End of Software Updates for Legacy Products

Why do you think your products will no longer work? That is not what the announcement says.

Hmmm. What lifespan do my old Play:1 speakers have? Given that they’re not listed as a product in the store any longer. I don’t want to fork out for a new Connect to Port replacement to find that not long down the road I have to replace all my Play:1 speakers too.

Does anyone know the official line?

All my Sonos system was bought at the same time only 4 years ago. Expect play 1 x2. 2 Sonos 5 and amp would now need replacing. Extremely disappointed 

Rob. I couldn’t have said it better. I feel exactly like you. I’ve been an advocate to so many people as I was a die hard forever customer. I have loved Sonos but receiving an email that my expensive products will no longer be supported via software upgrades and an offer of only 30% discount for the latest products is beyond disappointing and is clear that Sonos are in business for $ only and don’t care about their customers. I should have bought better known brands when I started in 2014 with “collecting” Sonos pieces. Little did I know I am buying future Duds! Sonos advertised: Sonos a system you can forever add to- well how can you lie like that. Shame on you Sonos. 

This is a poor show.  I appreciate that older products may eventually cease to get upgrades but to hold back the whole system just comes across as a ransom.

I have 2 x Play 5’s that are now “legacy”. What is crazy is they still look good and sound amazing, so bricking these seems hugely wasteful.  Do they not know there is a climate emergency?

Please rethink your approach fast as you are alienating your customer base.

Matter of taste, perhaps. I auditioned Sonos against the equivalent Bluesound hardware, and I thought Sonos crushed it. Wasn’t even close, but sound is subjective.

Sounds good … thanks for the pointers. (TBH, modern DACs are a commodity item: unless they’re playing EQ tricks, there aren’t audible differences between cheap ones and esoteric ones under controlled listening conditions.)

Know what , stuff it I’m not normally “that” type of person but I'm putting this on social media, I’m not gonna let my friends get stuffed if they were thinking of buying a new brick.

I suggest everyone who feels the same does likewise, you never know a national newspaper might pick up on it and then the doodah can really hit the fan,

I feel justifiably ripped off

Only a complete idiot would opt to upgrade their kit after being treated like this.

Play:1s are unaffected, and if you truly only purchased 4 years ago, that would be the Connect:Amp and Play:5 Gen 2, both sold after 2015, also unaffected.

Question:  is the trade up from a Play:5 (Gen 1) a trade up to a newer Play:5 or the Move?

I will add my voice here. In 2013 (an entire 7 years ago!) I went all in with SONOS after hearing it at a friend’s home. The Bridge, 4 of the Play5 gen1 speakers, a SUB. I ripped over 1000 CDs to my computer and ditched my CD player and the discs. In the meantime I retired, moving to a liveable but fixed income. I have endured the endless system updates. And I have very much enjoyed my music system. Now, you are telling me it will soon become useless ( I have no faith that the components will be able to be used more than a year or two after being declared “legacy”.). This borders on criminal. Nothing less than a big  ***** to all your customers who have built systems with your products. My father had a pair of high end Klipsch speakers he used for FORTY YEARS!!!  And you have the temerity to suggest that products being sold 5 short years ago should, as a matter of course in this modern era,  become obsolete, and  the 30% discount on all new stuff is a good deal. I am in no position to go out and drop that kind of money on a new music system, especially when the one I have IS IN PERFECT WORKING ORDER! Never again will I purchase a SONOS product. You people are terrible

I’m very unhappy about this. Why is my 5yr old Connect:Amp I purchased from Bestbuy now a legacy item? So is the life cycle now only 5 years for your hardware? So if I purchase new amps I can expect to have to purchase new ones again in 5yrs to continue support?

I can not justify upgrading hardware this often, the expense and the cost to the environment. I will put my effort towards helping build an open source solution then.

I understand the approach though a cynic would certainly say the built in redundancy approach to getting more revenue is being applied here! 

Whatever the reality, the message to me as a loyal customer of many many years who has enjoyed a wonderful system and in return has added new speakers at periodic intervals is that Sonos is no longer the right solution and I need to move to a separates approach - streaming from a volume provider (google/amazon?) and amp/speakers from a bona fide hifi provider(s). I can’t be anywhere near alone and dear Sonos don’t forget:

 As per a 2018 Forbes article once you have lost us loyal customers...”it can cost five times more to attract a new customer, than it does to retain an existing one”.

You can use the 30% discount on any one Sonos product (and some bundles).  It does not need to be a direct replacement.

Sonos needs to figure this out. I have been a loyal customer for 5 years (over $4k invested) and have recommended Sonos to many of my clients and friends, even gave Sonos Ones as Christmas gifts last year. Not a good customer relations strategy, I will not purchase or recommend Sonos product until they resolve this issue....

30% doesn’t even come close to cutting it. Hell, I’d question it at 60%!

A great amp and speakers are now or will soon be, practically speaking, useless because of limited CPU and memory at the same time putting other components of the system at risk. Why would anyone spend good money after bad only to likely face this situation again and again in future? Maybe SONOS should work a replaceable system card into their speakers so users don’t have to pay for replacing entire audiophile system components, just the logic boards.

Hey Sonos, this is what the start of bankruptcy looks like. Need to get a better offer on the table, fast.

Add my name to the list of incredibly pissed-off people.

Unlike many people in this thread, I only have 1 device (a Play:5 Gen 1) that is on the obsolete list. And it’s amazing that Sonos has supported this product as long as they have, and I don’t really have a problem with them dropping their support for it.

Unfortunately, Sonos is holding the rest of my products (Playbar, Sub, 3x One, 2x Play:1) hostage as well, since they also won’t receive any updates. What happens when Spotify tweaks their API and a Sonos update is required to keep things working? “Sorry. Give us $ for a new Play:5 and then we’ll let the rest of your system work again”.

People would absolutely lose it if Apple told customers that their 2019 iPhones and Apple Watches were being cut off from updates since they also own a 2010 iPad.

Why doesn’t Sonos do what’s its done elsewhere and “wall off features”? (The fact that my Play:5 and Play:1’s cannot do airplay does not prevent my “One”’s from using Airplay)

I have loved Sonos, I have advocated Sonos, but receiving this news that my expensive products will no longer be supported via software upgrades and an offer of only 30% discount for the latest products is beyond disappointing and it is clear that you are in business for $ only and don’t care about your customers. I should have bought better known brands when I started in 2014 with you. Instead I gave Sonos at a high price a go. You advertised: Sonos a system you can forever add to- well how can you lie like that. Shame on you Sonos. I wish I never recommended you to the 100’s of people I have. You’ve turned a Net promoter score of 10/10 into a 0/10 ex-customer for life today. 

So if I understand this correctly - SONOS expects their customers to upgrade the hardware every time they terminate the software updates? Is SONOS going to make a habit out of this? Something is not right with their thinking there.

Not Mr. McRae from the M3 forums? 

 

When the trade-up was announced I was in favour because I have a ZP90 that I no longer use and I thought I might trade this in for another product.

Having seen the latest news though, I’m somewhat shocked. I will potentially lose 2x ZP90s, a ZP120 which is still great sounding and in constant use and also the CR200. I ditched a CR100 the other year and that was still a good controller.

At the moment I don’t feel like giving any more money over to Sonos (even with the trade-up discounts) because I’ve lost a lot of trust in them. Who knows what will happen to my Play1 speakers in the next year etc.

I will probably keep the system as it is and not have any more updates.

So just checked with a lawyer friend of mine - his view, In Europe, if you bought any Sonos product in the last 6 years that is affected by this you can take it back to the original retailer and get your money back! 

Play 5 gen2 announced September 2015 - there was some overlap with Gen1 sales/clear out so it's possible it was bought in 2016. Same with the Connect cut off, possible that the poster bought a new unit in 2016 that was on the wrong side of the 2015 cutoff.

So yeah 4 years ago is possible. 

There is a word for this kind of operation: extortion.

I can either not pay and render my equipment useless or pay up to change to new equipment. This is a lousy behavior and a disgrace to the customers. You should be ashamed! We (the customers) have paid much money for our equipment and the whole time you have used them as a trojan horse to keep us hostages when least expected. You are aware that you´re still selling the affected equipment right? If you should phase a product you should announce it for a long time and stop selling at least a year ahead.

I hope you goes directly to bankruptcy (and you most certainly will because this will have a deep impact of the trust and loyalty of the customers).