lack of repair support for out of warranty products
Hi fellow Sonos fanatics. Thought I’d share my recent experience with you all. Some of you may know that I’ve been a long time fan, advocate, supporter, beta tester of Sonos. My default inputs and posts on here are mainly around products reviews or helping others with questions.
Well recently I noticed one of my gen2 subs in my dual sub, arc, era300s setup went dead all of a sudden. I’ve tried using other gen2 sub power cords, it just wouldn’t power on. The sub was bought brand new from bestbuy 3 years ago and had been kept indoor never been moved. It is also the set used for beta testing. I reached out to Sonos hoping to get it fixed because I am confident that the issue may be a loose end on the inside of the connection causing the current not going through. The sub is in pristine condition. And fyi I own 7 subs in total from gen1 to gen3 and mini. After a week of multiple communications via phone and email with different levels of Sonos customer support team, they decided to stand firm on providing me with the standard out of warranty “exception” offering a 30% discount towards a new sub ONLY under the condition that I send them my 3 yea old sub for free. While it may seem to be a fair solution on surface level, but if you think about it, it basically means Sonos wants to buy back my $800 sub for $240, fix it and resell for probably $600 as refurbished unit. And me, end up paying $800 + $560 = $1360 for the ownership of the same sub if I decide to continue owning it after 3 years. I love sonos products and their innovative approach, but this is F up! I keep emphasizing to them that I’m not asking for a new sub replacement and I respect their 1 year warranty policy, I just want my 3 year old sub to work again. The industry standard for these products should have both warranty and repair programs allowing out of warranty products to have chance to be repaired. Clearly Sonos selling refurbished units proves they do repair them. Yet they won’t do mine. And only option after owning a 3 year old $800 sub is to pay another $560 plus giving away my easy repairable sub to them, otherwise toss in garbage. Do I assume the life expectancy of Sonos products is as short as 3 years just put out of warranty and left with option that is tough to accept? FYI, there is no independent audio or computer repair shops that would even accept to take a look at it. The lack of desire to provide out of warranty repair program is truly a one sided benefit to Sonos and only Sonos, leaving me a loyal, advocate, unpaid unsponsored Sonos supporter feeling betrayed, a nasty hard slap in the face.
Sorry if this isn’t a positive read for you, but I just felt obligated to warn and break down the reality to you in case you run into this situation in the future. Thanks for reading and I hope this will provide help to you in someway or other.