The surprise of unordered Sonos speakers arriving on their doorstep quickly became a major inconvenience for many of the brand's multi-room hifi customers.
According to The Verge (opens in a new tab), Sonos apparently mistakenly shipped several speakers to people who only ordered one device, and then the company charged them for the additional units.
The article goes on to explain how, in one case, a customer was charged over €2000 after ordering a Sonos Move, but ended up receiving seven units of the portable Bluetooth device. Now, we don't know if you've seen how big and heavy a Sonos Move is, but getting eight out of nowhere would be...inconvenient.
It's currently unknown how widespread the issue is and if it's limited to the United States, but a thread about the issue also has several Reddit users detailing their own similar experiences (opens in a new tab) shipping devices they didn't order. the company.
Sonos has since acknowledged the problem, attributing it to a system update to its e-commerce platform, and has asked affected customers to return excess speakers via prepaid return labels, along with a refund for additional charges. .
However, with a waiting period of up to 10 business days to be reimbursed, some people affected by the problem understandably expressed disappointment that they had not been compensated for the inconvenience caused.
We asked Sonos if the problem has affected other countries and if Sonos plans to provide additional compensation. He declined to comment further at this time.
Analysis: Sonos response is low
While Sonos can be counted on to get the right results with its product design and performance, recently that hasn't always been the case with its approach to customer service issues.
The debacle of a few years ago around its controversial and quickly abandoned Trade Up program, which forced customers to put their unsupported but still functional speakers into recycling mode, rendering them unusable, will live on again in the spirit of those who were once loyal. to the mark
Given that customers are incorrectly charged for wrong orders totaling thousands of dollars for this shipping error, the problem will have caused more than a minor inconvenience, especially since refunds are expected to take more than a week.
It's likely that some of these affected customers were buying Sonos products for the first time, so it's surprising that the company didn't go further and offer a refund or compensation for having to deal with the consequences of a problem they didn't cause. A show of good faith beyond a text of apology seems appropriate, in this case.