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I’ve read through a similar thread that has since been closed and I don’t feel that it was thoroughly handled.

We are diplomats that move every few years and it has been a bit of a challenge setting up our Sonos each time. We have purchased Sonos products in Canada, Europe, Uk and Japan and are now moving to Zimbabwe.

Canada and Japan use the same power cable, Europe has their own and Zimbabwe and the UK use the same power cable. The trouble is, when you move to a country that doesn’t have Sonos support, you are left without functioning speakers. In theory, if you can get to a local Sonos dealer, you can order the appropriate power cable for your speaker and just swap it out (don’t need to worry about the voltage requirements). We did this for some of our N. American and European speakers.

Now that I’m moving to Zim, I need the G type power cable used in the UK. I’ve contacted Sonos to see if I can order them and have them sent to my Japanese address before we leave as I think that will be much easier than trying to get something shipped to Zim. When I called Sonos UK, they referred me to Sonos Japan. So I called the Japan number and when I selected English I was transferred to Sonos Australia where I was then outsourced to a call center in India (my observation), who then told me that they couldn’t help me. 

The play 3 and the beam have pretty generic cables that I can probably find in Zimbabwe. However, the play 1 is a specialized cable as is the play 5 (they have customized the flange to fit in a round hole. Now I am looking at sitting on thousands of dollars of unusable speakers until I can afford a flight to the UK or find someone that can bring them in a suitcase.

Any suggestions on how to solve this? My experience has been that Sonos has quality product and a dynamic and active R&D to help clients stay relevant (despite the fierce dependence on networks). Their customer service is really good too within the areas they service. But for an international traveler, none of that means anything if you can’t get power to the product. 

I always found it easier it just use a plug adapter when traveling for lengths of time with my Sonos, rather than hunting down ‘new’ cables. They’re easy to get, and inexpensive as there is no need to get any voltage modification involved. 

I always found it easier it just use a plug adapter

Isn’t this the simplest thing for all kinds of access to/use of mains power, not just power for Sonos? 

Yes.

Thanks for the response. That is my plan B. The speakers are sleek and simple and those things are a little unsightly and they vary in quality. But a good plan B.

The quality requirements are not high and can be met by most well known brands/types. Yes, some look bulky, but are usually not to be seen, plugged in as they are into usually out of sight wall sockets.

You cannot have the cables sent through a friend in the UK? Or use a company to send them through? Order cables via Amazon.co.uk?

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