Spotify car thing discontinued

[Bradey]

Plan

Premium family 

Country

US

Device

(iPhone xs

Operating System

Idk whatever iOS they on now

My Question or Issue

I have had Spotify since it came out; I upgraded to a premium plan with my family in 2018. The decision to stop supporting Car Thing breaks my heart. My truck doesn't have bluetooth or a display so when Spotify Car Thing came out I was ecstatic. I love Spotify I have always thought it was way better than apple music because they would try to make**bleep** like the car thing and they weren't some huge heartless corporation like apple. But this and the fact that our premium plan gets raised a dollar all the time has made me rethink my position. 

My whole family uses I phones and have been discussing switching to apple music for YEARS. I WAS ALWAYS THE ONE TO KEEP THEM WITH SPOTIFY. Now I am over it if you don't make this right and my car thing stops working in December we will be switching to apple music.

[InitialJ]

Spotify is infuriating its customer base and this is unacceptable. There is no reason for bricking a product that many of its users love not to mention that they want us to just "throw it away" without any sort of compensation for us basically being their guinea pigs for a product that WORKS. I am beyond frustrated and angry at a company I have always thought was for its customers and artists and not solely out of corporate greed.

[Hstrutton]

PLEASE PLEASE DO!! 

[JoshBothell]

Mind you, we purchased it through them, expecting it to be supported long-term like any luxury hardware product, and then when they cancel it can't even look us up in their system and expect me to have a 3 year old email. HORRIBLE professionalism on top of a miserable decision.

[reaganlail]

Plan

Premium

Country

United States

My Question or Issue

I cannot fathom that Spotify is advising that you factory reset and throw away your device. We paid almost $100 USD for an awesome touch screen that really fulfils a purpose for those of us without Android Auto or Apple CarPlay. The LEAST they could do is the basic amount of software development to keep the Car Thing working with new versions of Spotify, I mean how hard can it be? It just shows what's on Spotify.

Support has told me I can't get a refund for the device I paid for, that is now being rendered useless. A $100 paperweight is absolutely ridiculous. For the love of all that is holy PLEASE open up the OS and open-source it so people can flash these things to work with Spotify's API, or at the very least, people can use it as a basic bluetooth audio control solution.

I have always chosen Spotify over any other music platform but unless this get's the attention it deserves, I'm going to have a sour taste in my mouth that I'm not sure I can come back from.

[chassis]

Always loved spotify and its products, but this is a huge slap in the face. Especially considering, it's only people who are dedicated to the service that are really getting affected.

Now they have the stupid ai, pointless playlist announcements/narrator, terrible roku app and are taking away my bought product.

Going to switch to another provider.

[BrysonMenashe]

I agree completely! There’s no reason for it to be unusable even if it’s not updated or supported. As a loyal customer to Spotify, I believe this is not an acceptable business practice. I paid for a product with the understanding that it would work as intended in perpetuity. It’s frankly messed up that they’re doing this without any input from the community! There’s no reason to simply stop supporting it as opposed to bricking it entirely!

[Monz_ahmed]

Allow everyone else who has this car thing to keep using it has a music streaming device so please unlock the device so everyone can enjoy it. 

[Spopovich98]

Plan

Premium

Country

USA

Device

Car Thing, Iphone

Operating System

My Question or Issue

Almost a decade of premium subscription and they are willing to lose a customer over The Car Thing. Provide a refund or allow me to keep using it as it is my main source of use. I've already talked to support and am awaiting an email. I will cancel my subscription and move elsewhere if not provided a refund or support is extended.

[Hstrutton]

This is absolutely ridiculous! If Spotify doesn’t offer a refund or a free year of premium service, we should all cancel our subscriptions and boycott them. 

[cws1968]

I would settle for credit to my account. Maybe 3 moths free or something and send us a box to ship these back to them so they have to dispose of them.

[Spopovich98]

Almost a decade here. Totally with you

[nickroliver]

All in on class action

[Animusreptor]

I've already made a post to this effect  on X, but yes Spotify needs to unlock the hardware and let folks repurpose it rather than relegating it to the dump

[BrysonMenashe]

Yes!! We have to get Luis Rossman on this!!

[chassis]

It sucks when a company that you're legitimately loyal to does stuff like this. I'm done with spotify cant wait for class action 

[BrysonMenashe]

I like that the car thing works as promised! KEEP IT THAT WAY 

[justsmile828]

It is completely insulting and disgusting that Spotify would not only discontinue a useful product but also render it completely useless. I use my Car Thing everyday as my car only has an aux cord and no sort of hands free audio control. It’s really important to me that I have the ability of hands free audio control as I often drive for long periods of time and like to mix up my music listening as I drive, a feature I specifically chose Spotify for. 
As a consumer it’s saddening that a product I like will be discontinued but I understand why a company would do that. What I will never understand and what makes this so infuriating is that the Car Thing will no longer be operational after it’s discontinued. Not only is this insulting as a loyal paying customer but it’s completely wasteful. By rendering thousands of devices unusable you, Spotify, are contributing to thousands of pounds of electronic waste. Climate change caused by pollution is already a huge global issue and electronic waste is a big contributor to toxic pollutants ending up in resources. This waste is completely unnecessary as the devices could still have plenty of use beyond their discontinuation but unfortunately corporate greed seems to outweigh logical thought. 
Additionally, you have completely destroyed my trust in you as a company. Why would I ever buy another product from Spotify with the knowledge that in less than 5 years they could render it completely useless and I’ll have to just dispose of it. Spotify you should be ashamed of yourselves. This is shady business practices that will only damage communities. 
My advice to you is to discontinue producing the Car Thing but allow current Car Thing users to continue to use the devices they already have. 

[Psycho72]

This is theft plain and simple. We paid for a device that they’re deciding to brick. A refund is definitely in order. Sounds like a candidate for class action 

[nickroliver]

Class action lawsuit possible?

[tcar16]

Very poor decision made by Spotify. Really sucks for all of us who don't have newer cars and would like to safely change our music while driving. Paid $80 for it when it was first released and use it every day. Why can't it just be discontinued and not completely shut down? Completely shocked and disappointed by this news!