by Jason Snell
Sonos bricks its “Recycle Mode” policy
Good news via Nathan Ingraham of Engadget about Sonos backtracking on a remarkably ugly bit of forced obsolescence—namely offering owners of older Sonos hardware a 30 percent discount on new hardware if they agreed to “brick” their old stuff so that it could never be used second-hand.
Today, the company is reversing course. A Sonos spokesperson confirmed that the Trade Up program will continue, but recycling mode is no more. If you want to get the 30 percent discount, you just need to prove you own one of the eligible “legacy” products by validating its serial number. Once that’s done, you can apply the discount to anything Sonos is currently selling at its online store. Indeed, the “Trade Up” name isn’t exactly accurate, because you can continue using the legacy hardware as long as you want. Sonos says you can give it to a friend, keep using it yourself, sell it, recycle it, send it to them — it doesn’t matter. Unfortunately, if you’ve already set some products to recycle mode, you can’t reverse it, but said customers in that situation should contact its customer service team.
An inglorious end to a repugnant, wasteful, self-serving program.