the speculation and filling us in?

I believe everybody here wants to see the company succeed, and we don't mind paying a fair price, but we also wouldn't mind saving a $100 if it's essentially the same product. If you truly own and control the product, I don't see how Costco or anybody could (legally) get inventory without your authorization. Now maybe you are authorizing these sales under the condition that warranty, tech support, and future (hardware?) upgrades will not be provided, and if that's indeed the case, I won't mind spending the extra $100 (and most others here would likely agree), but why keep us guessing?

How about some clarification?

Thx,
Frank
Userlevel 4
Badge +4
Along this thread, presumably Sonos owns and controls the software, both handheld and desktop. The desktop software requires a ZP to setup. If they wanted to prevent this type of Costco purchases, Sonos could easily limit the desktop software to work with authorized units only. Further, the firmware on the HH's could be thinner and download the full client software from Sonos.com and reflash itself at setup, thus controlling the handheld software.
That's an interesting statement. Is Sonos referring to future (software) upgrades? If and when a software upgrade should come out... would the Costco purchased systems not be able to take advantage of "online software updates"^1? Hypothetically, I don't know who I'd be madder at: Costco for selling non-upgradeable Sonos systems without stating it or Sonos for crippling non-authorized (yet legally purchased) Sonos systems' upgrade paths.

I could be jumping to the wrong conclusion, but I just don't see how "future upgrades" could refer to anything but software.



What if there was a recall of some sort? (You may remember a power recent power cord issure for another manufacturer's product.) SONOS might want to service the gray market units in order to protect it's brand name, but would that fair to SONOS?

Even if it was software only issue, SONOS would spend the money to develop the update and prepare their web servers for a certain number of hits based on it's sales, however, SONOS could be swamped by an unknown number of gray market customers. Everyone would be upset and SONOS might need to add additional servers.

Another possibility could be the last minute discovery of a software glitch causing the update servers to crash. Fortunately, units shipped by SONOS could be patched before shipment, unfortunately the unpatched gray market units would still crash the servers and cause pain for everyone.