Sonos five dies out after 2.5 years

Of course i’d like Sonos to do the right thing here. 
and telling things as they are is hardly pummeling. 

two successive models showing the same power supply issues (i ignored non relevant threads and other unrelated models like arc)  - you don't think its relevant?

It has been done for a while now.. thanks for your perspective

Samples of a given product tend to have similar failure signatures based on product age. In a large service center the technicians usually know the issue as soon as they recognize the model number. This does not imply that all or most samples of that model will fail. A service center is much like a hospital where it seems that “everyone” is sick.

Power supplies are vulnerable to power line transients that can be very significant.

​@buzz not sure i see your point here but it sounds like you are making the point that it is easy to fix.

​@Smilja did you mention a lab in Germany? would you be so kind as to share their name?

​@nik9669a you mentioned a lab in the UK. would you be so kind as to share their name?

Guys, thanks for your patience. i think it’s becoming clear that the fix is probably the equivalent of replacing a fuse and is very easy as reported in other threads - if what ​@buzz is saying is true, one of these oversees labs should be able to help me understand the fixing costs remotely, or refer me to a closer lab.

Even if i end up paying 400$ for shipping and labor in an honest lab, it’s by far better than being the sap and just handing over the same 400$ + a perfectly good speaker to Sonos so they would refurbish it and return it right back to the store. 

​@Ronnno, Sorry, this is not allowed (advertising is against the community rules). Google it.

The fix is likely very cheap, but i don’t know. The next logical thing to do is try to understand how much i would pay for fixing - something that ​@buzz said made me realize that if i talk to a lab that fixed these things they might tell me more about this issue than i currently know - maybe they can help me diagnose or tell me the expected fixing cost, or maybe they can refer to a colleague here. it costs me nothing to ask, usually when you ask the right questions you learn things.

So first, i really really doubt that it could be 400$ to fix. It could be, but it could also be much less. maybe i can even avoid the shipping if one of them has a colleague here - it’s really idiotic not to ask the question before a just give my almost completely new Five (the voucher is conditioned on sending back my Five).

And second, and this may change after I speak to the repair guys in Germany, maybe they can convince me otherwise based on data i don’t currently have, but currently i think it’s wrong for me to pay any more money to Sonos period. as one guy on redit rightfully wrote: 

If the device stops working in what a person would consider an unacceptably short time then they should punish the manufacturer by not buying anything else from them and spreading the word that they sell junk.

…

If I bought a new pair of Fives for well over a thousand dollars and it stopped working after a couple of years I would be steamed, would tell everyone I know how disappointed I was, and would likely cross Sonos off my list for future purchases. Buyer beware.

To put it plainly - i will not pay Sonos another 400$ simply because i already just recently payed them 600$ for the same speaker, and they failed to deliver on that previous deal… we differ on what is fair but i’m am not alone in my view. the legislator in my country thinks like me, it seemed ​@Triticale agreed with me here above, and most of the responders on redit also seem to get it - so i do feel sorry i could not explain it to you better here… but maybe i’m not seeing something. could be 

Update:

Glad to say that after over two months of refusals, the speaker was replaced without cost, as required.

They eventually did the right thing 🙏 

Not sure who took responsibility for the replacement -

The importer, who are strictly required by the law to allow resolving maintenance issues well beyond the warranty period (warranty is typically for manufacturing defects, not for design flaws/known defects/maintainability) 

Or if it was Sonos, who are liable (everywhere) to sell products with a reasonable lifespan (for the type of product and the price point), and to take responsibility for known failure patterns that make products fall short of the expected lifespan (regardless of warranty period, and even if they affect only some of the units).

I urge anyone running into the a similar issue to check your rights and insist

Yup I’m I. The same boat .. exactly. 

Luck of the draw, perhaps… I purchased most of my Sonos speakers 10 to 12 years ago, including multiple pairs of Play1, a pair of Play5 and a Sub. All continue to perform, and having weathered the extended Sonos app meltdown, I’m able to enjoy them again (although it appears the ability to create and save new Sonos playlists is gone forever). 

Where I live we endure frequent power surges and outages, so these units have experienced plenty of ups and downs in their lifetime. As John Cameron Swayze used to say: ‘It takes a licking and keeps on ticking.’

Hi ​@Overthis, thats a bummer.

Be great if you could update here on how and if this was resolved.

​@chambolle I agree... luck of the draw. For each one of us it’s a lottery - but for Sonos it’s a choice - even if this wasn’t deliberate that these things happen too often, and even if it’s truly not practical to fix the design - they can own up to it whenever it happens - like they eventually did in my case.