Hi

I’ve never tried to use a 3rd party gift card on Sonos. Also, your situation is a bit outside the box as you were trying to get a sale extended. 

Sonos payment options do not state the use of 3rd party gift cards as an option. However, you appear to have been led astray with bad information.

You are now between a “rock and a hard place” meaning AMEX not willing to reverse the points used to purchase the gift card and Sonos not willing to accept the AMEX gift card as payment.

When I’ve been in situations such as this I’ve filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau (BBB). I went against Apple and won using the BBB! You may have to file against AMEX to achieve a resolution. It doesn’t matter if the company in question is a member of the BBB or not…they just don’t want the  publicity. 

Since Sonos has not collected any funds IMO the most you can expect is a sincere apology and  MAYBE the opportunity to purchase the Arc at a discount using an acceptable form of payment. 

The issue here is misrepresentation and lack of trying to work out a solution since Sonos was in the wrong , Amex had nothing to do with the misrepresentation.

i did get the points returned to my account and I bought the Arc using my Amex card  .

The fact that also writing to the CEO and not getting a reply gave a very bad taste about Sonos as a company that cares about their customers !!

Hi @Pabs58 

Welcome to the Sonos Community!

Your CEO case wasn’t picked up due to a system error. We have flagged your case internally, and you will hear from someone soon - apologies for the delay so far.

I hope this helps.

@Pabs58 I definitely empathize with your situation, as I’ve been there before.

Sadly what you experienced is the norm in dealing with companies nowadays, so you have to proactively counteract it by asking to speak to a manager or supervisor from the start (or “loyalty department” as they’re sometimes referred to).

For example, I no longer talk to the regular reps at my local tv, Internet, phone provider because over the years, I’ve found them to be so unreliable due to their lack of proper training and knowledge which ultimately is the company’s CEO and managements responsibility. So when dealing with issues, I’ll directly contact their loyalty department and even speak to the manager in the loyalty department to ensure things are dealt with correctly.

Again it’s sad that you have to do this nowadays but it ensures 1) you get someone who actually knows what they’re talking about and 2) has the authority and knowledge to ensure it gets done right. 

Thanks for your reply.

I did talk on two of my calls with a “ Manager “ or  ‘ Supervisor “ ( who knows ….) and I didn’t get anywhere , These two  “ supervisors “ I talked kept apologizing ad nauseam for the MISREPRESENTATION but couldn’t do anything , it was  like hitting  a wall !!

Incredible lack of creativity and willingness to solve a problem that Sonos created .

As I wrote before no customer service at ALL !!

After the issue occurred yes. The point I was trying to make though is that nowadays you have to talk to a manager / supervisor first so as to proactively avoid issues arising (ie speaking to a Sonos manager / supervisor first would have let you know that you couldn’t use a gift card).

For example, with my communications provider in the past, 80% of the time when asking a basic rep to do changes to my service, an issue would always arise out of it. Like it was unbelievable absurd how often this occurred. Now that I contact their loyalty department and have even spoke to their manager in the loyalty department, I encounter issues way less. So if I’m doing something stupidly simple now, like changing some channel types on my TV service, I’m fine talking to a basic rep. Everything else though (i.e. contract renegotiations), I talk to their loyalty department and at least a supervisor there.

All said and done though, it’s still sad that you can’t trust a basic rep to know what they’re supposed to know (as you spoke to a couple of Sonos reps even). But again, that’s the responsibility of the company’s CEO and management. Like I hate having to waste a manager / supervisors time but if it saves me time in proactively avoiding frustrations, I’m going to continue to do so.

I doubt the CEO will actually respond…only some Sonos employee….I’ve never heard of the Sonos CEO actually replying.. even though an email is given for him .