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lewisc
lewisc
Headliner I
October 31, 2019

Sonos contributing to electronic waste

  • October 31, 2019
  • 114 replies
  • 3933 views

Sonos have recently started a trade in promotion in the UK with partnered retailers where you can trade in a Connect or Connect:AMP and receive a 'specified' discount off of a new Sonos AMP.

 

They then modified the trade in promotion to be where you can trade in any Connect, Connect: AMP or (old gen) Play:5 for 30% any new Sonos product.

 

I get that they are trying to sell more +/ new products but then contributing a massive amount to electrical waste. In their T&C's that they send to retailers they give a £15 credit (recycling fee) for the disposal of the old product. The old product is to strictly not be used or re-registered again or the retailer will be punished or loose their partnership.

 

 

I think it's disgusting that Sonos are playing a huge role in generating unnecessary waste. All these units are perfectly fine and working but are to be disposed of for no reason other than that Sonos want to make money. Yes Sonos are giving a £15 credit for recycling but retailers won't and aren't recycling, they'll throw away in general waste and make an extra £15 profit. Sonos are doing nothing to track correct (recycling) disposal of old devices and nothing to make sure retailers are being responsible.

 

Sonos really should have thought about this trade in more. I will now be extremely hesitant to purchase any further Sonos products in the future.

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      114 replies

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      aka_mgr
      Lyricist I
      December 31, 2019

      The only good way to make sustainable hardware is to open-source the required software and interfaces.

      If Sonos is no longer willing to pay software maintenance, it should provide user community all required material to do it.

      Stanley_4
      Stanley_4
      Grand Maestro
      January 1, 2020

      Sonos stock holders would probably get all soggy and hard to light if Sonos started open-sourcing all the patented stuff that makes Sonos gear what it is.

      Allowing folks to load their own versions of firmware into a Sonos device would be a nightmare. Not sure who it would suck worse for, the support staff or the public relations folks. Both would be busy telling folks with unsupported firmware: “Sorry not our circus, not our clowns.” 

      There is also past experience to go from, a lot of the core OS stuff is open source and folks have been whining about SMB and wanting newer versions but nobody has stepped up to work on that project. 

      NeedSleep
      Renowned Enthusiast I
      January 1, 2020

      folks have been whining about SMB and wanting newer versions but nobody has stepped up to work on that project. 

      If you are talking about Sonos and SMB,  Jeremy Allison offered to help Sonos with their SMB issue back in 2017 :shrug_tone5: 

      https://en.community.sonos.com/setting-up-sonos-228990/sonos-support-for-smb-2-0-protocol-6739642/index2.html#post16127262

      Stanley_4
      Stanley_4
      Grand Maestro
      January 1, 2020

      And it went nowhere. Nobody knows why it went nowhere. There is speculation but that is all.

      The code is there, nobody has started an independent project.

       

      NeedSleep
      Renowned Enthusiast I
      January 1, 2020

      And it went nowhere. Nobody knows why it went nowhere. There is speculation but that is all.

      The code is there, nobody has started an independent project.

       

      What do you mean by independent project? I don't think I understand what you are saying. 

      Kumar
      January 1, 2020

      Sonos have recently started a trade in promotion in the UK

      There is none such for where I live, so this doesn't affect me for good or bad. Why can’t you pretend to live where I do? For just this limited purpose?

      Kumar
      January 1, 2020

      And a quote from the verge link:

      But for some reason, selling or giving your aging Sonos gear to someone else isn’t an option under the program. This is a strange pact that doesn’t really exist with any other major electronics manufacturer.

      Why isn't this being seen as something that Sonos offers that no one else does, instead of calling it strange? If this an option that Sonos offers that no one else does, is that therefore not a positive? One could sell the device, and buy the new one at full price. Or, keep using the old one.

      Or am I missing something?

      Kumar
      January 1, 2020

      Digressing a little, where I think different from many here is in not seeing much value in over 90% of the software upgrades that Sonos has done since the time I bought the kit in 2011. I am pretty sure that the kit would have continued to do - as it does today - all it could back in 2011 when I bought it, even where my listening sources have changed significantly from NAS to music services, even if Sonos had not done anything to the software than keep it functional - this is just home audio after all, where the basic tech, even when digital, hasn't changed since CDs were introduced. 

      But complaining about that is pointless IMO when there is the much bigger picture of how waste, electronic or otherwise, is being generated by lifestyles that are not environmentally sustainable, now at a global level. If and when that elephant in the room gets addressed beyond lip service/tokenism, this will too. And as long as that one doesn’t, this one is a minor issue.

      amun
      January 1, 2020

      …...where I think different from many here is in not seeing much value in over 90% of the software upgrades that Sonos has done since the time I bought the kit in 2011. I am pretty sure that the kit would have continued to do - as it does today - all it could back in 2011 when I bought it, even where my listening sources have changed significantly from NAS to music services, even if Sonos had not done anything to the software than keep it functional - this is just home audio after all, where the basic tech, even when digital, hasn't changed since CDs were introduced. 

      For once, we are in complete agreement…. The only significant thing to me was Trueplay, which soundwise was/is a game changer… Apart from that, I’d be happy to go back to 4.x - I much preferred the controller interface of all platforms...

       

      But complaining about that is pointless IMO when there is the much bigger picture of how waste, electronic or otherwise, is being generated by lifestyles that are not environmentally sustainable, now at a global level. If and when that elephant in the room gets addressed beyond lip service/tokenism, this will too. And as long as that one doesn’t, this one is a minor issue.

      Yes, but this is part of the problem - if it wasn’t for the software/functionality bloat, we wouldn’t be talking about bricking  perfectly good units...

      PS Sorry about the quoting - can’t use this new system at all...

      Kumar
      January 1, 2020

      Yes, but this is part of the problem - if it wasn’t for the software/functionality bloat, we wouldn’t be talking about bricking  perfectly good units...

       

      It is a very small part of the problem, even if one stayed with just the domain of computer tech where Intel and Microsoft were the shining beacons of this bloat. Expanding to autos, every new model car seems to be bigger than the ones preceding, and not just because people are getting fatter. It is an epidemic, the underlying issue of how lives are lived these days.

      My problem is with those that pick on the pennies while living blissfully unconcerned about the pounds.

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