Sonos contributing to electronic waste

Since except in the wonderful world of marketing there really can't be anything audibly better than “incredible”, thank you Ryan for a realistic Sonos assessment of the sound quality of Port v Connect, notwithstanding the fact that the Port has perhaps a DAC of newer design with better measured specs.

Buying used is more risky as folks are now selling traded gear as fully functional. You might be able to get a refund but the scammers are likely to try to avoid that. There were folks selling broken gear before so it is just additional risk, not something new.

Got it, thanks. I had not thought of that first part, not devious enough to have realised it:-).

I guess there is also a risk for sellers as somebody could buy a used unit from you and add it to their system then put it into recycle to get a voucher and then demand a refund claiming it was already in recycle when you sent it. Maybe Sonos would help resolve this by verifying who actually got the recycle credit but I don’t know how much they want to get involved in used equipment sales.

@upstatemike : Lol. That is the next level of deviousness. There is this thing called the law of unintended consequences that may come into play here, with this program, though there is no knowing how large an effect it will have on the used market.

Simply because one now runs the risk of buying a device that was disabled as part of the upgrade programme. It’s an additional factor that wasn’t there previously.

@pwt: right, Stanley explained it a little earlier today.

A seller that gets ripped off by a buyer recycling and returning a device for credit has an option of working with Sonos BUT everything I have seen is that Sonos requires a copy of a formal police report before they will act.

One more reason I’m glad I recycled rather than trying to sell my old gear. That is of course on top of the more than I paid for it new rebate credit. :-)

Does anyone know what exactly these recyclers do other than making for one large landfill instead of many small ones? After all, this isn't like recycling plastic bags or aluminium cans that can be brought back to some intermediate stage to be then again turned into a useable product.

Given the above, if the buying of Sonos gear in the used market has now become riskier as explained by Stanley and Mike above, then it can be said that Sonos is contributing to electronic waste via this program, by facilitating a reduction in the usable life of its products. How much that contribution is in absolute terms no one can say; it may be insignificant - or not so.

In the big picture of how much energy/resources are consumed for products that are directly trashed before consumption like food, or via not using them for their available service life like what happens with so many consumer durables, this can’t be significant for sure, but it may not be good messaging in the present environment.

I’ve heard of several companies that will take electronics and pull them apart, and recycle piecemeal both the metals and the plastic casings. Apple is one company that certainly does this with their metals, if memory serves, they boast of a fairly high recovery rate on electronics from their phones. I’ve read of other startups and ongoing concerns that provide this service as well, in many tech blogs, news programs in the Silicon Valley area, and in other new sources. 

I suppose it all depends on where you recycle your product, and even if you choose to. I don’t see Sonos as any different than Dell, IBM, Samsung, LG, Apple, or any other electronics company that brings out “newer, faster, better” equipment, other than Sonos ha at least made the attempt to raise awareness by garnering a commitment to responsibly recycle the product, something I’ve not seen from many companies. 
 

And the fact that all of this is purely voluntary, and only if you choose to take advantage of the 30% discount and upgrade your device…It is entirely up to each individual to decide whether they want to do this or nit. There’s no forcing of the process, you choose to take advantage, or you don’t. You have the option of boxing up your product and sending it to Sonos, or finding a local recycler to give it to. There’s just options. You can make the choice as to whether you want to avail yourself if any of these choices, or not.