Sonos are no longer a young start up, that has not had time to think about repair. Sonos, like all electronic products, occasionally one goes wrong. Your products are expensive to buy, and you could set up a repair workshop and repair them (or even contract it out). I'm sure this could be a revenue centre not a cost centre.
I am a long time user with a reasonable investment in Sonos (seven units) - or six working units and a faulty one!
I used be proud of my Sonos system, and promote the Sonos products amongst my friends, but this looks like you don't care about your users. If users don't feel valued, they stop caring about the company.
How many other users have faulty units at home?
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Really? Can you provide sample numbers?
A tech generally will cost %100-$150 to open any box of electronics in 2019. Then they have to poke around inside, figure out what is up (hard to do for "unusual" items such as these), order the parts (some of which are hard to find) then fix it. In the US the labor rate means this basically isn't practical for cheap electronics such as most Sonos gear. If you could ship it to a low labor country (eg China) then repairs may be more cost effective, but then you need to add shipping costs.
If a longer warranty is desired for electronics, then buy one when you buy the device. Lots of companies offer extended warranties and so do many credit card companies.
Lets try another example: I tipped coffee into my Lenovo laptop (not my smartest morning). I went to the recommended Lenovo repair location, they wanted $75 to look at it. The parts were $250 and labor was $120. Was this worth it? For a $2500 laptop, hell yeah. These economics are not practical for "cheap" Sonos gear, even assuming there were recommended repair locations (which there are not) and available service manuals (which I don't believe exist). Never mind the rare parts in the older stuff.
Really? Can you provide sample numbers?
A tech generally will cost %100-$150 to open any box of electronics in 2019. Then they have to poke around inside, figure out what is up (hard to do for "unusual" items such as these), order the parts (some of which are hard to find) then fix it. In the US the labor rate means this basically isn't practical for cheap electronics such as most Sonos gear. If you could ship it to a low labor country (eg China) then repairs may be more cost effective, but then you need to add shipping costs.
If a longer warranty is desired for electronics, then buy one when you buy the device. Lots of companies offer extended warranties and so do many credit card companies.
Here in Indonesia,where I live, if you bring out of warranty AV receivers from any major brands; Marantz, Onkyo, Denon and Yamaha to their service centres, they will charge around $30 for inspection. McIntosh service centre will charge around US$ 50 for inspection.
Just replaced the HDMI board on my Onkyo receiver and I paid US$200 including parts and service.
Sonos offered me a whole $56 discount on the price of a brand new Connect for out of warranty replacement and the only issue with the unit was the wifi wasn't working. Honestly, I considered that an insult. They refuse to make parts available to the repair trade and then reem you royally as well. Don't get me started on their app support.
Maybe they could offer discounts depending on a users investment. I have spent thousands on Sonos, and if all I get is 4 years before I have to replace it, out of my own pocket, maybe it is time to look elsewhere. But, hard to do after you spend a fortune, they got you by the short a curlies. BTW, back in the old days, when I bought a nice amp, Sansui, Harmon, Radio Shack, they lasted FOREVER. I still have some of that stuff, but it is obsolete. Great for the cottage.
Cheers
Cheers
It's very odd there is no "parts" support.
It's like writing a motorcycle off because Yamaha/ Suzuki et all won't supply a camshaft.
Just looking at my Playbar/ Sub/ Play-1's. All out of warranty, trying not to add up cost of replacements!!.
It's like writing a motorcycle off because Yamaha/ Suzuki et all won't supply a camshaft.
Just looking at my Playbar/ Sub/ Play-1's. All out of warranty, trying not to add up cost of replacements!!.
I am a long time user with a reasonable investment in Sonos (seven units) - or six working units and a faulty one!
I used be proud of my Sonos system, and promote the Sonos products amongst my friends, but this looks like you don't care about your users. If users don't feel valued, they stop caring about the company.
How many other users have faulty units at home?Sonos are no longer a young start up, that has not had time to think about repair. Sonos, like all electronic products, occasionally one goes wrong. Your products are expensive to buy, and you could set up a repair workshop and repair them (or even contract it out). I'm sure this could be a revenue centre not a cost centre.
I am a long time user with a reasonable investment in Sonos (seven units) - or six working units and a faulty one!
I used be proud of my Sonos system, and promote the Sonos products amongst my friends, but this looks like you don't care about your users. If users don't feel valued, they stop caring about the company.
How many other users have faulty units at home?
Just had sub which went dead. They dont repair at least not fir the customer. They replace it for you at 80% the cost of a new one. The old one they then repair it and sell it refurbished for 80% the price. Wow what a way to make money on hapless customers who got their faulty products
Same here. The street price here for a Sonos Connect is 339€ and I was offered a replacement for 279€ after my device dies 1/2 year after it was out of warranty.
This is not a good service.
This is not a good service.
Electronics repair is simply not feasible for most low-cost devices in 2019 (except Phones). For example, laptop repair: Its $70 for someone to even look at my laptop, and that's a specialist who has full access to the parts and service info. A washing machine or a fridge is $150 for someone to look at. The actual labor to tear apart a Sonos device, investigate it, and put it back together would be, say, a min of $150 (in the US - if Sonos shipped them to China it would be a lot less). Assuming the tech could figure out which parts needed replacing, they would have to order them (assuming they are still available), then replace them on the board. And test the result. Add in shipping costs (both ways) and its clear that these costs would quickly approach and exceed the cost of a new unit.
There should be spare parts support for Sonos equipment imho.
Power supplies and wireless cards at the very least. Writing a unit for the sake of a £30 tops is no good really.
Power supplies and wireless cards at the very least. Writing a unit for the sake of a £30 tops is no good really.
The pre-owned market for Sonos products it quite healthy. I think in part that’s because any faulty units are most likely to have been fixed by Sonos because of the policy.
If potentially dodgy repairs could be carried out with owners potentially fitting the wrong parts, just to “fix” a fault and then sell the speaker to the unsuspecting public is not a good thing.
If Sonos establish repair centres, what countries and what cities should they be located in? Who pays delivery cost to get items to/from the repair centre? Should they offer fixed-price repairs? What if the speaker is unfixable? Who pays labour cost to examine and diagnose the repair cost? What if the owner doesn’t want to pay for the repair once quoted?
I’m not saying the existing system is ideal, but the alternatives introduce a whole new set of issues that will also draw comments - and complaints.
If potentially dodgy repairs could be carried out with owners potentially fitting the wrong parts, just to “fix” a fault and then sell the speaker to the unsuspecting public is not a good thing.
If Sonos establish repair centres, what countries and what cities should they be located in? Who pays delivery cost to get items to/from the repair centre? Should they offer fixed-price repairs? What if the speaker is unfixable? Who pays labour cost to examine and diagnose the repair cost? What if the owner doesn’t want to pay for the repair once quoted?
I’m not saying the existing system is ideal, but the alternatives introduce a whole new set of issues that will also draw comments - and complaints.
I was very disappointed when my Play:5 (g1) developed a loud squeal/whistling sound from its PSU. An out of warranty defect - and not an uncommon one. Sonos told me this week they don’t repair, don’t provide spares, and “generously” offered to replace it with a used refurbished unit for £399 (about $501).
I can of course buy a new Play:5 for $500!! So I am very sorry to say Sonos ARE encouraging customers to throw away defective products (landfill - bad) and replace with new product.
An environmental black mark for Sonos whichever way you look at.
-A formally loyal Sonos customer
Hi jmesney, if it helps ease your mind a little, the unit that’s not working anymore would be sent to our facility and responsibly recycled, not just trashed. Also, the unit you get in exchange I believe is the newer Play:5 gen2, not the same older model. Should be a refurbished unit, but if there isn’t one available you would be sent a brand new one instead, so some people get even luckier.
Now one more thing you could consider is that we just launched the trade up program which does include the old Play:5 gen1. Assuming the Play:5 you have still powers up and shows up in the app, you should be able to trade up. Using that program, you could put your unit into recycling mode and take care of recycling it responsibly yourself. And in exchange, you’d get a 30% off credit to use on a single Sonos product. This could be used to purchase a different type of product (such as a Playbar).
>>the unit you get in exchange I believe is the newer Play:5 gen2
Will that work for my existing stereo pair? In the room in question there’s my existing Play5 g1 for the left channel, and there would be your new/refurb Play5 g2 for the right channel (Same concern applies to the Trade-up offer).
Its my right-hand channel Play5 g1 that has the loud squealing sound.
eBay might be you friend? Pre-owned, but of course with no warranty, gen 1 Play:5’s from under £200.
Thanks for the tip Nik. Makes eBay a good source of spares too. But I am coming to the conclusion I need gear with more longevity than Sonos despite my substantial past investment in their products. My Play5 only lasted 3 years before developing the defect. I suspect their choice of Chinese manufacturing may be letting Sonos down in terms of consistent quality.
Similar to what the contributor said above, I also have MUCH older Yamaha and Mission gear that I use a lot - the stuff is built like a tank and runs for decades even with daily use/abuse with 100% reliability - not a single fault with any of it.
Regarding the stereo pair, a new Play:5 and an old one can’t be bonded into a single room. They sound very different, the new one far better. However, we’ve had this sort of thing come up before. If you follow up with that support ticket and let them know, they can help out.
Maybe do the trade-up for a Play 5 bundled pair?
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