Shameful

K
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Yesterday I discovered that somehow a tool on my workbench had partially cut through the wire attached to my Sonos Roam wireless charger base unit. The wire was connected but cut partially and appeared that the conductors were not reached, looks like it should work still but seems not to.

So I have to ask, why does a purportedly high tech innovative company resort to trapping customers just to make a paltry few tens of bucks? The base unit could have had a detachable wire, perhaps a simple jack plug or other form of USB connector, but no:

 

Reinventing home audio

The wire is fixed, cannot be removed and so cannot be replaced, leaving the only option as buying a new base unit and paying 50+ dollars. This is a commercial decision, plain and simple and if Sonos cared about the customer experience or their reputation as a designer, “reinventing home audio” as they like to claim, they’d have done this, made it easy to replace a simple piece of wire.

So why not stop running with the herd? why not truly innovate and make it easy for customers to resolve such situations rather than screwing them over for a few tens of dollars like any and every option to bring in money is eagerly grasped, greed, sad really.

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14 replies

T

It was probably more of a - this is an accessory which we want to keep the price down (slightly) on to encourage purchase - rather than a let’s screw over customers who are damaging their leads to make sure they buy another. But I may be wrong. Certainly the ethos with new products seems to be sustainability. Judging from the photo I think you could, just, splice in a connector to the two parts of the wire. I did this when a puppy chewed a power cord on an aircon! 

Richard
K
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I could just go elsewhere, even this cheaper replacement has a detachable cable:

So there we have it, it can be made with detachable cable and it can be done and sold for 40% less than Sonos charge without detachability, let me place that order, but not with Sonos, they are making me more and more inclined to simply dump them, I just saw Anker’s:

and guess how much that costs? 15 bucks...that’s a price reduction from Sonos’s of 70%!

jgatie

Sounds like a solution has been found, and all the angst is for naught.  Ain’t capitalism grand?

T

Jgatie - you beat me to it!,

Richard
K
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Sounds like a solution has been found, and all the angst is for naught.  Ain’t capitalism grand?

Depends who you ask I think, my post is about product design though, a detachable cable is a no-brainer and (as can be clearly seen) could easily have been accommodated at these price ranges, yet it wasn’t...

melvimbe

I thought this thread was going to be a complaint about  the wire not being cut proof.  A little disappointed.

Please note that the Sonos adapter comes with a 10W charging block, while the knockoff version does not and is only 7.5W.   I think that helps explain the cost difference quite a bit.

But I get that the complaint is about the lack of detachable cord.  I get that the impression is that it was done so that can’t replace the cord  or use your own and half to replace everything if anything is damaged. Sure could be, but there is also the possibility that they wanted the smaller footprint of the charger by removing the plug.  If definitely a reason why the knockoff is bigger than Sonos version.  It also means that someone can’t use a cheaper wire that won’t charge as fast, which will be blamed on the Roam rather than the wire.  And you avoid complaints about the port not being USB C or what have you.  

I certainly wouldn’t mind if the there was a plug.on it.  And I certainly am not crazy about spending $50 on a charger.  ‘Shameful’ seems a bit of stretch to me.

Danny
K
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I thought this thread was going to be a complaint about  the wire not being cut proof.  A little disappointed.

Please note that the Sonos adapter comes with a 10W charging block, while the knockoff version does not and is only 7.5W.   I think that helps explain the cost difference quite a bit.

But I get that the complaint is about the lack of detachable cord.  I get that the impression is that it was done so that can’t replace the cord  or use your own and half to replace everything if anything is damaged. Sure could be, but there is also the possibility that they wanted the smaller footprint of the charger by removing the plug.  If definitely a reason why the knockoff is bigger than Sonos version.  It also means that someone can’t use a cheaper wire that won’t charge as fast, which will be blamed on the Roam rather than the wire.  And you avoid complaints about the port not being USB C or what have you.  

I certainly wouldn’t mind if the there was a plug.on it.  And I certainly am not crazy about spending $50 on a charger.  ‘Shameful’ seems a bit of stretch to me.

 

These are fair points and yes there is the charging block but I haven’t used that since I bought my Roam and all that can impact is the rate of charge which isn’t important to me, USB adapters that provide increased output power are ten a penny too, I have a bunch lying around. There’s also no reason to sell the charging pad and block together either that Sonos’ choice to sell it that way.

The back of the Roam has a USB-C connector and there’s even a Sonos supplied cable for that so it is like an elephant in the room to have failed to include a USB-C connector on the pad itself.

This is not confined to Sonos, there’s a very good keyboard (no longer produced but still stocked here and there) by Logitech, superb quite, illuminated and wired. But that too has a non detachable cable and some years back a pet Parakeet took a liking to that cable and over time chomped it, breaking it.

I opened up the unit and could see how the wire was attached, soldered in and so on, sure I could have spent an hour or so replacing it myself but this is poor design plain and simple and if a company wants to argue that it is innovative then this kind of sloppiness undermines that.

buzz

Plugs decrease the reliability a little by introducing an additional failure point. Many years ago a HiFi company introduced plug-in cards for functions, such as Tuner, Preamp, Tone Controls, etc. This allowed easy service and upgrades, but the connectors used for the cards were a disaster -- causing never ending issues. The company’s reputation took a major hit.

But I’m annoyed with external subassemblies, such as power supplies that don’t have connectors because it makes passing wires through desktop grommets or the backs of cabinets impractical.

buzz

Looking at the OP’s picture, I don’t see any breaks in the inner conductors, but the insulation looks like it was torn, not cut. If the insulation was torn because of a sharp yank on the cord, the inner conductors could have been pulled off the the circuit board.

This would be a good candidate for DIY repair.

K
Userlevel 2
Badge +4

Looking at the OP’s picture, I don’t see any breaks in the inner conductors, but the insulation looks like it was torn, not cut. If the insulation was torn because of a sharp yank on the cord, the inner conductors could have been pulled off the the circuit board.

This would be a good candidate for DIY repair.

Yes I think it could be repaired but that will consume time, since the cable cannot be removed I can’t continuity test it either. Connecting it up and sitting the Roam on it, shows that the orange charging light does not come on (but it does if I plug a charging cable into the back of Roam).

There’s isn’t even any “strain relief” at the point the cable enters the base unit, increasing the likelihood that the cable would eventually break internally too.

I’m a former electronics engineer anyway so none of this is a technical challenge for me to repair, I want to like Sonos (I used to love Sonos) but these kinds of things have been putting me off the past few years and I’m likely never going to invest thousands (like I did in the past) in this company’s products.

jgatie

Sounds like a solution has been found, and all the angst is for naught.  Ain’t capitalism grand?

Depends who you ask I think, my post is about product design though, a detachable cable is a no-brainer and (as can be clearly seen) could easily have been accommodated at these price ranges, yet it wasn’t...

 

Actually, it was.  You yourself listed a version which is exactly what you wish.  Sonos may not have made it, but someone did.  Myself, I have absolutely no use for a Sonos made charger with a removable cord, so I’m glad they never made one.  At the same time, I’m very glad some enterprising 3rd party made one for those who do have use.  Horses for courses.

K
Userlevel 2
Badge +4

Sounds like a solution has been found, and all the angst is for naught.  Ain’t capitalism grand?

Depends who you ask I think, my post is about product design though, a detachable cable is a no-brainer and (as can be clearly seen) could easily have been accommodated at these price ranges, yet it wasn’t...

 

Actually, it was.  You yourself listed a version which is exactly what you wish.  Sonos may not have made it, but someone did.  Myself, I have absolutely no use for a Sonos made charger with a removable cord, so I’m glad they never made one.  At the same time, I’m very glad some enterprising 3rd party made one for those who do have use.  Horses for courses.

That isn’t “exactly what I wish” though.

jgatie

Some people are never satisfied, and Sonos would do well not to try to placate these types.  Contrary to stupid marketing cliches, the customer is most certainly not always right.  Matter of fact, in my many years in retail while in college, I learned most customers are entitled morons.  YMMV.

K
Userlevel 2
Badge +4

Some people are never satisfied, and Sonos would do well not to try to placate these types.  Contrary to stupid marketing cliches, the customer is most certainly not always right.  Matter of fact, in my many years in retail while in college, I learned most customers are entitled morons.  YMMV.

Did anybody here argue that the “customer is always right”? I certainly never made such a claim. 

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