How do they win back their customer’s trust? Perhaps by being courageous and admitting wrong here? And announcing a plan that quickly restores the variety of essential functions lost by their shortsighted update (e.g. rerelease of the S2 app). Then full transparency on the updates. No announcements that everything is improved, or generic “updates to features” but specific notes about what is happening and a full timeline for updating to restore features.
I know you don’t get your CEO position by ever saying sorry or admitting error but it would go a long way here to them telling their customers they are actually listening to them. Leaving us with dead hardware for months while they try to re-add in the lost functions will only tell me that it was a huge mistake to buy hardware locked to a company that could destroy its function at any time (and this isn’t the first!).
They need to roll back to the old version of the app, immediately. It must be such a comedy, whatever is happening in the company Slack channels right now. A dark, dumb comedy.
It's gonna be hard to sell this *. But I will, even if it's for pennies on the dollar.
How much do CDs cost nowadays?
*Moderator Note: Modified in accordance with the Community Code of Conduct.*
This redesign is nothing but a DISASTER. Very non-intuitive, InTune Custom URLs are all greyed out, Very hard to find most functions. What was SONOS thinking ?
SONOS APP was one of their USP but they destroyed this with new design.
SONOS should accept their mistake, revert back and go back to drawing board!
I hope they listen to customer voice.
Has everyone here already seen that an email address for the CEO is listed on the support page?
ceo@sonos.com
Even if it's just the CEO's chatbot -- and even if you're just cutting pasting screenshot from the many, many community forums fuming about the new app -- it might be worth the time it takes to send the email.
It is utterly disappointing that SONOS does not have courage, courtesy to respond to community concerns. BTW - Forums article is overly generous!
Thanks for posting this. After reading it, I quickly realized that this is the biggest pile of complete * that I have ever heard. This Maxime Bouvat-Merlin needs to be fired immediately. There is a difference between bravery and stupidity. And only smart people know the difference and survive, and stupid people lay in the dumpster of history. Welcome to the dumpster Maxime. Say hello to Liz Truss while you’re there. But even Liz Truss was smart enough to know when to roll back the bad decisions she made.
*Moderator Note: Modified in accordance with the Community Code of Conduct.*
This, as quoted from the link, is the crux of the problem:
Central to the Sonos experience is its iPhone and Android-supported controller app.
This is the equivalent to saying that central to the Tesla experience is its steering wheel.
It seems that Sonos also believes this, as does this reviewer.
And this is why all Sonos “innovation” of the last decade has been in faffing around with the app in the hope of keeping customers engaged with what it offers.
Instead of realising that central to the Sonos experience is the smooth delivery of stutter free high quality music from around the world to inside the home using well built good sounding kit. And regardless of whether the music comes from outside the home or from a local server inside the home.
Without the paradigm shift needed to course correct about what is central to the Sonos experience, Sonos will keep floundering and thrashing.
Linked to @Corry P and @Keith N as feedback.
I was looking forward to the headphones release. Not any more. I won’t be investing, re-investing any more of my heard earned until this s*****ow has been resolved. I add to the chorus of disapproval.
Is Sonos about to become the new Blackberry?
New Blackberry - not quite yet, although the competition are getting close to Sonos I would suggest that they do not have the killer blow like the move from clunky keyboard to touch screen. But let's be honest they are trying very hard to say we are rubbish and there might also be a touch of the Ratners in their approach.
I hope sonos can’t recover from this. They used to be a good product and fair priced products. Now all they do is fleece customers with the completely outrageous sky rocketed prices for components out of pure greed and deliver nothing but pure trash that doesnt even function.
It’s time for a far better market competitor to take hold of the market.
This has been the worst user experience I've had with any appliance since my last home printer. My sub won't connect to my systems and all tech support could tell me was to be patient with the app and no time frame of when that will be fixed. My SL One surround will not setup as well because I changed my router, even with an Ethernet cable. I'm sure it's the app doing this cause everything was working perfectly and now I'm down to my sound bar. If I knew my speakers could be functional, bust still not work based on the app or anything beyond my control, I would not have paid for them. This is just horrible
I have 16 Sonos devices spread in three locations … this is after updating to S2 (which is a story best not recounted). Having been lucky enough to be able to roll back to 16.1, I will never update again to the new app unless I read in the forum that absolutely every feature has been at least restored. I don’t care how many updates it takes. I’m not interested in being a beta tester and providing feedback. I just want to be able to use the system I paid for. I want to be able to listen to my music wherever it resides … not just where Sonos has established it as a priority.
The statement about subsequent updates restoring functionality, perhaps by June, has made me somewhat disgusted. I seriously doubt that there will be a version of the new app by the end of June which makes us entirely whole. ie. back where 16.1 was … never mind with improvements.
My big fear is that Sonos does a speaker update which renders the old 16.1 app unusable. If that happens, I will rethink my go forward music listening strategy. There are other alternatives, none of which I’m eager to take. I have stopped all Sonos purchases at this point. Kind of hard to get excited about Sonos headphones when I can’t play my music through them.
I read Sonos’ reply to The Verge:
https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/9/24152675/sonos-new-app-bad-reviews-response-statement
The company hears what customers are saying but insists the new app was necessary — even if it’s ‘a few steps back’ for now because of missing features.
Really: a few steps back! Pull the new app. Do an easy roll back on Android and iPhone to 16.1. (Not everyone can sideload the old version). Admit it is an unmitigated disaster and at least recover some respect.
I have 16 Sonos devices spread in three locations … this is after updating to S2 (which is a story best not recounted). Having been lucky enough to be able to roll back to 16.1, I will never update again to the new app unless I read in the forum that absolutely every feature has been at least restored. I don’t care how many updates it takes. I’m not interested in being a beta tester and providing feedback. I just want to be able to use the system I paid for. I want to be able to listen to my music wherever it resides … not just where Sonos has established it as a priority.
The statement about subsequent updates restoring functionality, perhaps by June, has made me somewhat disgusted. I seriously doubt that there will be a version of the new app by the end of June which makes us entirely whole. ie. back where 16.1 was … never mind with improvements.
My big fear is that Sonos does a speaker update which renders the old 16.1 app unusable. If that happens, I will rethink my go forward music listening strategy. There are other alternatives, none of which I’m eager to take. I have stopped all Sonos purchases at this point. Kind of hard to get excited about Sonos headphones when I can’t play my music through them.
I read Sonos’ reply to The Verge:
https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/9/24152675/sonos-new-app-bad-reviews-response-statement
The company hears what customers are saying but insists the new app was necessary — even if it’s ‘a few steps back’ for now because of missing features.
Really: a few steps back! Pull the new app. Do an easy roll back on Android and iPhone to 16.1. (Not everyone can sideload the old version). Admit it is an unmitigated disaster and at least recover some respect.
I agree with every word of 5his.
I’ve been using Sonos products for many years through company ups and downs. I can’t wrap my head around why this software was released. It’s not like Sonos didn’t know about the problems, short comings and removed functionality before it was released. But it was released anyway. Why?
It doesn’t matter that it could be a better app in the long run. It was released before it could replace the previous app. Why?
I’m sure the developers didn’t want it released as is. Someone forced this to be released like this. Why?
I can’t answer the question “Can Sonos recover from this?”, but I can say they have lost my confidence in the leadership at this firm.
Ken
So it has been about two days since the launch of the new Sonos app. Judging by the number of negative posts on this community forum and on the Sonos subreddit, I think it is pretty safe to say that the app launch has been a pretty massive failure.
This is a very critical moment for Sonos. The Sonos app is the core of their ecosystem. I can imagine tensions are running high at the Sonos headquarters as they try to figure out what went wrong and how they need to respond. A moment like this can sometimes be the beginning of the end for a company and Sonos knows this.
Consumer trust is the most important thing a company needs to remain successful and to grow. Sonos dropped the ball with the new app and has lost the trust of many new and loyal customers. And the timing cannot be any worse with the upcoming release of their new headphones.
So what does Sonos need to do next? What kind of response would ease your anger and frustrations? How much time are you willing to give Sonos to bring back the many missing app features? How will this bungled app launch affect the launch of the new headphones? Will it be delayed until the app situation has been resolved? Has the new app launch changed your mind about purchasing new Sonos products? What does Sonos need to do to earn back your trust?
This app’ update obviously has not gone as planned. It is a debacle. The fix: FIRST provide another update OR OPTION for us to return to the functioning app that most of us were accustomed to and happy with as recently as last week; THEN in the meantime, sort out the failed update (especially reinstating features like alarm, sleep timer, volume numbers at the ends of the volume sliders) and re-release only after EXTENSIVE Beta testing
It’s time for a far better market competitor to take hold of the market.
It just needs a change of top management - Spence and VPs.
Blackberry went down on Spence’s watch; he never made it to CEO but was very much part of the leadership team at the demise.
Sonos is nowhere near facing the Blackberry kind of challenge from Apple, but Spence is taking it to a place of being vulnerable.
Agree with
@Kumar that this is not Blackberry territory yet, it does have shades of Gerald Ratner in the UK as a very self inflicted wound. What to me is most galling is that this will have been a very conscious decision at the top. This was not a poorly tested software release it was deliberate decision taking, I am sure, the risks into account. There is some form of pressure here with the next product release which might give rise to concern about the company's internal income projections.
Will it come OK come June/ July when there are further releases of the app possibly. Has it harmed the brand - undoubtedly. It is not terminal but it is difficult to see why we are here.
To@GuitarSuperstar original questions I am on S1 so the immediate issues are not a concern. I would think that rolling out updates quickly is the order of the day that might mollify people a bit. It might delay the headphones after all, as someone may say releasing the product while we are fighting fires is not a good move.
Headphones would have been my driver to replace my s1 only kit and move to S2. Not now, it will be a least 6 months before I dip my toe in the S2 market and in 6 months who knows what options might arrive from elsewhere.
Trust - while the current senior management are in place I see no hope of a trust return. They effectively lied in their description of the new App, we had the s1/s2 debacle how could you trust them or recommend their company.
Headphones would have been my driver to replace my s1 only kit and move to S2. Not now, it will be a least 6 months before I dip my toe in the S2 market and in 6 months who knows what options might arrive from elsewhere.
Trust - while the current senior management are in place I see no hope of a trust return. They effectively lied in their description of the new App, we had the s1/s2 debacle how could you trust them or recommend their company.
I decided in 2020 after the S1/S2 event that I will not buy another bit of Sonos kit ever, and that I will wean my Sonos hardware from being dependent on Sonos software for it to continue to work as it had since 2011.
Debacle isn't the word for the cynical moves surrounding S1/S2 that showed just how much hypocrisy is there in a lot of the words from Sonos top management, including their swearing by a touted commitment to the environment.
By the way, all my Sonos kit from 2011 continues to work as well as it did when new, under S1. That speaks volumes for the character of the company that Macfarlane built.
Sonos fanboys and public defenders may claim different, but this Sonos isn't that company, and Spence isn't a worthy successor to Macfarlane.
All that Spence and co have done with this app underscores that for me. I no longer advocate Sonos kit to anyone, although many of my posts here since 2020 to help users to the extent that an S1 user can, convey my abiding respect for Sonos hardware.
So it has been about two days since the launch of the new Sonos app. Judging by the number of negative posts on this community forum and on the Sonos subreddit, I think it is pretty safe to say that the app launch has been a pretty massive failure.
This is a very critical moment for Sonos. The Sonos app is the core of their ecosystem. I can imagine tensions are running high at the Sonos headquarters as they try to figure out what went wrong and how they need to respond. A moment like this can sometimes be the beginning of the end for a company and Sonos knows this.
Consumer trust is the most important thing a company needs to remain successful and to grow. Sonos dropped the ball with the new app and has lost the trust of many new and loyal customers. And the timing cannot be any worse with the upcoming release of their new headphones.
So what does Sonos need to do next? What kind of response would ease your anger and frustrations? How much time are you willing to give Sonos to bring back the many missing app features? How will this bungled app launch affect the launch of the new headphones? Will it be delayed until the app situation has been resolved? Has the new app launch changed your mind about purchasing new Sonos products? What does Sonos need to do to earn back your trust?
The only short-term solution is to rollback the app to the 16.1 version (iOS). If the current app (80.00.04) is what we’re stuck with, my Sonos gear is headed to the local e-Waste site. The new app is THAT bad.
Even if they do that, the reputational damage to the Sonos brand is significant and it will take a lot to earn back my trust. And the fact that even with all they know about how unhappy users are and what a piece of s**t the new app is, they keep prompting and pushing users to download the new one.
SONOS - when you find yourselves in a massive hole of your own making, STOP DIGGING.
COURAGEOUS? What in the world is that dude high on?
So if Ford was equally courageous with a software update for my Mach-E, I wouldn’t be able to unlock the doors or put the car in drive.
Sonos has options. If could roll back the update today. Actions speak louder than words.. If they choose to forge ahead then that shows what they think of their customer base.
After 7 hours of troubleshooting with customer support chat, 2:30 hours on hold and 2 hours with tech support and still... nothing. Just my Arc working, no surround, no sub. This has been horrible
One issue I encountered on Friday is that my router died. When I replaced it with the same ID and key code (which worked for lots of Apps), Sonos rightly identified it as different. However, the new App won’t let you update credentials, at all. So, I am using one speaker hardwired that only one speaker in my home can pick up wirelessly. The alternative is to factory reset the whole thing and reinstall and hope it works. However, others have noted that they did this and it did not work. I cannot imagine that Sonos released this app and it can’t allow people to replace their routers if they stop working or they change providers. It’s pretty basic.
