End of Software Support - Clarifications

I joined Sonos in 2015 investing in a range of products and spent alot of money.

I currently now have two important products within my system that have been announced as obselete and no longer supported because of hardware issues.

I think the biggest stab in the back and it does feel like a betrayal is the way Sonos has decided to handle this and ransom people who have systems which are now effectively only as new as the oldest product in the system. One item ties the rest to it. The whole point of the system is that it can all operate together which was it's major selling point but it's either pay up or forget it.

This is a unsustainable business model and in a instant Sonos as lost creadability a will lose current and future customers especially ones that are looking to spend alot of money and build a comprehensive system through out their home.

On a personal level I will simply.refuse to put anymore money into Sonos as I have no confidence that I won't be continually having to spend money over a short 5-10  year life span to keep the system operating which is unacceptable.

Word gets around fast and anyone thinking of buying into Sonos now will look into other systems.

I for one won't be recommending friends in fact I will be warning them so they do not fall victim like the rest of us have.

I will start looking at other avenues as Sonos does no reward loyalty looks to hold you hostage.

Given that they anticipated the negative response, what rationale was cited for dropping legacy equipment in the investor call?

I would be very interested in reading your thoughts on the musiccast system and how it compares

Me too - I have myself bought one of them (to arrive tomorrow, with a little luck) but would be interested in hearing about multi-room and connecting bluetooth speakers and other things that I cannot easily try out with the sole WXC-50 device I get.

This is my first time to comment on ANYTHING on a blog ever!

Just want to say “well done” Sonos for owning your mistake and trying to make it right. Admitting you were wrong is so rare, and those of us who love and enjoy your products appreciate it.

THIS ^^^^^   BRAVO!

No split systems. Please.  

You did it right with the AirPlay integration. I don't get why can't it be done this way for new features. 

New speakers do new crazy stuff, old speakers just play sound like a speaker is supposed to. 

Removing basic functionality to add less basic stuff makes no sense.

Are we reading the same letter? The one I read said nothing different just a shit sandwich approach to the same original statement 

I suspect that this level of negative response is beyond the board’s worst nightmare. It’s getting worse as it continues to spread across reviews on seller platforms. I would guess that unless the corporate call on 5 Feb goes well, Mr Spence will be working on his CV within 5 minutes of its ending. There’s also the small matter of taking on Google….

Dear Patrick 

There is a sliver lining in this PR blunder for all your once Loyal base customers. 
Now that Sonos has destroyed it Loyalty base it now gives us permission to look at other solutions that we would have ignored in the past. It also opens the door to a company like Apple or google to use their horsepower to erase Sonos off the market.  Just like the Apple and Samsung did to the Blackberry.  

 

Absolute garbage policy.  I have $2,500 in Sonos products and will immediately start looking for another product from a company that has more sense.  I read this email yesterday and ordered a replacement Play 5 for the one that appeared would completely stop working in May.  It will be immediately returned.  I’m far beyond disappointed.

Good point. And why not take this a bit further and make and sell replacement motherboards with better CPU and memory for old units. That would satisfy a lot of people, we can all help the environment and you can make some money.

If you ask me this is what you should have done from the start. No end of life, no waste.

This is weak.  And your discount amount for the upgrade is just a joke.  I’ll just plow along with my current equipment.

YUP: Just a more legal wording.

“Your iPhone 4 will continue to work as before, but it can only /call/FaceTime/Message/txt/…/ other iPhone 4’s”

Just received a very nice letter form the CEO Patrick Spence …

Hey Patrick!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Let me and prob many others others be clear….

We purchased and built on a whole home system  that work together not in 2 systems old and new just one system that works.

This is a very simple concept and all of us who have spent a heck of a lot of money supporting your New and Legacy company  are owed some real thought before kicking us to the side of the road.

Also you did not consider the secondary and used market in your upgrade plans and a way to protect them from deactivated units being sold and as you have so nicely put it legacy devices being dumped to non educated buyers and being stuck with paper weights. 

CEO Patrick Spence you have been in the saddle for some time 2012 but i believe you truly have missed the boat as far as who you customers really are and why they use your product to begin with. wake up the gang is shopping for a better solution and it will not be sonos.

Regards your Sonos Customers 

Is this where Sonos have their Gerald Ratner moment as with this announcement I have lost all trust in the company and will not be recommending or purchasing any more of their products. 

Here’s a question, what if you gave in to Sonos and voluntarily bricked your device thinking it was going to die?  Now they say use a split system.  Will the people who voluntarily bricked their units be able to “reactivate” them if the split system is good enough for them?

Like a lot of people here I have a number of Sonos devices in my house. I have put some friends and family onto Sonos systems too. I am moving house shortly and looking for more devices for my new house. I just cant justify investing in Sonos equipment knowing my whole system is only as good as the oldest device and a speaker can be shut off on the whim of the company.

I cant buy any more Sonos speakers and I will be warning off anyone else I can. This is just a cynical planned obsolescence move on perfectly good equipment.

Why would I buy your product again if your just going to pull this again?

Of course all of the “Legacy” products will become obsolete, just like the Dock, Controller 100, Controller 200 and the Bridge did.  Its just a matter of time.  I will not spend another penny on Sonos.  I’m switching over to Bluesound and the BluOS.   Check it out at Bluesound.Com.  They even support Hi Resolution audio which Sonos does not.  Sounds better anyway. 

I don’t want new features, I want my whole system to work together and be able to group as I like! This letter from the CEO is just more crap. Not good enough by a mile. 

The design of this solution is meant to be modular in the sense that you build your product library on the platform provided. To interconnect all components as one and say arbitrarily that one of your components is older therefore your entire solution will not longer receive updates tells a story about how the direction of this company has changed. We have seen a continual shift from supporting the Sonos Communities investment in the Sonos solutions to a never ending list of news updates stating that your products are too old or the technologies have changed too much for Sonos to keep up. Really? Invest some of your energy and our money in providing firmware updates that will keep ‘legacy’ products on the same platform as our current products while limiting functionality on those legacy items to keep them in range of their capabilities and not limit all components of the solution. Don’t offer a worthless 30% discount on newer more expensive replacements, I am questioning whether I want to invest anything going forward. Sonos is literally asking us, the consumer, to pay for there poor design after convincing us to invest in their platform and in many cases helping them improve the design. I am not interested in stating personally what this does to my solutions at two different locations, I am more interested in making the point that Sonos should take notice that this decision really makes the consumer re-evaluate where we want to invest our dollars in audio solutions and technologies going forward. The end of life announcement is not the community based approach I bought into over the past years with Sonos and is very disappointing and concerning. 

Not sure if this has already been posted? Struggling to keep up with the posts on here!

letter from the guy who is pulling our pants down  

https://blog.sonos.com/en/a-letter-from-our-ceo/

So when I received the email I went ahead and upgraded my amp out of fear of having an issue.  Now the CEO’s email comes out.  I call Sonos to see if I can turn my old Amp back on and they tell me sorry the count down has already begun and we can’t do anything.  I said well what if I return the new amp?  He tells me that the old amp still will not work.  Sonos this is not how you treat customers.  You got the last $460 from me, I will never buy another product from you.