End of Software Support - Clarifications

If SONOS had an ounce of compassion they would be offering to replace these items free of charge. Basically they sold a product that wasn’t fit for purpose. Come on SONOS imagine the free positive publicity that this would give you. Conversely if they won’t do this then we should think about a class action for compensation. Now SONOS imagine the even worse negative publicity that you would get from this.

It is interesting to study the comments in this thread, as they all seem to be based on certain assumptions:

• “I am a good customer” - well, you may have bought things during time, but to Sonos it may well be so that a good customer is one who will buy something now and in the near future. Old customers are not contributing to the bottom line.
• “I have been loyal to you, you should be loyal to me” - Sonos is not your friend! Sonos is selling electronics, of which you have bought some. They produce, you consume, end of story.
• “My system of Sonos products is valuabe because I paid a lot for it” - My bet is that Sonos sees each product as a piece of plastic with some cheap electronics inside, and probably see the economical value only for as long as there is still a warranty to honor; as long as the product can still cost Sonos some money. After that, it is just an old piece of plastic.
• “We 2,000 people who complain are such a force, they must listen to us” - Haha, Sonos has sold millions of devices and probably calculate in bigger numbers than that. Saying goodbye to 2,000 customers, of which some can probably even be won back, should not matter much.
• “The press and internet media is supporting us” - As I read the articles out there, journalists have a hard time seeing the unreasonable in it all; as they all start with the official “Sonos is seeking to retire the oldest of its units, designed from 2005 to 2009”. Not many readers will feel pity for you who had support for such a long time on simple home electronics. And after a few days, these articles will be forgotten.
• “Sonos depends on loyal customers” - As said, if you are not buying, you are not a customer. A business depends on selling something to real customers, not of having a fan club of former buyers.

I myself would like to believe in all these assumptions, but realistically speaking, there may be no response from Sonos, no change in the program, no reward for having complained about Sonos’ decisions and behaviour. After the storm fades in a few days, it will be business as usuall - Sonos trying to find paying customers where they can, and you trying to decide what to buy and what not to.

It is obvious that we are consumers trapped in the illusion of being kind of partners - and for this, Sonos rather deserves praise: they managed to spread this idea and maintain it for so long, helping them to build a company. Cleverly done, useful to them when needed. Now it is not needed anymore, as the company is growing and developing different needs, such as a vision for the economical future, and later, some more solid quarterly reports for the shareholders.

It is tempting to cite The Matrix: “Welcome to the real world!”.

As someone who is on a low wage but believes in the "buy cheap buy twice" philosophy, I saved for YEARS to be able to afford purchase my sonos products. I was extremely dubious about the wireless only set up which leaves you at their mercy, however I decided to trust sonos spin about their products being "an investment" and started to build my home sound system, what a fool I was as my initial fears are now being realised with sonos my play 5 becoming a "legacy" product, how long before this happens to the rest of my sonos products?????? 

I was in the process of saving for another sonos item next year but after this fiasco I won't be purchasing one more single item from sonos, you people have taken a considerable amount of money from someone who could barely afford your products but had so much faith in your products that they decided to "invest". A kick in the boyos for my trust in and loyalty to sonos, I am absolutely disgusted and that trust is now gone, this doesn't even take into consideration the environmental impact of scrapping perfectly good items just to enable sonos to make more money. Well some of us cannot afford to be treated like fools, I'd now have to save up just to replace any legacy items before I could even consider any further expansion of my set up, it's a continuous cycle of handing you lot hundreds of pounds just to be able to use items we've already paid for. It's not a case of "buy cheap buy twice" with sonos it's a case of "pay a fortune and keep on paying" NO THANKS!!!!!

I'd also like to add that 30% off a new version isn't affordable to some of us, in fact it's downright insulting, it won't cost me anything to use the items until they stop working altogether and then they can be scrapped, just like my loyalty to sonos. 

Sonos’ own financial statements say the opposite. 38% of their sales (if I recall - others have posted the information multiple times in this thread) come from existing customers growing their system. 

In response tp Attacama70’s response - but it won’t be ok if legacy cannot be grouped with “modern” units running on the same software- key feature of Sonos is/ was “through the house in sync” and being able to stream from a variety of sources.  Having a line in on Play 5s likely continue until it dies is hardly facilitating the full Sonos experience.  And what about those without Play 5’s (Fortunately (lol) i have three of the damn things…..

Suggest the anti-Sonos media campaign continues until someone makes a decision to stop this avoidable madness….and community people adopt an Extinction Rebellion attitude and go and glue themselves to a Player in their nearest retailer…. (joke)…. in the past, if I’ve been in a Currys or John Lwis store and I’ve heard the poorly briefed sales guy making a hash of explaining the features of Sonos, I’ve interrupted to explain how they actually work --- just need to continue this intervention and explain how they WILL actually work….

Spread the word….

they also cant guarantee that amazon/spotify etc wont release some sort of change in June that will immediately render those services unusable, it will be no longer in their gift.   The “gradual” is nothing short of a guess

I would like to take advantage of the upgrade offer for older speakers (January 2020), I have a house full of them. However, judging you by your recent announcement I won’t as the products you advertise today will become “legacy” products in a couple of years. When the speakers no longer work I will replace them with speakers from a company who value their customers rather than one that just wants to rip them off. Goodbye Sonos!

Yeah and if that is the case then I’m as annoyed as anyone else on here. 

I got the impression from some comments that this ‘might’ be sorted in May? 

As a non tech (or limited tech) I got the impression that there be a group of ‘old stuff’ receiving no updates and ‘new stuff’ getting the new toys. 

As you say (and I agree) IF the two groups can co-exist and simply play music in sync then my problem is 70% sorted. If this will never happen then serious serious problems.

Is not too say I’m happy with this process. And I have to say (if anyone at Sonos is listening) … I have zero social media, am way too busy in life to do this stuff and is the first time ever at 55 years on this planet that I’ve participated in such a discussion and felt this aggrieved at a companies actions and comments.

I have to replace 1 connect, 1 play 5 and 1 bridge: £700! with the discount!!!!

Seriously. £700 for absolutely nothing new to show!

What next? In a year you are going to obsolete all the Gen1?

I have 2 play 1, 2 play 3 Gen1: This is another £500?

I understand the tech change but at the price of your products it is very difficult to accept!

You should probably respect your customers and not ask them to spend their cast on product that will be obsolete in 5 years because you are only obliged to support your product for 5 year.

I am fuming! 

I'm no longer investing in Sonos equipment. I bought a Connect about three years ago and now you’re telling me it's EOL?

Of all the ways you could have designed around this, you’ve possibly chosen the worst possible path. My biggest take-away is that despite believing your pitch that the system is extensible and future-proof, it's actually high-cost disposable stuff. Fool me once, and all that.

I'm moving in a few years and am going to need to wire my house with a new whole-of-house sound system. I'll probably be spending well over $20k by the time I'm done and guess what won't be in the mix? Any new Sonos gear.

I'm happy to standardise on Airplay / Airplay 2 and go with a dedicated multi-zone amp system. At least Apple's still supporting stuff from 2004.

For the sake of slugging me with a $400 upgrade you’re going to lose $20k+ and a vocally supportive customer. I’ll also be making sure that everyone I talk to who’s looking for a streaming sound system understands that Sonos should really be seen as being in the same category as Logitech or UE; devices that have a limited lifespan and should be seen in isolation, not as a platform or an ecosystem. Bose is probably a better bet, as dirty as that makes me feel to say it.

This is pure dumb.