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A few days earlier, The edge reported a strange bug that caused Sonos to deliver more items to customers than they ordered – and also charged them additional fees. While most customers received between two and six additional speakers, we were recently contacted by a customer who had one much more extreme Experience.
As a quick summary, all of this came about after two users got in touch The edge about this issue earlier this week and directed us to a Reddit thread with users who have had the same (or similar) experiences of ordering a speaker or two and getting several in return. In an email sent to customers (which you can read in full in our previous report linked above), Sonos attributed the issue to a system update that resulted in “some orders being processed more than once” and overcharging customers.
But after purchasing a Sonos turntable set, an Arc soundbar, an Arc wall mount, a One speaker and a Roam speaker, one customer (who wished to remain anonymous) was faced with a deluge of deliveries that effectively left his apartment turned into a small Sonos warehouse. Sonos gave him six of each item, resulting in about 30 different shipments showing up at his home and about $15,000 worth of products.
Like the other customers affected by the apparent glitch, he will be charged for these additional items and has been told he will not see a full refund until he has sent everything back. The customer said they originally used a discount code to purchase the products, so they’re also being charged a reduced price — but that still adds up to over $6,000 in additional fees.
Sonos has promised to refund customers affected by these issues within ten days. In an email to The edgeSonos spokeswoman Madeline Krebs confirmed: “Refunds will be processed and issued independently of product returns.” As we mentioned earlier, they may not have much choice on this matter – the language on the FTC website indicates that Federal law protects customers from having to pay for products that are advertised when they did not order them.
Sonos has informed users that it will provide free return labels and allow users to schedule a pickup with its carrier. But the customer we spoke to said Sonos wanted it to print the prepaid labels first and then take the truckload of unordered items to a local UPS store (to which the company later reverted after he refused). After Sonos dispatched a UPS carrier to his apartment building yesterday, the UPS employee didn’t realize the customer needed 30 packages to be picked up, just took one box and then left.
Not only is the client hurting his wallet, but he tells us that this whole ordeal is also hurting his relationship with his property managers. The client has received so many boxes that he cannot fit them in his apartment and has started storing the deliveries in the lobby of his apartment building. “She [the property managers] are patient but not happy with the boxes in the lobby,” said the customer.
Luckily, the deliveries have stopped, but he still has dozens of boxes that have nowhere to go. When he tried to contact Sonos customer service, he told us he’s “passed on to new staff daily” who promise he’ll get a call or an update that never comes.
Sonos hasn’t offered him anything for the inconvenience of converting his apartment into a Sonos storage unit, other than the “courtesy” of free shipping labels used to fix the problem that originally caused it.
Sonos declined further comment.
Update June 15, 8:52 p.m. ET: Added Sonos explanation that customer refunds are issued independently of item returns.
