Forbes:

Learning From A Botched Upgrade

Here are four lessons to help providers avoid such a fate:

1. Don’t rush the deployment of a software upgrade. Conduct rigorous testing and elicit feedback from a large diversity of stakeholders.
2. Quickly acknowledge issues to the marketplace. Letting the community fester in the silence of the provider ensures that the situation will deteriorate.
3. Provide the choice to return to the previous version of the software. There are times when a one-way option is the only option, but more often than not, a way to return to the original is good business. This option can be temporary as issues with the upgrade are resolved. Eventually older versions can be phased out.
4. Never deliver an upgrade that is missing essential functions with the promise they may return in the future. While it’s okay to add new features in the future, it’s never okay to eliminate existing features people rely on and may have been the basis for their purchase in the first place.

I hate this app so much it makes me want to sell my entire system.  What was wrong with the old app?  It worked great.  Should have stuck to the adage ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’.

I have never complained about an app before but this one is so bad.  I had to say something.

Sonos.  Please stop the constant emails. I’m getting one every couple of minutes. 

The absolute cheek of Sonos to try and advertise a new product to me on email while their existing products and app is broken. 

Something new for todays fun and games, investigating via the Mac Controller why my Music Library has disappeared (it was showing directly after the app updated for 48 hours then disappeared), it turns out that somewhere Sonos has totally stripped all settings for my Music Library. Re-added Library via the Mac controller which is on S2 (they keep prompting me to update - not happening), and the Music Library is back, albeit still missing some features. 

It feels like Sonos are hugely unaware of the upset and frustration they are causing to their loyal customer base. 

Would be great for a Sonos representative to actually make a statement with a solid timeline for a fix or even comment on these forums. It’s feels like we are all just shouting into the void right now. 

I spent £2.3k yesterday ordering a new system to replace my Sonos set up as I don't trust them to sort this out in a timely manner or to not do it again in future. As I don't stream music I don't feel as if I'm a consideration. I take delivery on Monday and assuming it all works Sonos will be out of my house and my life. In future I'm going to be very vocal is steering people away from this brand, whereas previously I was advocating it.

Just wish I could send my bill to the CEO.

Thank GOD the new Sonos ADs are working front and center in the new APP. It really isn’t that important that I can no longer access my Music from my NAS that I have enjoyed for 15 years running. Playlists with a queue that are editable, who cares! I can wait another year or so to have a fully functioning system I’ve invested thousands in, … what I can’t wait for is wanting to see what Sonos wants to sell me next! I love the product but having nothing but contempt for Sonos now. I will never recommend it to anyone again, nor will I invest another dime in a company that is so arrogant and dismissive of what they’ve done with this ridiculous new App launch.

Sonos can say whatever they want about their decision but thousands of comments should signal to them there’s an issue. Never have we disliked this company till now. And if they think this app is great then I hope a reduction in sales happens because of it. Trying too hard to rebaseline something that didn’t need it and screw up controls in favor of pushing services. Garbage. 

After 3 weeks of disaster, Still no official apology from Sonos...

Is this a nice way to treat loyal customers?

Sent this to investor relations and the CEO email that will only get the form letter response but… the damage has been done.  You can’t earn back your consumer respect after what has happened these past five to six months.  You’ve literally destroyed your customer loyalty and confidence.  A well delayed letter from the CEO admitting his mistakes while he lays off the employees who he led into this mess is a shame.  The app is still constantly asking you to log back in.  Speakers still cut in and out while making room or group changes.  The app still sucks compared to the prior one.  All to promote some headphones which are bombing?  Where were the product managers and QA team and testers and field expertise?  They’ve admitted to the mistake but what a drastic one.

And then to lay off staff because of your poor leadership???  The company culture has got to feel awful.  

It’s too bad there isn’t a large investor who wants to take a stake in the company to turn it around and throw out the board and exec team.  Maybe it was a mistake to go public in the first place and someone needs to take it private again.  Seems like Sonos was a lot better before it was publicly traded. 

Anyhow - former customer and former investor who has zero interest in this company anymore.  Without a massive leadership shakeup nothing will change. 

I’ve been chatting with our local audio installer and a high-end audio retailer and both are beyond angry at what Sonos has done to their customer base.  It’s not just the few brave souls who find their way to these forums, it’s retailers, installers, who are also suffering customer complaints (one has dropped the entire Sonos product line).  This boneheaded move hits them in the pocket book too!  Not to mention long-term-loyal-repeat customers who have built their systems over the years. 

So to the handful of Sonos SuperFans left on here who keep downplaying the impact of one of the worse (and P.Spence has a number) decisions Sonos has ever made.  Keep in mind that it’s not only the hours of wasted time trying to get our MUSIC to play, it’s the feedback from friends, family, installers, retailers who ARE also actually suffering what should have NEVER happened.  Have a heart, stop reading these forums if they bother you, or offer up really good solutions instead of downplaying this impact while claiming it’s no big deal and will be solved soon!   

The tone-deft, arrogant, and ignorant corporate leaders of this now crappy company have a simple solution but they refuse to do it, probably out of spite, greed (bonus time) or a noose above their neck, but they won’t roll back even temporally to ease the impact of their poor decisions.  

Music is a personal journey and we have the right to get angry when a company ruins (temporary or permanently) our access to it. 

Regarding the new Sonos app you state:

“For its initial rollout, we focused on how we could answer some of the most common requests from our customers, including increased reliability, performance, and faster access to music.”

I can only say that you have **massively failed**! Until the release of the new iOS app I have been a happy Sonos user for 10 years with Sonos equipment in 4 rooms of my home. The most annoying problems with the new app is

• The app frequently fails to connect to my system issuing a message like “something went wrong”. 
• The connection with the Sonos speakers is so slow that it is very difficult to change the volume: Lower the volume in the app and nothing happens. And nothing happens. And nothing happens. Then something happens but probably not what you expected since the volume was lowered 3 times instead of once due to the lag in speaker response.
• Several clicks is necessary in order to start a stream, this is not “faster access to music”.

To be honest, if the Sonos App had been like the current one when I bought my first Sonos speaker I would never had invested in more of your brand and instead put my first units in the trash bin.

The new app is a complete and total disaster. It is clear that they did not test it on Sonos users, or there would've been an uproar from the test users. If Sonos does not want a complete PR And revenue disaster, they should immediately make the old app available while they work out the bugs on the new app. This is a very simple solution.

I have recommended Sonos to the numerable people. If they ask me now, I would tell them absolutely not an under no circumstances should you get the system?

Can we have some facts from the Sonos Team please?

Having been a software engineer myself, I (and half of the Sonos user community) would like to understand why, it isn’t as simple as:

1: Roll back the App and any associated F/W updates back to the last working versions (prior to May). Of course you would also need to Test, Test, Test the Rollback of the App and F/W for any unforseen side effects.

2: As we had in the past, write a special second version of the App (or even use the current one) to support the headphones for those customers that have purchased them, that supports streaming from the App to the Headphones. We used to run S1 and S2 Apps in parallel?

3: Before you attempt to merge the Apps back together, Beta Test… Limited Tame User Test….Early Adopter Test….. and TEST TEST TEST the merged version TO DEATH with a phased roll-out.

4: The Board should FIRE who ever architected and was responsible for this terrible situation.

I have an outdoor complete Sonos system by my pool, the move and my house wired with Sonos for listening throughout my whole house.

you change the app to where it is much more difficult to just play from a playlist.  Like when I shuffle songs how do you either skip a song or go back to a song now?  All I can see to do is hit reshuffle.  
 

The new app just seems more confusing and not as user friendly.  I guess I do t know why a change was needed.  You did not make it better…. Made it more frustrating to me.

Please reset back to the old app!

I think the real frustration for me is that my Sonos system has become so flakey, laggy and unpredictable. From one day to the next I don’t know whether I will be able to see some of my speakers, whether I can group them and whether they will play music. I also find that the ability to access the system will vary between using my iPad and my iPhone - many times some speakers will be viewable on one device but not the other. I can wait up to 5 minutes for music to start playing and I often just give up trying to group speakers together. As many others on this forum have said, I used to be a big advocate of Sonos but no more - wouldn’t recommend anymore and do wish I could go back and choose another system. I used to think the ‘old’ app was a bit flakey, but goodness me the ‘new’ version is just terrible. Such a shame Sonos - what were you thinking?

I want to add my voice to the chorus of dissatisfied users regarding the recent app update. As a long-time, loyal Sonos customer, I feel compelled to express my extreme disappointment with the changes.

Key Issues:

    •    User Experience (UX): The new interface is confusing and difficult to navigate. My mother, who is not tech-savvy, finds it impossible to use, which underscores how user-unfriendly it has become.
    •    Functionality: Several features that were essential to my daily use are now either missing or harder to access.
    •    Performance: The app is slower and more prone to crashes than the previous version.

I understand the need for innovation and am usually supportive of companies pushing boundaries. However, this update feels like a significant step backward. The app, in its current form, is subpar and detracts from the otherwise excellent Sonos experience.

Please acknowledge this misstep, consider rolling back to the previous version, and start the redesign process with user feedback at the forefront. This would restore the functionality and ease of use we all appreciate.

I have also left a one-star rating on the App Store to reflect my dissatisfaction.

As a devoted Sonos user with an entire house running on your system, this update has severely impacted my experience. I even recommended Sonos to my family, but now, I regret this decision due to the app’s poor performance.

Sonos, please listen to your loyal customers and rectify this situation promptly. We trust you to deliver the exceptional quality we have come to expect.

Well here we are, six months on from D(isaster)-Day. For those of us still suffering a selection of random problems that have made our equipment difficult or impossible to use since then I guess that we have to ask just how much longer we are expected to endure this pathetic (or, in Sonos terms, 'courageous') situation.

The failure of Sonos to restore its software to full functionality over this long period or to maintain the stated rectification schedule, plus the recent launch of a new product in spite of stating that the company would prioritise making its controllers work over new hardware introductions, makes me wonder if it is actually within their power to return our products to their as-purchased condition.

Perhaps six months is long enough to wait to find out. For me it certainly is and while in some respects it has been interesting to have been part of one of the biggest and most well-documented self-inflicted technological failures of any business, that is not what I expected to be buying into. Sonos, we're over here, not waving but drowning.

The app is broken in at least a dozen different ways. The REAL question we should be asking is what the hell is Sonos support doing to help their customer base? Because you KNOW they know it’s broken, their users have a wad of money dedicated to this (now junk) hardware and we get … nothing?!

Nothing from the president/CEO, nothing from calling support, nothing from the support website, and nothing from the latest release for IOS - which continues to have the same issues it did last week, and the week before, and the week before that!

Class action lawsuit is required with negligence like this from a corporation that has shafted their users.

…and please can we have an update from the CEO (or someone in authority/control) about what is happening? We were promised regular updates, but we have heard nothing, apart from a weak and late apology for the mess created by this app. I’m giving SONOS two more weeks, and then I am selling my useless hardware on ebay (at great loss).

I want to listen to my personal music library.

Thank you.

I just updated the Sonos app and lost balance control on my Sonos Roam stereo pair.  Apparently  the balance control was not included with the update.  Has anyone else noticed this issue or am I just missing something?

Yes, but many of us are already thousands of dollars into this company for these products and platforms! And now it doesn't work as expected..…total bullshit!

I have a 12 component Sonos system that we’ve grown over many years now.  I am beyond dissapointed with the new App and more importantly that Sonos is refusing to let us rollback to a working app that is readily available. This is an astonishingly cavalier, arrogant move.  However, I don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater or cut my nose off to spite my face...just yet.  Sonos users need solutions and a path forward.  I do not believe or trust that Sonos will provide that - they could easily, but they refuse to.  Headphones are NOT the answer. So, then what?  

I’m thinking:

• SonoPhone / SonopPad app for iOs users who cannot rollback.  I’ve done this and recommend it before otherwise pulling your hair out.  Android users just Rollback.
• complete dump and replace (Bluesound or Wiim or Heos or ???) - some may, but for me that would be expensive and risky - could be the devil I know vs the devil I don’t. But it could be a migration path.
• Roon - a hybrid approach that can integrate Sonos components with other brands of speakers and audio components allowing for a gradual unwinding of Sonos ownership.  Looks attractive, but expensive and requires a server.
• LMS - similar maybe to Roon, but apparently free.
• Plex - only read about it, have no idea if that’s viable.
• Wait it out and suck it.  The Sonos recommended path. Right. F them.

We, before Sonos, used a product from Turtle Beach - AudioTron AT-100 - that looked about the size of a Blu-ray player.  It was able to stream all our NAS tunes and we could finally rip and box up our CDs. They discontinued it and eventually support stopped.  However, there were 3rd party solutions and scripts that would allow for updating the library, so we milked that thing for years in a very non-user friendly way, but there was not much else.  Whole house audio was done old school, but everyone had to listen to the same thing. But we made it work until the hardware finally gave up.  Enter Sonos.  What a game changer.  Finally, my wife could play music without busting out the CDs. 

I feel like this is potentially the stage we’re entering now.  Not that Sonos is being discontinued, although I think they are heading down an odd dubious path.  I’d be more than happy to see them collapse and get bought out.  Time will tell as they seem to be scrambling right now or else why pull off such a bone-headed maneuver to hawk headphones that I surely won’t be buying.  They must think this will be some needed fast cash. Ironic that a completely deaf company is releasing headphones.

However, there are the 3rd party solutions that might relegate Sonos hardware to essentially what the AudioTron AT-100 became - nothing but hardware I own and one day, like AudioTron, just a memory of how we did things in the early 2000s.  That’s my goal.  As the Sonos hardware dies, migrate away from Sonos as cost effectively as possible.  They’ve already screwed me, but I want to react in a way where I don’t screw myself as well - anymore than I already have by buying into their last cash grab with S2.

With my iPad on S2, my Desktop PC app still working, and SonoPhone on my phone, I’m not desperate, just a bit flustered and realizing that Sonos is not who I want to be involved with anymore...any more than I have to during the unwinding.

So, please add any potential short- or long-term solutions and alternatives for robust music library playback and streaming solutions similar to what Sonos used to be interested in providing.

I’ve had Sonos for ages. This new app is slow, delayed in responding, and generally terrible. I’d like to have the old app back. Just to adjust the volume is a pain in the ass and it doesn’t turn off immediately when you press stop, there is a major delay. It really needs some work. 

it’s this simple :

• I don’t want a cloud based system
• I don’t want my local speakers going out to the external WAN on each operation
• I want to be able to use a different WiFi channel for the sonos system (via boost)
• I don’t want a subscription service
• I want to play my music with my speakers
• I want a simple controller not a changing system
• I want what I purchased not what I am being forced into

I have spent hundreds of pounds to have Sonos speakers all around the house, purely to play music from the large library on my Windows Desktop (all ripped from CD’s that I bought).  This has disappeared completely from the Sonos App, making my investment a complete waste.  Any lawyers out there? Surely the basis for a massive Class Action suit! 

I was such a fan of Sonos, it worked beautifully (ok, a few glitches) & I used to recommend to everyone. 

Why on earth would they do this?