We wanted to take a moment to address concerns regarding our new app that launched in May. At Sonos, delivering an exceptional experience is paramount to all that we do. Unfortunately, your experiences over the past several weeks have fallen short of our commitment to you.
Today, our CEO Patrick Spence published a letter that includes a detailed update on the progress we’ve been making and plans going forward. You can read the full letter here.
We sincerely appreciate your patience and continued support. We are working hard to earn back your trust and are more committed than ever to delivering a consistently great Sonos experience for everyone.
Thank you all for your patience, Your Sonos Team
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I would appreciate elimination the annoying message to turn on Bluetooth every time I start the app on my phone or tablet. I do not use Bluetooth on a regular basis and do not need to discover new devices on my network. Having that message come up every time is repetitive and unnecessary. Also, I reiterate what others have stated in being disappointed with the lack of options and control for the Music Library. The new app is a real step backward.
Well said. If only others could demonstrate similar restraint.
It's telling that you automatically equate expressing one's disappointment over a product with unleashing abuse and toxicity.
“Dear Ben & Jerry’s,
I’m concerned that you’ve decided to replace all of your flavors with only the one ‘Kale Walnut Hamburger Madness’ flavor. Please reconsider this business change. Love, Longtime User”
SONOS Knight: OMG SO TOXIC JUST GIVE THEM A CHANCE TO IRON OUT THE FLAVOR JEEZE
If you think that is a proper representation of the abuse and toxicity in this forum for the past two months, I've got some examples of deleted posts you need to see. Absolutely sick and disturbing posts, truly vile stuff.
I think:
Sonos made the move to shut people out of perfectly functioning systems that, in some cases, people spent tens of thousands of dollars on
Sonos decided to act as though they were virtuous in this action
Sonos pretended that there were, in fact, no problems with the new application that couldn’t be overcome with a simple phone call that, in some cases, lasted for hours
Sonos had the lack of foresight to understand how their customers used their product
Sonos foisted an unfinished and unintuitive UI on their userbase.
Sonos continues to conflate and allow forum “helpers” to conflate user angst with user wifi configuration, implying that user frustration is of the user’s own creation
Sonos continues to act as though their intentions matter more than whether or not they have a functioning product
You, sir, can belabor whether or not users had a lack of self-control when they chose to post on these forums, but the simple fact remains: Sonos created this problem and SONOS can fix this problem in a heartbeat by releasing 16.2 for users to download (at their own risk if need be).
Grow a spine. Stop attempting to field interference for a company that suddenly believes their customers should be happy with sloppy code and virtuous intentions.
They’re not a few people in some boomer’s garage, trying to eek out a living. They’re humans that chose to work for a first rate audio company. It’s unfortunate that the company’s leadership is too obtuse to do what needs to be done to simply put the customer back in control of the customer’s hardware.
If they can’t hack the criticism when they do things contrary to the customer’s best interest, they should find a line of work that doesn’t include customers. Government work, perhaps.
The old app isn’t coming back. No matter how easy you might argue it would be, no matter how much you think Sonos owe it to everyone, no matter how incompetent you think Sonos are. It just isn’t. My opinion, your opinion, the collective opinion doesn’t matter. The evidence, no matter how strongly anyone might feel — for or against , is that it just is not coming back. Surely everyone can see that ? Why keep arguing it, what’s the point?
Everyone clamouring for it is now just noise.
The old app isn’t coming back. No matter how easy you might argue it would be, no matter how much you think Sonos owe it to everyone, no matter how incompetent you think Sonos are. It just isn’t. My opinion, your opinion, the collective opinion doesn’t matter. The evidence, no matter how strongly anyone might feel — for or against , is that it just is not coming back. Surely everyone can see that ? Why keep arguing it, what’s the point?
Everyone clamouring for it is now just noise.
I’m quite literally using it to control my vast array of Sonos products at this very moment. All I had to do was buy a trashy Android tablet and load the 16.X apk.
What you decided to write has very little meaning in the real world, and carries as much weight as someone telling the world that classic World of Warcraft would never be a thing.
It's telling that you automatically equate expressing one's disappointment over a product with unleashing abuse and toxicity.
“Dear Ben & Jerry’s,
I’m concerned that you’ve decided to replace all of your flavors with only the one ‘Kale Walnut Hamburger Madness’ flavor. Please reconsider this business change. Love, Longtime User”
SONOS Knight: OMG SO TOXIC JUST GIVE THEM A CHANCE TO IRON OUT THE FLAVOR JEEZE
If you think that is a proper representation of the abuse and toxicity in this forum for the past two months, I've got some examples of deleted posts you need to see. Absolutely sick and disturbing posts, truly vile stuff.
I think:
Sonos made the move to shut people out of perfectly functioning systems that, in some cases, people spent tens of thousands of dollars on
Sonos decided to act as though they were virtuous in this action
Sonos pretended that there were, in fact, no problems with the new application that couldn’t be overcome with a simple phone call that, in some cases, lasted for hours
Sonos had the lack of foresight to understand how their customers used their product
Sonos foisted an unfinished and unintuitive UI on their userbase.
Sonos continues to conflate and allow forum “helpers” to conflate user angst with user wifi configuration, implying that user frustration is of the user’s own creation
Sonos continues to act as though their intentions matter more than whether or not they have a functioning product
You, sir, can belabor whether or not users had a lack of self-control when they chose to post on these forums, but the simple fact remains: Sonos created this problem and SONOS can fix this problem in a heartbeat by releasing 16.2 for users to download (at their own risk if need be).
Grow a spine. Stop attempting to field interference for a company that suddenly believes their customers should be happy with sloppy code and virtuous intentions.
They’re not a few people in some boomer’s garage, trying to eek out a living. They’re humans that chose to work for a first rate audio company. It’s unfortunate that the company’s leadership is too obtuse to do what needs to be done to simply put the customer back in control of the customer’s hardware.
If they can’t hack the criticism when they do things contrary to the customer’s best interest, they should find a line of work that doesn’t include customers. Government work, perhaps.
THIS^^^
And this> my response to the CEO who lead this debacle:
BTW, I have no illusions that he ever reads these, but if felt good for all the trouble he’s put so many friends and family through and I really don’t care enough to even edit my response. I’ve done being a 100+hr Alpha-Tester for this clown car of a company! Don’t screw with our music Spence!
LMAO P.Spence, you’ve made such a mess of this company since you joined (just like Rim/Blackberry). Now you send more lies and misrepresentation in this insulting and too little, too late email. You lied about the new app having all the features and functionality of the prior S2 app, your team foisted this crap app on consumers with nags, automatic updates, and more dishonest marketing/advertising! And now you have nerve to claim in your letter that your bi-weekly update are significant improvements??? What?? Many of the updates are making things worse! Don’t you even ever read any of the Apple App, Google Play, Sonos community, r/Sonos feedback???
Plus your staff have locked out the ability with firmware updates to even go back. Your company should be sued up the kazoo for deceptive marketing and advertisement practices at the very least and you should have resigned LONG AGO!
I sold all of my Sonos shares 2 days after the crap-app was released having been a loyal customer, shareholder, and promoter for over a decade! THIS IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY AND FAULT, and you’ve been too quiet, too long, plus your missive means NOTHING to vast community of Sonos customers/users.
Good luck ever getting any of us back!
In response to your message and as I emailed you earlier Patrick
Subject: Resign
Body: You write of the importance in earning back customers’ trust - for me - your resignation is a necessary step in that process.
I feel like this letter would land better if they send owners some 50% off vouchers and 12 months free Sonos HD Radio.
SOME type of remuneration is in order. If not 50% vouchers a decent (more than 10%) discount for existing customers would go a long way toward putting your money where your mouth is and actually compensating people for the incredibly massive INCONVENIENCE.
Not only are the users unhappy, but probably also the shareholders, as Sonos has done a really good job of destroying the value of the stock,
The old app isn’t coming back. No matter how easy you might argue it would be, no matter how much you think Sonos owe it to everyone, no matter how incompetent you think Sonos are. It just isn’t. My opinion, your opinion, the collective opinion doesn’t matter. The evidence, no matter how strongly anyone might feel — for or against , is that it just is not coming back. Surely everyone can see that ? Why keep arguing it, what’s the point?
Everyone clamouring for it is now just noise.
And this isnt ”just noise “?
CEO’s apology is totally unacceptable . I want action not excuses. Reinstate the old app it worked perfectly fine. What happened to quality assuring new releases before inflicting unworkable product on customers.
As for those calling for “restraint”and “patience” I can only assume your system’s are working fine.
Dude, this forum needed to be a breeding ground of abuse and toxicity over the past couple of months, otherwise Sonos would've shrugged their shoulders and formed the opinion that customers liked the new app!
It's telling that you automatically equate expressing one's disappointment over a product with unleashing abuse and toxicity.
Haha! I was quoting the second post in this thread by your fellow Sonos apologist.
在 SONOS 扬声器上播放的歌曲无法在 SONOS 客户端上同步显示。延迟非常严重。请尽快解决!
If they can’t hack the criticism when they do things contrary to the customer’s best interest, they should find a line of work that doesn’t include customers. Government work, perhaps.\
A line of work without customers does seem to be what Sonos are angling for
The old app isn’t coming back. No matter how easy you might argue it would be, no matter how much you think Sonos owe it to everyone, no matter how incompetent you think Sonos are. It just isn’t. My opinion, your opinion, the collective opinion doesn’t matter. The evidence, no matter how strongly anyone might feel — for or against , is that it just is not coming back. Surely everyone can see that ? Why keep arguing it, what’s the point?
Everyone clamouring for it is now just noise.
But it could. Very easily. There’s people still using it, it continues to work fine. I will continue to call for the old app to be rolled back out until the new app has restored an acceptable level of functionality.
The current app has rendered so many problems with my system, that under Australian Consumer Law, my system can clearly be described as having a ‘Major Fault’. That renders me and every other Australian suffering similar problems with their Sonos systems as being entitled to:
a timely, reasonable cost repair; or
a refund.
Those provisions apply to the reasonable lifetime of the product, not just some arbitrary warranty period Sonos have in their terms and conditions.
If Sonos isn’t going to offer the old app, or isn’t going to fix the new app in a timely fashion - then they should be offering Australian customers refunds on their systems.
Of course they are not - or at least they’re keeping any refunds very quiet and they’re making the process for obtaining one very hard to find.
I dont know as much as its great to get an apology, some of the implications and assumptions are a bit grating.
“We know that too many of you have experienced significant problems” Try mostly everyone.
“However, since launch we have found a number of issues. Fixing these issues has delayed our prior plan to quickly incorporate missing features and functionality.” Ok, so now I’m confused, you actually delayed putting back features that you knew were missing at launch, because there were even more bugs than originally foreseen. Goodness gracious, your beta testing and bug fixing was worse than I thought.
“While these software updates have enabled the majority of our customers to have a robust experience” . Majority?, Thats a pretty wild assumption imo. I reckon that it will be October before this statement will be anywhere near true
Does anyone use a mesh system and can use the new app built on the new way to find all my Sonos products? Since May I’ve basically had to rely on Airplay to listen to any music. Every release it seems to have only gotten worse, not better!
Also, all Sonos Boosts (I have 3) dropped out of the app. No mention is made of these. They were on sale, by Sonos in April and then they’re gone, like they never existed.
To say they fell short is the biggest understatement ever. I’ve pretty much got a lot of very expensive paper weights.
The most commonly posted view on any forum is that if someone 1) regularly shows willingness to help solve people’s issues and 2) regularly points out people’s utter idiocy, then they are somehow a supporter for the company behind the forum.
I have never been a ‘knight’ for Sonos, and you will not find a post of mine that supports your view. The abuse and toxicity I foresaw in my original post on this thread has come to pass. Even posting this will result in further toxicity. People cannot help themselves.
My iPad needed charging again, did I miss any toxicity?
The most commonly posted view on any forum is that if someone 1) regularly shows willingness to help solve people’s issues and 2) regularly points out people’s utter idiocy, then they are somehow a supporter for the company behind the forum.
I have never been a ‘knight’ for Sonos, and you will not find a post of mine that supports your view. The abuse and toxicity I foresaw in my original post on this thread has come to pass. Even posting this will result in further toxicity. People cannot help themselves.
People are frustrated and exasperated and want answers to the current situation whereby they cannot use the product and are fearful of losing access to music they have purchased over a number of years as is their right as customers.
The most commonly posted view on any forum is that if someone 1) regularly shows willingness to help solve people’s issues and 2) regularly points out people’s utter idiocy, then they are somehow a supporter for the company behind the forum.
I have never been a ‘knight’ for Sonos, and you will not find a post of mine that supports your view. The abuse and toxicity I foresaw in my original post on this thread has come to pass. Even posting this will result in further toxicity. People cannot help themselves.
People are frustrated and exasperated and want answers to the current situation whereby they cannot use the product and are fearful of losing access to music they have purchased over a number of years as is their right as customers.
Correct. But people are turning on each other. There is no-one here who doesn’t want a fully functioning app. I really want queue and playlist management - it was shown as an app option on their May social media ads! - so to hear that going back to Sept/Oct (we all know they mean Oct) is very disappointing and very, very annoying. But being abusive to the CEO on here will not speed up that process. There is nothing anyone can do to accelerate things, so all people can do is to keep posting the issues they are still experiencing and eventually that app functionality will arrive. It IS frustrating. But with thousands of words available, they can be constructed into a sentence with a bit less venom, and people with the same frustrations can at least not turn on each other. Being abusive is not one of the customer rights you mention.
Some of the posts in this thread are wholly lacking in self-awareness.
Don’t feed trolls.
Don’t tone police.
Don’t blame legitimately frustrated customers for expressing their thoughts, via the only official channel open to them (Spence’s mailbox is neither here nor there), about having invested what is, for many people, significant sums in a product that now doesn’t function as it did when they purchased it.
Someone having a different view than you does not make them ‘toxic’.
Sonos made the decisions that led to this point. Sonos chose to roll out a functionality incomplete software product. Sonos chose not to provide the old app when things went sideways.
Yes, threats of violence, however real, are always wrong. However, constantly bringing up the actions of a minority of users like some forum Cassandra, and treating all those who continue to experience fundamental issues with their systems as part of an aggressive, unreasonable mob, and acting snide is deeply unhelpful.
Was it just me who received a blank email initially from the CEO and only the second, a day later, that contained the apology? Accidental missing details or not written - just sounds like the new code
Was it just me who received a blank email initially from the CEO and only the second, a day later, that contained the apology? Accidental missing details or not written - just sounds like the new code
I just got this. Oh. Just noticed my recently played don't want to load.
Mr Spence's letter is late. We, as Sonos resellers and installers, have suffered from the shortcomings of the new app and have often had to deal with numerous requests for clarification from our customers with consequent service costs. Some customers have preferred not to add more products to their system and have triggered negative word of mouth by sowing doubts about Sonos' superiority over the competition. Direct sales account for the majority of Sonos' revenue, but there are still customers who prefer to visit stores for advice and guidance in both purchase and installation: when will Sonos recognize more?