End of Software Support - Clarifications

The wifi-mesh network created by the modern and legacy Sonos devices hasn’t changed. The hardware is physically capable of talking to each other. I don’t understand why you wouldn’t offer to leave legacy devices in a “slave” mode so that they can receive audio data from modern devices that can receive the latest streams and (in the case of my Sonos 5 that sends the TV audio out) allow legacy devices to send audio streams out to the Sonos network. It doesn’t matter if my Sonos 5 has the latest features as long as it is connected to one modern device that does have them, it should be able to receive the audio data and playback. You already proved this with Airplay where I only need one Airplay compatible device in my network to send the audio stream to all my “legacy” Sonos devices.

The only explanation I can see is greed by borking old equipment.  And “splitting” my legacy and modern equipment into two separate networks is NOT an acceptable solution. I bought the system to play whole house music.

Well right now, it seems that even though i am not particularily clever, i could have foreseen these things BEFORE they went public, so atleast it seems that i am smarter than the people that decided this was a good idea.

OR there is some hidden motive that i dont know of.

Feels a little bit like that time, the city planners in my city decided that a particular road had to much traffic, so they closed it off for cars, and then immideately got surprised when the amount of traffic on the roads near to this road, suddenly saw a sharp spike in traffic.

I mean, even a 5 year old would be able to understand that just because they decided to shut down a road, people were still needing to get from point A to B and would just find other ways of getting there :)

On to it...but hey if they’re deluged it may move up the priority list...

Exactly my setup - for use with the phonograph. 

Wow, can’t find those anymore in the US, yet I had heard that these are really ZP90’s with updated components and that support will sometimes trade these for failing older units if still under warranty.  Looks like they might be a bit confused in Santa Barbara as this trusty old product (bricked a few years ago by Sonos through an innocent looking update) shows as still a MODERN PRODUCT. 

I sent Patrick, CEO, a follow up Email with follow up questions. I am including the response.  They obviously are not reading email, since they referred me to the email I had follow up questions  

man this company is all in with the blinders.

no credibility  no customer service  no customer loyalty  

Hello Richard, My name is Andrew, and I'm a member of the Customer Experience Team here at Sonos. Our CEO, Patrick Spence, let me know you had some concerns about our recent End of Software Updates announcement. Patrick recently sent a follow-up email to all affected customers, which I believe should address your questions and feedback. If you haven’t seen it, you can view a copy on our website at https://blog.sonos.com/en/a-letter-from-our-ceo As mentioned in the letter above, all Sonos products will continue to work after May and our Trade-Up program is completely optional. You can find additional information about this announcement here: https://support.sonos.com/s/article/4786  If you have any other questions I can help answer, please let me know by replying to this email and I will be happy to assist. Cheers, ______ Andrew K

Okay, everyone is venting their anger which is normal.

But can we for a second talk about what options us “legacy” users have after May.

We actually listen to the same, maybe 5 streaming radio channels. Today via Tunein Radio in our house when we dont stream music from our NAS.

Lets say that TuneIn changes something, making me unable to connect to the radio channels because sonos legacy devices can not decipher them.

I was thinking...What if i had another device that could receive the channels, recode them to some format Sonos legacy still supports and the re-cast them.

I dont know if a Raspberry pi would have enough processor power to do this, but there is an option in Sonos “Add radio station” so if i could get the Pi to receive the station, recode it and retransmit it, i would be able to stream radio channels to legacy devices for as long as the program on the PI was updated.

Alternatively i have a QNAP NAS that is always on, is there some app on this, that would be able to do this.

( initial email copied below)

Hi Andrew,

Thank you for the response.

I did see that email, unfortunately, it states nothing different than was initially announced.

It does not address the majority of your legacy (oldest) customers' dismay of a fractured"whole home" audio system. In fact, it reaffirms our worst fear of your commitment to breaking them... "eventually", as you say. While you say the "upgrade" program is "voluntary", you are certainly taking every action to make that untrue.

Not only has this decision blindsided your oldest and most loyal customers, it has seemingly disregarded our investments without consideration of alternative (and/or less costly) solutions that are not as devastating to our systems. Honestly, we don't know this because we've received little to no actual info regarding these new features or services that will cause such irreparable damage or the workaround.

The fact that we are still being told to wait until May for more info, and that Mr. Spence said "We got this wrong" but proceeded to simply rehash the verbiage of the original scheme, shows that we are still on this path to mutually assured destruction.

Personally, I feel my trust in your company has been betrayed, then my intelligence insulted, and I am (still) no longer planning to purchase additional Sonos products unless a more amicable solution is presented. Proceeding with your plan to delete my $500 speaker from a singular, unfragmented, unsplit, secure, properly working system is unacceptable.

I truly want your company to succeed, but that should not come at the disregard of your earliest adopters and (formerly) most fervent supporters. Honestly, take a look at the rapidly growing thread on your website and see - a high percentage of those participating are long time customers, many with far more extensive systems than mine: https://en.community.sonos.com/announcements-228985/end-of-software-support-clarifications-6835969 (P.S. - There are lots of good ideas for workarounds in there)

I sincerely hope that Sonos can deliver a better solution than we have at this time.

From,

Steve K

On Jan 24, 2020, at 10:30 AM, Sonos Support <support@sonos.com> wrote:
 

Hello Steve, My name is Andrew, and I'm a member of the Customer Experience Team here at Sonos. Our CEO, Patrick Spence, let me know you had some concerns about our recent End of Software Updates announcement. Patrick recently sent a follow-up email to all affected customers, which I believe should address your questions and feedback. If you haven’t seen it, you can view a copy on our website at https://blog.sonos.com/en/a-letter-from-our-ceo As mentioned in the letter above, all Sonos products will continue to work after May and our Trade-Up program is completely optional. You can find additional information about this announcement here: https://support.sonos.com/s/article/4786  If you have any other questions I can help answer, please let me know by replying to this email and I will be happy to assist. Cheers, ______ Andrew K Sonos   |   Supervisor   |   Customer Care   |   Contact Us Ask questions, find answers, and share your thoughts on the Sonos Community.

from july 2018 https://www.channelnews.com.au/exclusive-we-lift-the-lid-on-whats-really-inside-the-sonos-one-what-it-means-for-the-sonos-ipo/

they show a traditional speaker manufacturer incrementally adding technology in an attempt to keep up with a fast-moving race. This is never a winning strategy in the long term

Gotta admit I’ve seen a fair few posts like this and while I’m mad at Sonos at getting this so wrong I do want them to turn this around, ongoing support for any and all of their products depends on this - Sonos failing completely would be worse that what is proposed. 

While stupidly they are giving many people a good reason to go out and replace their Sonos kit overnight,  I honestly don’t think any of their rivals offering comparative products have supported them as long, I doubt those lower priced products will still be supported in 5 years from sale.