Sonos five dies out after 2.5 years

Ahh, not sure about there. In the uk there’s a company. Have you tried a google search for “sonos speaker repair”?

Yes, seems like the only lab that accepts them are the importer’s and they refuse to touch it because the warranty expired, they’d prefer i buy a new one...

​@Ronnno, As an math example: the unofficial Sonos repairshop (3rd party) in Germany charges €179 for the Five plus shipping. The 30% discount Sonos offers covers shipping and warranty (two years (?) provided by EU’s trade relations with Israel).

​@Ronnno 

Thanks for providing your location. As I guess from your comments there are no 3rd party repair locations in your area that you can find:

1. If there is a 3rd party that will repair the Five you have to weigh shipping and repair cost against the 30% discount or looking on eBay (or other similar website) for a refurbished or used unit.
2. Trying to find a YouTube video is a long shot especially if you can’t identify the faulty component 
3. Unfortunately, Sonos and/or whomever you purchased the unit seem to be non-starters to get a free replacement unit.

At this juncture IMO your best option is # 1 above. Used Five units are being sold on eBay averaging $350_USD. Of course you have to consider shipping cost depending upon where the used unit is located.

So you don’t think that you are the most unfortunate person in the world I offer this…

• I had a Sony TV fail a few days after the warranty expired
• I had a Panasonic TV fail shortly after the one year warranty’s expired. Luckily I had purchased the extended warranty so the motherboard was repalced. However, after one year the replacement motherboard failed.
• I had a LG refrigerator fail 6 months after the 3 year  warranty expired.

My point being that failures occur and sometimes the timing seems a bit suspect. However, that is the world we live in with electronics these days. However, we can’t say with surety that manufacturers build automatic failure into their products after warranty expiration.

I’m fortunate that the failures that occurred could have been repaired had I chosen that route. However, the TV failures gave me an excuse to upgrade 😂. The refrigerator was a repair cost vs new option. I chose new.

Regarding Sonos, I’ve been fortunate that none of my units have failed (as of now). However, regardless of the App problem of 2024 I believe Sonos to be a reputable product manufacturer. I also believe that if Sonos were receiving an alarming number of Five failures within 1-2 years they would have issued a recall or be more willing to replace the product for the original owner. 

I hope you are able to arrive at a satisfactory solution; be it a more favorable offer by Sonos or an option of your choice. Good luck!

I'm curious, do you know the make and model of the surge suppressor? Some are very good and some are worthless.

I have all my Sonos on good quality suppressors or a UPS, that last is silly but I had an open socket and it saved running an extension cord.

It’s a simple one but it’s still there… like i said, could be it - but that does not change the big picture.

Thank all for your input. I wanted to share this with the community. I appreciate your comments.

Imho, In Israel, the importer is in clear violation of the law - (to guarantee the option for payed repairs outside the warranty). They have not done what is required of them - at least to give me a quote for a repair - partly because of Sonos policies - because i do believe its most probably a 10$ fix rather than 400$...

A bit disappointed in Sonos for rolling their eyes at something like this. but probably my fault for expecting the same level of service and pride in their quality as I’d expect from a major industry leader… but it’s ok. only a speaker in the end. and i do have two, stereo is overrated anyway :)

As litigious as the US is, nobody is going to launch a class action suit over a piece of electronics failing outside the warranty period.  It would get laughed out of court.

maybe they are not as big in the US as i imagine… it’s only a question of the damage done in terms of dollars… but i’m not a lawyer and not American so i really don’t know..

In my country, i think, if thousands of these devices would have been replaced for a 30% voucher while  there was a good case for a well known cheap fix for the problem it would be in the headlines as fraud. But again - i don’t know that anybody did anything with bad intent.. im just responding to “it would get laughed out of court”… 

Again, it would get laughed out of court.  Sonos sells 10’s of millions of units per year in the US.  1000 of them having a problem isn’t even a blip on the radar, never mind lawsuit worthy.  Also, you have absolutely no idea how many of these units actually fail outside of warranty.  Your “thousands” being replaced numbers are made up out of whole cloth. 

A class action in the US  is a very distinct type of action with pretty complicated rules. Usually lawyers will make a decision to participate based on the expected value of the settlement and the percentage of it they will be paid versus the effort involved. It is rare to see such an action funded by the victim so interesting an advocate is key.

An alternative here is small claims court where the damaged party can present evidence, without needing a lawyer. The amounts and causes are limited and it may take escalation to actually get paid the amount you are awarded. Still if you have a similar option pursuing the importer may be productive.

of course this is all hypothetical. But if, for example, 15,000 of these speakers were “upgraded” due to this problem over several years of selling Five family products - and if each such replacement represents about 400$  collected from the customer for no reason - it adds up to ~6 Mill - all hypothetically, and its not a terrible sum too - but maybe it wouldn’t be laughed at… anyway, your country.. maybe you would laugh.. 

I’m not going to argue over silly made up numbers.  There is no lawsuit, nor any huge threads here at the Sonos forum complaining about 15,000 Five models failing out of warranty.  

there are a few threads actually, two are mentioned in this one, and i saw some some others..

but in full disclosure i was encouraged to come here to complain -  by both others in the Israeli Sonos consumers facebook group (who had the same mysterious malfunction) - and - by someone affiliated to the reseller here - that is why i am a little over confident that its not just me… 

but i agree - the point here is not a made up law suits or numbers. it’s just to bring attention to the fact that manufacturers have responsibility to the quality of their products - only if we demand it of them. 

I expect an expensive proud brand to replace faulty products that fail to deliver on their most basic function - to just stay on for longer than two years. anything less is unacceptable and should spark a debate here among customers. 

Here is probably one of the least effective places to complain as this is allmost all user to user with a very light participation by a few moderators.

The Sonos Reddit appears to have a much better chance of an official, or at least semi-official response.

Calling in may not get as much direct response but the contact is more likely to be forwarded up the support chain.

Sorry to contradict you, but the labour cost alone is going to be well over 10$. Then there’s the cost of the part (which may only be 10$), and the time-and-labour to fully test the repaired unit. Add on postage (both ways) and the whole admin time-and-labour costs, and the total cost is moving far closer to your 400$ figure. 

Don't forget to add on the "bench charges" that cover the costs of the test and repair equipment plus the shop where it is done. Lots of other overhead to cover. I'd be surprised to see hourly rates totalling under $200.00 an hour.

An auto repair shop, not doing book-rate work is looking around $150.00 an hour here.

How much would your company charge a customer for two hours of your time?

No offense but you are really getting into a black hole with no light at the end. Warranties are just what they are…protection against failure for a specified period which is typically 1 year. After the warranty expires all bets are off. Sometimes companies may make an exception but rarely.

One of the first things they will site is did “did you consider purchasing the extended warranty”.  Here in the US there are very few companies that offer repairs of the electronics they sell. That is typically farmed out to a third party. Those repair facilities also handle repairs for multiple companies. Handling repairs for one electronics company would be fruitless. Simply because most electronics don’t fail often enough for sustainability.

Your situation is unfortunate as I would be miffed as well. However in the end I’ve been where you are and basically had to move on.

If as you say there are very strong consumer protections where you live then I strongly suggest you pursue them. At this juncture that appears to be your best course of action.

That may be - but consider:

1. i’d gladly pay 400$ for a fair repair, rather than a flat “this thing is disposable - nobody cares to fix it”.
2. No postage fees - in fact, they told me to drop it off at a service station to have it looked at for a cost - which i did - but when i came back after one week they told me they changed their minds and now are not willing to check what the problem was even for a fee. 

I happen to be an engineer fixing problems in products. The usual charge for to a customer for fixing a problem which prevents them from using what they bought is exactly 0$

Moreover, about 30% of my full time job is fixing problems and the customer clearly isn’t charged. If we care about the customer a lot, we sometimes loose sleep over it. 

That said, it’s not consumer electronics - there are lower margins there and the costs of fixing are way higher - and of course it’s not practical to fix ANY problem. I’m not naive.

But before this company I also worked for a company making consumer electronics as well and - across the board - when there was a problem that prevented a user from getting the value they already payed for - and if we know it’s related to the design and could - we would always ship a free replacement and take the time to make sure the new one works.

This is hardly true. there are many industries where lifetime warranty is customary for certain breaks that are known to happen. For example, the stitching on a North Face backpack… To give a different example, the last time my smartphone broke it was from an inflated battery: The deformed battery damaged the screen. I took it to the lab - they said they had no Screen replacement in stock - their solution was to give me a brand new phone replacement (it was a relatively old model not sold as much) at the cost of just a new battery. 

At the very least - if the power supplier in Five tends to break (as we see from the thread above, and from the responses to my post in the Hebrew Sonos community page on Facebook - AND - the 12 thread on the matter i found now in 10 minutes here) - it doesn’t mean that the company Must own up to it or do anything about it. But it does mean that its not a great company/product if they don’t. This is not a new product - they can anticipate the rate at which these breaks occur - it’s up to them to own up to their design flaws, and make sure I get what i payed for - and it’s up to me to call them on it when they don’t - so that you will make an informed decision before buying..

Other threads about identical problems (a 10 minute search with only the words “Dead Play:5 Five” - albeit most of the threads are for older models but they are all spot on the same issue):

A Play:5 is not a Five.  There were some known problems with the Play:5 Gen 1 wireless card, but that has nothing to do with the Five, which came out almost a decade later.  Nice try, though!

I’m beginning to think this thread is an attempt to pummel Sonos with negative posts so they cave and give the OP a free replacement.  If it is, good for them on trying.  However, we don’t have to feed it.  I suggest we leave this topic alone, it’s been truly done for a while now.