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**Class Action Lawsuit** We all deserve to recoup all hardware investment

If ever a situation called for a class action lawsuit, this is it:

  • Company sells customers expensive, multi-unit hardware systems
  • Tethers customers to a software ecosystem to use them effectively
  • Dramatically changes software into an auto-update environment
  • Unsuspecting customers lose access to extensive, core media sources and features that significantly diminish the value of their expensive hardware and/or make it untenable for usage they had every reason to believe they would continue to have
  • Customers wishing to continue meeting these essential needs forced to sell Company hardware that they had no intention of doing at a loss and buy competitor hardware.
  • Pattern of behavior by Company indicates that choices made to remove said functionality were part of an intentional, plan to damage the product experience of many users in favor of others.

Seriously. This would be like selling someone a car and then updating the operating system so that the steering wheels was controlled by AI instead of manual because there’s more profit there for the company.

Even if they resolve this issue with their awful software release, how much in damages are deserved for every customer for heir lost time and undue harm?

The store value of my hardware suite, which I had no intention of replacing is probably $7,000 - $8,000. How much do others have invested who believe they need to leave SONOS?

I am not someone who can start a class action lawsuit, but I’m sure there are people here who can, and I’d be at the front of the line to join it and recoup my losses. If you feel similarly, then bump up this thread so that SONOS is held accountable

226 replies

jgatie

Jgatie, I agree, probably not incompetent developers, but definitely an incompetent CEO.  

 

Depends on who he is trying to please.  If the bottom line for investors is met and the backlash of customers is minimal (they hardly ever follow through on their threats), then he’s not all that incompetent at all.  Hell, we just had a poster who ranted that he was going to leave Sonos forever.  They were signed on with an account that was last used 5 years ago, to (you guessed it) threaten to leave Sonos forever. 

K
Userlevel 5
Badge +3

I agree most people won’t leave, but some will.  You want to add customers not subtract, there are plenty of competitors who will gladly welcome disgruntled Sonos customers.  The bigger variable in my opinion is not the few that leave forever but how many people who would have expanded their Sonos product line now won’t.  How many professional installers who recommended Sonos now won’t.  How many fans who talked people in to buying Sonos now won’t.  These variables are hard to quantify but can have a real impact on future sales.  

T
Userlevel 2
Badge

Yeah the CEO should be ousted for this tbh

T
Userlevel 2
Badge

My account hasn't been used in years, because I never need to come to the forums. But since my speakers now do not function as advertised, well it makes sense that I'm interested in leaving. 

The logic here isn't difficult. 

A
Userlevel 2
Badge

Sonos stock price has declined by -19% since IPO launch. (quote Motleyfool)
The latest Sonos Software update (80.00.20 and later) has caused massive impacts to existing loyal customers , who now find thier expensive Sonos sound systems investment is unusable.

I think stockholders are going to be very angry at Sonos CEO.
Certainly previous loyal customers are

BTW our Play1 and Play Bar wont connect and register under the new broken software.

K
Userlevel 5
Badge +3

Sonos stock has dropped significantly in the last three months.  When they last reported their numbers they missed their earnings estimates by seven cents. There has been significant insider selling as of late.  Several red flags.  Whether the app rollout will cost them business depends on who you believe.  If you believe those posting out here it will.  If you believe the CEO who said 99% of the people love the new app it won’t.  My prediction is the future of the company, at least in the next year will be determined by the sales of the new headphones.  

Ken_Griffiths

Sonos stock price has declined by -19% since IPO launch. (quote Motleyfool)
The latest Sonos Software update (80.00.20 and later) has caused massive impacts to existing loyal customers , who now find thier expensive Sonos sound systems investment is unusable.

I think stockholders are going to be very angry at Sonos CEO.
Certainly previous loyal customers are

BTW our Play1 and Play Bar wont connect and register under the new broken software.

I perhaps wouldn’t be sucked in by everything you read… there are other ways to look at some things in context - just take the last year’s Sonos results, as example. That’s quite a different slant:

The software ‘remote’ control App might be going through a bad spell at the moment .. (most likely that will be a temporary issue for the majority anyway) .. so I’m personally not about to step away and give up my Sonos Hardware here, nor make any idle threats to ever do that. 

IMV Sonos hardware is still excellent (it’s why the majority of us are here in this community) and I am definitely getting the new Sonos Ace Headphones too.

I don’t want to bring down, or take legal action, against Sonos for a controller App that’s been stripped back and being rebuilt from the ground up. I’m just going to wait it out. I can still ‘easily’ play music to all my speakers, even without opening the new Sonos App and that also includes my locally held music library too.

If Sonos, as a company, was brought to its knees - we all will likely lose-out, not to mention the paperweight-like products that would be left behind in our Homes that no-one would want to take off our hands. I much prefer to wait patiently and let Sonos Staff get on and fix the ‘known’ (repeatedly-spoken-about) App issues at the earliest opportunity and then I will just look foward to their next hardware innovation, which, like everything Sonos do, will likely continue to out-class all their hardware competitors. Sell/Swap your Sonos products if you want to, instead of threatening to do so. I’m personally choosing to stay put and wait for all to get sorted, which it will.

Also @Acloud, with your own Sonos system, you ‘may’ just have a coincidental local network SSDP device discovery issue on your LAN, or something similar, as I’ve not seen others here in the community shouting about their Play:1’s (or Playbar’s for that matter) not working with the new App. I would at least explore these possibilities, before jumping to the conclusion your issues lie with the App, as I suspect very little has changed in terms of the hardware/firmware and the Sonos App itself is merely a software ‘remote’ for your Sonos players.

G

I don't think the unknown number of recent Ikea Symfonisk purchasers who've been sitting and waiting for almost a month to be even able to install their new shiny speakers will be as optimistic as you are! 

🎵 First We Take Manhattan Then Berlin 🎵
Ken_Griffiths

I don't think the unknown number of recent Ikea Symfonisk purchasers who've been sitting and waiting for almost a month to be even able to install their new shiny speakers will be as optimistic as you are! 

..and yet a .apk file install can quickly sort that too if they have, or can borrow, an Android device, plus I’m sure Sonos Support would be able to assist them, but it’s a different ‘kettle of fish’ for someone that already likely had their ‘old’ Playbar and Play:1 setup in their Sonos Household already.

T
Userlevel 2
Badge

Most people don't understand what a .apk even is. Come on, now.

Ken_Griffiths

Most people don't understand what a .apk even is. Come on, now.

Gosh even my 12 year old grandson has heard of the Android package file format and probably uses it more than me, with all the games he chooses to install on his devices - anyhow it’s certainly not rocket science.. and the Sonos S2 installer is widely discussed here in the community, but it means searching and reading maybe a paragraph, or even two. (Come on, now).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apk_(file_format)

G

Most people don't understand what a .apk even is. Come on, now.

Gosh even my 12 year old grandson has heard of the Android package file format and probably uses it more than me, with all the games he chooses to install on his devices - anyhow it’s certainly not rocket science.. and the Sonos S2 installer is widely discussed here in the community, but it means searching and reading maybe a paragraph, or even two. (Come on, now).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apk_(file_format)

But, one of the characteristics of Sonos was that it was pretty much plug'n'play.  Now, people are being told to use an apk file to reinstate the old S2, or to change the smb protocol, etc. Even then, to recover the music library, they then are told to run the Sonos program on a PC,

. For many, this is just too much.  And, add to this frustration caused by long waits to get some generic help, coupled with silence from Sonos itself, little wonder people are angry, confused and irritated.

Rightly or wrongly many feel an outlay of 1000s of dollars entitles them to better treatment.  Threats to sell, or start a class action are all indicators of their frustration. 

🎵 First We Take Manhattan Then Berlin 🎵
T
Userlevel 2
Badge

Most people don't understand what a .apk even is. Come on, now.

Gosh even my 12 year old grandson has heard of the Android package file format and probably uses it more than me, with all the games he chooses to install on his devices - anyhow it’s certainly not rocket science.. and the Sonos S2 installer is widely discussed here in the community, but it means searching and reading maybe a paragraph, or even two. (Come on, now).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apk_(file_format)

Most Sonos users aren't 12, and most customers don't even know about or use this forum. You're putting a lot of unrealistic expectations on the Sonos market here, especially for luxury products. 

B
Userlevel 3
Badge +1

I have been reaching out to Best Buy and Costco to let them know what is going on. The agent at Best Buy says that she is taking what I am telling her seriously. I have been asking them to warn customers about the app as what they buy might not be able to be set up. 
 

I see Amazon and Best Buy have some of the speakers suddenly on sale. If you look at the reviews for Eras 100 on Amazon and sort by recent, there are customers warning other customers. 
 

To me, it is unethical to sell a product that you know is flawed by the software that controls it. I encourage others to start reaching out to retailers. I talked in person to an associate at my local Costco in the electronics department. He had not heard of the problems and was going to tell his manager.   We can educate the retailers and new customers of the problems. 
 

Finally, I put in a complaint to the state consumer protection office and they have already sent a letter to Sonos for answers. 

 

 

T
Userlevel 2
Badge

I have been reaching out to Best Buy and Costco to let them know what is going on. The agent at Best Buy says that she is taking what I am telling her seriously. I have been asking them to warn customers about the app as what they buy might not be able to be set up. 
 

I see Amazon and Best Buy have some of the speakers suddenly on sale. If you look at the reviews for Eras 100 on Amazon and sort by recent, there are customers warning other customers. 
 

To me, it is unethical to sell a product that you know is flawed by the software that controls it. I encourage others to start reaching out to retailers. I talked in person to an associate at my local Costco in the electronics department. He had not heard of the problems and was going to tell his manager.   We can educate the retailers and new customers of the problems. 
 

Finally, I put in a complaint to the state consumer protection office and they have already sent a letter to Sonos for answers. 

 

 

These are excellent tips, thank you for sharing! I will do the same in my area in the morning. 

K
Userlevel 5
Badge +3

Ken Griffiths, I believe the people out here are not representative of the bulk of Sonos customers.  This group, excluding me, is very tech savvy and knowledgeable.  The bulk I think are more like me, we just want the speakers to work when we plug them in and the app to be easy to understand and work when we download it.  I have no desire to research numerous work around possibilities or earn my junior engineer merit badge.  When I buy a Lexus I don’t expect the salesperson to hand me a wrench to fix it if something comes up.  I expect the product, especially a higher end product, to work.  You get what you pay for should cut both ways.  If I pay next to nothing I should expect a junk product and poor service.  However, if I’m willing to pay a premium price I should be able to expect a premium product with premium service.  

G

Most people don't understand what a .apk even is. Come on, now.

Gosh even my 12 year old grandson has heard of the Android package file format and probably uses it more than me, with all the games he chooses to install on his devices - anyhow it’s certainly not rocket science.. and the Sonos S2 installer is widely discussed here in the community, but it means searching and reading maybe a paragraph, or even two. (Come on, now).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apk_(file_format)

Most Sonos users aren't 12, and most customers don't even know about or use this forum. You're putting a lot of unrealistic expectations on the Sonos market here, especially for luxury products. 

Sonos are not luxury products. They cost the same as comparable devices such as Denon HEOS or Bluesound. 

Don't fool yourself into believing you deserve special treatment because you think you have bought into luxury! 

🎵 First We Take Manhattan Then Berlin 🎵
T
Userlevel 2
Badge

Most people don't understand what a .apk even is. Come on, now.

Gosh even my 12 year old grandson has heard of the Android package file format and probably uses it more than me, with all the games he chooses to install on his devices - anyhow it’s certainly not rocket science.. and the Sonos S2 installer is widely discussed here in the community, but it means searching and reading maybe a paragraph, or even two. (Come on, now).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apk_(file_format)

Most Sonos users aren't 12, and most customers don't even know about or use this forum. You're putting a lot of unrealistic expectations on the Sonos market here, especially for luxury products. 

Sonos are not luxury products. They cost the same as comparable devices such as Denon HEOS or Bluesound. 

Don't fool yourself into believing you deserve special treatment because you think you have bought into luxury! 

Ad hominem is not your best choice. Correct yourself. 

Sonos products are absolutely luxury when it comes to interface, features, and ease-of-use. Audio quality is not the only facet of great speakers. 

G

Most people don't understand what a .apk even is. Come on, now.

Gosh even my 12 year old grandson has heard of the Android package file format and probably uses it more than me, with all the games he chooses to install on his devices - anyhow it’s certainly not rocket science.. and the Sonos S2 installer is widely discussed here in the community, but it means searching and reading maybe a paragraph, or even two. (Come on, now).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apk_(file_format)

Most Sonos users aren't 12, and most customers don't even know about or use this forum. You're putting a lot of unrealistic expectations on the Sonos market here, especially for luxury products. 

Sonos are not luxury products. They cost the same as comparable devices such as Denon HEOS or Bluesound. 

Don't fool yourself into believing you deserve special treatment because you think you have bought into luxury! 

Ad hominem is not your best choice. Correct yourself. 

Sonos products are absolutely luxury when it comes to interface, features, and ease-of-use. Audio quality is not the only facet of great speakers. 

 

One should not fool oneself into believing one deserves special treatment because one thinks one has bought into luxury! 

Is that sufficiently NON ad hominem for you?

The current interface is hideous, features are missing and ease of use is severely compromised.

An example of luxury in the audio market would be the Naim Muso Wood Edition or the Bentley Edition, not a piece of consumer black plastic like the Era 100.  Sound quality is good but nothing more. 

🎵 First We Take Manhattan Then Berlin 🎵
Ken_Griffiths

Most people don't understand what a .apk even is. Come on, now.

Gosh even my 12 year old grandson has heard of the Android package file format and probably uses it more than me, with all the games he chooses to install on his devices - anyhow it’s certainly not rocket science.. and the Sonos S2 installer is widely discussed here in the community, but it means searching and reading maybe a paragraph, or even two. (Come on, now).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apk_(file_format)

But, one of the characteristics of Sonos was that it was pretty much plug'n'play.  Now, people are being told to use an apk file to reinstate the old S2, or to change the smb protocol, etc. Even then, to recover the music library, they then are told to run the Sonos program on a PC,

. For many, this is just too much.  And, add to this frustration caused by long waits to get some generic help, coupled with silence from Sonos itself, little wonder people are angry, confused and irritated.

Rightly or wrongly many feel an outlay of 1000s of dollars entitles them to better treatment.  Threats to sell, or start a class action are all indicators of their frustration. 

Well that’s if they could not fix adding their symfonisk products themselves.. I was just offering a quick solution if people were unable to wait or couldn’t perhaps get through to Sonos support… I’m only repeating what others suggested worked for them.

Ken_Griffiths

Most Sonos users aren't 12, and most customers don't even know about or use this forum. You're putting a lot of unrealistic expectations on the Sonos market here, especially for luxury products. 

I agree, customers are likely older and (hopefully) more sensible than some 12 year olds and can search and read things for themselves. It takes a few minutes of watching a YouTube video, or reading a web-page to learn what a .apk file is for Android users and how to quickly download/install the package.
 

If that’s beyond a Sonos users mindset to read/watch such information being parted to them, then I suspect they haven’t even setup their mobile device, WiFi network, or even a Sonos system yet either, as all those things are certainly far more difficult than installing a 3rd-party App on an Android mobile device.

I guess Sonos is a luxury (depending on affordability) and we should all be grateful for how good their products sound at their given price-point …and that’s whether we choose to use their ‘remote’ controller App, or not, for music playback/control. Some users ‘may’ just use it for device setup and then use 3rd party Apps after that for grouping/ungrouping and music playback/control etc. I use Alexa ‘enabled’ groups and SVC to auto-group/ungroup my speakers, just as an example and I can go days without even opening the Sonos App and yet still enjoy music all around the Home. 

G

Most people don't understand what a .apk even is. Come on, now.

Gosh even my 12 year old grandson has heard of the Android package file format and probably uses it more than me, with all the games he chooses to install on his devices - anyhow it’s certainly not rocket science.. and the Sonos S2 installer is widely discussed here in the community, but it means searching and reading maybe a paragraph, or even two. (Come on, now).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apk_(file_format)

But, one of the characteristics of Sonos was that it was pretty much plug'n'play.  Now, people are being told to use an apk file to reinstate the old S2, or to change the smb protocol, etc. Even then, to recover the music library, they then are told to run the Sonos program on a PC,

. For many, this is just too much.  And, add to this frustration caused by long waits to get some generic help, coupled with silence from Sonos itself, little wonder people are angry, confused and irritated.

Rightly or wrongly many feel an outlay of 1000s of dollars entitles them to better treatment.  Threats to sell, or start a class action are all indicators of their frustration. 

Well that’s if they could not fix adding their symfonisk products themselves.. I was just offering a quick solution if people were unable to wait or couldn’t perhaps get through to Sonos support… I’m only repeating what others suggested worked for them.

Sure, I appreciate that.   Given some of the tortuous contributions recently, quite frankly I'm surprised how efficient the previous app must have been to get devices up and running from scratch.

Let's hope those in charge at Sonos pull their finger out and get the new iteration up to speed, even if just does enough to reduce the litany of threats to dump forever perfectly decent equipment & kills off the nonsensical calls for class action.! 

🎵 First We Take Manhattan Then Berlin 🎵
Ken_Griffiths

Sure, I appreciate that.   Given some of the tortuous contributions recently, quite frankly I'm surprised how efficient the previous app must have been to get devices up and running from scratch.

Let's hope those in charge at Sonos pull their finger out and get the new iteration up to speed, even if just does enough to reduce the litany of threats to dump forever perfectly decent equipment & kills off the nonsensical calls for class action.! 

…and yet some users were always complaining about the S2 App here in the community and elsewhere online. The current new Sonos App is NOT finished, we all know that. It was clearly released early and I think it’s clear Sonos accept that and have announced a ‘feature development timeline’ - that’s something they do not normally do. 

Do I think they were wrong to replace the S2 App with the new App? - I can’t really answer that, as there might be reasons we’re not aware of that caused that to happen, but it is what it is. I can’t see Sonos rolling back to the S2 App, nor releasing the S2 App alongside, as I think they would have likely taken that option to begin with.

K
Userlevel 5
Badge +3

Most people don't understand what a .apk even is. Come on, now.

Gosh even my 12 year old grandson has heard of the Android package file format and probably uses it more than me, with all the games he chooses to install on his devices - anyhow it’s certainly not rocket science.. and the Sonos S2 installer is widely discussed here in the community, but it means searching and reading maybe a paragraph, or even two. (Come on, now).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apk_(file_format)

Most Sonos users aren't 12, and most customers don't even know about or use this forum. You're putting a lot of unrealistic expectations on the Sonos market here, especially for luxury products. 

Sonos are not luxury products. They cost the same as comparable devices such as Denon HEOS or Bluesound. 

Don't fool yourself into believing you deserve special treatment because you think you have bought into luxury! 

Expecting the app to function is expecting “special” treatment?  I don’t think wanting to listen to my music on my music system makes me some snooty diva.  

jgatie

Sonos are not luxury products. They cost the same as comparable devices such as Denon HEOS or Bluesound. 

Don't fool yourself into believing you deserve special treatment because you think you have bought into luxury! 

Expecting the app to function is expecting “special” treatment?  I don’t think wanting to listen to my music on my music system makes me some snooty diva.  

 

Of course it doesn’t.  However, the cost/quality of the goods makes no difference on that expectation, and mentioning it appears to put some sort of emphasis on something which really doesn’t matter (and often times isn’t even the truth.  Check out the cost and time spent maintaining a Porsche, or a Ferrari).  But why are we even bickering about this crap?  Some people have a different opinion than yours.  Who cares?  They are allowed to do that.  Them having less problems (or God forbid them actually helping people have less problems) with the app does not affect your opinion or your situation one bit, so let it go when someone feels differently.  

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