This is environmentally indefensible.

Fine, excellent plan to offer a discount to your loyal existing customers to buy new gear.

To then forcibly brick a fully functional device shows a lack of environmental responsibility.

You seriously need to consider the ethics around this; it is not difficult to comprehend why it’s wrong...

Yes, recycling (although no surety that they will even at best, be recycled) instead of using a Sonos product is obviously worse for the environment. We don't know the numbers but just imagine several thousand, possibly tens or hundreds of thousand of units now just being binned or recycled for no good reason.

Nothing like that will be noticeable to you or I but it's just another thing to add to the list of things that is ruining the planet.

Surely we can at least agree that it's not a good thing?

I’d absolutely support such environmental arguments, so long as they come from folks who haven’t taken a flight for at least 10 years.

You can double that and more to 23 years. Thanks for supporting me. 

Good for you. I was setting the bar low at 10 years. 

I should have added ocean cruises too. 

With that attitude, no one would ever do anything as there’s always something worse/larger that “should be done first”.

All actions matter.

You can change the rules but I've also never been on an ocean cruise. You could be turning into my most ardent supporter yet at this rate.

Hey Ryan...Thanks for the reply!

Nope, I can’t agree.  I understand that reuse is better than recycle is better than throw away.  I’m not debating that.  I disagree that a program where a person has to recycle instead of reuse is a world altering problem.   I disagree with the premise that people were going to chose to continue to use/reuse a product till it dies or sell it if this program didn’t exist.   And I don’t doubt that many people currently just throw away electronics instead of recycle.  In that regard, the program is going to bring some awareness that electronics can be recycled and provide incentive to do that with other products that no longer use and don’t want to sell.

No, this doesn’t bother me at all.   I plan on using the program with one, maybe two, perfectly functioning units, and I don’t feel the least bit guilty about it.  In fact, I will likely recycle several other devices I’ve got laying around as well, all in good working order.

Ok, so we can agree to disagree on most of that but I find your last point a bit odd in that you'd recycle something that's in perfectly good working order rather than pass it on to someone to use. Why would you do that? 

What I take out of this whole thread and this trade in scheme is that Sonos are now planning on end of lifting the Play 5 and Connect:Amp. 

As someone who has already been burnt by Sonos bricking product, why on earth would you think I would want to buy more of it?!?

People talk about a 10 year old product like it’s ancient. When was the last time anyone took their 10 year old car in to be serviced for it to be flashed with a software update that deliberately bricked it because the manufacturer arbitrarily deemed it was too old? 

I agree with others who have said that the environmental aspect of this terrible. 

Ok, so we can agree to disagree on most of that but I find your last point a bit odd in that you'd recycle something that's in perfectly good working order rather than pass it on to someone to use. Why would you do that? 

The quoting feature sucks right now, so I’m using italics instead.

Anyway, because I do not know anyone who could want a Connect (otherwise it would be gone already), I don’t like pushing my hand-me-downs on friends,  they are old and I don’t know how long they will last.  I don’t want to go through the effort of selling it, and obviously because of the financial incentive Sonos is providing,   If there was no Sonos program the Connect would remain sitting on a shelf, wasting away.  These are pretty obvious reasons I’m sure you’re already aware of, but I’m guessing you think the environmental impact of using a Connect until it no longer functions outweighs all these reasons?  Eh, not to me.

What I’d like to see is Sonos allow us to return our Play 1s to them and Sonos gut them and fit them out as a Sonos One and ship it back to us for a price cheaper than a new one. Surely at least the case would be reusable and maybe some other components as well. Alternatively Sonos could sell the old ones as reconditioned units. However, just to get the customer to cause their existing products to self destruct is totally bonkers as other’s have said on this list. Come on Sonos - you’ve read the feedback, have a rethink on this one. It’s doing nothing for your reputation as a company which promotes sustainability.

Anyway, because I do not know anyone who could want a Connect (otherwise it would be gone already), I don’t like pushing my hand-me-downs on friends,  they are old and I don’t know how long they will last.  I don’t want to go through the effort of selling it, and obviously because of the financial incentive Sonos is providing,   If there was no Sonos program the Connect would remain sitting on a shelf, wasting away.

We can agree the quoting feature has gone pot!

You've given a number of reasons/excuses why the Connect would sit in your shelf wasting away. But the key word you used is effort. It just takes a little bit of it and you could find it a good home I'm sure and keep it in circulation until it does die at which point it can then be recycled.

I'm obviously not going to convince you otherwise but hopefully others will read it and be convinced, who knows? Just trying to do my bit.

Cheers

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Even if some of these products are more than 10 years old, that doesn’t mean they were purchased 10 years ago.  The connect:amp is a case in point: at the start of this year this was “current” and the best choice for users with their own speakers already.

There are a couple of nasty consequences of this trade-up program:

1. The resale value of eligible old kit just took a major nose-dive.  This is because Sonos are incentivizing trade-up, meaning future support is likely to be zero.
2. In fact the tagline that there are certain features that old kit can’t support and may compromise the capabilities of new kit on an existing setup, this seriously reduces desirability of these models.
3. Clearly Sonos consider this kit to be worth 30% to scrap/recycle.  That is a pretty hard limit on the value you can charge second hand, if you can bypass the above.
4. You can’t stack discounts - I asked.  The description says 30% of ONE new item for each trade-up, but doesn’t say you can’t apply multiple 30%s to the same ONE new item, but you can’t.  This means, potentially, you have to spend 70% to replace an “old” item with something that on the surface seems to do exactly the same.
5. Oh and btw - perhaps Sonos aren’t still making these models but you can still buy, at the time of writing, a Connect from the “last chance” section on the Sonos website and it is way more than 30% of the original price.  So what gives?

I really worry about the signal this is sending.  Point 2 worries me more than anything: that Sonos are clearing the way to hobble or isolate my existing Gen1 Play:5s, Connect and Connect:Amp (yes, I have all of these) interacting with the newer kit on my network.  The one key feature of the Sonos ecosystem is that it is “one thing” that can play anything, anywhere.

I am confused! I’m in UK and have just been sent the Trade Up offer. When I go on to the web page I can see the items they suggest could be replaced but they do not say what with. I have to click the box and agree before I can see what the new item will be and how much it cost be and indeed what the benefit is.

I have old Connect Amps and Connect boxes - anyone know what I am supposed to replace them with and how much they cost (and why I should or shouldn't do it?!)

Before you go to commit to the Trade Up there’s a link for the terms & conditions. I suggest you read them. Basically for each product you recycle Sonos is offering a discount on any other Sonos product. Once the credit is applied, your view of the prices in the Sonos web store would change accordingly. There’s no “you should replace X with Y”. 

In any event if your products are working fine you may perfectly well choose to continue with them.

I agree bricking otherwise usable devices is poor environmentally, though for anyone thinking of replacing a device anyhow this trade up does seem attractive.

I am concerned this is pointing to future lack of support for older devices. Hopefully I’m wrong (especially as the Connect was still for sale until recently), the longevity of Sonos products to date and the improvements Sonos has made along the way has been a big plus.
 

I’ve actually been a bit put off at the move to more frequent hardware iterations, for example I’m unsure about getting a Move in case there is a v2 on the horizon. 

Well, quite…  

Whilst not a bad answer (the last point especially) I inadvertently marked this as the best answer. To be honest , I didn't even know it was an option , can it be undone or we stuck with it? Ta!

I unmarked the answer. And also swapped this thread into a conversation instead of a question, it’s not really the type of thread that gets a “best answer” which solves it.

Thanks Ryan! 

Ryan S, it would be nice if you could confirm that Sonos aren’t intending to brick more product.

I’ll make it easier for you, how about just confirming that Sonos aren’t proposing to brick products eligible for this discount in the next 18 months?

Sonos rarely gives advanced notice, if Ryan leaks we may see him outside Starbucks with a cardboard “Hungry” sign.

Just a denial would suffice