End of Software Support - Clarifications

The writing is on the wall, and in theory the SONOS app is all that holds the SONOS ecosystem together.

I’m not adding much to the thread as the anger and disappointment by all of us loyal Sonos customers are obvious. But I will add my voice and encourage all of you who read this to leave comments (shame on Sonos for delegating the other thread). 
I have like many here spent thousands. Back of the envelope well north of $5,000.

And I’ve been a huge Sonos advocate, convincing family and friends to check it out, with many of them signing on as they loved the product. And that’s the worst for all of us, the absolute shameless breach of trust. We love the product. Now we have been fooled in a massive way. Never was any word of “your product will one day be obsolete due to software” shown on Sonos ads or web site. Still doesn’t.
But we have all now learned of Sonos view on customer loyalty.
I’m done. Not a cent more for new Sonos products (that we all have to assume will be shelved in a other few years), and beyond that I will be active on the web, on retailer sites, encouraging customers to invite Sonos.

Guessing the new leadership thought they could be like Apple.  They thought wrong. They should think Boing instead, to understand customer reactions when loosing trust. This will be a Harvard Business Review case in a couple of years. A marketing 101 student gets the stupidness of this move.

”It takes twenty years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.” W. Buffett
 

Yes, it very much is.  If you are aware of information that is likely to have a significant impact on share price, and act upon that information before it is made public, it is insider trading.  Which is certainly illegal.

Wow, this isn’t even the first thread on this topic.  Unbelievable.  I, like so many others in this forum, have spent an incredible amount of money on multiple systems (home and business).  Now they’re looking at ditching the very customers that allowed them to grow to the level they’ve grown.

Sure, I can spend even more money and replace my system with your upgrade incentive.  That’s fantastic for you, and terrible for me and the environment.  What are you doing guys?  The moment my play 3’s and play 5’s stop working at my locations is the moment that I will properly recycle the speakers and never purchase another Sonos product.  I will also ensure all of those that I know with the same products, many of whom I recommended they purchase, knows not to support a company who will not back their products.  

I find the response from the CEO to be pretty weak.  In essence, we’ve already made the decision to kiss our past customers good-bye was the message, and just tie a bow around it to make it look pretty.  

Disgusting for all of us, and the environment!!!

So the CEO email is simply:

patrick.spence@sonos.com 

I just sent the email below.., doubt I will get a reply… but...  

Dear Patrick 

I have loved Sonos for years. I have loved the equipment, the flexibility and the sound.

I have bought equipment over the years, most recently an amp only 2-3 years ago - which is now ‘legacy’. So much for the claims you make about 5 years plus.

I was looking at the new Move at the weekend  - to buy 2 for outdoor use. I don’t need outdoor speakers - I have excellent Bluetooth ones - but the idea of weatherproof outdoor speakers linked to indoor ones was very tempting

Thankfully I did not buy and of course will now never ever buy - not at least until you guys find a way to enable us to use old and new kit grouped together with new kit still getting software updates. 

Until you do that, there is no way I am buying anything else from you. You probably think you can ride out this storm, that people will forget, the world will move on and so on. 

You should check sites like trust pilot and other review sites and reflect on how likely that is going to be.

I have gone from loving my kit to barely being able to look at it in two days. 

I was really angry when I first read what Sonos was doing. I am not any more. I am deeply deeply sad and feel completely betrayed. All of your customers do.

It takes only one decision to destroy a brand’s hard worked for reputation... looks like this is the one for Sonos - unless you retract the May 2020 deadline and work something else out.

Bye

I would add that what is required is clarity - a clear, unambiguous explanation of precisely how things will work after May 2020 based on the CEO statement made yesterday which can be (and has been) interpreted in many ways.

Everything seems very confused at present however without a much clearer statement from Sonos than the latest denial of the first announcement I must assume that we won’t be able to use new and legacy products together unless we downgrade the new products to legacy.

I am sure that my ability to stream over Napster or any other provider will not last long after the upgrades stop so the legacy systems will be limited to operating with music held on our own computers or that from our connected Hi-fi systems using connect.

I wonder if any of the other new systems offer a connection to hi-fi amps that might allow streamed music through the Hi-Fi amp and  then on to the Sonos legacy units.

I regard myself as fortunate in that I only have four units probably costing about £1000 of which 50%, my two early connect devices will now be legacy.  As a great advocate of the Sonos system for over ten years I am disappointed.  I don’t think the Sonos brand will survive this.

I propose to move my two non-legacy units to my apartment in France and keep the legacy units in the UK until they are of no value to me at which time I will re-invest in another provider such as Yamaha.

I am following this thread mainly to see which systems other users opt for.

Lord Gnome

I have a Sonos amp driving 30 year old Bose speakers!

Well, I can stop crying about my own personal situation as my Connect is listed as a modern product on my account page - thanks to this thread I actually found that page, I didn’t know it existed! I had read articles and assumed (yes, I know!) that all Connects were on the chopping block.

BUT, the way they have mishandled this still sucks and I won’t be buying any fresh products that’s for sure! My solution if i were them - replace the affected people’s working items AT COST… not 30% off. It still sucks as people who are currently happy with their setups are still spending money for “nothing” but it would show a much better commitment to product and customer.

I’d suggest moving on pragmatically like a number here have decided to. No longer recommend Sonos to others. Continue to use your system as a legacy system; if you are not interested in streaming services, you’re unlikely to be affected by using a legacy system in any way. If you’d like to expand your system, don’t buy new product, buy additional used-market units that are also legacy and thus extremely inexpensive comparatively. (Case in point: I just got a gen-1 Play5 for 100 USD following this mess). You (we) ought to be fine for years, provided Sonos doesn’t completely go under - that is the true risk in all of this. But even that is remote; I suspect they’d be acquired by another company before shuttered entirely. At any rate, I’m just going to pay attention to what’s happening, and carry on as usual, not being bothered by missing future software updates (which, to be frank, have offered me nothing in several years, except occasional system instability).