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I wanted to put this out there in case others are encountering the same problem. 

I recently purchased a brand new Sonos Sub Mini directly from Sonos. When I received it, I went to set it up, however, the at the step that involves using NFC from my iPhone to input a pin code, the NFC connection didn’t seem to work. I was given the option to enter the pin printed on the device manually, however, this led to a strange notification saying the pin and did not match the device’s serial number. 

Upon further inspection, I noticed that the serial number in the app did not match the serial number printed on the device & on the box (only the last 3 characters of the serial number were mismatched). 

I reached out to Sonos support several times. The first time, I was disconnected from the chat service. The second time I chatted in, I was told that I would receive an email in 30 minutes about a replacement being sent to me and how to return the original device. After several hours of not receiving anything, I reached back out a third time, and the new agent told me that there was no replacement / return set up yet. They then said that because it was an abnormal return as the device had yet to be set up, someone from a special returns team had to take care of my case. Finally, when the person on that team reached out via email, I was able to send them photo confirmation of the mismatched serial numbers in the app vs on the device & they were able to set up my replacement & return label. 

I just wanted to tell my story in case anyone else ever encounters a situation where their serial numbers are mismatched between the Sonos app and on the device itself. Sonos will have to send you a replacement device and you will have to send back the original device. 

Quite an unusual issue.

Often a network capable device has several network adapters, for example the Sub Mini has three

  • Ethernet,
  • 2.4Ghz WiFi
  • 5Ghz WiFi

I ‘think’ each adapter has a slightly different MAC address - usually one digit difference - so I’m just wondering if the PIN-code/software-setup was looking for the MAC address of say the 2.4Ghz adapter, rather than say the Ethernet adapters MAC address (if you had wired the Sub).. or vice-versa?

Of course this is only ‘guesswork’ on my part, but wondering if the MAC address was perhaps a ‘close’ match to the one the PIN-code/software was looking for and if you tried the setup PIN process whilst the Sub-Mini was running on WiFi, or switched to wired Ethernet mode?  If not, to perhaps try each of those connections.

Anyhow…

I would have thought anyway, based on what you have mentioned, that the worst case scenario here, is a misprint of the PIN-code on the base of the Sub-Mini and that Sonos might be able to establish the correct MAC address and generate a new PIN for you to use, rather than having to return an otherwise perfectly good Sub-Mini for what is simply a misprinted PIN, which you likely may never need to use again until you sell the device.

Just a case of keeping the new PIN-code safe, once Sonos can perhaps provide it. Seems unnecessary to return the product for such a minor matter and it’s maybe cheaper to take that route (if possible) and have them throw in a discount/voucher too, perhaps 🤔? It would save all that inconvenience if a new PIN-code could be generated to get the Sub setup.

I’m also assuming here you were not able to setup the Sub-Mini using NFC, which I think actually avoids the need for using a PIN-code anyway?

I wanted to put this out there in case others are encountering the same problem. 

I recently purchased a brand new Sonos Sub Mini directly from Sonos. When I received it, I went to set it up, however, the at the step that involves using NFC from my iPhone to input a pin code, the NFC connection didn’t seem to work. I was given the option to enter the pin printed on the device manually, however, this led to a strange notification saying the pin and did not match the device’s serial number. 

Upon further inspection, I noticed that the serial number in the app did not match the serial number printed on the device & on the box (only the last 3 characters of the serial number were mismatched). 

I reached out to Sonos support several times. The first time, I was disconnected from the chat service. The second time I chatted in, I was told that I would receive an email in 30 minutes about a replacement being sent to me and how to return the original device. After several hours of not receiving anything, I reached back out a third time, and the new agent told me that there was no replacement / return set up yet. They then said that because it was an abnormal return as the device had yet to be set up, someone from a special returns team had to take care of my case. Finally, when the person on that team reached out via email, I was able to send them photo confirmation of the mismatched serial numbers in the app vs on the device & they were able to set up my replacement & return label. 

I just wanted to tell my story in case anyone else ever encounters a situation where their serial numbers are mismatched between the Sonos app and on the device itself. Sonos will have to send you a replacement device and you will have to send back the original device. 

Hi There. Received my Sub Mini yesterday and had the same issue. On-line chat gave the same response about getting an email about return but 12 hours later still nothing. I will reach out again. Thanks for posting this.

 

Hi There. Received my Sub Mini yesterday and had the same issue. On-line chat gave the same response about getting an email about return but 12 hours later still nothing. I will reach out again. Thanks for posting this.

Just in case - maybe check your spam folder too, in case the email has took a detour.

Hi There. Received my Sub Mini yesterday and had the same issue. On-line chat gave the same response about getting an email about return but 12 hours later still nothing. I will reach out again. Thanks for posting this.

Just in case - maybe check your spam folder too, in case the email has took a detour.

Thanks Ken, already did that.

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