End of Software Support - Clarifications

End of Software Support - Clarifications
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4256 replies

D

Its a shame that spending $1000 plus for a set of speakers is now really going to cost a total of $1700 (your first purchase plus the new ones)as you still only will have two speakers not four of which you will have paid for! Basically to just keep your speakers working with the latest updates .Hmm I was a HUGE advocate for Sonos got many people to plunk down there hard earned money for these speakers not knowing they had a "limited life"If not for the "Legacy people" Sonos would not be around today.But Sonos being really sympathetic is willing to give a 30% discount on new speakers and take back your working ones.Well sorry guys you frickin blew this one and to show your respect for your core customers you should be giving a 70 % discount in appreciation of your customers not a laughable 30% which is a slap in the face and you definitely will loose many
customers old and new!RIP

T
Userlevel 2

The fact that MusicCast is just a tiny fraction of Yamaha’s business portfolio only makes it easier for Yamaha to segment older generations of equipment (as they’ve already done and just like Sonos is doing now) or to abandon MusicCast altogether if its no longer profitable. Anyone who thinks Yamaha will never do to them what Sonos is doing now isn’t paying attention. 

N
Userlevel 4
Badge +1

 Then, each feature that is supported has capabilities that it requires. It is simply then a matter of matching capabilities when a feature is executed.

 

For example
Play:5 Gen1, Capabilities: A, B, C

Play:5 Gen2, Capabilities: A, B, C, D, E

 

If I want to execute feature "D" (maybe Atmos?), then the app only shows "D" as the speaker that can be used. If I want to say, just listen to music off a network drive ("A"), then both are enabled for use (in the 'grouping' function).

Exactly

A = My Music Library - YES

B = Spotify - YES;

C = TuneIn Radio - YES

All I have ever used an needed - across all rooms

As to the newer features

D - Voice Control by Applazonagoogle -Siralexablahblah Nope

E - Home Automation to turn off my smart lights when I press play - Nope

F - IFTTT Integration so when I ring the doorbell music starts - Nope

G - Etc Etc Etc Nope

Currently: 4 x Play 3 | 4 x Play1 | Sub | Playbar 1 | Connect | Bridge across 4 zones which are used in various combinations.

The Connect goes to a 30+ year old hand-built amp, and 20 year old high-end speakers - all of which show no signs of forced obsolescence.

 

Sounds like you just need legacy mode. It’s people who want both that are screwed.  

#BoycottSonos
S
Userlevel 1

Since this announcement a few days ago the share price has dropped 6.5%.

Thats a billion dollars wiped off the company value.  A fair few “trade ups” would need to be sold to recover that.

Hows about just going back to plan A and not treating your existing customer base like a cash cow adn expecting them to just suck it up that their home sound system which has been added to over the years is about to get ripped apart.


Good thing Nicholas Millington, Chief Product Officer, sold 30% of his shares on January 2nd for $500,000.00 before the share price started going down.  Shrewd trader that Nicholas :wink: .

http://d18rn0p25nwr6d.cloudfront.net/CIK-0001314727/5e4c0a01-abfa-4ea8-bf30-6a97f31fb24d.pdf

Insider trading I think.

It’s not insider trading. They announced all this would happen back in Nov (I think) with an SEC filing. They knew that it would destroy their loyal customer base and make everyone upset and said they likely would lose money because of it. 

 

LOL. This was all planned folks. 100%. They are not idiots like we thought they were. This was done with purpose. They figured the cost of supporting the old hardware was more than they would lose by taking this action.

H
Userlevel 2

My letter (very repetitive to what others have said)

Mr. Spence,
I, along with many other customers were very early adopters of your products. It took me many years to build my current system (10 items) and I never minded paying the premium price because I felt the quality justified the price. I have also been a brand ambassador since the beginning talking these things up to friends and family and even giving them as gifts.

I found out about these changes from a sales associate at Best Buy as I was putting 2 of the new Moves into my buggy that I was adding to my collection. he told me I might want to rethink that and explained the changes. I immediately put them back on the shelf after confirming what he told me via a google search.

I feel like I’ve been completely screwed over. Even after your apology letter, it’s clear you don’t care about the customers who helped to build your brand and my trust for your company is gone. I frankly don’t care whether you support the legacy products or not as I plan to sell off my speakers on Craigslist in protest.

As others have said, years from now, this will be a business case study in how management missteps can quickly destroy a great brand and possibly a company. I hope you are proud.

Sent from my iPad

U
Userlevel 6
Badge +4

It is unclear to me why it is necessary to insist that the SonosNet would have to be split or legacy systems and newer systems can't coexist together. I am a software developer, so my background is primarily software, not hardware, but taking a page out of something I've seen Azure do, why not have each device have a list of capabilities that it supports? Then, each feature that is supported has capabilities that it requires. It is simply then a matter of matching capabilities when a feature is executed.

 

For example
Play:5 Gen1, Capabilities: A, B, C

Play:5 Gen2, Capabilities: A, B, C, D, E

 

If I want to execute feature "D" (maybe Atmos?), then the app only shows "D" as the speaker that can be used. If I want to say, just listen to music off a network drive ("A"), then both are enabled for use (in the 'grouping' function).

This is entirely obvious to anyone who works in technology and is indeed the sort of principle that’s woven throughout 99% of everything that’s plugged in to the internet. It’s the basic concept that allows a 10 year old smartphone and a brand new top end PC to access the same internet at the best level each can experience 

The reasons Sonos are doing this are not technical, they’re business. I would imagine that there are plenty of technical staff at Sonos quietly raging about the situation the profiteering short term management have pushed them in to. 
 

A
Userlevel 4
Badge +2

Hi all employees and the CEO at SONOS, the past days has been turmoilf us and for you, CEO has halfway withdrawn the statement made earlier in the week and I have felt resentment to SONOS, totally losing trust in you.

 

What SONOS must do in order to earn back the trust is to prove words with rock solid actions and promises, not a single vague reservation will be accepted by your customers anymore, your wording will be analyzed and interpreted by us all.

 

All of us have and still enjoy your products, you thought that you could make us accept the first message and you have with your anlysis late 2019 shown that such statements would damage your brand and still you went along instead of finding an better option. This falls on all the management and employees that has been involved in this mess.

 

I’am looking into my options and currently I have no intention of expanding my current SONOS stable with further products from you, until you prove to me that you deserve to get my money again.

 

So prove yourself to me and the other customers with real promises and actions, you probably need to show the roadmap for us in this matter (and for your competition) in order to acheive this.

 

You have envisioned yourself as a premium brand-being one of the more expensive solutions, that leads the market, continue to behave as such and in this you need to consider that your speakers are speakers not computers, your tech platform must always be ocmpliant to that so your customers continue to buy your products.

 

If you choose a tech platform solution that is inferior from cost perspective ( I mean 4 GB of memory wasn’t unobtainable when you started building your units-costwise, lessons of memory need has bee around since the 90s), then you need to have another track for upgrading that tech platform than you have today.

 

Do anything else and I can promise you failure

 


I have a feeling the entire company is in turmoil.  I was working with some great support folks over the last 2 weeks to nail down some Sonosnet issues and now I can’t get anyone to respond.  The engineer/hi-tier folks are booked out over a week now and I don’t dare contact their offshore-contracted support.  Maybe they are all at an emergency offsite meeting trying to right the ship.  Hope they do because like so many, I invested not only a lot of money but a lot of personal time over the years building out my Whole-Home-Audio system and while I absolutely hate this management debacle I want my system to continue to work TOGETHER, not split!  

 

It looks when the new leadership moved in they didn’t pay attention at the briefing about their customers and community.

 

 

In reply to this post, if I had a message for Mr. Spence it would be this:

 

Firstly, stop playing political games with your loyal customers and accept your company has been found out (below).

https://www.channelnews.com.au/retailers-move-to-dump-sonos/

Sonos is trying to get dealers to force an upgrade on a customer “When an upgrade is not needed as the current Sonos speaker is working perfectly”.

Pete Pedersen VP, Global Marketing & Communications at Sonos who is believed to be behind the program to force consumers to upgrade to a new Sonos speaker due to the Company struggling to compete up against superior speakers from both Google and Amazon has not explained what he will do when consumers vent their anger with Sonos by buying another brand of speaker.

 

Secondly, instead of trying to cover your tracks & buying yourself time by requoting the previous Sonos statement with a bit of extra flannel whilst failing to acknowledge what your Global Marketing Dept. have been up to, sort this mess out by putting the legacy units out to pasture by taking a short-term hit this one time by offering to swap out "at cost" to attempt to salvage the goodwill you've lost by pursuing  this course of action but recycle the components wherever possible.

If this is too unpalatable, offer a much more generous trade-in to put an end to this scenario Sonos has created, and at least try to restore faith in your damaged brand before it goes the same way as the dodo.

An IT company wouldn't expect their customers to pay for their computer upgrade (which is effectively what this is), so show how serious you are about tackling the problem head-on by treating your loyal customers the way you would expect to be treated.

A
Userlevel 5
Badge +5

The fact that MusicCast is just a tiny fraction of Yamaha’s business portfolio only makes it easier for Yamaha to segment older generations of equipment (as they’ve already done and just like Sonos is doing now) or to abandon MusicCast altogether if its no longer profitable. Anyone who thinks Yamaha will never do to them what Sonos is doing now isn’t paying attention. 

True, hence why I will never invest in these type of systems as I have done with sonos to the same extent, I'm not being held to ransom again. happy to right off £500 every five years as opposed to £4000 every five years.

2000Z3M
Userlevel 3

It’s been a mostly good ride (other than numerous sh*tty software updates and 2 or 3 hardware failures) over the past 15 years, but at this point I think I’m done with Sonos; Denon HEOS here I come:

https://usa.denon.com/us/heos/wirelessaudio/wirelessspeakers

I plan to donate my Sonos system to charity for resale and just take the tax deduction.

S
Userlevel 2

We announced yesterday that some of our oldest Sonos products will be moving into a legacy mode in May of 2020. Our commitment is to support products with regular software updates for a minimum of five years after we stop selling them, and we have a track record of supporting products far longer. 

Here is some public information we’ve shared, gathered into one place to respond to some of your questions in one easy thread, so that people can find the correct information easily.

Beginning in May, software updates and new features from Sonos will only be delivered to systems with only modern products.

After May, systems that include legacy products will continue to work as before - but they will no longer receive software updates or new features. 

Sonos will work to maintain the existing experience and conduct bug fixes, but our efforts will ultimately be limited by the lack of memory and processing power of these legacy products.

We don’t expect any immediate impact to your experience, but access to services and overall functionality will eventually be disrupted, particularly as partners evolve their own services and features. 

 

Customers with both legacy and modern products have time to decide what option is best for them. You can continue to use your whole system in legacy mode - in this case, it will stop receiving updates and new features. 

You will also be able to separate your legacy products from your modern products, so that the modern products can still receive updates and new features, and legacy products can still be used separately. We’ll have more information on how to do this in May when you can take that action.

Another option available to all customers with legacy products is to take advantage of the Trade Up program, which allows you to upgrade older Sonos products to modern ones with a 30% discount. Trade Up will be open to customers at any time should they decide to upgrade. 

We recognize this is new for Sonos owners, just as it is for Sonos. We are committed to help you by making options available to you to support the best decision for your home.
 

If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate with asking.

Update 2/22: A message from our CEO

We heard you. We did not get this right from the start. My apologies for that and I wanted to personally assure you of the path forward:

First, rest assured that come May, when we end new software updates for our legacy products, they will continue to work as they do today. We are not bricking them, we are not forcing them into obsolescence, and we are not taking anything away. Many of you have invested heavily in your Sonos systems, and we intend to honor that investment for as long as possible. While legacy Sonos products won’t get new software features, we pledge to keep them updated with bug fixes and security patches for as long as possible. If we run into something core to the experience that can’t be addressed, we’ll work to offer an alternative solution and let you know about any changes you’ll see in your experience.

Secondly, we heard you on the issue of legacy products and modern products not being able to coexist in your home. 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. We’re finalizing details on this plan and will share more in the coming weeks.

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.

Thank you for being a Sonos customer. Thank you for taking the time to give us your feedback. I hope that you’ll forgive our misstep, and let us earn back your trust. Without you, Sonos wouldn’t exist and we’ll work harder than ever to earn your loyalty every single day.

If you have any further questions please don’t hesitate to contact us.

 

Patrick Spence
CEO, Sonos

Absolutely Disgusted.

If you were a car manufacturer and did this to loyal customers, your brand would would be dead. Oh. You are a technology company with loyal customers (including myself) and you have basically said upgrade or you won’t be able to rely on “Legacy Products” working in the future. You should be reported to the authorities. Let’s hope the government step in and get us some protection from your “Racket”!

R
Userlevel 3
Badge

We announced yesterday that some of our oldest Sonos products will be moving into a legacy mode in May of 2020. Our commitment is to support products with regular software updates for a minimum of five years after we stop selling them, and we have a track record of supporting products far longer. 

Here is some public information we’ve shared, gathered into one place to respond to some of your questions in one easy thread, so that people can find the correct information easily.

Beginning in May, software updates and new features from Sonos will only be delivered to systems with only modern products.

After May, systems that include legacy products will continue to work as before - but they will no longer receive software updates or new features. 

Sonos will work to maintain the existing experience and conduct bug fixes, but our efforts will ultimately be limited by the lack of memory and processing power of these legacy products.

We don’t expect any immediate impact to your experience, but access to services and overall functionality will eventually be disrupted, particularly as partners evolve their own services and features. 

 

Customers with both legacy and modern products have time to decide what option is best for them. You can continue to use your whole system in legacy mode - in this case, it will stop receiving updates and new features. 

You will also be able to separate your legacy products from your modern products, so that the modern products can still receive updates and new features, and legacy products can still be used separately. We’ll have more information on how to do this in May when you can take that action.

Another option available to all customers with legacy products is to take advantage of the Trade Up program, which allows you to upgrade older Sonos products to modern ones with a 30% discount. Trade Up will be open to customers at any time should they decide to upgrade. 

We recognize this is new for Sonos owners, just as it is for Sonos. We are committed to help you by making options available to you to support the best decision for your home.
 

If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate with asking.

Update 2/22: A message from our CEO

We heard you. We did not get this right from the start. My apologies for that and I wanted to personally assure you of the path forward:

First, rest assured that come May, when we end new software updates for our legacy products, they will continue to work as they do today. We are not bricking them, we are not forcing them into obsolescence, and we are not taking anything away. Many of you have invested heavily in your Sonos systems, and we intend to honor that investment for as long as possible. While legacy Sonos products won’t get new software features, we pledge to keep them updated with bug fixes and security patches for as long as possible. If we run into something core to the experience that can’t be addressed, we’ll work to offer an alternative solution and let you know about any changes you’ll see in your experience.

Secondly, we heard you on the issue of legacy products and modern products not being able to coexist in your home. 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. We’re finalizing details on this plan and will share more in the coming weeks.

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.

Thank you for being a Sonos customer. Thank you for taking the time to give us your feedback. I hope that you’ll forgive our misstep, and let us earn back your trust. Without you, Sonos wouldn’t exist and we’ll work harder than ever to earn your loyalty every single day.

If you have any further questions please don’t hesitate to contact us.

 

Patrick Spence
CEO, Sonos

Absolutely Disgusted.

If you were a car manufacturer and did this to loyal customers, your brand would would be dead. Oh. You are a technology company with loyal customers (including myself) and you have basically said upgrade or you won’t be able to rely on “Legacy Products” working in the future. You should be reported to the authorities. Let’s hope the government step in and get us some protection from your “Racket”!

Yeh.. they don’t get it at all. We all know audio gets obsolete… but my obsolete technologies don’t ruin my new ones!

G
Userlevel 3
Badge +3

I own 5 SONOS products.

 

SONOS began its path of screwing original owners back when they rendered the early iPod series “obsolete for SONOS” even though Apple was still supporting it.  Then came the “kill off the SONOS hardware controller” nonsense.  It’s made its money rendering perfectly good hardware useless due to its own software.

 

The take-away for any newer customers:  SONOS has never given a damn about the customer AFTER they’ve purchased.  It’s always been about getting that new customer and current owners to the curb.  This is no different.

 

 

A

In a very round about way, I saw this coming. I saw trouble coming a number of months ago when Sonos forced us to register our products in order to keep receiving updates. Have to admit I was not at all happy about this. There was no requirement to register our products when I made my purchase. So then I go out and buy two Play Fives and a Connect and all of a sudden my system is being held hostage, and rendered unusable, unless I registered the products with Sonos. I told my wife then that I would never buy another Sonos product. This just showed me that Sonos was no longer interested in meeting their customers needs, but rather expected the customer to meet their needs. So again, I had made up my mind at that time that I would not buy any more Sonos products.

 

And now with this latest move by Sonos, I have decided to just abandon their products altogether. I have a Mac computer and have been waiting and waiting to upgrade to the new Catalina operating system. I’ve been waiting because Sonos is not yet compatible. So I have been unable to sync my phone or iPad to my computer because I can’t update my computer because Sonos won’t work if I do. Well, tomorrow I’m going to be updating my computer and I no longer care if Sonos doesn’t work, because I don’t intend on using Sonos anymore.

 

For anyone looking for alternatives, I have discovered Airplay 2. If you have Mac products this is something you might want to look into. I think it’s going to be a great system. One of the real advantages is, I can use Airplay 2 to run my music library through my existing stereo, and if I want auxiliary speakers I can mix and match and get whatever make or brand of speaker I want, as long as those speakers support Airplay 2. So I’m not limited to just one speaker manufacturer (aka Sonos) but rather, I can use any speakers, in sync with each other, as long as they support Airplay 2. I haven’t got it all figured out yet, but I have played my music library through my existing stereo system and it works great. This is what I used to use my Sonos Connect for so I no longer have any need for the Connect.

 

I used to use my Sonos Play 5 speakers as my auxiliary speakers and I did like the portability. But I’ve been looking around and there are lots of good, portable speakers out there that support Airplay 2 that will suit my needs. I just need to do a bit more shopping to get that part figured out.

 

I also have to say I really feel for those who have invested tremendous sums of money in their Sonos systems. Fortunately I only have the two Play 5’s and the Connect. It’s not a small sum of money, but certainly far short of what some have spent. So again, for those who have invested more heavily, I really do feel for you. But having said that, for anyone who buys Sonos from this moment forward, I really don’t have much sympathy at all.

 

I thought the poster with the handle “Fraud Victim” summed it up beautifully. They said:

 

“Sorry for appearing simple but surely if yesterday’s modern products are now legacy, then today’s modern products will be legacy tomorrow. Who on earth would upgrade knowing that this will be a temporary fix?”

 

Well said Fraud Victim. And no, not simple at all. Just good, plain common sense.

W
Userlevel 3

In a very round about way, I saw this coming. I saw trouble coming a number of months ago when Sonos forced us to register our products in order to keep receiving updates. Have to admit I was not at all happy about this. There was no requirement to register our products when I made my purchase. So then I go out and buy two Play Fives and a Connect and all of a sudden my system is being held hostage, and rendered unusable, unless I registered the products with Sonos. I told my wife then that I would never buy another Sonos product. This just showed me that Sonos was no longer interested in meeting their customers needs, but rather expected the customer to meet their needs. So again, I had made up my mind at that time that I would not buy any more Sonos products.

 

And now with this latest move by Sonos, I have decided to just abandon their products altogether. I have a Mac computer and have been waiting and waiting to upgrade to the new Catalina operating system. I’ve been waiting because Sonos is not yet compatible. So I have been unable to sync my phone or iPad to my computer because I can’t update my computer because Sonos won’t work if I do. Well, tomorrow I’m going to be updating my computer and I no longer care if Sonos doesn’t work, because I don’t intend on using Sonos anymore.

 

For anyone looking for alternatives, I have discovered Airplay 2. If you have Mac products this is something you might want to look into. I think it’s going to be a great system. One of the real advantages is, I can use Airplay 2 to run my music library through my existing stereo, and if I want auxiliary speakers I can mix and match and get whatever make or brand of speaker I want, as long as those speakers support Airplay 2. So I’m not limited to just one speaker manufacturer (aka Sonos) but rather, I can use any speakers, in sync with each other, as long as they support Airplay 2. I haven’t got it all figured out yet, but I have played my music library through my existing stereo system and it works great. This is what I used to use my Sonos Connect for so I no longer have any need for the Connect.

 

I used to use my Sonos Play 5 speakers as my auxiliary speakers and I did like the portability. But I’ve been looking around and there are lots of good, portable speakers out there that support Airplay 2 that will suit my needs. I just need to do a bit more shopping to get that part figured out.

 

I also have to say I really feel for those who have invested tremendous sums of money in their Sonos systems. Fortunately I only have the two Play 5’s and the Connect. It’s not a small sum of money, but certainly far short of what some have spent. So again, for those who have invested more heavily, I really do feel for you. But having said that, for anyone who buys Sonos from this moment forward, I really don’t have much sympathy at all.

 

I thought the poster with the handle “Fraud Victim” summed it up beautifully. They said:

 

“Sorry for appearing simple but surely if yesterday’s modern products are now legacy, then today’s modern products will be legacy tomorrow. Who on earth would upgrade knowing that this will be a temporary fix?”

 

Well said Fraud Victim. And no, not simple at all. Just good, plain common sense.

What makes you think using Apple Airplay2 will future-proof you? Any compatible device will be running software and what happens when Apple move to “Airplay3”?

 

Until consumer law is changed to provide protection from the sort of behaviour we are seeing from Sonos we are all potentially held to ransom by the supplier of software defined products.

G
Userlevel 3
Badge +1

When Sonos was launched Apple Airplay was a joke and Alexa didn’t exist. Now, Alexa’s smallest boxes are cheap, party mode works perfectly and there’s excellent powered speakers for less than a Play 5. I’m not buying any more Sonos products, and when the system fails will switch to a $20 Alexa box and powered speakers. 

B
Userlevel 5
Badge +5

In a very round about way, I saw this coming. I saw trouble coming a number of months ago when Sonos forced us to register our products in order to keep receiving updates. Have to admit I was not at all happy about this. There was no requirement to register our products when I made my purchase. So then I go out and buy two Play Fives and a Connect and all of a sudden my system is being held hostage, and rendered unusable, unless I registered the products with Sonos. I told my wife then that I would never buy another Sonos product. This just showed me that Sonos was no longer interested in meeting their customers needs, but rather expected the customer to meet their needs. So again, I had made up my mind at that time that I would not buy any more Sonos products.

 

And now with this latest move by Sonos, I have decided to just abandon their products altogether. I have a Mac computer and have been waiting and waiting to upgrade to the new Catalina operating system. I’ve been waiting because Sonos is not yet compatible. So I have been unable to sync my phone or iPad to my computer because I can’t update my computer because Sonos won’t work if I do. Well, tomorrow I’m going to be updating my computer and I no longer care if Sonos doesn’t work, because I don’t intend on using Sonos anymore.

 

For anyone looking for alternatives, I have discovered Airplay 2. If you have Mac products this is something you might want to look into. I think it’s going to be a great system. One of the real advantages is, I can use Airplay 2 to run my music library through my existing stereo, and if I want auxiliary speakers I can mix and match and get whatever make or brand of speaker I want, as long as those speakers support Airplay 2. So I’m not limited to just one speaker manufacturer (aka Sonos) but rather, I can use any speakers, in sync with each other, as long as they support Airplay 2. I haven’t got it all figured out yet, but I have played my music library through my existing stereo system and it works great. This is what I used to use my Sonos Connect for so I no longer have any need for the Connect.

 

I used to use my Sonos Play 5 speakers as my auxiliary speakers and I did like the portability. But I’ve been looking around and there are lots of good, portable speakers out there that support Airplay 2 that will suit my needs. I just need to do a bit more shopping to get that part figured out.

 

I also have to say I really feel for those who have invested tremendous sums of money in their Sonos systems. Fortunately I only have the two Play 5’s and the Connect. It’s not a small sum of money, but certainly far short of what some have spent. So again, for those who have invested more heavily, I really do feel for you. But having said that, for anyone who buys Sonos from this moment forward, I really don’t have much sympathy at all.

 

I thought the poster with the handle “Fraud Victim” summed it up beautifully. They said:

 

“Sorry for appearing simple but surely if yesterday’s modern products are now legacy, then today’s modern products will be legacy tomorrow. Who on earth would upgrade knowing that this will be a temporary fix?”

 

Well said Fraud Victim. And no, not simple at all. Just good, plain common sense.

What makes you think using Apple Airplay2 will future-proof you? Any compatible device will be running software and what happens when Apple move to “Airplay3”?

 

Until consumer law is changed to provide protection from the sort of behaviour we are seeing from Sonos we are all potentially held to ransom by the supplier of software defined products.

 

I hate being forced to change my phone every 2 years

 

Sonos from leader to loser in 2020.
O

Cutting off your best and most loyal customers is a terrible business move.

We have choices of other ecosystems, Bluesound, Apple, Google to name a few.

I call BS that it is not possible to provide upgrades to an entire Sonos system if an old component is holding everything back.  Simple solution: create a network within a network.   New components update fine with new features, old components work as well as technically possible.   ROON SOFTWARE already basically does this.  ( For those unfamiliar Roon is able to integrate many different music players, including Sonos under one “network”) So Roon can do it, Sonos should be able to do it. 

 

The 30% discount is far too little for the inconvenience of upgrading.  The deactivation and creation of garbage out of legacy equipment is in poor taste for those concerned about environmental footprint.

Come up with something better, and fast.

B
Userlevel 5
Badge +5

See the new eamil from Mr. Spence?

 

Sonos from leader to loser in 2020.
B
Userlevel 5
Badge +5

I own 5 SONOS products.

 

SONOS began its path of screwing original owners back when they rendered the early iPod series “obsolete for SONOS” even though Apple was still supporting it.  Then came the “kill off the SONOS hardware controller” nonsense.  It’s made its money rendering perfectly good hardware useless due to its own software.

 

The take-away for any newer customers:  SONOS has never given a damn about the customer AFTER they’ve purchased.  It’s always been about getting that new customer and current owners to the curb.  This is no different.

 

 

They will this time. Did social media even exist then? Was this during dial-up. Social media these days has the power to do anything it wants. Just look at the news. Social media has the power to annihilate anything in it’s path. Brings the mob mentality to the cloud, power in numbers. 

 

 

Sonos from leader to loser in 2020.
R

Planned obsolescence is what they are doing…. where do i return my Sonos system for a full refund

B
Userlevel 2
Badge

I have just gone through the exercise of registering and updating all the Sonos components I own and then checked what will go in the bucket and the website told me I have 20 components that will not be supported plus I have another 10 bridges still in sealed boxes as were 2 Connect Amps which I have now registered. I then went to the Sonos website to see what it would cost me to get back to where I am right now and that comes to $8,265 USD. 

I suggested to Sonos Customer Experience team the idea that Customers would be happy to work with two split systems is frankly naive as one of the major drives for people to invest in Sonos products is the integration capability and that is coming over loud and clear on the forums which Patrick needs to start listening to.

The Sonos share price is on the decline which does not surprise me at all and the shops are full of kit they will even be able to give away. I suggested if they want to keep loyal customers they will have to take a hit on the replacement scheme as there must be millions of dollars in Sonos “Legacy” Products out in the market that just will not sell anymore and so better to bring back in, upgrade RAM and use at say 50% - 60% cost discount to legacy users as one for one replacements or alternatively have some form of capability to upgrade existing legacy products.

As many people have said they have no desire to tell their speaker to turn on the lights they just want to play music from their NAS or stream from services and all the components do that right now

Maybe Patrick needs to tell his speaker to turn on his lights and open his blinds as he is bouncing around in the dark at the moment !!

S
Userlevel 2

If ,after May , 2 different Sonos networks are used for old and new, is there a reason why Roon couldn’t be used to stream to both simultaneously ?

B
Userlevel 5
Badge +5

It seems telling that Ryan_S has not made a comment or clarification in many, many pages of posts. 

Either we’re all being allowed to vent, or there’s nothing new to say. Or both.

I’m reading along, but there hasn’t been much in need of clarification that hasn’t already been said.

And everyone is definitely allowed to vent. As long as the community rules are followed (for example no personal attacks and keeping profanity out of your posts) we welcome the feedback. I’m also making sure to share your voice with the right people.

Sincerely, Thank you very much.

Sonos from leader to loser in 2020.
A
Badge +1

I have just gone through the exercise of registering and updating all the Sonos components I own and then checked what will go in the bucket and the website told me I have 20 components that will not be supported plus I have another 10 bridges still in sealed boxes as were 2 Connect Amps which I have now registered. I then went to the Sonos website to see what it would cost me to get back to where I am right now and that comes to $8,265 USD. 

I suggested to Sonos Customer Experience team the idea that Customers would be happy to work with two split systems is frankly naive as one of the major drives for people to invest in Sonos products is the integration capability and that is coming over loud and clear on the forums which Patrick needs to start listening to.

The Sonos share price is on the decline which does not surprise me at all and the shops are full of kit they will even be able to give away. I suggested if they want to keep loyal customers they will have to take a hit on the replacement scheme as there must be millions of dollars in Sonos “Legacy” Products out in the market that just will not sell anymore and so better to bring back in, upgrade RAM and use at say 50% - 60% cost discount to legacy users as one for one replacements or alternatively have some form of capability to upgrade existing legacy products.

As many people have said they have no desire to tell their speaker to turn on the lights they just want to play music from their NAS or stream from services and all the components do that right now

Maybe Patrick needs to tell his speaker to turn on his lights and open his blinds as he is bouncing around in the dark at the moment !!

I have over 16 ‘’legacy’’ products at the moment and haven’t registered all the older connect’s etc that I have. It seems what we all should have done in the past, is only by Connect Amps, thereby allowing us to select our speaker of choice, that today would still be as useful as it was when purchased and will still be as useful in the future. Worse case, we would only be out the cost of Amps and if they become ‘obsolete’, then presumably we would only have to upgrade this component to its modern equivalent, to have a working whole home system again. I feel like an idiot now having invested thousands in Play 5’s, Play 3’s, Play 1’s, CR200 controllers, Connects, Bridges, Boosts...what a fool I was. 

J
Userlevel 4
Badge +3

I have over 16 ‘’legacy’’ products at the moment and haven’t registered all the older connect’s etc that I have. It seems what we all should have done in the past, is only by Connect Amps, thereby allowing us to select our speaker of choice, that today would still be as useful as it was when purchased and will still be as useful in the future. Worse case, we would only be out the cost of Amps and if they become ‘obsolete’, then presumably we would only have to upgrade this component to its modern equivalent, to have a working whole home system again. I feel like an idiot now having invested thousands in Play 5’s, Play 3’s, Play 1’s, CR200 controllers, Connects, Bridges, Boosts...what a fool I was. 

Not a fool - an enthusiast who got a lot of energy and activity out of it. Alternatively you would have done something else with the time and the money, and then you could now have been regretting that instead. My advise, don’t cry over the steps you have already taken - learn, and be happy that there is something to learn from; this means that you have had an eventful life.

“This is a chance now to come up with a system that doesn’t cause massive planetary damage in exchange for disposable stuff,” Proctor said. (https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/3a8dpn/sonos-makes-it-clear-you-no-longer-own-the-things-you-buy)
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