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So, if you thought anyone from Sonos would apologize for this travesty of an app update and/or explain WHY releasing the updated app now was so important it was worth doing despite the app missing numerous previously existing features, you were, like me, sorely disappointed.

However, if you were looking forward to them showing up an hour late, answering maybe 6 questions in total, and doing so only in oblivious  marketing gibberish (apparently the negative feedback has "energized" the team!), then it was a real treat!

Hard to believe they found additional ways to insult and ignore loyal customers who have each given them thousands of dollars over the years, but they managed it. I sure hope each of them is getting very drunk right now and questioning their life choices.

So, if you thought anyone from Sonos would apologize for this travesty of an app update and/or explain WHY releasing the updated app now was so important it was worth doing despite the app missing numerous previously existing features, you were, like me, sorely disappointed.

However, if you were looking forward to them showing up an hour late, answering maybe 6 questions in total, and doing so only in oblivious  marketing gibberish (apparently the negative feedback has "energized" the team!), then it was a real treat!

Hard to believe they found additional ways to insult and ignore loyal customers who have each given them thousands of dollars over the years, but they managed it. I sure hope each of them is getting very drunk right now and questioning their life choices.

 

I think we need some space from this company. It’s not a fun, healthy hobby anymore.

1. Turn off all Sonos account notifications. 
2. Unsubscribe from all of their mail
3. Disable app update on your devices

4. Disable system updates for your speakers

 

People, walk away. You deserve better.

 

thank you 

 


https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/14/24156703/sonos-app-redesign-new-ama-complaints

So. Much. Winning.


So wait, no questions were asked about playlists not working, and no questions were asked about just releasing the previous app for iOS while they fix this?

Did they really cherry-pick just those questions? I thought there would be a LOT of questions about playlists and the queue?


Sonos keeps telling us exactly who they are, and we keep hoping its not true. Time for me to listen. Yes, Sonos should be embarrassed, but I doubt it. These people are bad and shameless. I think one of the things that might possibly arise from this uproar is that none of these named people will ever work in Hi Tech after Sonos. Clearly the CEO Patrick Spence is incompetent and the rest of the gang he has brought in is no better. 

The Board of Directors and shareholders should have stepped in and forced a change by now, but they must not be paying attention. 

As far as the headphones go, laughable. Sonos vs. Sony, Bose, Apple B & W? Please do not make me smirk. The only chance those headphones had was with Sonos customers that wanted to stay in the Sonos ecosystem. How do you feel about that now?

 

Embarassing? Absolutely, candid yes. Sonos has yelled and screamed as loud as it can “WE DONT CARE ABOUT OUR CUSTOMERS, WE JUST DO NOT!!”

Time to listen….


770 questions, 18 answers, took them 40 minutes for first answer. 
It was hilariously bad in that there were hundreds of angry people asking hard questions and they tried to answer with seemingly prepared questions “an app is never done” that just pissed people off  

They disclosed that they discovered a major bug on the morning of the release but released it anyway then patched. Pretty wild.

 

Something tells me they won’t be doing one of these for a while  


 

 


770 questions, 18 answers, took them 40 minutes for first answer. 
It was hilariously bad in that there were hundreds of angry people asking hard questions and they tried to answer with seemingly prepared questions “an app is never done” that just pissed people off  

They disclosed that they discovered a major bug on the morning of the release but released it anyway then patched. Pretty wild.

 

Something tells me they won’t be doing one of these for a while  


 

 

That is a terrible ratio of questions to answers.


 


 

 

That is a terrible ratio of questions to answers.

Yeah they did their best slow walk this. They avoided the difficult questions. Ignored the angry users and cherry picked some questions they probably had some answers pre prepared. 


I only found out about this event today, and I was amazed to read the thread, at how bad it all seemed to be, as a customer experience, even from how it was managed, let alone the at times weird content.


A case study in making things worse. 


A case study in making things worse. 

Completely agree: would have been better for EVERYONE to have skipped it.


The other thing that struck me is that many user names on that thread are ones I had not seen here earlier. That was my impression, at any rate, with whatever that signifies if I am correct.


They did not address the basic issue. App does not work with new users and devices

 

i hope Costco stops selling this junk.


Get online and review bomb all SONOS products. Don’t stop until they #RollBackTheSONOSApp


I registered for this sh1t show but couldn’t make it in the end.  It sounds like I should be grateful.   Reading their summary and these comments make it look like a complete waste of time.  They can’t admit they were wrong and it will probably take a change of leadership to force any meaningful change in approach.  


The president or chairman of the company should have been on-line, on-camera stating effective immediately 3 things are going to happen: I apologize for this mistake; we will roll back the app to S2 while we work on S3; and the 3 people who were supposed to be running this AMA have been terminated.


A week late, but I finally got a reply from Sonos after emailing the CEO. While the response continued the company's irritating habit of pretending there were positive as well as negative results from this whole debacle ("We’ve received a great deal of feedback thus far, on both the improvements made as well as where we fell short"), they are at least FINALLY answering questions about which specifically functionality will be returning to the app when:

 

"Additional improvements to screen reader for visually impaired customers: May 21

Adding to queue and playing next: early June

Sleep timer: mid-June

Snooze alarms: mid-June

Local music library search and playback: mid-June

Update Wi-Fi settings: mid-June"

 

I remain angry they took so long to do this very basic damage control, and mystified they didn't even ATTEMPT to provide this level of detail during Tuesday's Ask Me Anything, but it IS progress.

 


You’ll find much of this data here in this FAQ article

  • Screen reader for visually impaired customers: May 21
  • Adding and editing alarms: May 21
  • Adding to queue and playing next: early June
  • Sleep timer: mid-June
  • Local music library search and playback: mid-June 
  • Update Wi-Fi settings: mid-June

My understanding is that the FAQ article will be updated as needed.

 


You’ll find much of this data here in this FAQ article

  • Screen reader for visually impaired customers: May 21
  • Adding and editing alarms: May 21
  • Adding to queue and playing next: early June
  • Sleep timer: mid-June
  • Local music library search and playback: mid-June 
  • Update Wi-Fi settings: mid-June

My understanding is that the FAQ article will be updated as needed.

 

But does anyone actually believe that they will achieve those dates.

The only ones that they might achieve are the 2 scheduled for 21st May as they probably have a plan.

The early/mid June functions are likely to be delayed by the bugs they are going to have to fix. These bugs will be filling their backlog as we type and they will continue to grow.

I genuinely hope that I am wrong about this but my best scenario is a working stable app by August/September and my worst scenario is they need to do a major rewrite of the core code and we have to go through another 7th May for Christmas. 


 

 

But does anyone actually believe that they will achieve those dates.

The only ones that they might achieve are the 2 scheduled for 21st May as they probably have a plan.

The early/mid June functions are likely to be delayed by the bugs they are going to have to fix. These bugs will be filling their backlog as we type and they will continue to grow.

I genuinely hope that I am wrong about this but my best scenario is a working stable app by August/September and my worst scenario is they need to do a major rewrite of the core code and we have to go through another 7th May for Christmas. 


I hope they will meet the deadlines. I think they will.  They’ve added the alarms, but with at least 2 bugs: 

  • alarms go off at the wrong time 
  • alarms don’t show up in the app for everyone

So yeah I would expect multiple bugs for the others as well,  but hope for only a few 😭 

 

 


 

 

But does anyone actually believe that they will achieve those dates.

The only ones that they might achieve are the 2 scheduled for 21st May as they probably have a plan.

The early/mid June functions are likely to be delayed by the bugs they are going to have to fix. These bugs will be filling their backlog as we type and they will continue to grow.

I genuinely hope that I am wrong about this but my best scenario is a working stable app by August/September and my worst scenario is they need to do a major rewrite of the core code and we have to go through another 7th May for Christmas. 


I hope they will meet the deadlines. I think they will.  They’ve added the alarms, but with at least 2 bugs: 

  • alarms go off at the wrong time 
  • alarms don’t show up in the app for everyone

So yeah I would expect multiple bugs for the others as well,  but hope for only a few 😭 

 

 

Remember that Alarms were there for 7th May but pulled at the last minute because some data was being corrupted. The wrong time and alarms not showing may be evidence that they did not fully fix the original alarms issues.

The reality is that they should have pulled the update when the alarm function was compromised. 


The president or chairman of the company should have been on-line, on-camera stating effective immediately 3 things are going to happen: I apologize for this mistake; we will roll back the app to S2 while we work on S3; and the 3 people who were supposed to be running this AMA have been terminated.

 

If only I had known this before

confirming community members who saw the company following Backberry's path

 

from https://www.marketscreener.com/insider/PATRICK-SPENCE-A1H50D/

Profile

Patrick Spence is President, Chief Executive Officer & Director at Sonos, Inc. In his past career Mr. Spence held the position of Head-Global Sales at BlackBerry Ltd. Mr. Spence received an undergraduate degree from Richard Ivey School of Business.

Known holdings in public companies

Company Date Number of shares Valuation Valuation date
2024-02-14 1,011,486 ( 0.82% ) 17 M $ 2024-04-29
2023-10-22 22,718 ( 0.00% ) 258 985 $ 2024-04-29

Patrick Spence active positions

Companies Position Start
SONOS, INC. Chief Executive Officer 2016-12-31
SNAP INC. Director/Board Member 2023-09-13
All active positions of Patrick Spence

Former positions of Patrick Spence

Companies Position End
BLACKBERRY LIMITED Sales & Marketing 2012-05-31