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I have 10 Sonos speakers and I have, up until this point been a happy and loyal customer. Recently, I recycled two gen 1 Play 5s but after initiating the recycling program I realized that in my haste to buy Christmas gifts for my family I had made a mistake and should not have recycled these speakers. Now Sonos is saying they can not reverse the process. I am dismayed that Sonos is willing to lose me as a customer over what very clearly seems to be an ill-conceived and horribly unsympathetic program. I will continue to try to get this resolved with Sonos support and have worked my way up to a supervisor who emailed me their standard response:
 

Hello George,

My name is Andrew and I'm a Supervisor here at Sonos Customer Care. I understand that you're looking to reverse the Trade-Up that you performed on your two Play:5 speakers. Unfortunately, as per the warning messages and the Terms & Conditions of the program, it cannot be reversed once it's confirmed within the Sonos Application. If I can be of any further assistance do not hesitate to ask.


Cheers,
______
Andrew K

I will be calling on Jan. 2nd to plead my case again to Andrew K.

I will no longer be a Sonos customer if this cannot be resolved so I can keep my Play 5s. 

I also am appalled by the fact that this program is really just green-washing and not at all environmentally friendly. From what I am reading, these recycled speakers are just ending up in landfills and not being “recycled” at all.
 

Not a happy customer.

 

The recycle action and responsibility is on the owner, not Sonos. Since warnings were given and you (as I understand it) agreed to terms and conditions, I find it hard to be sympathetic that you have now changed your mind. 
Had Sonos left a software/firmware loophole meaning a product could be reactivated after deactivation I’m sure it would lead to an even worse situation. 

Had Sonos left a software/firmware loophole meaning a product could be reactivated after deactivation I’m sure it would lead to an even worse situation. 

I’m pretty sure this is correct. It’s quite likely that Sonos has no ability to resurrect recycled hardware, even if it wanted to.

I bet it's the same as Virgin Media do with their routers, they block the MAC address (or other hardware identifier) from accessing the system.

I wonder if part of the "Software Updates" have a list of "bricked" devices?.

From what I saw as I traded-up several Sonos devices it looks like the device downloaded a new firmware. If that firmware has no option to download an unbricked replacement you’d have to return the device to Sonos for them to force a new firmware update via JTAG or the like, if that is even available.

Returning all my Christmas purchases under Sonos’s very generous 60 day money back guarantee.
Getting my “recycling” credit re-instated.

Holding on to my bricked 5s to see how this unfolds. Rumor has it, this IS reversible.

https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/30/21042871/sonos-recycle-mode-trade-up-program-controversy?fbclid=IwAR2aKcufXRr7gIkgrPjIz0qv5aTiI2qt3DUsU9F81uE-4rbopWBFpuGlrAg


 

can you do a factory re-set to replace the firmware with the original version before the bricked firmware version was downloaded?

I don’t think so, no other Sonos firmware is impacted by a factory reset, just the internal data which is erased.

Rumor has it, this IS reversible.
https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/30/21042871/sonos-recycle-mode-trade-up-program-controversy?fbclid=IwAR2aKcufXRr7gIkgrPjIz0qv5aTiI2qt3DUsU9F81uE-4rbopWBFpuGlrAg

I read the article, and I think the author is over-interpreting Sonos’s response. It is entirely technically possible to create a bricking process that is effectively irreversible, without any changes on the Sonos server side.

And now they raise the price of the Port.

But after a nice warning the price rise was happening.

This whole brick-the-hardware thing is insanely ugly from a recycling POV. Those devices could still be used, and Sonos is *deliberately ruining them*? I mean, come ON.

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