Dead spots on CR200

BarryM thanks for your response, with regards to postal service this is most definately not an option from Indonesia, you can wave it good bye and never see it again, especially something that might be worth some decent cash. Indonesian Customs also see it as an "opportunity" if you get my drift

.....had a CR200 which after a period of inactivity had suddenly developed a dead zone mid way down of right hand side of screen.

I did the usually resets & updates of software etc but no joy.

I was not a member of these forums at the time, but emailed Sonos support direct, asking if there was some other trick I could try to recover the handset.

I was surprised when they replied that they had raised an RMA & I would recieve
an email in the next day or two which would be a UPS label to print up.

I had not told them how old the unit was or supplied proof of purchase or anything like that (I would have struggled on all counts!).

I parcelled up the CR200 carefully, printed the label off, dropped it off to the local UPS depot, & in under 48 hours I had a new unit.

I can not believe the excellent customer support Sonos have displayed in this day & age - you alway's expect a battle don't you?

I've been so impressed, I wanted to find a Sonos forum to leave a message on for others......that is when I found this & saw many others have had very similar experiences.

Well done Sonos for great customer support, & providing a hassle free approach to resolving these issues.

UPS were excellent too in my case.

I was surprised when they replied that they had raised an RMA & I would recieve
an email in the next day or two which would be a UPS label to print up.

I had not told them how old the unit was or supplied proof of purchase or anything like that (I would have struggled on all counts!).

Their system tells them when the CR200 was first logged on, via it's serial number.

That said the large majority of CR200s are basically within the extended warranty period. They were only released about two and a half years ago. It appears that its predecessor is still reliable after 7 years of service.



I can not believe the excellent customer support Sonos have displayed in this day & age - you alway's expect a battle don't you?

I've been so impressed, I wanted to find a Sonos forum to leave a message on for others......that is when I found this & saw many others have had very similar experiences.

I don't think that any reasonable person could fault Sonos' service performance in this, or any other, area.

That doesn't negate the points raised in this thread, and I am neither as surprised nor impressed as you are by Sonos management of the problem. I have found the device to be a lemon. Their other option could have been a recall, or at least a more thorough removal of problem units from the supply chain, especially those outside the US.

Systemic failures of a dedicated controller costing $US550 which just sits inside on a tabletop somewhere, after a couple of years, is unreasonable. eg. My seven year old granddaughter has a Nintendo with a touch screen. She belts the crap out of it. It gets dragged all manner of places. It hasn't shown any touch screen issues. Does this happen with mobile phones from quality manufacturers?

Would you still be so impressed if the replacement unit fails soon too? And then it's replacement also?

And then what happens when the Sonos extended warranty expires? Would you have bought the device if you had known that it's expected lifespan was little over two years?

Again I will say this. I would like to purchase another CR200 (maybe 2) but am not going to buy another one until I hear a satisfactory explanation for the continuing failures of these devices. It simply can't be a faulty batch.

Yes, I intend to purchase another also. I recently had a CR200 replaced, no quibble, excellent RMA experience, and so far the replacement is fine. But... like other posters I think a full explanation of what has happened with this product would be good customer relations. I totally endorse NYC Guy's take on this. Maybe Sonos has just given up on it, given the ready availability of free app alternative controllers!

No postal service from Singapore to Indonesia?

My single CR200 has now been replaced 3 times. It costs me one way postage to Sonos, to get failure verified, and approx 1 week of outage. Sonos pay for the return postage.

However I agree with the main thrusts of your post:

1> that the CR200 is a dud with an unacceptable re-failure rate. I may have been guilty of cleaning the first unit's screen with a damp cloth, but the two other were treated with much TLC & caution, and I am the only person who uses it.

2> Even though Sonos replace the units under warranty, the customer does suffer costs caused by this manufacturing or design problem.

3> Sonos explanation of this problem is not credible. If was just a bad batch problem, why are we getting failures from replacement units when they state the the bad batch has been flushed from the system?

I have tried several help tips from the HELP desk, but to no avail...:rolleyes:. it is dead horizontally alternately in strips fashion. Those unresponsive bands make selecting music impossible. My new plan is to have my sister bring it back (from Thailand) to USA and have it fixed or replaced or whatever to bring its life back.:p

And then what happens when the Sonos extended warranty expires? Would you have bought the device if you had known that it's expected lifespan was little over two years?

Unfortunately I know what happens when the extended warranty expires. My CR200 purchased right as they became available developed the lower-right deadspot a couple of months ago. Support told me it would cost $100 to repair, which I've not done at this point.

-ColinH

Sadly (also luckily) I have to report that my second CR200 (now on replacement 4) has frozen on the bottom third of the screen so just as well I had not made my pilgrimage to the dealer in Singapore yet as now I want two replacements. I have purchased a number of extra charging cradles for the CR200's so I can use throughout the house and so for me now it is a point of principle that I want what I paid for, I don't want to use an iTouch via WiFi just because it is easier for Sonos as a Company to get rid of the problem.

Sadly I also need to report that Andrew Schulert - Head of Quality for Sonos still has not come onto the forum and addressed what must be classed as a global quality control failure. My Supplier in Sinagpore has now physically stopped selling the CR200 to any new customers as the volume of complaints was unacceptable for his high end HiFi business. Not sure why Sonos don't just "man up" take responsibility for this and either recall all the units and refund the cost (from the location they were purchased - in my case 4 x $515 USD) or get the problem fixed 100% and replace all CR200's with confirmed default free new units. I realize from a Company perspective they may not want to do that because of the crazy litigation laws in the States ( sue Sonos for 35M because my eyesight is damaged because of their faulty product) but they do need to the right thing by all the people GLOBALLY who purchase their products.

I do find the silence of Sonos people when there is a problem with their product to be very annoying and almost on a par with the arrogance of Apple in this respect.

It's no way to treat your loyal customers Sonos and no way to treat those who are holding back from purchasing more of your products as we still aren't sure if the problem has been fixed. It would appear not but you just won't admit it. I hope I'm wrong.

Im on my third controller. Have had two replacements under warranty the first failed after about 3 months. Good customer service but why they are still failing is worrying. It's also a real hassle having to go through the returns process. My UPS depot (uk) is a 50 mile round trip.