End of Software Updates for Legacy Products

Sonos’ offer of 30% trade in value is an insult. I’ve been a strong supporter of Sonos for years.

My Most recent addition to my system was purchased less than 30 days ago. If I had any Idea that Sonos would treat customers this way I certantly would have not continued to add to my home system.

The Upgrade – By the Numbers

Just ran the numbers [details at the end of the post]. I’ve spent $7800 dollars with Sonos over about 15-18 years. I own about $2700 of stuff that is “new” and about $4100 of stuff that is now no longer supported. With a 30% discount, it will cost $4060 + tax to bring the no longer supported items up to date by replacing them with the similar new item. Per Sonos, this buys me maybe 5 years of useful life. This for a system that isn’t broken. 

What Sonos doesn’t understand is that there is HBR business case after business case that show that when you take care of your most valuable customers, they will take care of you. Will I upgrade a couple of zones? Maybe. Will I tell friends how great Sonos is? Definitely not. Will I be a detractor and tell people to avoid Sonos at all costs? Maybe. Congrats, Sonos, you turned a lot of people from Champions to Detractors with a single move. 

Details of my numbers:

Purchased over approx. 18 years: 7 x ZP100 ($2800); 2 remotes ($600); 2 x ZP80 ($800); 2 Subs ($1400); 2 x Play 5 ($900); 3 x Play 1 ($600); Sound Bar ($700) – Total = $7800

Cost to upgrade: 6 x ZP100 ($2730); 2 x ZP80 ($630); 2 x Play 5 ($700) – total = $4060

Feeling the backlash Sonos? Either you back off from this poorly thought through decision or you better call your crisis management firm. These are your most loyal customers talking to you. 

This is a joke. I’m not inclined to replace my legacy Sonos equipment with new Sonos simply because of software updates. The hardware is in perfect working order and it’s a complete waste of resources to replace it until it breaks. I will not be buying Sonos again if future software updates can’t cope with legacy or mixed configuration setups.

No kidding!  This is a PR disaster for Sonos. I must have been responsible for 10 families making big investments in Sonos products. Now I am going to be bad mouthing them every chance I get. 

Legacy system announcement 21/01/2020, complain to the CEO:

Patrick.Spence@sonos.com

SALES Team: sales-eu@sonos.com    

Legacy system announcement 21/01/2020, complain to the CEO:

Patrick.Spence@sonos.com

SALES Team: sales-eu@sonos.com

I have 13 old zones, but i will never upgrade them with new ones. Sorry Sonos you lost a customer.

Yes please.  This seems like a very simple solution that would generate revenue and keep loyal customers happy.  I would very gladly give them my money for this device you and others have suggested.

I hope Sonos is listening.

Just at a time when big business is trying to go more “green”, SONOS don’t care if our speakers are junk in a year or two 

I guess this would have to come eventually. I wish I had thought it through before spending thousands of dollars on this system. They are computers in the end and so don't have a lifespan. I can't think of a bigger purchasing regret.  I won't be trading up or buying new Sonos speakers, I expect more life from premium audio equipment. I still have my parents Dynex amp and Advent speakers from the 60's. I'm not going to spend more money on a system that won't be supported in a few years again. Most people just get Alexa speakers these days and are perfectly happy as most people aren't audiophiles. If I had to bet, I'd say Sonos as a company has a limited life span just because of the competition alone, leaving aside moves like this.

I had some hope they might open source this stuff and let the dyi'ers give it a go. I'm sure a vibrant community would spring up. Sadly that wouldn't sell more speakers, so it probably won't happen.

Very sad.

Complain to the CEO: Patrick.Spence@sonos.com

So, I’ve given this a bit of thought.

Yep, I’m incredibly angry about what Sonos have done, and Yep …. I won’t be spending any more money on Sonos equipment. There is absolutely no point, as that too will expire in the future.

My decision is to continue to use my existing sonos system (15 units of which 9 are legacy, and 4 more will follow very very soon) until it really does die and will no longer stream any more.

At that point, I’ll enjoy looking for a replacement system, from a different company.

My requirements will change though, It’ll be a single hub that communicates to any sound source (including streaming services), easy and relatively cheap to replace when that no longer functions, and outputting just sound connections to fairly dumb speakers around the house that don’t require updates.

This new system may appear to very similar specification to the system my parents had in my childhood home. Interestingly, it still works very well, and I’m now 53.

 

So I should hope…. Otherwise simply turning off an old device could allow the rest to update and mess up the user completely… Are you sure that this has been thought through properly???

I’m with you on this one.Sold my Linn system for Sonos.Big mistake.

Early adopter since 2007. Extremely disappointed as all other posters here.

I really don’t see the point of the choice you’re making here.

Simple players do not need top processing / memory to just play music or this demonstrates a major flaw in the way your system is designed. 

The whole setup should be managed by a Sonos server, with players just connecting as clients to play music and relaying the network.

Sonos, please propose such a solution so that the same OS version can be maintained across the system, just making the distinction between server (more powerful) and clients (less powerful). This way we just maybe need to upgrade the server here and there over time but not the clients… And I’m ready to buy such server at a reasonable price if it allows to maintain my full legacy system.

By the way, the same comment holds for CR100 and CR200 remotes, they don’t need to be able to run the latest fancy OS, just to connect to the server that would run fancy functionalities.

Meanwhile, as already mentioned by others, at least maintenance upgrades should be provided so as to maintain current services.This is the least you can do to protect yourselves from early customers fury.

I will add my 2 cents to this thread as well.  I too am extremely disappointed by this news.  As many have mentioned, I was an early adopter as well to the Sonos ecosystem.  I have recommended Sonos to numerous friends and family that have also gone “all in” and purchased many Sonos products.  I’ve practically been a extension of the Sonos Sales Team through the years because I truly love everything about Sonos.  We’ll that is until today. 

They need to come up with a better solution for those that have legacy products.  Sonos forcing the hand of loyal Customers is ridiculous.  Sonos is becoming the Microsoft and Apple version of the Audio world.  What a joke.  It’s taken many years to build my Sonos system and I love everything about it.  Please Sonos, be loyal to your Customers as we have been to you.  If not, you’ll regret it.

Not another dime! Goodbye….Will also let everyone I know what a poor choice you product is.

Shame, because it sounds like that what you’re going to hear….

Amazon Link $199

As someone who purchased my first Sonos products in 2015, I am shocked and disappointed with the email I received this morning from the company. Because I had the misfortune of purchasing a 1st generation Play:5 a mere two months before the announcement of a 2nd generation, I am now forced into an expensive decision. I would like to say I would have waited for the 2nd generation to be released had I known this could happen (and had I known a 2nd generation speaker was coming). But if I knew, I likely would never have purchased anything from the company. Several thousands of dollars later, here I am.

I am by no means an early adopter here. But as others have noted, this is quite the middle finger to all of its most loyal customers. And to do it this way just reeks. I am incredibly let down and disappointed by this company, one that I have talked up so much that another 7+ people in my life have purchased Sonos as a result. I am embarrassed that I did now. Since the announcement that Sonos was going public, I was waiting for something shady and anti-customer to drop. Well, that day has arrived.

I will assure Sonos that they never have to worry about me purchasing another piece of equipment from them. 30% off an expensive speaker just so I can use my system? No thank you. On principle alone. You don’t treat customers like this and expect us to keep coming back for more. You have to do quite a bit more to remedy this.

If anyone has any recommendations of similar systems that will actually think of their customers, I am all ears. When all of my Sonos speakers are outdated (which I am sure they will make happen sooner than later to help the bottom line), I will want to move on to something better.

My letter to Patrick:

Hi Patrick,

I have been a Sonos user for about 10 years now. I have enjoyed it immensely. Unfortunately I now find that Sonos is attempting to extort me to purchase new equipment. How are you doing that? I received an email from you stating that software updates and support for my system will cease come May 2020. I am told in this email that I must purchase new Sonos equipment, or in the future I will lose functionality. Is this the price one pays for paying a high price for equipment and being an early adopter? I find your lack of understanding and hubris in telling prior customers that they are hostage to your demands to be troublesome. To purchase a Port for my home theater and a play 5, just to replace what I currently have will be $950 list. With your "generous" 30% discount that is still $665 that I will have to spend to maintain functionality. First I will investigate other options, and second I will advise anyone who might ask, to be wary of purchasing a Sonos product, because they may extort you at any time.

Thank you for your time,

Xxx

START POSTING ON SOCIAL MEDIA!!!

In my 50 years of being a consumer I have never felt so betrayed by a company. 

The public will not see this thread. Today I called numerous Sonos retailers in my city to say, “ethically they should not sell a customer a new Sonos product without disclosing that Sonos currently has, and may stop support for their products rendering them useless in the future.”

I posted my thoughts on any review I could find. 

Please take a moment and flood all the reviews you can find. Post in the ‘comment’ sections of Sonos youtube reviews, hit twitter and facebook, instagram, do a anti-sonos dance on Tic-Toc and whatever else this 50 year old doesn’t know about it. 

Why? 

What good what that do? 

I only use Sonos for web radio, Tidal and Soundcloud and for listening to music I have put on my phone that day while at work*. I don’t have any locally stored music. 

Without those services it would make Sonos completely pointless. 

Streaming services are constantly changing things their end, they have to as they add more features, Sonos are supplied with everything they need to get ‘their’ system to integrate with the services they want to use. It is not Tidals fault if Sonos decide they are no longer supporting Sonos products, it is Sonos’ choice. 

*This feature was removed recently too. That is when I decided to look at other options anyway. Leaving myself with a couple of connects and a single Play 5. 

What kind of upgrade are we getting here?

Take the original system I bought in 2006, the ZP80 and CR100. Absolutely beautiful to have a two-way WiFi remote and the ability to play music from my NAS. I bought more over the years, including a Connect:Amp in 2014 which is also end of life. By then it had Spotify integration.

What advance has there been since then?

Hi-definition audio? Nope, apparently we won’t hear it.

Bluetooth? Nope, tech specs for the Amp proudly boast about the lack of this: “WiFi, not Bluetooth”.

5Ghz WiFi? Nope, it still uses the 2.4Ghz (802.11b/g) frequency that microwave ovens love to leak into. I’ve had endless WiFi problems with Sonos and needed to wire them in.

After moving house last year I got two Sonos Boosts but it made terrible decisions about the topology and wouldn’t lock onto a working network map, so I brought forward a full re-wiring of the house with Ethernet and now the Boosts are packed away. Bit late to eBay them now.

Networking without STP? (causes broadcast storms on some switches) Correct me if I’m wrong, but nope.

So what benefit does the upgrade really give to customers?

Sonos might choose to argue that we’re getting lots of music service integrations. Great, although most of us only need the popular ones. I think some honesty is called for here. Are we being pushed to upgrade hardware to pay for ongoing software development, or is it really a hardware limitation? If the latter, how much does these things really cost to make? Given that the Connect (now Port) has hardware comparable to a cheap Blu-ray player (minus the moving parts, plus a couple more ports), I presume we’re paying a premium for the brand, the design, the experience, the software. Is the actual hardware really so expensive? You can get some serious electronic kit for the price Sonos are asking. So why the small discount?

5-10 years ago when Sonos had few competitors, the premium price was worth paying and I was a happy customer.

Now they’ve hiked the prices by introducing new models at a higher price point that do basically the same thing (with modest updates that 10 years’ development could easily bring, but some big omissions) and then claimed they’re offering a trade-in at 30% discount. And 4 months’ notice.

Ok, I get that a company needs to make money. If they don’t have a subscription model then eventually people need to replace kit, or else it’s a giant pyramid scheme funded by new customers (or at least existing customers expanding their network). But Sonos have gone about this the wrong way - there’s no bargain with their loyal customers, no trust - just dumping a really bad deal on us on a take it or leave it basis.

What I expect from Sonos:

• New hardware should actually be up-to-date. Lack of 5Ghz* Wi-Fi is a deal-breaker.
• The discount should be higher to reflect the increased price of new Sonos components and the fact that frankly after 15 years, the technology involved to play 44.1Khz 16-bit audio is pretty cheap.
• Customers should be able to lock in the upgrade discount for at least 12 months, preferably 24 months. Perhaps with a small, refundable deposit if necessary but ideally without.
• Updates should be guaranteed for 10 years from purchase. If Sonos can’t offer that long (especially if a product is soon to be discontinued), this should be clearly communicated and reflected in the price.

(* in many use cases 2.4Ghz is better; that’s why even really cheap kit these days supports both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz).