Contributor I

Answered

complaint about the End of Software Updates

62 replies
3263 views

I am absolutely incensed by the shear insensitivity and blatant Marketing effort under the guise of ‘End of Software Updates’ This is totally unjustified - the amount of software involved is minute compared to something like MS Windows and they manage to support £100 products for 10 years and TVs last just as long. My Connect:Amp is probably only a few years old and cost £400 and now you want me to upgrade for an insulting and derisory 30% off a hugely inflated price of £600!!!!!!!!!!!

I will NOT Upgrade and will now be actively looking for alternative products especially as it now obvious you are going to do this to all my other products in the expectation of dubiously getting even more money from loyal Sonos owners.

Until this moment I held your Company and products in high regard, now I am appalled by your behaviour and will NEVER buy any more. You greedy b*******s have shot yourselves in the proverbial foot.

I dare you to publish this.

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Ryan SAnswer

Retired Sonos Staff

Thanks for sharing your feedback, everyone. We’re listening and answering what questions we can in the main thread. Let’s try to keep the discussion for this topic in one place.

We’re committed to supporting players for 5 years after we stop selling them and have a track record of supporting them for far longer than that. The Connect:Amps which are moving to legacy in May came out in 2010, and the newer version of them from 2015 is still considered a modern unit. These older devices just don’t have the needed hardware to keep up with the demands of the software coming later this year.

As to the Play:1 and Sub you mentioned, the Sub is still sold today and the Play:1 was only just recently no longer sold. These devices do have the needed hardware specs for what’s currently planned and don’t have any listed legacy flag for them right now.

It’s also worth noting that if you have legacy devices, they’ll keep on working as they currently do, just without updates. Eventually some features that are reliant on connected services will stop working and they won’tbe able to get new features.

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jgatie

Just posting what Sonos are telling me!

Well then I hope my posting of the actual plan has helped to clarify what the support people were trying to say and got muddied up.

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Not happy Michael

Enthusiast I

Not helped in the slightest but thanks for the effort.

Michael

E

etgeary

Sonos obviously created a public relations nightmare, but am I alone in believing this is much this topic is has been completely over blown both on this forum and with the press? I read an article where the author in attacking Sonos decision wrote, “Can you image if Apple stopped supporting early IPhones?” Hello! Apple stops supporting nearly all of their products after 7 years. Technologies change so fast, I don’t see where Sonos or other manufacturers have a choice in the matter.

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Slayer69

Lyricist I

I do hope Sonos get the message. They are alienating a lot of loyal customers. I have spent about £1,200 on Sonos equipment over the last few years. I am not happy that it will shortly be junk. This old version of Sonos equipment was was still being sold by John Lewis staff until 9 months ago with Sonos badged staff. Do the customers they sold to realise they were being conned?

Unless Sonos come up with a better offer or continue to support my investment in them I will not be buying from them again and I will not be recommending them. I feel guilty for promoting Sonos to my friends and embarressed that they have also purchased on my recommendation. Sonos is going to loose alot of business by word of mouth.

J

John B

@Slayer69 . Could you explain in what sense you are a loyal customer?

jgatie

I do hope Sonos get the message. They are alienating a lot of loyal customers. I have spent about £1,200 on Sonos equipment over the last few years. I am not happy that it will shortly be junk. This old version of Sonos equipment was was still being sold by John Lewis staff until 9 months ago with Sonos badged staff. Do the customers they sold to realise they were being conned.

Anything bought “in the last few years” are not legacy. All legacy items were manufactured at least 5 years ago.
They will not “shortly be junk”. They will continue to operate as they do today, with updates for security and bug fixes.
If John Lewis was selling old stock, your beef is with them, not Sonos. Though I highly doubt that was the case. Are you sure your items are actually legacy? Connect models manufactured after 2015 are modern, despite having the same model names as those manufactured before then which are legacy.

Unless Sonos come up with a better offer or continue to support my investment in them I will not be buying from them again and I will not be recommending them. I feel guilty for promoting Sonos to my friends and embarressed that they have also purchased on my recommendation. Sonos is going to loose alot of business by word of mouth.

Blah,blah,blah.

J

John B

This old version of Sonos equipment was was still being sold by John Lewis staff until 9 months ago with Sonos badged staff. Do the customers they sold to realise they were being conned?

I can only assume you think that all Connects and Connect:Amps are legacy, which is completely wrong. John Lewis isn’t going to have been sitting on Sonos stock for 4 years. Are you seriously suggesting that, and what is your evidence?

Sonos should sue you for falsely suggesting that they were conning people.

C

Cuhulin

Lyricist II

Suggesting a lawsuit because someone believes they were conned is a little over the top!

The problem here is with Sonos’ messaging. Instead of saying “your stuff is going obsolete, so buy our new”, which sounds threatening and “haha, we got ya”, Sonos should have said something about what they are going to be doing. Examples: “Welcome to Sonos 2020”. “These are the great new features”. “This will work on our newer hardware, which includes….”

That is what every other tech company does.

Instead, they talked of unknown future improvements, so there is no basis for understanding what is going on, and all that came out was negative.

I don’t doubt that this was done for good B-School reasons like avoiding the Osborne Effect, where announcements of future products tank current sales, but the answer for that is announcing close to market release and including a return window for recent purchases - which sounds generous and builds customer goodwill - rather than insulting your existing customers’ purchases.

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etgeary

Completely agree Cuhulin. No question the original announcement was boggled, but improvements in technologies improve life, but leave antiquated products in the scrap pile. Dolby Atmos wasn’t even a dream when the earliest Sonos products were released, how could they possible incorporate updates to these older products? Meanwhile, Apple intentionally slow/destroy earlier products with “upgrades” and we give them a pass.

C

corhome

Lyricist I

I am terribly disappointed that I cannot use my speakers any longer due to the software up date . So unfair that I am pushed into getting new ones or do without music. If I need to buy new ones , sorry to say it won’t be Sonos.

When the upgrade was offered why not tell it won’t work with my current system . I would not have loaded it .

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