I bought a Sonos system six months ago from and installed by BestBuy for a second home which I am in about once a month for a couple of weeks. I have become disgusted with the lack of consistency of the system. At least once a month (once a trip) I spend anywhere from 15 minutes to well over an hour on the phone with service to resolve an issues of one or more units not playing or something else. For the kind of money I spent, to have to spend that amount of time on a regular basis to keep the system functioning is beyond reprehensible. On the off chance that somebody in charge at Sonos reads this, I will mention that I have already cost the company business by telling friends about my woes and advising them to purchase something that works as it is advertised. Other complaints will never be addressed, like the portion of a minute of my life I lose every time I open the app on my phone from the time I tap on the icon until the app opens and becomes fully functional. This company wants to charge executive prices for its products and system and doesn’t seem to understand that people paying these prices consider their time precious and deeply resent that time that could be put to better use is spent nursing the system to stay functional.. Imagine how annoying it is to get a phone call and have to wait the better part of a minute for the app to allow you turn the volume down. It’s a poorly designed system. Further, the instructions and help articles were written assuming knowledge which few have and can be confusing at best and useless at worst. Hey, Sonos, get your act together or risk going out of business..
A lot has changed in 50 years. If you were working with any of the (now ancient) sound equipment that had become second nature to you over the years, you’d be amazed to see that the ‘simple’ (for you) equipment will completely fluster young ones who are only familiar with the modern stuff -- just as you are flustered with the modern stuff. Legacy sound control electronics that would fill a couple racks, have a zillion knobs and interconnections, will now fit in a briefcase and, unfortunately for old timers, have no knobs. I prefer a few knobs, I understand that, but the kids are looking for excuses to fondle their phone/pad and perceive knobs as old fashioned. Kids are currently buying the equipment. One huge advantage of the new stuff is that you can save or recall the zillion settings with a click or touch. This feature alone changes the way that you approach a venue.
Anyway, we’d like to know more about the bedroom equipment and any other high tech equipment, such as wireless thermostats, Alexa devices, networked security cameras, baby monitors, remote controlled shades, lights and such.
After you get the SONOS system working, how many Rooms are listed? You’ll see MOVE and ROAM, are there any others?
We’ll have more to say about this in future comments, but the very first thing you should do when you arrive after the system has been shut down for a while is to turn ON only the Arris and ignore it for a couple minutes while it boots. Next, power up the ORBI’s and let them boot for a couple minutes. Now you can turn ON the other things. None of this requires any tech, just a few minutes of patience while you unpack.
Now the tech: Both the ARRIS and the ORBI are capable of taking complete charge of the network. Only one of these should be configured to be the take charge guy. Out of the box both will assume that they have control. If BestBuy did not deal with this, you have two take charge guys on the network, neither can win and you, the client will lose.
Are you capable of accessing the control pages of the ARRIS and ORBI? There are some settings that we should visit.
Even though we may drag you through a few uncomfortable moments, this will be a one time chore. BestBuy may have done or could do this for you, but we don’t know this yet.
Thanks to all (5 of you so far) who responded. I am not terribly savvy about electronics which is why I bought the entire system from BestBuy and had them install it. Spectrum provides my internet service. The modem is Arris, and I bought two high-end (and not cheap) Orbi routers to get full coverage for my townhouse. There are two permanent speakers in the main bedroom (I do not believe they are Sonos) which are hard wired to the modem. The whole system was set up to run on the Sonos app, and the only issues I have had are with the app and the two Sonos speakers, the Move and the Roam. Yes, I do turn the systems off and unplug everything when I am going to be away for days or weeks. I am retired and I was a musician in my professional life. I have had numerous sound systems, at homes and in offices, and I have not spent as much time dealing with issues with any (and probably with all) of them in over 50 years of using cheap, mid-range, and high-end systems. All of them have been relatively self-evident in how they work and what one has to do to operate or even trouble-shoot them. Not so with Sonos. With every other system I have ever owned, if I got a call or was interrupted, there was a knob (usually a knob) on the device where I could quickly change the volume. With Sonos, I have to wait (30 to 60 seconds) for the app to open and establish itself, then navigate to another screen or two, to arrive at the place where I can lower the volume. Every time I open the app to do anything, turn the system on or off even, I wait for most of a minute to accomplish the task. How many hours of wasted time does this add up to in a month or a year? Why does an expensive system require me to stand there and wait for it when all cheaper systems work immediately? All other electronics I own -- TVs, phones, appliances, etc. -- work simply and quickly and without issues (except in my rural home, but the reason for that has nothing to do with the systems, it is because my internet and phone access is through a landline). If any other high-end item had these flaws, if a BMW required this much effort or made me wait a minute or more before it would drive, I would return it and sue the dealer. (And I gather from reading other comments here that Sonos has a bad reputation for refunds and responses.) I have, so far, no complaints about the quality of the sound, but having units just stop performing (and this is usually the case after I have been using the system for a few days or more, so it has nothing to do with the units having been shut down, and both are docked and fully charged almost 100% of the time). I hope I have given more complete information that will help responders understand my system and my frustration with it. I resent having to wait even a minute for a system that cost thousands of dollars to respond, and a resent even more the six or more times I have spent on the phone, sending diagnostics, waiting for service people to stop apologizing and figure out what is wrong and why the unit or system is not working.
Hi. It is disappointing that your contacts with Sonos Support have not led to a more permanent solution to your problems. So I can understand your frustration. But I am also a long-term Sonos user who has never had a serious problem , so I know the kit works.
There are plenty of people on here who will likely be able to help if you wish to engage, and tell us more about what type of router and network you have, if you have any extenders or access points, what Sonos products you have and whether they are all wireless, or one or more devices are connected by Ethernet.
Edit: I notice from your profile that you mention only the Roam and Move. Do you have any non-portable Sonos speakers?
+17
Maybe assign all the speakers a static IP address and leave the router switched on?.
wmbos,
I’ve had SONOS since 2005. Believe me, I have a short tolerance too. if I had constant issues with my system, we would not be discussing anything here.
Are you shutting down your router, SONOS, and other smart home items as you leave this house for a period? These items are designed to be powered 24/7 and frequent shutdowns can cause issues. I’m not suggesting that you need to waste power by not shutting down, but there are some simple tricks that will keep all of these issues hidden under the carpet. Let us know and we can suggest some tricks after we get to know the scope of your smart home.
Seems odd. I’ve been a customer of Sonos since about 2009, and support at least three homes including my own. Never had a significant issue. Although at times, I’ve fought with wifi concerns, due to bad microwaves, and bad neighbors, but none of that was Sonos’ fault. A networked device does need a good network to sit on, certainly. It’s not the same as the ancient “amplifier with wired speakers” by any stretch.
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