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Keith N
Sonos Staff
October 1, 2024
News

Our New Quality and Customer Experience Commitments

Related content:Sonos

Hi all,

We’ve been sharing app updates with you all over the last several months, and today we wanted to share commitments that we are announcing following our internal review of the app release in May of this year. In addition to all we have been doing to get you back to enjoying your Sonos products, these commitments will drive us to emerge from this with an even stronger commitment to quality. You can read highlights of the commitments below, and read more here: www.sonos.com/commitments.

 

To address the root causes of the problems of the app release, we commit to:

  • Unwavering focus on the customer experience. To deliver the highest level of customer experience, we will always establish ambitious quality benchmarks at the start of product development. We will not launch products until they meet these criteria. We will also enhance the tools needed to measure and maintain the standards our customers expect.
  • Increase the stringency of our pre-launch testing phases. Our beta testing program will include a broader range of customers and more diverse setups, helping us diagnose and resolve issues faster before going to market.
  • Demonstrate humility when introducing changes. In contrast to the all-at-once automated app release we issued in May, any major change to the Sonos app will be released gradually, allowing customers to adjust and provide feedback before it becomes the default. For new features smaller in scope, we will introduce an opt-in experimental features option in the app for customers who would like to participate in testing them.
  • Appoint a Quality Ombudsperson. This new role will ensure our employees have a clear path to escalate any concerns in terms of quality and customer experience. This person will be consulted by executive leadership throughout the development process and before any product launches. In this role, the ombudsperson will guarantee transparency and publish a report to management and employees twice per year, and will present regularly to the Sonos board of directors. 
     

In addition, we are also committing to the following to begin to regain your trust: 

  • Extend our home speaker warranties. To reflect our strong belief in the quality of our products, we will extend the manufacturer’s warranty by an additional year for all home theater and plug-in speaker products currently under warranty.
  • Relentlessly improve the app experience with regular software upgrades. We will continue to roll out updated mobile software versions every 2-4 weeks to optimize and enhance the app experience, even after the current issues are fully resolved.
  • Establish a Customer Advisory Board. We will form a Customer Advisory Board to ensure we never lose sight of our customers' voices. This board will provide feedback and insights from a customer perspective to help shape and improve our software and products before they are launched.

As a demonstration of the significance of these commitments, the Sonos Executive Leadership Team will not accept any annual bonus payout for the October 2024 - September 2025 fiscal year unless the company succeeds in improving the quality of the app experience and rebuilding customer trust.

 

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below. Thanks for all of your support and patience the last several months - we’re excited to move forward and get you back to enjoying the quality that Sonos is known for.

Your Sonos team.

 

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    138 replies

    Enthusiast I
    January 3, 2025

    If I am using SonosNet, I don’t think it’s anything to do specifically with the FritzBox Router supplied by my ISP.  Didn’t Sonos devices used to use SonosNet (a proprietry MESH developed by Sonos)?  Can you tell me where that was obvious to you

    The names to the right are just names I have applied to the device in my router to quickly identify each device listed there….I am not using a Boost at this location which I think is required for using SonosNet?

     

    I do have ione wired speaker in this setup.  Does that activate SonosNet?

     

    Ken_Griffiths
    January 3, 2025

    I do have ione wired speaker in this setup.  Does that activate SonosNet?

    Yes some (not all) Sonos devices initiate SonosNet when wired - the giveaway in your router configuration pages is the fact they are showing a 100MB/s LAN connection. 

    SonosNet is slow these days (by comparison to modern WiFi networks) - it uses the slower 2.4Ghz band - that’s not to say it might be fine, just there are other faster opportunities - as an example. if I link a laptop to a speaker running over SonosNet, I’m lucky if I can get 12MB/s on a good day - on a WiFi mesh setup I can get 600+MB/s on the 5Ghz band with that same laptop.

    If you do decide to stick with SonosNet ensure the wired device is linked directly to the router only and is set at least 1 metre away from the router, or any other wireless device. Set its channel in the Sonos App to a completely different non-overlapping channel too compared to the router channel. Make sure the router is using a non-overlapping channel aswell, with a channel-width of 20Mhz, as mentioned earlier. Alternatively, try running all on your router WiFi instead - on a 5Ghz channel if possible and with decent SNR levels showing in the Sonos App. Every little adjustment may help resolve your issues.

    Enthusiast I
    January 3, 2025

    Thanks Ken.  Starting to get a feel for the task ahead.

    Airgetlam
    January 3, 2025

    Just as a counterpoint, there are others of us who prefer a 2.4 GHz connection, which provides enough bandwidth for music, and offers a greater distance and penetration than a 5Ghz signal does. 

    I happen to still run SonosNet, using a BOOST, as I don’t have a speaker near my router that could be wired. I happen to like having my music ‘separated’ from other network use, although it may not really make any difference. 

    Bruce
    Ken_Griffiths
    January 3, 2025

    Just as a counterpoint, there are others of us who prefer a 2.4 GHz connection, which provides enough bandwidth for music, and offers a greater distance and penetration than a 5Ghz signal does. 

    I happen to still run SonosNet, using a BOOST, as I don’t have a speaker near my router that could be wired. I happen to like having my music ‘separated’ from other network use, although it may not really make any difference. 

    I don’t think I would use SonosNet in a city/built-up area as the 5Ghz band is often faster, with far less interference - but the speed difference/responsiveness alone and Sonos device discovery, is just noticeably quicker.

    I found it far more noticeable when stepping back to SonosNet, albeit briefly, it was like stepping back from a new fast PC, or mobile device, to a real old one and realising just how slow the old one was compared to the new.

    It’s horses for courses though, I guess.

    I tried once to persuade a friend to upgrade his Windows PC and his response was "Why would I, I can’t type any faster than I do now”. Which is fair comment I guess. He was happy to wait the 8 minutes, or so, for it to boot up too etc. Installs & Updates seemed to take forever, but c'est la vie.

    Enthusiast I
    January 3, 2025

    Just as a counterpoint, there are others of us who prefer a 2.4 GHz connection, which provides enough bandwidth for music, and offers a greater distance and penetration than a 5Ghz signal does. 

    I happen to still run SonosNet, using a BOOST, as I don’t have a speaker near my router that could be wired. I happen to like having my music ‘separated’ from other network use, although it may not really make any difference. 

    I don’t think I would use SonosNet in a city/built-up area as the 5Ghz band is often faster, with far less interference - but the speed difference/responsiveness alone and Sonos device discovery, is just noticeably quicker.

    I found it far more noticeable when stepping back to SonosNet, albeit briefly, it was like stepping back from a new fast PC, or mobile device, to a real old one and realising just how slow the old one was compared to the new.

    It’s horses for courses though, I guess.

    I tried once to persuade a friend to upgrade his Windows PC and his response was "Why would I, I can’t type any faster than I do now”. Which is fair comment I guess. He was happy to wait the 8 minutes, or so, for it to boot up too etc. Installs & Updates seemed to take forever, but c'est la vie.

    I thought that 5Ghz also worked better with devices that were nearer - I have three floors in the city location and so the distance is the fartherest over which I am tryign to use Sonos.  A very standard terrace house with loft conversion so still not vast distances.

     

    Enthusiast I
    January 3, 2025

    Alos wondering if somethign like this may help?  

    Everyroom

     Provided at extra cost by my ISP, so would want to cover off other things first.

    Enthusiast I
    January 3, 2025

    Been on hold to Sonos (UK) for 90 minutes now…. sigh.  Can I use the US support if in the UK?

    Ken_Griffiths
    January 3, 2025

    Alos wondering if somethign like this may help?  

    Everyroom

     Provided at extra cost by my ISP, so would want to cover off other things first.

    I personally would not choose it, as you’re likely to get a better deal if you purchased your own mesh setup, it may be more expensive initially, but once you’re tied into a monthly subscription it can be more difficult to let it go. You can also sell-on your own hubs later, whereas you may have to hand those back. 
     

    If there’s a long wait on hold to Sonos, I’d perhaps try a different time/day. 

    Enthusiast I
    January 3, 2025

    Ken,

    Just to let you know that after more than 90 minutes on hold, I got through.  Long and short is I am being told that the diagnostic shows nothing wrong with my speakers and that the issue is with the network communications.  Well could have told them that!  Indeed I had at the beginning of the call. I’d like to know what you make of the following advice:

    I am being told that I need to do three things:

    1. Call my ISP and ask them to turn on IGMP
    2. Reboot my router and all the speakers
    3. Continue to reboot all my speakers at least once a month (indeed all Sonos users need to do that, they are computers after all - these were the words).

    I was told this was a ‘workaround’ to address the lagginess issues.  If this really is the official advice I’m afraid I cannot spend at least half an hour a month for each of my Sonos systems rebooting all the speakers. Nor do I want too.  It’s farcical and life it way too short!

    As I understand it, every Sonos user should reboot their speakers at least once a month to avoid ‘lagginess’ issues with speaker/controller communications!  It made me laugh. As I said to the person I was speaking too (who personally has one Sonos speaker which she said she happily reboots regularly), it takes quite a time to reboot 8-9 speakers, waiting for each to come back up before moving onto the next. Apparently she understood my frustration.

    I asked if there was any official Sonos documentation that confirmed this requirement and the technical reason for the issue that now requires this regular action - I didn’t get anywhere.  I’m afraid that unless I was unlucky and happened to speak to a responder who was not very able, then all this does is confirm my worst fears.

     

    Here is the email confirmation I asked for:

    Please contact your Internet Service Provided and advise them that we need to set the IGMP snooping to ON.

     

    If you are experiencing issues and need to reboot your Sonos speakers, you can do so by unplugging them from the power source, waiting for about 10 seconds, and then plugging them back in.

    Please try to reboot the Speakers after a few weeks or at least once a month to avoid issues.

    Here is your case number xxxxxxxx. 

    Thank you very much and have a lovely day!