End of Software Support - Clarifications

End of Software Support - Clarifications
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4256 replies

R
Userlevel 3
Badge +1

Limitations are fine, as long as the products work as they do today. If all that the speakers/amps/non-powered zone players need to do is broadcast the stream, whether local or online stream, then it should still be able to perform that task. If grouped with other zones, make sure the zones that are not getting axed (YET...) are the ones that the stream originates from.

If someone only has older legacy zones, maybe get a product out there that can act as the hub or main point of the stream.

I am not replacing $2000 (retail) worth of working equipment with another $2000 of replacements. These things receive a signal and output that signal, and there is a good amount of competition out there now. 10 years ago, I would have had to take it on the chin, but it is not the case anymore. At least when they killed off the cr100, they gave $100 in compensation, which was nice of them because the functionality is easily replaced with their app and desktop controllers, but a 30% coupon, and then a price increase (earlier this month) on the items that would most likely be replacements for people affected, is a ridiculous slap in the face.

I will also say this as a customer since 2008, I now have zero confidence in Sonos as a brand. I understand that a majority of newer customers (who are not effected by these changes) will not care about this issue, but eventually they will be in the same boat.

 

A

I have spent over £4,000 on a Sonos system and know you have let us down.

 

Surely you can create a modulafr fix for the problems by replacing the computer “brain” inside the units.

 

If you dare say that you integrated the compuer inside the other ampplifier components then you were never serious about creating a future proof system.

H
Userlevel 6
Badge +3

The Sonos legacy debarkle has now made it onto the front page of the BBC news in the UK, with just 12 other news items ahead of it, including Terry Jones, Grammy Awards, Greta Thunberg, Bezos, China Virus, Weinstein etc.

Sonos have got a very small time frame to react with a positive outcome I fear.

Already I would say they are in a very difficult position to recover from.

L
Userlevel 3

This does not really clarify anything and is poor form to shut down the existing thread. Why do we have to wait until May for more information? This is shocking. 

R
Userlevel 3
Badge

Since I can’t reply to myself on the old thread now…

All this got me onto Google… and I find that Yamaha have a “whole house” solution, and a wide range of products, many of which fill gaps I felt I had with my Sonos gear. It all gets about equal reviews to the equivalent Sonos gear too.

Locking the old thread has also got me onto shop sites to do reviews of my previous purchases.

This is what, we in the UK call “doing a Ratner” - after a chap called Gerald Ratner literally killed his entire, quite successful, jewelery business over the course of a weekend by making a very ill-advised speech about his own products.

#sonosinthetoilet by the weekend.

H
Userlevel 1

Am really pissed off with Sonos following their recent announcement to stop supporting over 50% of my Sonos products. My investment in has been substantial over the last few years and I expected them to continue to work effectively for many years to come. My traditional HiFi is 30 years old and still as good as the day I bought it. And to offer just a measly 30% discount to “upgrade” is a slap in the face. I don’t want more bells and whistles on my system. I just want it to continue to operate effectively without being deliberately downgraded by Sonos.

P
Userlevel 2

Like all in the community I am deeply saddened by Sonos announcement re- no more updates for what Sonos term legacy products. I don’t recollect when spending £7k  on my system anyone advising me that it had a shelf life of less than ten-years. I was originally so endeared by Sonos that also I purchased systems for my son and daughter. I was always a great advocate for the company and its products and while considered expensive the quality of product and service provided was excellent making the purchase price seem reasonable. In one fell swoop SONOS has destroyed its customer base and there is not a snowball’s chance in hell of me purchasing another Sonos product under the current terms.

H
Userlevel 2

Dear Sonos,

No.

Please make updates available to “modern” devices with “legacy” devices on the same network.

Otherwise I will not spend a single dime on yours products ever again. 

(7 of 24 products affected).

 

C
Userlevel 1

Another early adopter of Sonos here, and how embarrassing the number of mates I have promoted Sonos to!

We helped build your Company, and this is what you do.  

I won't be walking past the Bose stand anymore feeling superior.  This is a disgrace and offering a 30% discount is below contempt.

John Lewis say they are never knowingly undersold, but they must be having a pang of conscience selling me a Sonos unit in 2015 to find it “Legacy”, less than 5 years later.  Add that to the other 5 legacy products I have, and I like many on here feel cheated.

I think all reputable resellers should think long and hard about this, and should they continue to sell Sonos products, be forced to put a notice near the product explaining that support may be arbitrarily withdrawn in the future, rendering the product susceptible to obsolescence.

 

J
Userlevel 3
Badge +3

I bought a Play 5 (Gen 1) and Bridge combo when I retired as a very extravagant present for myself. I had a large and growing collection of CDs that I had added to my iTunes library and had been looking for a system to allow me to play my music wirelessly throughout my home. At the same time I bought a Mac Mini to replace my ageing Windows PC and an iPod to use primarily as the Sonos Controller. I am not rich and I made these purchases only after a lot of hesitation and serious soul searching.

 

I was absolutely delighted with my then basic Sonos system and like many others I have promoted Sonos to friends and associates. A couple of years later I added 2 more Play 5s (again Gen 1) and later still 2 Play 1s which then completed my system with a speaker now in each room. By now my music collection had risen to over 50,000 tracks.

 

The iPod was the first casualty when an update rendered it obsolete as a Sonos controller. I bought an iPad to replace it - first Sonos disappointment involving further expenditure.

 

I use my system to play my own music, set alarms and to listen to Radio using TuneIn and have little interest in music streaming services. If I’m honest I find the Play 1s to be virtually as good as the Play 5s in terms of the sound quality but the best thing about the 5s is the line-in function and headphone socket, features that I’ve found very useful but which were not incorporated into the less expensive speakers.

 

A few months ago, without a great deal of warning, Sonos announced that the “play from this iPad” function would no longer work with speakers that do not support Airplay2 - another Sonos disappointment as I occasionally used that when visiting my daughter to play music on my iPad through her Play 1.

 

As recently as a couple of weeks ago, again after a lot of deliberation, I bought a Beam in the hope that it would improve the sound from my Samsung Smart TV. It’s OK but I wouldn’t say it’s brilliant. Of necessity it sits in front of the TV where it blocks the remote receiver on my TV meaning that I have to stand over the TV to use the remote, and Alexa can’t even access my music library - another unexpected Sonos disappointment. It came with a free 6 month Spotify Premium trial subscription which I am familiarising myself with, but from experience so far I doubt I’ll continue to subscribe.

 

Yesterday’s e mail from Sonos has now basically informed me that the bulk of my system will no longer be supported from May 2020 and that if I continue to use it in combination with my Play 1s and Beam they too will be unable to receive updates meaning that over time the entire system will lose some functionality.

 

The offer to get a 30% discount off replacement products is absolutely derisory besides which even if I could afford 3 Play 5s the current model doesn’t have the ‘line in’ function that I find so useful. The Play 1s, not currently defined as legacy products, are now discontinued so no doubt before too long another Sonos e mail will announce that they too are about to become obsolete.

 

I simply cannot afford to replace my entire Sonos system so my knee-jerk reaction is to list the Beam on Ebay whilst it’s still new enough to achieve a sale price roughly equal to what I paid for it and to then allow my system to run until it fails and, in the meantime research what alternatives are available for someone, like me, who simply wants to listen to my CD collection.

 

I will however wait until May to see what the as yet unannounced work-around to run legacy speakers on a separate Sonos system involves.

 

My faith in Sonos right now is shattered. Whilst I understand that nothing lasts forever I don’t think it unreasonable to expect very, very expensive equipment that can still work as it was initially intended to should no longer be updatable purely because the developers want their customers to alter their listening habits. So Sonos please tell me why I should even consider buying more of your products or recommend them to others.

 

Paul St
Userlevel 3

No need to close the other thread, it does not clarify anything, you will soon have another 55 pages of angry customers who have spend thousands on this system, including myself. 
well done Sonos, I am now looking at alternative speakers, I will not be caught out like this again, and as for a 30% discount on an upgrade, you can shove it where the sun don’t shine 😡

C
Userlevel 4
Badge +1

Never mind about the Shareholder meetings, I just closed out my position (I will show you the order 😵.  I won’t be using my Capital gains from your stock to purchase more equipment either.  You really have upset me, although you obviously don’t care.

R
Userlevel 1

Ryan

Please could Sonos answer how Connect:AMP units purchased in 2017 from a mainstream retailer who was out of stock at the time (so had to order in) are marked as legacy units so presumably pre-2015. Serial number starting 5CAA. As Sonos have now explained the pre-2015 units are a different product to the ‘modern’ Connect:AMP units so should have not been sold as the same.

Thanks

P
Userlevel 4
Badge +1

Congrats to BBC to cover this. I am sharing that with all my local and national news feeds.

D
Userlevel 1

I echo much of what has already been said and normally would not post but this has angered me. I will now be very reluctant to add any more components to my existing system for the fear the same will happen with that. 
 

Also if I did want to use the trade up - which I don’t because I have something that works - why would I want to trade in my old Play5 for a Move. I would want a Play5 surely?

S
Userlevel 1

And now you go close the old thread, what to try sweep this under the carpet?!?!

This is just getting worse!

I now honestly can’t think of a reason to buy another Sonos product knowing it has a limited shelf-life.

So angry I just bought a Sonos Move. How long will that be good for!!!

As someone else said, after the ridiculous upgrade ‘offer’ to bin your old products and now this.

Unless there is some miraculous turn-around or a good solution...

I won’t buy another Sonos product.
I won’t recommend them, like I used to, I used to big them up big style!

P
Userlevel 3
Badge

I’ve got thousands of dollars invested in Sonos products.  I’m just about to remodel my basement.  I’m now rethinking the sound system I’m going to put down there as I’m not OK with paying money for gear that is junk at a time to be determined by you.  

 

Fix this.

H
Userlevel 6
Badge +3

Since I can’t reply to myself on the old thread now…

All this got me onto Google… and I find that Yamaha have a “whole house” solution, and a wide range of products, many of which fill gaps I felt I had with my Sonos gear. It all gets about equal reviews to the equivalent Sonos gear too.

Locking the old thread has also got me onto shop sites to do reviews of my previous purchases.

This is what, we in the UK call “doing a Ratner” - after a chap called Gerald Ratner literally killed his entire, quite successful, jewelery business over the course of a weekend by making a very ill-advised speech about his own products.

#sonosinthetoilet by the weekend.

 

Very much “doing a ratner”.

Well it’s now 9:10 am in california, hopefully Patrick has woken up, turned up at work …. and is thinking hard about how to stop the ship from sinking.

Come on Patrick, don’t sh!t on us, our equipment is perfectly good, and not ready to be binned!

 

B
Userlevel 4
Badge +1

Since I can’t reply to myself on the old thread now…

All this got me onto Google… and I find that Yamaha have a “whole house” solution, and a wide range of products, many of which fill gaps I felt I had with my Sonos gear. It all gets about equal reviews to the equivalent Sonos gear too.

Locking the old thread has also got me onto shop sites to do reviews of my previous purchases.

This is what, we in the UK call “doing a Ratner” - after a chap called Gerald Ratner literally killed his entire, quite successful, jewelery business over the course of a weekend by making a very ill-advised speech about his own products.

#sonosinthetoilet by the weekend.

I’m glad I’m not alone in my thinking that Sonos have ‘done a Ratner’

I wonder if this thread will also be locked before long?

#BoycottSonos

 

M
Userlevel 7
Badge +4

Dear Sonos,

No.

Please make updates available to “modern” devices with “legacy” devices on the same network.

Otherwise I will not spend a single dime on yours products ever again. 

(7 of 24 products affected).

 

16 of 26 Affected here. Shameful. 

K
Userlevel 5
Badge +2

Sonos, are you listening? These are your most loyal customers and promoters talking to you. If you sell products at Mercedes Benz prizing, nobody expects it to be ready for the junkyard in five years. This is the worst PR disaster I’ve seen in over a decade. Fix it.  

E
Userlevel 4
Badge +5

I’ve been Sonos customer for years and like many on here I have spent over $5,000 pulling my system together piece by piece. The slap in the face by Sonos shows that they are more concerned with forcing existing customers to purchase new temporary products knowing that they will be obsolete in 5 years or less. 

I will be reaching out to Best Buy to see what their return policy is and what promotions they will be offering for Sonos competitor products. I’ve had my Bose products for over 20 years in my media room and they offer lifetime product support and replacement. 

Depending on what I hear I will have the following equipment for sale at 50% of what I paid for them. 

Beam  1
Bridge 1
Connect AMP 1
Move 1
Play 1 6
Play 3 1
Play 5  4
Playbar 1
Sub 2

Happy to take the sub and the move off your hands at 50%! Best Buy’s return policy is 15 days or 45 if you are elite plus. 

Are people really going to toss whole systems and outlay all that cash for a new, even more expensive one, made by a company that could disappear or discontinue their line (e.g. Bose) at any time?  Of all of the companies that make these systems, Sonos seems to be the most stable to invest your money into for products, despite this announcement. 

 


 

 

M

I did works at home back in 2015, I installed then 14 Sonos plus I own 4 more for another house. Does this mean that every 5 years I have to renew the 18 Sonos because you want to manage the business model of a “Home Sound system” as it was a single cell phone? I will never recomend again Sonos. Very bad decission, you’ve lost another costumer.

N
Userlevel 6
Badge +5

Please confirm that the 30% "trade up" or discount is on the lowest price offered for the identical yet newer device and not something else. I have heard different reports that this was not the case and want to make sure we are on the same page before I agree to your hostage demands and you murder my existing devices. So for every pair of Play:5 I replace it's 30% off this?

 

No, the recycle discount does not stack with any other sale.

Also consider this purchase carefully,  this generation of P5 is now 5 years old, it only has 256 MB memory compared to 1 gig for newer units. It might be supported for a long time or not. I think 5 years it's legacy.

G
Userlevel 3
Badge +2

The level of pain scales with the degree ownership.    I don’t care hearing that there is no room left in  Legacy devices for future fixes.  Apparently there was room to add registration, and usage metrics, and more. If you have not seen Your Data Collected have a look here.  None of that was there when I purchased those Legacy devices and I never wanted any of it.  Sonos has seen fit to change the functionally of my purchased hardware as they please.  Remove all the garbage code you’ve added to these devices and open up some space to leave room for fixes for another 5 years.   Give us a runway longer than June and stop raising prices and we might stick around.   

Long Live AirPlay 2 - it may be my path out of this mess. 

 

 

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