As Sonos aiming for a larger share of the commercial market, the audio manufacturer is doing away with is controversial Recycle mode that made old devices inoperable in exchange for a discount on new products.
According to The Verge, the trade-up program still exists and customers with legacy products can still gat a 30% discount on new products, but they no longer have to brick devices.
This gives customers full control over their older speakers. They can keep them, give them away, recycle at a local electronics waste facility to send it to Sonos to be recycled.
Recycle Mode was removed from the company’s app last week in favor of an advisory asking customers seeking a discount to call customer service. A new trade-up program process will be released on Sonos’ website, The Verge reported.
This decision should bring an end to criticism that Sonos faced late last year when Devin Wilson brought attention to Recycle Mode and raised questions around the company’s sustainability practices. At the time, Sonos said it wasn’t forcing anyone to participate in the trade-up program, and customers who wanted to use legacy devices could continue doing so. But it kept Recycle Mode in place for those who did want the 30 percent deal. When triggered, Recycle Mode would start an irreversible 21-day countdown, after which the device in question would cease functioning. Sonos said it went this route to ensure that consumer data was being erased on recycled products.
Now, Sonos will instead encourage customers to perform a factory reset before bringing their old gear to an e-waste recycler.
In a call with investors last month, Sonos CEO Patrick Spence said the company has begun testing the commercial market. It’s unclear how this change affects business customers.
In January, Sonos announced that it will end support for legacy products in May in an effort to urge customers to upgrade to newer products.
Shortly after receiving considerable blowback from that decision, CEO Patrick Spence posted an apology and pledged to issue bug fixes and security patches for legacy products.
