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Sonos in bricked speaker 'recycling' row
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Sonos is facing a backlash for encouraging customers to get rid of their old speakers when there may be nothing wrong with them.
The US speaker giant offers customers a 30% discount on new products if they follow steps to recycle their old ones.
Following these puts the device in Recycle Mode, which means it will then be permanently deactivated.
Sonos said it wanted to encourage responsible disposal of electrical equipment.
But many took to Twitter saying it would be far better to allow people to resell them.
"Sonos's 'recycle mode' intentionally bricks good devices so they can't be reused," wrote Twitter user AtomicThumbs.
He posted photos of five Sonos speakers which had been recycled through his company, Renew Computers.
"Someone recycled five of these Sonos Play:5 speakers. They're worth $250 each, used, and these are in good condition. They could easily be reused."
A Sonos spokeswoman told the BBC: "To participate in the Trade Up program and receive the 30% discount, a customer has to tell us in the app that they plan to recycle their old device. Customers can then redeem their discount at sonos.com or at a participating dealer. Once they have their new device, the customer will then be able to wipe their old device and deactivate it. Then it's up to them either to recycle it locally, or they can return it to Sonos and we'll recycle it.
"As part of offering a great incentive for long-time loyal customers, we also want to encourage responsible disposal of older devices. The best way to do that is recycling locally which is much more environmentally friendly than packing up and shipping heavy devices back to Sonos. That said, our goal is to keep old players out of the landfill, so if local recycling isn't an option, customers are welcome to ship it back to Sonos at our expense with prepaid labels."
But Stuart Miles, founder of technology news website Pocket-lint, said that while the idea was good, the execution seemed poor.
"If you create a simple product with longevity, people don't buy new products, so the concept of trading in old Sonos speakers is brilliant, but just bricking it and asking you to send to a recycling centre doesn't make any sense.
"It would be better to ask for proof that you have given it to a friend, which would be a much nicer way of doing it."
According to the Electrical Waste Recycling Group, about 500,000 tonnes of electronic waste is recycled in the UK every year. But that is only a fraction of the "e-waste" that is piling up in landfill and in people's homes.
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Well i think its time to abandon Sonos as a platform as last night i got a email from sonos saying that they were now killing off half of my sonos setup and not supporting it any more.... At a cost of around £4000 over 8 years of buying sonos equipment and paying out £385 at Christmas for another speaker, you end up losing half of it just so they can try and make you spend more on there stuff.
End of software updates
In May, the following products in your system will be classified as legacy and no longer receive software updates and new features. This will affect your listening experience.
ZP100: Amp Patio
ZP80 Turntable
Connect:Amp Kitchen
Connect Back Room
Bridge
Legacy products were introduced between 2005 and 2015 and, given the age of the technology, do not have enough memory or processing power to sustain future innovation.
Please note that because Sonos is a system, all products operate on the same software. If modern products remain connected to legacy products after May, they also will not receive software updates and new features.
Well or i can say is if anyone out there are thinking of buying any sonos speakers or amps then think again as after 5 to 8 years they will be worthless.
Regards Gazer.
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Typical American company, they try every trick in the book to steal your dollar....
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Well its looking like the BBC have got wind of this now and more will follow Hidden Content Hidden Content
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Why can they not just say as of may your product will no longer receive any updates but will still continue to work , just like old android /apple mobiles ? never had a sonos product before so could have it completely cocked up for a change Hidden Content .To me its like saying i have an old mobile and after a certain time we will no longer update it and it will no longer work
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well the units above in my first post cost £2000 to buy and i have £2000 of newer speakers as well around the house ....and they all work just fine with each other at the moment ...plus i will not be adding any more to them.
So now i need to find a way of locking them all down so that they don't update any more, which a few of us have been trying on the sonos forums to do but still they update Hidden Content
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Don`t know if this is any good
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Thanks lost
That is what we have done on the sonos software ...but you need a device to use with it to get the music like a ipad, iphone, or amazon fire ... as sonos killed off the sonos controller over a year ago which was the one good thing that worked with it all, what a uproar we had then with sonos....so every time one of the other devices as a update it kills sonos until all is updated once more...and as everyone knows you don't spend £900 on a phone and hold back on updates ...thats were sonos as us all screwed.
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