Anyone having trouble getting a refund from Sonos?


Hi,

I live in the UK, I bought 2 x Sonos One's in March, didn't like them so returned them.

As of today, it's been over a month since Sonos received the speakers I returned, and I'm still waiting to receive a refund. Without going into any detail I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this issue? And if you have, is there a way to resolve it.

I get a strong sense that Sonos is holding on to customers cash because they keep telling me "next week", "next week" etc.

Many thanks,

Richard

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17 replies

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Hi Richard, sorry to hear you're having trouble. I'll check in on your case and make sure you're in the right hands and that this can be sorted out as soon as possible. I see that you were working with our support team over Twitter as well and they're doing likewise.
Thanks @Ryan. I've not been getting very far with it. I can see in your return policy that refunds take 10-15 days. However I'm reluctant to wait the full 15 days because the speakers were back with you on the 16th of April. Sonos 'processed' the refund on the 3rd of May - 15 days after you received it. that really isn't good enough. In this case the refund should be prioritised. I'm certain if Sonos were to be missing this proportionate amount of money from their account they'd be doing everything they could to get it back.
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I understand the frustration. I'll make sure the team knows to look into the whole scenario to see what went wrong here and why it took so long as well, so they can see about making any corrections that might be necessary for the future.

The team for the UK is out of the office, but I'll make sure to ping them about your case to make sure it's being looked into.
Victoria Day!
15days so far and I’m still waiting for my refund !
Oh dear Keith. Doesn't bode well for the rest of us. Can I ask how much your refund is for?
£499.00. Should not take so long to process a refund.
It doesn't take that long, simple as that. What I believe they're doing is holding on to our money and earning interest off it. I'm waiting for £349 and a friend of mine is waiting for £299 - it's a terrible way to treat customers and not what you'd expect from a company like Sonos.
It’s certainly bad customer service. I’m an Aerial installer and recommend Sonos. I’m not feeling good about Sonos right now.
Sonos reply:-
Dear Keith,

Thank you for your continued patience.

I checked your query and found that we received your return. Our financial department will process the refund of 499 GBP back to your bank account. It might take up to 10-15 working days before the refund will be visible on the account used during the payment of the order, depending on the speed of your financial institution.

I hope I was able to assist you sufficiently. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any further questions.

Kindest regards,
Dylan

This is disgraceful customer service, he even closed the ticket. So 7 working days while they think about it, 10-15 working days to do it, if your lucky. My best advice to anybody, don’t bother with the trial. Buy or don’t, my advice don’t.
Hi Keith, here's the reply I got from Sonos :-

*****************
Dear Richard,

Thank you for your continued patience.

I checked your query and found that we received your return. Our financial department will process the refund of 349 GBP back to your bank account. It might take up to 5-7 working days before the refund will be visible on the account used during the payment of the order, depending on the speed of your financial institution.

I hope I was able to assist you sufficiently. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any further questions.

Kindest regards,
Dylan
*****************

Coincidence that this is also from 'Dylan'? I don't know. But this looks like a complete sham.

If they're not aware of this, they need to be made aware. Next stop is probably https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/

R
Hi Keith,

Have there been any updates on your refund? My 15 days is up tomorrow - I'm expecting nothing.

Kind regards,

Richard
Hi Richard, my refund finally arrived today 26th May, 18 days after they received the item back. My Bank said yesterday that it takes 3-4 days to receive a refund back to your account. I had an email from Sonos to say it was done on the 23rd, so 3 days for the Bank, 15 days for Sonos. Whatever the reason for the delay, it’s all Sonos fault. I wonder how long it would have taken if I’d not pressed so hard. Never again. Further I will ALWAYS use a credit card in the future with any online transactions, more protection against bad service. Good luck with your refund.
I would love to get the truth out of Sonos!! I returned 2 Sonos Ones on the 7th January and despite phoning and phoning, one speaking to a customer service manager (yesterday), I was told that my case would be checked each day, first thing in the morning and that I would be informed by email. What happened today? Exactly the same as every other time....NOTHING!!
I firmly believe that they are accruing interest from my money where in fact by now it should be accruing interest in my account.
This palaver and catalogue of untruths has completely put me off Sonos. It's disgraceful and I can't see me adding further to my system.
I can't think of anything to do other than Trading standards and I won't hesitate if my money is not in my bank pretty quickly. Shocking!!
I have to add that the very minute I posted this, an email came through saying they still have a backlog as far as refunds are concerned.
They have a backlog and I'm running out of patience. I dread to think if I actually NEDDED that money urgently.
I still smell a rat as regards accruing interest.
I would love to get the truth out of Sonos!! I returned 2 Sonos Ones on the 7th January and despite phoning and phoning, one speaking to a customer service manager (yesterday), I was told that my case would be checked each day, first thing in the morning and that I would be informed by email. What happened today? Exactly the same as every other time....NOTHING!!
I firmly believe that they are accruing interest from my money where in fact by now it should be accruing interest in my account.
This palaver and catalogue of untruths has completely put me off Sonos. It's disgraceful and I can't see me adding further to my system.
I can't think of anything to do other than Trading standards and I won't hesitate if my money is not in my bank pretty quickly. Shocking!!


While I understand wanting your money back ASAP. I really doubt that Sonos is attempt to hold it and accrue some extra cash. We're talking about a percentage of $400 here. It's possible that a public company may want to hold off on returns in or to inflate revenue numbers, but I don't think they are in the middle of any reporting activity at the moment.

It does make sense that they would have a backlog of returns after Christmas. And although it seems like it would just be a matter of receiving the speakers back and depositing a refund in your account, I'm sure they have to do some testing and inspection to make sure the product wasn't returned damaged or something of that nature. As well, the website states that they'll deposit your account in 10-15 working days. So adding a few days after shipping on the 7th, subtracting MLK day as a holiday (depending on location), they're right about 15 days at the moment.
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Reading this I'm more and more conviced that there is a "cultural" issue at Sonos the way they consider customer they are much more concerned by their satisfaction of the way they want do than customer satisfaction
And this can become a very dangerous posititin if some competitor appears with a good product and a good service
Because I can see here a lot of different frustration apart mine which is more "technical"