Last week they were trying to nobble the speakers of loyal customers now US sound Company Sonos has screwed up again by distributing the email addresses of hundreds of consumers who complained about the Companies attempts to force them to buy a new speaker.
In a blatant attempt to drum up new sales, Sonos last week announced that they were set to cut off consumers who were initial buyers of Sonos speakers.
Hundreds of these customers vented their anger with the Company only to discover that the Company had syndicated their private email address to other angry customers.
The backlash was so bad that Sonos CEO Patrick Spence was forced to rescind the decision 48 hours after the initial Company announcement that legacy Sonos speakers would be made redundant.
This meant that customers could see who had complained forgot to blind email customers.
Instead of using the blind copy field, they used the regular copy all one, which meant that recipients could see each other’s email addresses.
In a statement to the BBC, Sonos said: “Earlier today, an email was sent in response to a number of customer inquiries that included email addresses. No further information was included.
“We have apologised to each customer affected by this error and have put in place processes to ensure this will not happen again.”
The blanket email was sent to hundreds of angry customers including customers in Australia.
Ren Addabbo Managing Director, Sonos ANZ-SEA has not said how many Australian customers vented their anger with the Company.
Supplied undated image obtained Thursday, Jan. 23, 2014 of the Sonos Play: 1 wireless speaker, the company’s entry-level speaker, which costs $299. (AAP Image/Sonos) NO ARCHIVING, EDITORIAL USE ONLY
The Company has however admitted that they had had received an “unprecedented number of emails” in recent days concerning their failed marketing exercise to boost sales up against a surging Google and Amazon who are now selling in a month what Sonos sell in a year as consumers switch to voice activated speakers that can deliver 24bit audio and ultra-high definition sound.
With their financial results due next week, the Company the Company could soon be looking for a new Marketing Director.
In December it launched a recycling scheme that offered customers a 30% discount on new products if they purchased direct.
The only problem is that Sonos was nobbling the old speakers forcing the Company to be described as environmental vandals as many of the speakers were ending up in land fill.
Many customers as well as media organisations questioned whether it would be more environmentally friendly to let people to resell them or give them away to friends.
Earlier this month Sonos announced that from May it will no longer issue software updates for its older devices, this led to an outpouring of criticism from loyal customers who had spent hundreds of dollars buying Sonos speakers.
The backlash was so bad that it forced the Company to abandon the marketing exercise with a begging apology issued by chief executive Patrick Spence who was forced to reassure customers that devices would not be “bricked” when the software updates ended.
He also said that modern products would work with legacy ones, promising the details of this would be shared “in coming weeks”.
In Australia retailers are reporting that sales of Sonos products have slumped with some specialist audio dealers who sold the original legacy systems now looking at recommending other networked speaker brands that deliver superior sound and work with both Google and Amazon Alexa voice.