I can’t keep up with this, so many post in such a short time. To be honest I’m 

beyond angry. As a previous post mentioned the environmental effects alone is a PR blunder of supernova. And what cost this has had to future loyalty even if they have a change of heart. But the silence is deafening from sonos. And something else how many retailers have old stock of these products that will be useless. The way things are going sonos shouldn’t worry about google and worry about a class action being brought.

Ouch! I thought I was in a bad place.

SONOS, you really need to consider some form of dedicated one-on-one support to those high yield customers, like this guy, that built your company and are being disproportionally affected by this decision.

Crazy isn’t it, my Play:3s are showing as modern also, despite the fact they were purchased at the same time as lot’s of Play:5s.

And I really pushed the boat out financially to buy the Play:5s, thought I was being clever, as they had to be better!

Having said that, I dare say the Play:3s will hit ‘expiry date’ very soon too. Sad.
 

If you want to make more money, how about designing new compelling and innovative products that people actually want to buy? Business 101!

Could you imagine if Tesla bricked their vehicles after 5 years?

Bad news for me and likely to send me moving to a different system. I have about a dozen products and the last few times an upgrade happened I lost some basic functionality (like adding to or searching my music library) until all devices updated. Last time my internet connection dropped in the middle of an upgrade (cable problems, not SONOS) and left the entire system dead until I had internet again, then it took hours of troubleshooting and removing devices and adding them back, one by one, to restore everything (I think that’s on SONOS). That leaves me wondering if anything is really going to work when they kill support.

I checked the trade-in program, but even at 30% off that’s a lot of money, and of course prices just went up. I also pass down my older equipment to my sons and their trade-in-and-die policy of disabling older units after 21 days means I can’t do that. Finally, I am not sure what the updates have done for me, since I don’t care about voice or Amazon integration. I did replace my old Bridge with a Boost but did not notice any difference in performance. I thought about upgrading my Connections to Ports before Christmas but my email query about what had changed technically (higher resolution, greater sampling rate, any specs?) went unanswered so I let it go. Not knowing the price would jump after Christmas, when I had bills to pay…

I’ve had SONOS for many years but this just leaves me with a really bad feeling. I understand they cannot support products forever, but I have a couple of speakers in their boxes from a few years ago waiting on some room finishing that are listed as obsolete. It feels like they are trying to boost revenue at the cost of their current customer base. I have not the funds to update everything, I’ll cross my fingers it works in June and start looking at alternatives.

Hi - It appears I have 8 legacy products that will expire. If I were to upgrade, can you give me an idea as to how long I should expect service before the next universal expiration? I appreciate the quick response.

Loyal customer.

Hi,

This is the most idiotic thing I have ever heard from you.

I have been a happy Sonos customers for years (in fact so many years that most of my products are old enough to be affected), but now I really need to question your company ethics.

If I read your message correctly, the perfectly functioning good products will over time become useless. This a disastrous decision from the ecological point of view.

And a 30% discount to buy more when I am totally happy with my totally functioning products. You must be kidding! 

I sincerely hope you will change your mind. If you don’t, you can be certain that I will never buy a new Sonos product again.

Best Regards,

Matias

I’ve used Sonos since 2009 and recommended it to others until recent years when I decided it wasn't good business sense to keep investing in your products for my home.  

I made an account on this thread just say that I will definatly not be supporting this company anymore.  

There are much more cost effective alternatives nowadays to this overpriced (and now apparently obsolete) equipment.  

I’ve been looking for a good reason to switch and this is it!  I hope others follow.  I’ll continue using what I have until it stops working and then do something else!  I hope others do the same thing!

***SONOS: FIGURE OUT A WAY TO MAKE YOUR STUFF WORK!!!***

Some of us have thousands invested and hope you get this problem fixed and/or face a lawsuit.  The future, in my opinion, is not looking well for your company at this time.

Thanks,

Disappointed and irritated, but not surprised

I wouldn’t fancy being Ryan S at this point.

Ryan have you any alternative job options?  Might be more fun?!

Dear Mr Spence.

Today is a sad day for me.  I've fallen out of love with one of my favourite products and I can see no way back.

I've been a loyal advocate of Sonos speakers for the last 7 years, have championed them with family and friends, installed them for customers and of course listened with great pleasure at home.

I have worked hard and saved hard to build up my Sonos collection to 18 speakers and have always enjoyed finding new ways to 'fill my house with music'.

After today's announcement however, and the tone with which it was delivered, I will never buy or recommend another Sonos product again. I felt disgust in the fact that you are effectively telling me that I can no longer keep my system updated unless I brick products which are less than 5 years old and buy new ones at 70% of the cost again.  In addition, there appears to be no concern to the amount of electronic waste that the environment will suffer because of this.

I strongly urge you to mobilise your management team to rectify the issue of legacy support as soon as possible, otherwise I fear, (sadly) that this will be my last communication with your company.
 

Long may this dive continue 

Long may this dive continue 

 

 

 

Sonos to $5 a share. Revenue falls significantly after it deserts most loyal customers. 

Couldn’t agree more….

Very, very, very, very disappointed to get the “end of software updates” email regarding my Sonos Living Room Connect. This product was hugely over priced for what it is in the first place, given that there is no actual speaker or amp components involved. To suggest Sonos could not maintain existing functionality on legacy products while continuing to improve newer products is complete and utter rubbish, and anyone with even the most basic understanding of how these things work can understand that.

What an absolute disgrace on behalf of Sonos as a corporation. I work in the industry and will no longer be recommending my customers, friends, family, reddit communities, etc., use Sonos equipment. I will in fact go out of my way to post warnings about having anything to do with the products.

Pathetic in every possible way, just as the supposed “recycling” program is.

Over the past decade we have spent thousands on Sonos products. I am deeply troubled by your decision to leave us hanging high and dry.  I actually thought Sonos was a company that you can trust but obviously not.  Why doesn’t Sonos provide the option for existing customers to send in their speakers to be rebuilt with a newer processor board? I don’t like the fact that Sonos made my CR100 obsolete then sent a software update to stop it from working properly. I’m waiting for the software update that will disable all of my ZP90’s, ZP100 and ZP120’s. How do you block Sonos software updates? Also, the 30% that Sonos is offering doesn’t cut it. The new zone players are more expensive (more than 30%) so we’ll have to spend thousands again. This is not right!

Amazing. It has started. 410 new listings today for Sonos products mostly Play 5’s.
How wonderful.

I’m pissed.  This is an insult to the customers who have supported Sonos over the years.
Here’s an email I’ve sent to the CEO, Chief Product Officer and COO.  Feel free to re-use or send your own.

patrick.spence@sonos.com
nick.millington@sonos.com
david.perri@sonos.com

Dear Patrick, Nicholas, and David,

I've just received an email informing me that my Play5 Gen1 will no longer receive updates past May and as a result of your implementation, the rest of my more modern Sonos speakers will suffer the same fate because your development teams have been unable (or unwilling) to segregate the legacy speakers on the network.

To lessen the blow, you've offered a paltry 30% trade-in discount, yet last week you increased prices across your entire speaker line.

To say that I am apoplectic is an understatement.

I have been a supporter of Sonos for years, recommending them to my friends and family, resulting in many of them purchasing Sonos products.

In one fell swoop, you've made an ass out of me, given several of them also purchased the Play 5 Gen 1 since it allowed for inputs, and you've screwed over several thousand dollars worth of purchases since my more modern speakers will essentially be deprecated.

I work in technology.  The claim that the devices cannot support the software anymore is a sham.  You've made a calculated, cold, business decision to avoid developing a workaround that would allow loyal customers such as myself to continue to use "legacy" products into the future because it's easier and cheaper to lose some customers over this.

If you do not reverse this decision, treat your loyal, long term customers with the respect and appreciation they deserve, your cold, calculated business decision will result in your reputation being trashed and your sales will be directly affected.  Sonos, once revered in the speaker community, will be regarded as a pariah.  Your once-loyal customers will shout from the rooftops to warn everyone to never purchase your expensive speakers since the value that used to exist has officially evaporated if they need to be replaced every 5 years.  I'd rather deploy a bunch of Google speakers around my house given the cost is so low, the sound is okay and if they pull the same stunt I won't be out of pocket hundreds.

I sincerely hope you reconsider this regrettable decision and work hard to restore the faith that loyal customers have believed in and shown you these many years.

Sincerely,

Matthew Kirkey

Sonos – i’m a loyalist, but hear me out.

I’ve been notified that $7,000 of products I purchased at premium-built audio prices will be “degraded” (bricked) in May 2020, as well as potentially any total system that includes any of these components.  Sonos PR explains my purchases were really high-depreciation PC commodities in the world of streaming, not premium-built audio after all.

If Sonos is actually competing in the quick obsolescence consumer computer component market of smart speakers, why does ifs hardware pricing increase despite more and better competitive alternatives than a few years ago? 

As for longevity, Windows 2007 spanned longer than the Sonos OS, and Microsoft doesn’t even control the hardware.  When Apple discontinues latest OS support for its iPhones, Apple phones don’t get bricked on the network, and neither does the phone brick the network itself. 

I read that Sonos is suing the major voice integration vendors for patent violations.  Tough decision, and I applaud Sonos for protecting their IP if it’s being abused.  Is forcing an “hardware upgrade” decision (= buy more hardware) to keep customer’s audio systems running a strategy to maintain hardware revenue as Sonos battles it out with the partners they need to survive? 

If it isn’t premium-built audio components, or PC-like commoditization with innovation, what is this huge benefit that I’m receiving?  The Sonos App UI?  Sell me that this refresh has benefit other than “pay if you don’t want your system to stop working or else...” seek alternatives. 

I’m not surprised old hardware goes obsolete, I just don’t know how long it will last with Sonos or what’s ahead.  If Sonos is truly in the disposable tech world , what am i getting other than forced obsolescence for short term revenue?  Will i have to throw away investments of hardware more frequently just to keep the audio network working?   Are there maintenance and subscription fees ahead?  Should I expect more “pay to play” revenue schemes that make me feel even more like a hostage in the future?

Should we expect compatibility, predictability, and quality - or commodity cost in exchange for more frequent wholesale replacements replacements in the future?

Not sure who thought thru the policy of not allowing the older speakers not to work with any new upgrades but it is going to be a Fatal flaw in marketing.  This forces me to go purchase 10 new speakers, which I will not due, just to purchase ONE new speaker.  So I will NOT purchase new sonos speakers since I cannot use my other 10 speakers/devices.

Sorry sonos, but this is a sales FAILURE.

I doubt it….

So going by Sonos logic, my other devices bought 8 years ago will also be end of life. So how long until the Play 1,Play 3 , sound bar and sub go the same way? 
 

With this likely, why would we purchase a bunch of replacement spreaders and amps when Sonos is likely to scrap the rest of the system in the near future?

Also, the Sonos amp was still being sold 4 years ago so how does Sonos justify a 4 year old device being obsolete?

Boycott Sonos! I have just been turned from a brand ambassador who made relatives and friends buy their products to a brand antagonist! Never spending another dollar on a sonos product and would not recommend a sonos ever again! Shame on you sonos!!!

Just had a look on the Sonos website… I couldn't be bothered reading further after I saw the proclamation of TRUST, ACCOUNTABILITY and COLLABORATION. they all are sub headings under the page heading RESPONSIBILITY. If you want to find the page, click on the link called SUSTAINABILITY under their main menu…..  

Who thinks any of their blurb is sincere?

Does any of it have substance… ?

 

 

Unbelievable isn’t it.

Such a shame.

Goes to show that Marketing and truth have an inverse relationship. 
 

we care. Oh yeah… let’s brick your machines.