End of Software Support - Clarifications

Not exactly.  Only amps built 2015 and before are being sunset this May. You should check your online profile and see what it says in regards to future updates for your amps.

Ryan S wrote:

our efforts will ultimately be limited by the lack of memory and processing power of these legacy products.

As another member stated, I will continue to believe this is a convenient lie until you provide some hard evidence to the contrary.

The legacy products have long been unable to deal with large digital music libraries due to insufficient memory (unless you are prepared to strip out all metadata). However the newer devices don’t seem to be much more capable in that regard - the Sonos environment is now heavily skewed towards streaming from commercial platforms rather than personal collections.

I have spent about $2500 on Sonos speakers.  Most recent was a Sonos One for my daughter for Christmas.  Never again.  And I just filed a 1-star review on Amazon for my new Sonos One based on the incredible contempt I feel Sonos is showing me with this announcement.  Goodbye Sonos. 

Nailed it!

Unless Sonos reverses course and adopts this policy, I will never ever ever buy another Sonos product.

I will never ever ever recommend Sonos to another person.

And I will do everything in my power to discourage everyone I know from purchasing anything from Sonos.

I invite anyone who feels similarly betrayed to join me in doing the same.

I’ve been a loyal Sonos customer since the beginning. I literally had 2 of the Sonos Moves in my buggy at Best Buy when another customer told me about dropping support for legacy devices (of which I have 4). I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. How can a company abandon me and the 2000.00 I spend with them on these 4 speakers (of which I have around 10)? What about my others, when are they going to be sunset? After confirming by a quick google search, I promptly put them back on the shelf. I will not spend another dime with this company and look forward to joining a class action law suit should one form. What a shame, I loved these things.

At this point, closing a thread full of negative customer feedback is like using a spoon to bail out a sinking ship. The negative press is on every social media platform, tech news outlets and mainstream news providers like BBC.

Ok so you will give me 30% off of something that I will need to throw away in 5 years! Yeah ok ..sounds like a great deal to me.  Even 50% off is still a joke.

My assumption is you tried the trade in program and that didn't bring in the revenue you needed.  Well the genius executives got together and pressured the developers...Well let's just discontinue our product.  I could just picture the meeting, the executives hearing what they want to hear and the programmers walk away and inside their heads...they think man this place is screwed...well at least I have a job but it's time to start looking for another one.

800.00 CDN dollars for a disposable subwoofer!!  Sonos is considered a high end audiophile product and you want us to treat it as a disposable product!!  This model will never work.  Most Sonos customers are far too intelligent for this kind of scam! We are all insulted by your obvious cash grab.  To me this is the beginning of the end of Sonos.  This was your last ditch effort at trying to get more revenue.

You could have become creative. Here are some basic options that you could have chosen.

1.You could have been honest and transparent.  You could have told the community that the current business model wasn't viable and you may go out of business.  You could say you valued your existing customers and you didn't want all of their equipment to become worthless if you went out of business.  Then you could proposed a subscription service with the first two years free for all new customers.  All legacy customers would need to buy the service or their legacy equipment would stop receiving support.  So many of us are deeply invested in your product that we would pay.  Some customers would leave.  Or you could allow people who dont pay for the subscription to use the app in a limited way.  Maybe no streaming support or limited grouping of speakers.  

Anyway if you dont rethink this..think "New Coke"... Companies can come back from the brink and apologize.  You can salvage your reputation, it's not too late.  But if you dont I am done buying your products, I will never reccomend your products and I will go out of my way to try and disuade people from buying your products.

It's time to listen to your customers....

I don’t want products with inbuilt speakers because I’m using my own entertainment systems and in ceiling speakers. Why upgrade to a wireless n version of the ZP80 and ZP100 when they don’t have anything more to bring to the table? Also you sell speakers with no microphones and therefore they are functionally identical except for the wireless protocol. So saying ALL your new products bring more to the table is ridiculous. They stream music from a network that’s it. Some of them have microphones some don’t.

Well your answer to why upgrade is we’ll force you to upgrade by making your old components redundant. Forced obsolescence. I purchased these products - I didn’t sign a lease. You are stealing from me effectively by not supporting them. If you didn’t think of the lifetime support costs then that’s no my fault - that’s your fault - don’t punish me for your lack of foresight.

Also now I’m retired I won’t be forking out for many new products so basically you are just kicking me in the guts.

 

Looking closer at the utterly appalling 30% trade-up discount (I know what you give to employees and distributors) it strikes me that with your admission of obsolescence and that you can no longer justify the exorbitant prices you are charging - particularly for the Amp and sub-par Port.

I used to be able to justify the comparatively high cost on the basis of longevity - indeed I can recall sales rep’s running with the same pitch. Now you have admitted you no longer control some aspects of your own environment - having submitted to the big streaming companies - your value proposition is greatly diminished. Time to drop the hardware prices I think.

Your lack of contrition at your own failings speaks volumes.

I am really disturbed. I spent so much money on my system that now is “legacy”. I am buying high end audio devices and I have never experienced anything like this before. Never. I hope you utterly fail with this and it’s the wedge for other players to eat a chunk of your market share.