End of Software Support - Clarifications

Perhaps you should not attribute someone else’s remarks to me?

That’s not what I posted

@train_nerd said he was ‘worried’ that his Sonos Ones might not work - clearly not something he felt he had any choice over.  That even one user should have that concern shows what a twisted picture has been created by some of the language used by some of the complainants on here.

FWIW, it took several days and exchanges with Sonos Support to figure out the status of the old Sonos Ones. Then we have an apology from the CEO, ad naseum reading of these fora both of which also helped to clarify then confirm the status.  Shame on me for thinking sharing my experience adds value and becomes subject shall-we-say “commentary” (this author’s quotes.)  I’m inclined to think worried about status is indeed what I felt initially, rather than someone else’s interpretation.

If it took Support more than three seconds to conclude that a Sonos One is modern I would be amazed. There has to have been some misunderstanding here. How old is an old Sonos One? The product was launched only just over 2 years ago. 

Its not the point John and pulling the "life is uncertain" and "biggest thing to worry about" cards might be fine for you, but others see it differently and you have to respect that. Also you were saying "what else do you want Sonos to say". You can't belittle people who are asking these questions.

People investing thousands of dollars in whole home systems have the right to know how it's all going to work in a few years time. 

It doesn’t come with a choice for any decent organisation. And that’s their issue to contend with John.

No-one should be guessing at this point … not the organisation and certainly not the high price ticket paying public spending his/her hard earned.

Ask Boeing, Ask Hotpoint, Ask Cathy Pacific with their current trading conditions. HSB this morning. IHG in Wuhan this last same period of time. A half dozen others. It’s the parameters of the game. 

The organisation that has a strong affinity with it’s customer base, goes the extra distance and sets expectations, sustains. Can even grow as a result.

Bore you to death for a moment. I wrote a published paper years back (yawn) about industrial systems, reliability and repeat sales. Conclusion: Buyers’ love reliability and dislike failure. But guess what? The system that fails but the company concerned responds with clarity and a cast-iron solution gets the repeat sale. Not the company that ‘never failed’. True if odd. 

Having empathy is admirable. Having a degree of understanding likewise. Having an expectation as a higher price ticket owner (and potential buyer) is also reasonable. 

Buying a 40” 4K TV from Aldi you have differing expectations than a 2019 GZ2000 Flagship OLED from Panasonic. About £3.2K worth of difference.The product & price tag defines the expectation.

Premium products (and organisations) absolutely should be expected to behave in a premium manner. That does not mean trying hold Sonos shotgun … sometimes the answer might be one we do not like. But a premium buyer will have a significantly higher expectation of it being a satisfying answer. I reserve a room at an an Intercontinental Hotel, you have a significantly higher expectation that say at a  Holiday Inn Express … no disrespect to HIX.

And as mentioned some days back, if Sonos do not know their corporate way forward at this point, then they really are in trouble. Nearly end of Feb, so that’s 8-9 working weeks till May? I know of no organisation in the upper sector that would not know their business plan and deliverables for that time frame. Operational details? Most likely not. 

Regardless of the pressure, risks, then yes, Sonos do need to reassure these folks as to their investment and the way forward. Is their problem to contend with. In the most decent possible way.

And this is very real …. I’m hovering on buying a Roon Nucleus +. I’ve already bought Roon and Tidal. And the Sonos debacle prompted me pull my new NAS investment forward.

Ask yourself why? Is obvious … lack of certainty and confidence. And then the curious nature of buyers (me) triggered by those emotions. Is what the last poster said. He’s concerned as the Sonos future and his investment. Who’s fault is that? Very clear answer.

Until Sonos manage things, the more folks will defer investment, cancel investment or find other solutions.

I have to agree with John B. Sonos have already committed themselves to a lot of things already in their announcements, which I will try my best to very quickly summarise below. This is how I interpret their words so far...

Sonos have given a guarantee/reassurance that the 'customer support' for a product will be for a minimum period of 5 years after the product has ceased manufacture and so is therefore no longer available for sale at Sonos.com.

In practice however, Sonos have provided a lot longer support than that post-manufacture period, for a good many of their devices, far more than double the period in fact in some instances. Even then, these (now called) old 'legacy' players still continue to work today and apparently will continue to receive updates to help provide them with any necessary security patches or minor fixes to keep them going, but they just will not receive any new features, going forward, as part of a legacy system.

Sonos have mentioned that their aim is to keep all the legacy devices running with all the features that they have now, for as long as it remains practicable for them (or presumably their 'partners') to do so. Thats at the very least for the 'foreseeable future'.

No one can truly know what will happen beyond the foreseeable future… and I don’t see that trying to second-guess what may happen achieves very much at all here, as a comment about any product/device in that situation could apply to absolutely anything we purchase from any manufacturer. Speculation and guesswork aside, I think we should just patiently wait and see what happens in May.

Yes yes… but the bottom line of all that is that you can only categorically state that a Sonos product you buy will be viable for 5 years - anything beyond that is down to trusting the company’s historical support. Which was, until now, excellent. But now it’s a matter of debate. It’s possible, however unlikely, that something you buy brand new from Sonos today will be dodoed in 5 years time. 

I suppose it all comes back to the question of is it hifi, or is it tech… and it’s something in between. From the hifi perspective 5 years sucks! I have 30 year old speakers and 20 year old amps/power amps that are 100% working as good as they ever did. They don’t need to be supported in the same because there is nothing to support - I get that, no software. So then if you view it from the tech side then 5 years isn’t unreasonable… but as I’ve mentioned in previous posts - it sucks if you end up having to throw away the hifi elements just because the tech interface can’t be supported anymore. The physical waste is appalling, even if the cost was of no concern.

As an aside, one of the drivers in my main hifi speakers did fail - the company no longer made the speaker, or the driver but said to send it back and they’d see what they could do. They managed to fix it for a small fee (approx 1/20th of the overall speaker cost) - that’s what I call good product support! Sonos would tell me to bin the whole item and buy a new one! ;)

Eh? They replace broken units out of the normal warranty, whatever it is, 2 years? Are you sure?

Yes, Smilja is correct I believe, from what I have seen mentioned by others. Out of warranty broken Sonos items are quite often replaced with discounted refurbished or new products offered to the customer (the discount rates set are presumably dependent on the age of the original item and use, I guess) and the faulty item is returned in the packaging sent out. 

The replacement also carries a further 12 month warranty. 

In many countries (not all) free shipping is included in the fee paid and a further shipping label is also supplied for the returned item.

I have seen examples of Sonos doing this but it isn't standard practice. I have often seen worthwhile discounts offered to replace significantly out-of-warranty failures despite no legal obligation.  Sometimes the threads are started by someone complaining that the discount offered is too small.