End of Software Support - Clarifications

I have extended my house and built in ceiling speakers with around 10 connect amps and surround sound for TV. All less than 4 years ago. I have spent over £6000 buying into a brand and ecosystem that I though was built on quality and looking after the customer.

With this announcement I certainly will not be buying any more of your products. I am gald your share price has gone done as I hope it will make you and your investors realise that this is a idiotic decision and is destroying your brand.

I can't tell you how angry I am about this!

The news is spreading. https://www.fastcompany.com/90454672/this-is-disgusting-angry-sonos-customers-are-calling-for-a-boycott

Sonos you just pissed of your most loyal customers. And if the 30% discount was not enough of a big insult - you add further to proof your arrogance by closing the thread many has posted in. 

This new thread does not answer any of the questions raised in the previous one  

You clearly do not respect your customers. 
You clearly do no respect our planet. 
Shame on you

Yes… the thing is we didn’t know we were hiring these speakers…. we were told we were buying them from a company that stood by its products… and they expect us to upgrade for more of the same? I don’t think so.

Dive baby dive at this rate my short will buy me a new bowers and Wilkins setup 

I purchased my first ZP100 in 2005, and then 2 more in 2006, and they have worked flawlessly with thethe older stereo receivers in my home (thanks to the analog audio input/out RCA jacks on the Sonos).  None of the other, newer Sonos products is compatible with analog, which is a big deal for me.  I am livid that Sonos intends to pull the plug on these “Legacy” devices and force loyal users, like myself, to prematurely retire their equipment (92% of all Sonos equipment is still in service).  My investment of nearly $2000 in Sonos equipment is about to become useless! This is an outrage, and completely unnecessary!  Sonos should continue to support the existing functionality of its products, indefinitely!  If Sonos is too cheap to honor this basic commitment to its customers, fine, then charge a reasonable yearly fee for “Legacy Support” -- or transfer that task to another vendor.  But bricking all these products (which is the inevitable result of “lack of support”) trashes customer loyalty and investment, and results in incredible waste.  I bought Sonos because of its quality and durability.  If the Company fails to do the right thing, I look forward to participating in the class action lawsuit that will surely emerge!  Come on Sonos!

I think that many people understand that a company probably can’t provide continued upgrades and increased functionality to a tech product ad infinitum. But there is a big difference between not providing new functionality and what Sonos is going to do, deprecate the core functionality that people purchased the product for in the first place. I think a large percentage of customers at least in part purchased Sonos because of the ability to seamlessly play streaming music services. If this functionality is lost, then the equipment has lost a large value to the owner. Promising to support products for 5 years doesn’t seem like a very good value proposition when Sonos charges a premium. I have about $15,000 in Sonos equipment currently and was not factoring in the need to replace my system every 5 years. I’m sure this decision is distasteful to pretty much all current owners, but its likely to particularly give pause to people who are looking to outfit whole home audio or a business with a lot of equipment which is where Sonos previously shined.

They say it will be possible to keep legacy and modern parts of the system apart, keeping the updates ongoing for the modern one. The problem is that they cannot be grouped together. 

However, if you have Port and some legacy device accepting line-in, then probably it could be used as a bridge between the system parts to make them play same music across the whole system. Just an idea, suggested by another user on one of Facebook groups. 

For years you get updates almost every time you turn Sonos on that made no difference. And now they turn them off for perfect working speakers. In an age of climate crisis Sonos comes up with an incredible smart idea to produce more waste for no reason whatsoever and to frustrate loyal clients. I will never buy a Sonos product again. If Sonos is capable for such a move, I am sure they will come up with more crap. For example a microphone that you cannot turn off in order to compete with Alexa. Incredible dumb management decision with far reaching consequences for the company. Twenty years after the cluetrain manifesto this company has learnt nothing. 

OK, so my mood has changed.

I am no longer angry that SONOS have dumped on the loyal customer base.

I am now just excited to watch the share price tank and hoping you go balls out bust.

Remember Mr Greedy, “He who laughs last, laughs 30% longer!”