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Dear Mr Spence

I’ve been a grateful customer of Sonos for years. I stumped up a lot of money at the time in 2013 for a speaker and bought one of the early Play 1 devices to try this out, somewhat skeptical. The experience was great and over the course of several years have managed to add to my Sonos collection which now includes 2 more Play 1’s, Roam, and most recently an Arc Soundbar.

 

Over the course of the last several years, I have discarded other items in favor of the utility of the Sonos system - this included my bedside alarm clock that survived years thanks to its unique feature of offering 3 separate alarms. Placing a Play 1 in my bedroom and accessing local radio stations was great and we used to wake up to this most mornings. My prior investment in stereo equipment was replaced by easy access to my music and an easy-to-use interface that was simple and functional.

 

I could select speakers, select music and music filled my house.

I could and did create multiple alarms that I could use for different requirements during the week

I was able to link speakers and play music when people visited, adjusting the content and volume easily

 

If you had asked me then if I would recommend Sonos - my Net Promoter Score was highly positive and I would have raved about the functionality, convenience, and ease of use. Luckily my joining the community was late enough I did not suffer the ignominy of recycle mode on any of my units. I might have grumbled about the high price of the systems but that was made up for by the functionality and the sheer joy of using the system and enjoying my music, playlists, podcasts, and radio.

 

Then with no warning that I am aware of in May of 2024  Sonos pushed out a “fully redesigned…bringing a new look and feel” complete revamp onto our phones and systems. You have my email so sending a courtesy note to your loyal customers ahead of a big upgrade warning them would have been easy I think. To this date 3 months later I get a daily reminder of the failure of this update that I cannot get rid of

Every morning at 06:30 I get a notification that my Sonos Alarm Play 1 Speaker “Deck” has alarmed. For a few days/weeks, it actually was as there was no means to turn it off so I had to unplug that speaker until a ‘fix’ was found. I have been able to turn the alarm off - not so for my personal iPhone. No matter where I am, at home, traveling, or in another country, I get an alert to tell me Sonos is alarming. I agree Sonos is alarming in the total swing and miss with this upgrade.

 

The iPhone interface which is the primary means I want and need access to the Sonos system since I don’t carry a laptop around with me to run the Sonos App. To find the alarms seems to require at least 3 clicks which are buried in settings/Manage 

 

At this point if you were to ask me my view of Sonos I would tell anyone to completely steer clear of the product. I find the new iPhone interface a disaster. I can’t find any of the functionality I used to easily and any time I do try and use the system I often give up the interface is so challenging.

I used to have ready access to radio stations to select for alarms - they all appear to have gone and any attempt to get them back goes through a recurring process that never ends and is not successful.

I am asked to authenticate for TuneIn but keep going around in circles. Sonos apparently has radio stations as well but they too remain inaccessible 

 

All this might be fixed in the desktop application but that is not and has not been my primary interface and I rarely use it.

 

At this point my Sonos system stays quiet most of the time, I rarely use it and find myself regretting purchasing the Arc sound bar for my new home theatre setup given the challenges with the system

 

If I am wrong I’d be happy to find myself using and navigating the Sonos iPhone app with the same facility I did before and return to listening to sounds again in my house

 

Please help - 10 plus years a customer and now I find the system silent and my frustration elevated and I am reminded of this frustration each and every morning at 06:30 with an alert that is stuck in limbo and appears to be on my iPhone for the rest of time.

 

Respectfully 

 

Nick

I totally concur. I have invested in 30+ Sonos speakers including 2 outdoor systems and I am disgusted. I never use the system anymore since it turns on speakers randomly throughout the house, you can’t change volume (it keeps putting it back to what it was) and even worse, you can’t even turn it off. You can’t select a new music source either.

The most frustrating thing though is that it seems to be getting progressively worse despite promises to the contrary.  Having run a successful software company myself, I can only surmise that someone in engineering and QA really don’t know what they are doing and killing customer goodwill in the process. 

I totally agree with you both, since the App “Revamp” nothing but issues. We have invested a lot of money in good product let down by a awful App, like others I will probably not buy anymore devices if the App issues are not addressed and instead slowly move over to another brand.

@whiskylibrarian

re. Alarms, are you certain your app is fully up to date from your app store? And have you gone to Settings - Manage - System Updates - Check for Updates to ensure your system is also up to date? Alarm issues were largely dealt with early on in the fix cycle.

I feel exactly like the post above, I could not elaborate as well as this post. 
I am really disappointed with the updates and my system disappointing. I have updated re updated not sure what todo at this point

I feel exactly like the post above, I could not elaborate as well as this post. 
I am really disappointed with the updates and my system disappointing. I have updated re updated not sure what todo at this point

All you can do is keep going. There should be another update on Monday or Tuesday, and they know what the issues are so eventually I’d imagine missing elements and non-functioning pieces will spring back into life for most when something fundamental is adjusted…

I hope so, it’s long overdue. Thanks for the update

Yes Ronny I am

re. Alarms, are you certain your app is fully up to date from your app store? And have you gone to Settings - Manage - System Updates - Check for Updates to ensure your system is also up to date? Alarm issues were largely dealt with early on in the fix cycle.

The alarms issue was sorta fixed but not before many of us had to highlihgt the fact it was not even considered

But the alert remains steadfastly there every morning, 06:30 from an alarm that I had set on the day of the unscheduled update to my app. A reminder of the debacle each and every morning that is *impossible* to get rid of save deleting it every day……

Not my first rodeo with technology, apps and updates

I don’t need IT Crowd guidance of “Have you tried Turning it off and on again”

 

Yes Ronny I am

Not my first rodeo with technology, apps and updates

I don’t need IT Crowd guidance of “Have you tried Turning it off and on again”

 

Nice reply.

Suit yourself.

My systems up and down Alarm issues https://www.reddit.com/r/sonos/s/AFv2xFag2Y

Yes Ronny I am

re. Alarms, are you certain your app is fully up to date from your app store? And have you gone to Settings - Manage - System Updates - Check for Updates to ensure your system is also up to date? Alarm issues were largely dealt with early on in the fix cycle.

The alarms issue was sorta fixed but not before many of us had to highlihgt the fact it was not even considered

It’s not fixed.  My family has very little control over things, as the new app wants me to give them master account access for all the things they used to be able to do, which I won’t give them.  Huge Sonos fail.

I couldn’t find if there’s now an obligation to sign in to the new app. 

Why would you not trust your family with the Sonos credentials? Could you not agree with them you are the only one that changes things?

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