William Gallagher
A mistake by Sonos has seen the company sending multiple extra speakers to some users, and billing them for it. And now the company wants them back.
It's not clear exactly how widespread the issue is, but around a dozen Reddit users have reported receiving multiple speakers from Sonos. The numbers vary, as do the specifics of the speaker models, but in each case the buyer's original order was fulfilled several times over.
"Got 3 Subs and 3 Arcs," wrote one Reddit user. "Ordered only one of each. Major hassle. And they charged my visa 3x."
"So now Sonos is using up a nice portion of my available credit," continued the user. "Plus they want the customer to take the extra stuff to the UPS store themselves."
The information about returning the devices via UPS comes from an email sent to the buyers concerned, from Sonos's Sonos' chief information officer, Ruth Sleeter.
"A recent update to our systems resulted in some orders being processed multiple times," said the email as reported by Reddit users. "Unfortunately, you were affected by this error and will receive multiple shipments of your order."
"I want to personally apologize for the inconvenience this has caused," it continued. "You have not been charged and will receive prepaid return labels for any excess orders to this email address within 2-3 business days."
"Again, we are truly sorry," writes Sleeter. "Thank you for being a valued customer and supporting Sonos. Issues like this are rare, and we will do everything we can to make it right."
Users are disputing Sleeter's comment that "you have not been charged," with most saying that they were. It's likely that Sonos is attempting to infer that the holds placed on users' credit cards will not be finalized.
However, that still means for all users that their available credit has been reduced until the situation is resolved. It's possible that some users will have been taken over their limits, too, so credit card scores could be affected.
Also, despite Sleeter's claim, Sonos is also telling users that their refunds will take 10 business days. Hopefully only a small number of customers were affected, but that amount, and that delay, could have a serious impact on anyone with tight finances.
Under US law, none of the people who received items that hadn't ordered are legally required to return them, but in all likelihood, most will. The law applies even when customers are refunded.
The Sonos mistake was first spotted by The Verge.
Charles Martin
Christine McKee
Oliver Haslam
7 Comments
I wouldn’t imagine many people on “tight finances” are buying Sonos speakers. Still, this doesn’t look good for them.
It sounds like a marketing stunt.
Sonos is in a really bad position, at least under US law. First, as noted in the article, customers are under no obligation to return the extra gear. If additional charges are appearing on credit cards, customers should contest them with their card provider immediately. The provider will remove the charge while it's contested.
Sonos should offer affected customers something more than corporatespeak as an apology for the inconvenience, particularly if they did in fact initially charge customers for the unordered items.
In fact, if Sonos is less than forthright and helpful with the error, a customer could return the ordered device for a refund under Sonos' 45-day return policy and then keep the extras.