End of Software Support - Clarifications

Yes, that’s exactly what they’re hoping...

I’m not clear on what’s made you feel better about the situation in that message (though I agree it’s surprising that you got a personal reply at all)? All he’s said is sorry (again) and that he can see why you didn’t buy more units. Nothing that suggests a change of course, or even that they’re trying to find one.

It almost literally says ‘it sucks to be you’...

I am a bit curious - Sonos had other crises in the past, for instance the one around requiring registration, as illustrated by the following cut-out from Amazon.de:

How did Sonos manage to stear through this crisis - and the previous round of retiring products? What arguments or acts ended up calming down their customers again?

As for the registration, I myself got annoyed but then just registered; as I remember it with a kind if reasoning for myself that I was registered with so many other vendors (and also already with this one), so it wouldn’t make much of a difference for me. But others were unhappy - did they leave, did they end up accepting the new terms, or what happened?

No replies to this?

I had a feeling, and this could perhaps confirm it, that nothing happened - Sonos didn’t need to do anything to repair the damage. Instead, the customers just moved on after the first few days of complaining as if nothing had happened. And now the change is part of everyone’s life with their Sonos products.

So, now I wonder if the CEO, seemingly an intelligent person, is calculating with this behavior? Maybe he simply expected a couple of days of uproar, followed by business as usual - apart from the change introduced. Afterall, it is the easiest way forward for everybody involved - customers will just start replacing old equipment and soon be ready for the next attack that will also quickly be forgotten.

This is probably not far from the truth. I’ve got 5 amps going legacy. I’ve got more amps not going legacy as well as a beam. I looked around. The competitor systems make no promises on support or longevity of the system or components. So quite likely this will just happen again if I jump ship. Jumping ship can only really be done all or nothing. Staying put and slowing upgrading can be done as and when I can afford to on a component by component basis. So most likely I’ll be staying on Sonos. Sure I’ll be a bit disgruntled but most likely after May my system will work as it does now for months or even years

After calming down marginally I think that Sonos have seriously undermined their whole value proposition here.  Ultimately we all get technical obsolescence, Sonos can’t bend the rules of technical progress and an IOT device will at some point be bypassed by new standards, new technical requirements, etc.  But the way Sonos should deal with that is by making new features only available to the devices that can support them, call that out clearly to customers so we all have an opportunity to buy new devices if we think the new features warrant it.  But what they can’t do is undermine the whole purpose of a Sonos eco system by not being able to support new features.  And the reason I suspect most of us got Sonos was the seemless integration across the devices.

I think that’s been the serious miss here.  What Sonos have done is shine a massive spotlight on the fact that they can’t guarantee that their USP will always been supported.  And if that’s the case then why on earth would you buy a Sonos system, get a Bluetooth speaker.

Sonos need to resolve and declare - 

1. All Sonos systems will work as an integrated solution for the foreseeable future
2. New features will start to not be available for old devices because it’s just not possible.  When this happens those new features won’t be available to the older devices but the legacy feature set will remain untouched

If they can’t resolve the continued existence of the original Sonos USP then the only debate is how long Sonos will take to die.

I agree, fool me once…

Oh and this has got to sting, but ties into what the future might bring:

https://www.zdnet.com/article/so-long-sonos-meet-the-open-source-audio-system-that-will-never-die/

I should have never invested in powered speakers, just amps with passive speakers so at least those would have a life even after some profiteering executive pulls the plug prematurely on my beautifully deigned and still-working premium audio system. 

Expensive lessons learned.

The issue is that like a great number of users, my system is a mix of legacy and ‘modern’ products.  Many rooms are ‘modern’ speakers and woofers that are paired in rooms with what you are now calling ‘legacy’ amps.  So, this comment, “We are working on a way to split your system so that modern products work together and get the latest features, while legacy products work together and remain in their current state.”  is ESSENTIAL.  The concept of ‘SPLITTING’ is a poor choice of words.  They must CO-EXIST and be commonly manageable from the same user experience and control  They are essentially one system, so if you SPLIT them, then you are essentially breaking the whole system.  

Honestly, this may just trigger me to scrap Sonos and go buy Denon products or similar that are of superior sound quality, at a lesser price.  The experience would be the same as what you are doing with the end-of-life offer.  I will simply replace my Sonos over time. 

The way this has been handled, still has already made me STOP recommending your products and advising my friends to seek and choose a different product set. 

I was days away from adding on 3 more components.  Well that has stopped and I am actively reconsidering the entire strategy.  As a software product person, I do understand that this can be complex. However, scrapping and replacing parts of the system that work together with a bill for literally over $1500 in my case is completely unacceptable. 

Additionally, asking users to simply ‘scrap’ perfectly good gear.  Well that’s another non-starter and total environmental waste.  I highly recommend you create a better upgrade offer.  30% is simply lame.  Also, you need to allow users to continue using the old gear at the very least.  No-one is going to feel good about junking a perfectly functional piece of equipment.  I have 3 amps covering 3 parts of the house paired with other ‘modern’ speakers and woofers.  Wow what a disaster this could be if I have a SPLIT user experiences.  May as well be splitting rooms in half.  This seems to be very poorly though through by your product management and leadership.  

NEXT - This comment really caught my attention, “While we have a lot of great products and features in the pipeline, we want our customers to upgrade to our latest and greatest products when they’re excited by what the new products offer, not because they feel forced to do so. That’s the intent of the trade up program we launched for our loyal customers.”  

THERE IS NOTHING THAT has been presented or that WE CAN SEE THAT IS NEW OR EXCITING.  Nothing is exciting about an Amp, and until you can show me a compelling reason that the new one is so amazing that I really want to upgrade you have A LOT OF WORK LEFT TO DO to sell that concept.  I have been waiting to see if you were even considering a multiple room amp.  I have three lined-up together.  How about at the very least a two zone, three or ideally four zone amp.  hmm who has that already, oh ya.  Denon. . . again there is completion so get it together.

I am a bit curious - Sonos had other crises in the past, for instance the one around requiring registration, as illustrated by the following cut-out from Amazon.de:

How did Sonos manage to stear through this crisis - and the previous round of retiring products? What arguments or acts ended up calming down their customers again?

As for the registration, I myself got annoyed but then just registered; as I remember it with a kind if reasoning for myself that I was registered with so many other vendors (and also already with this one), so it wouldn’t make much of a difference for me. But others were unhappy - did they leave, did they end up accepting the new terms, or what happened?

No replies to this?

I had a feeling, and this could perhaps confirm it, that nothing happened - Sonos didn’t need to do anything to repair the damage. Instead, the customers just moved on after the first few days of complaining as if nothing had happened. And now the change is part of everyone’s life with their Sonos products.

So, now I wonder if the CEO, seemingly an intelligent person, is calculating with this behavior? Maybe he simply expected a couple of days of uproar, followed by business as usual - apart from the change introduced. Afterall, it is the easiest way forward for everybody involved - customers will just start replacing old equipment and soon be ready for the next attack that will also quickly be forgotten.

This is probably not far from the truth. I’ve got 5 amps going legacy. I’ve got more amps not going legacy as well as a beam. I looked around. The competitor systems make no promises on support or longevity of the system or components. So quite likely this will just happen again if I jump ship. Jumping ship can only really be done all or nothing. Staying put and slowing upgrading can be done as and when I can afford to on a component by component basis. So most likely I’ll be staying on Sonos. Sure I’ll be a bit disgruntled but most likely after May my system will work as it does now for months or even years

I’m currently looking at the bowers & Wilkins formation stuff specifically the wedge to replace my gen 1 play 5, mainly because it also ties in with Roon if needed which seems to be more widely supported across many brands £120 a year or lifetime for £500. I had the very first Zeppelin which when the iPod I used on it died became pretty useless I contacted B&W asking if I could pay to have it converted to a lightening port, they replied unfortunately it wasn’t possible but here’s 75% off a new version which I took up, now that’s customer service no fault of theirs but they took care of me.
I’m not doing anything hasty yet and will see how things pan out, the soundbar I purchased yesterday wasn’t the originally intended beam, sub and ones surround system after this weeks debacle I went with a Yamaha for now which is working lovely for tv and movies. If things go the way I think all my Sonos will be eventually replaced with B&W stuff I think, I had a quick listen to some of it yesterday and it is superb, quite pricey but hopefully along with Roon pretty future proof and past experience of B&W support has been excellent in fact if Sonos had come out and explained things better and offered a 75% discount right off the bat I reckon many would have still griped but accepted it rather than the approach they took.  

Wow what an absolute drop of the ball. From the opening email, to Ryan's bumbling technical replies.........then the cherry on the top Paddys heart felt letter!!! This cleared everything up IMO, I suggest everyone reads it properly..

Patrick Spence, you are dense!

You've killed Sonos!

dirty bast@#d

Very surprised to hear this! I always assumed with a LAN and a local file share of mp3s we would be golden. New router/WiFi access point? Or did you bring the old one with you?