Sonos will work to maintain the existing experience and conduct bug fixes, but our efforts will ultimately be limited by the lack of memory and processing power of these legacy products.

Posting my email to Sonos here for you all to see.  We all NEED to send messages and flood them with what a horrible idea this is.  We are the customers and our voices need to be heard.

This is also shortsighted as I am sure Google and Amazon are LAUGHING at the advantage Sonos is giving them.  I hope the Press catches wind of this too!  Maybe an annoyed reporter will write a piece on how Sonos is messing with their VERY expensive system.

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As a Sonos customer with a Move, Play5, Play3, 2 - Play1's, a soundbar and a Beam -- I have spent quite a bit to develop my system.  We recently replaced our original bridge as requested with a Boost Media Room due to the lack of support and need to enhance the speakers and sound.  While there was a cost to that and I was disappointed with the fact the new product cost more than the old... we went forward with the shift.

Over the summer, Sonos offered an opportunity to trade-in older models for newer models for a discount.  At the time (maybe it was in the fine print) there was no mention that the older products would no longer be served with updates or support.  The push was to get newer products to enhance the experience and technology.  In this time I have added the Beam and Move.

We just recently received an email stating that our Play5 would no longer get service updates or support.  As a PREMIUM brand, this is a sure-fire way to really annoy your customer base and encourage me to move to Amazon and Google products that are a fraction of your cost.

At this point in time -- I plan to return my Beam to the place I purchased it, Costco -- and will encourage my wife to return the Move that she bought me for Christmas.  Should you reverse your decision to stop support for equipment (that is/was more than $400 for ONE speaker, when I could have bought a receiver and whole speaker systems), I will gladly purchase the products again.

I thank you for your email as I was about to purchase a SUB, but have now decided against that purchase.

You have recently been in the news regarding your IP fight with Amazon and Google (Apple too).  My kids have the Echo Dots -- and I struggled with that purchase as I was going to get them the new generation Sonos1's, but your decision right now has made it clear to me that rather than spend $199 on one speaker, buying 4 dots for less than $100 was a smart economic and business move.

My hope is that my message and that of others get you to reconsider and find a new way to handle this...

With your recent statement you have shown absolute contempt for your customers, do you honestly believe people who have invested thousands of pounds in your equipment would in any way throw it away and purchase new Sonos equipment albeit with a 30% discount because you have decided its no good anymore. These "Legacy" devices are working perfectly well in thousands of homes all over the world. They are not broken, they have not worn out, they are not defective in any way, they do exactly what people purchased them for.

If these devices stop working because you modify a piece of software then that in my opinion a deliberate act of software vandalism.

I am absolutely shocked at this decision. I can no longer see myself purchasing any Sonos equipment ever again and possibly more importantly will advise anyone who asks me to do the same.

There are plenty of other options out there these days and those competitors must be rubbing their hands with anticipation

Possibly the biggest Own Goal I have ever Seen!!

Oh my. Came back after posting on the other thread this morning. Thought i would catch up after dinner. Can’t believe you locked the other post. When you planning on deleting it? 

Here’s my annoyance….
 

Over 20 or so years i amassed a huge physical music collection. After seeing Sonos many years ago, i decided to take the plunge. I was very impressed - And i built up a nice (and expensive) Sonos setup.

I never bought into the whole streaming music service thing - just purely because i would be lost if my favourite service shut down or lost the ability to play music which i enjoyed. Plus those rare and exclusive B-Sides and recordings that would never be found on a streaming service.

I then proceeded to digitise my entire music library in lossless format. Superb.

Then i hit the 65,000 limit. Frustrating, but worked round by buying a new NAS and running Plex with Plex Pass on it. Job done. I take pride in my Metadata and i enjoy my current setup.

I never ever thought my ability to listen to my own music stored on my own server in my own home, on speakers i paid a small fortune for could come to and end by a manufacturer flicking a switch.

I don’t do streaming from online services. I have a local library on Plex. 5 years ago i enjoyed listening to my music on Sonos. As i type this, i’m listening on Sonos. I expect to listen to my music on Sonos in another five or ten, even more years. I expect to renew devices as they fail etc but not bullied into trading up on a mediocre deal.

As i said previously - by all means bring out new speakers with new features and abilities i don’t need.
But please don’t screw over your existing loyal customers who have bought into Sonos ecosystem and got the company to where it is today. If i like the look of a new feature, i might buy a new device based on that if it was of interest.

I cannot afford to replace my Sonos devices because you are unable to push out updates with un-necessary features to my presently working Sonos devices and therefore force me to “trade up” or make do with speakers that will remain incompatible with modern devices. I have 5 devices all purchase in 2015 - and i wait for further emails telling me you are pulling support.

Which leads me onto my final point.

My next purchase to my Sonos system was a Playbar and amp. Not any more. Knowing fine well if i buy, you’ll switch off support in the future, even though it functions as i want it too.

Sonos, i fear for you. I think you have just committed commercial suicide and i deeply worry how you will ever recover from this. You have a lot of angry loyal customers, and a lot of making up to do. 

One a happy customer, now an angry customer.

Yeah I tend agree … also trying reduce here achieve the same but I could probably ‘grimace and bear it’ rather than have all my white and black boxes dumped in the ‘small appliances’ skip at the recycling center.

On balance I’d rather folk our financially for dubious services than folk out for planet blighting miserable plastic and electronics. Here speak-eth a current user of a 2003 Nokia E61 and yet to move to smartphone world.

I get that most might not take the same view

Very solid and rational assessment and again mirroring a lot of the motivators that bought me to the Sonos world and a significant amount of cash approaching £20k invested.

So I invested in Sonos believing it was top end gear that would last me for years.  I’ve recently lost the ability to be able to play BBC radio stations on Sonos via Alexa (not a Sonos issue I know), and now I’m not going to be able to update my whole system.  Couple with the fact that I find the Sonos app slower and clunkier as time goes on, its just not working for me any longer.  

I’m sorry Sonos, but we’ve reached the end of the road, not sure where I will go from hear (I really love the sounds quality on Sonos products), but I’ve invested well over £1000 and I’m not going to burn money like that again.

Sorry Sonos, but there is a huge amount of additional competition in the market these days, and I predict that by dropping so many loyal customers like this, you’ll be under or bought out in the next 2 years.

Sad day, and a big mistake.  Very angree.

Uh oh, 18 pages of negative comments!  I wonder how long till they lock down this thread too?

Add me to the list of long-time users who will never buy another Sonos product again. I have bought Sonos for two different locations. I own the products, I paid good hard-earned money for them and they are mine. It is not for you to tell me that I may no longer use them. I expect to be able to do so for as long as I wish.

If a product fails or breaks that is one thing; I can choose to get it fixed or to buy something else. Mine are still working, so for you to remove the functionality that I have paid for is underhand and shows that you treat your customers with contempt.

Sonos, I can’t understand why you think you will benefit from alienating your loyal customers and needlessly causing lots of environmental waste by planned obsolesce of working devices.

This is irresponsible and not a way to succeed in the long term. It is a sure way to burn bridges though and get people angry at Sonos!

Sonos ought to be able to add features that only work for new devices without dropping support for existing functionality for old devices. It is all about money (as minimal support for an old platform costs money).

But now that Sonos has show how little regard it has to both customers and the environment, I will now actively look for alternatives to my Sonos setup – maybe I can even find something more simple so my wife and 5y old kid can easily use it (unlike Sonos that unfortunately never succeeded in this aspect).

I am so shocked and disappointed! I was really impressed with the Sonos systems,and have spent £600 over the past few months on Sonos and intended to spend a lot more.  Now, I'm not going to spend another penny on equipment that might and probably will be useless in a few years time.  

Shame on Sonos!

So despite all the rage yesterday from probably thousands of people (and rightly so) is your response basically - 

• sonos are still going ahead with this.
•  Sonos are clarifying that we don’t care about customers opinions. 
• we will eventually cause your old products to probably not work. 
• We want you to buy new ones please to replace them.
• then we’ll do it again in the future. 

Have I missed anything people? 

Bravo Sonos - great response. Let me Clarify that I’ll never buy your equipment again. 

Shame on you Sonos. I’m a long term loyal customer and many of my family bought Sonos on my recommendations. We are about to move house and I was designing the installation which would have included new play devices to add to my old - and then I got the email!!!! As others have said I’m not sure I would trust sonos again.

SEVEN of my SIXTEEN sonos devices now rendered “obsolete” with an asinine incentive to repurchase at a “discounted” rate to ensure it will work in harmony across all devices...until Sonos gives the next bombshell obsolete product email.

(by the way, I run enterprise level software support for one of the fastest moving segments in the software industry and NOBODY has a 3 month “end of support” cycle let alone and “end of life” policy of this nature with such *little notice*

Sonos, if you are listening;

• my total Sonos investment = is >13,000 USD. 
• the total of my re-purchase of the 7 (now) “obsolete” devices represents almost 4300.00 WITH the discount.
  • 4 of these 7 devices were purchased in the last 2 years.
• I have represented SONOS as a brand ambassador with friends, businesses and family with *THEIR* purchases representing  >60k USD. I feel like a complete idiot in those recommendations now. 
• CEO: patrick.spence@sonos.com
  • I sincerely hope you are keeping abreast of the developments around the “boycot sonos” movement. Things are about to get real hard real quick
• Chief Product Officer: nick.millington@sonos.com
  • ​​​​​​​This is clearly being seen:
    • (at best) as a communication failure up of immense proportions (Sorry, I dont have your CMO’s information here or I would call him/her out as well)
    •  (at worst) a clear cash grab or the inability to tackle a business decision to develop new product direction WHILE keeping your existing user base.  
• COO: david.perri@sonos.com
  • ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​I do not envy the situation you are about to encounter with loss of brand loyalty, active boycotting of your product  and opportunistic competitors out to eat your lunch with this debacle. 

I feel that the policy is so incredibly insensitive to your customer base, that we must be misunderstanding your posture on this problem. Unfortunately the clock is ticking before your current fan base collapses. I am afraid you dont have much time to rectify.

Please clarify your stance, ensure you meet your most devoted customers needs and most importantly “Do the right thing” by ensuring (that although you may not support new features on EOS/EOL products, that the system will still play the music coming from the controller in its current form and capabilities. 

eBay £1.00...bit pricey me thinks...

And again, you’re proceeding as though those asking this question today were a) privvy to the newly stated 5-years-support figure at the time of purchase, and b) purchased now non-supported devices with the knowledge that they were or may be well into that support window time-frame. Neither of these apply, except going forward. 
Also based on statements and answers Sonos has provided in the past year, it’s very clear they had information prior that was withheld in certain instances (specifically responses about the sunset dates for products that were trade-in eligible last year, but there are others). There’s simply little reason to believe that is not the case again today.

Well I think someone from sonos should be telling Amazon about all these devices that they are still selling with free next day Delivery that they only have a shelf life until May of this year.  https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sonos-BRIDGE-Expand-Wireless-Hi-Fi/dp/B000YGIJ62/ref=sr_1_47?keywords=sonos&qid=1579722291&sr=8-47

I've got 5 of your speakers plus the sound bar and bridge etc. And have been an advocate of your brand for a decade.

If you choose to do this, I'll never buy another one of your products again and will be a vocal detractor. 

Your choice... 

What complete contempt for the 'legacy' customers who supported and paid for the Sonos brand that made the company a worldwide success.  Its not just unaffordable to start again with buying the newer kit which is alk premium price but the fact that we now know that this is the marketing/business model approach rendering your current and future products obsolete. Bye bye Sonos. So annoyed that you're trashing what was a great brand and products. 

I’m really puzzled here, is this some short-seller’s initiative here?  Guess we’ll know if a few weeks if Sonos walks this back big-time and the stock recovers.  I can’t make any sense why they would knowlingly take such risks for such short-term results.  Never again Sonos. 

This is madness.

It is surely possible to allow legacy hardware to remain in a single connected Sonos system, even if the legacy hardware is limited in functionality? Even with that meaning that when legacy components were included the group would function in legacy mode I think reasonable customers would accept that, given that much new functionality would not be able to delivered otherwise.

As well as being seriously hacked off with the proposed approach myself, I’m embarrassed that I’ve recommended Sonos to many close friends and family, as well as having been a great supporter and proponent of your products on internet HiFi chat forums.

Sort it. It’s not impossible to do what I propose above, and it’s what you should have done before announcing your short-sighted proposal.

Yep locked the other thread for that reason, apparently Sonos don’t care about customers or their opinions anyone on a beta program drop out immediately why would you help them after this ? Anyone thinking about taking them up on their terrible 30% offer give your head a wobble you’re renting speakers because in a couple of years you’ll be doing exactly the same again. 

I have bought sonos as one of the first and have since filled my house and cottage with sonos. I have been an ambassador for sonos and recommended it to friends. We as loyal customers have been a big reason for your success and this is how You thanks your loyal customers.

Six years ago my wife and I invested a considerable sum of money in what we believed would be a long-term sound system for our house. Our previous sound system had lasted well over 20 years but, with digitalisation of music, the time had come to change. We bought a Play 5 and two Play 3 speakers, and have subsequently very recently committed further to our Sonos system by buying three Play 1s.

I was very upset yesterday to receive an email from Sonos informing me that my very expensive Play 5 is now a “legacy” product. Apparently they are “stretched to the limits of their processing power and memory”. I find this claim somewhat hard to believe, given that it is only 6 years old, and the amount of memory required to stream and buffer music is trivial compared to even 2013 smartphones. 6 years ago when these were built, it would clearly have been possible to put a bit of extra memory in as futureproofing (if indeed the memory capacity problem is a genuine issue, which I doubt), but instead you chose to build in a “recycle”/self-destruct mode without telling your customers. This is planned obsolescence at its most cynical, and we were not informed of this at the time we purchased this equipment. If we had known about the “recycle” mode, we would rightly have suspected that this would be used in a cynical attempt to force us to replace perfectly good (and quite new) equipment (at prices which have gone up well above inflation since 2013). You even have the gall to dress this up as being somehow environmentally friendly or socially conscious. Please admit that you have planned this all along. We are not stupid and do not appreciate being taken for idiots.  

So, I suspect our Play 3 speakers will be next (?next year) followed by our play 1s a couple of years later.

Your offer of a 30% discount rings hollow, as Sonos items are typically available from other retailers at around 15-20% below the RRP on your website.

And we are bullied into taking this option, even though our speaker works perfectly, as we are otherwise threatened with the future degradation of our entire system, even including the speakers that are currently still regarded as “current” (but for how long).

It looks like we now have the choice of embarking on a rolling programme of replacing all our perfectly functional Sonos products every 5-7 years ad infinitum, or jumping ship to a competitor, having already committed well over a thousand pounds to your products, effectively under false pretences.

Please let me know what your future plans are for the timing of planned obsolescence for your Play 3 and Play 1 speakers. I refuse to accept that plans are not already pencilled in for this.

Also, I would urge you to reconsider the way you are dealing with this. Either admit that the existing products would be fine for many more years if you chose to support them (and do this), or admit that you deceived your customers by not informing us of the “recycle mode” and clear planned obsolescence, and give us a 100% refund rather than 30%. 

Please do not underestimate the amount of anger and ill feeling this has generated.