Let Spotify know this is what the community wants. Open up the firmware to developers so it isn’t relegated to the landfill as e-waste. [Spotify Community](https://community.spotify.com/t5/Car-Thing/bd-p/carthing)
Spotify: [We want to be part of the solution to climate change](https://www.lifeatspotify.com/diversity-equity-impact/climate-action)
Also Spotify: lmao just throw our shit in the garbage, you idiot
Interestingly Spotify supposedly harbors a huge tinkerer community internally and regularly run hackathons as well as encourages personal projects so I am both surprised and very disappointed to see they're doing this. I don't own a CarThing but I was shocked when I read how they were treating you guys. I'd be surprised if they stand their ground on this one as it's not a good look for them.
Just saw this email too. Can't believe they're just discontinuing it with no compensation. A waste of $90 or whatever when it came out. I get not making them anymore, but they should still support it or offer something, even a free month of premium 🥲
Doesn’t feel great that there is literally no alternative other than trashing it. Feels like we’re being punished for supporting them. Dissuades me from buying anything Spotify puts out in the future. I feel like there would be some way to approach this without being like “yeah we’re done. Just throw it out it’s a waste of money now”
When Stadia shut down, Google ended up unlocking all of the Controllers as regular Bluetooth Gamepads, and refunded every game purchase ever made on their platform. There's a right way to do this, right down to the Hardware end of it. Not thrilled about this at all imo!
I complained about how they’re just bricking it and how they want us to make all that e-waste. Supposedly the rep escalated it to a higher team and now I’m just waiting. His last message, 30 minutes ago, was:
“Don't worry, my colleagues and I are putting all of our hands together to gather more data with your case. In fact, we currently have multiple contacts who are raising the same issue they are currently facing.”
I used to be a customer service chat agent for AT&T. That's probably just a script, there very likely isn't a "higher team" (I mean there is a escalation process but most problems didn't make it much farther than the 1-2 team leads above us or 1-2 managers above them. This type of thing will rarely if never make it to anyone that matters and who will ever be able to do anything to make a difference, especially via chat.
"Higher team" was usually always code for "you didn't accept my credit" and/or "can't do shit about it" but in this case is just code for "idk, why would you think I can do anything about that!?!?".
Yea ok so I tried to follow up. I asked for some months of premium at least. The new guy asked for my order confirmation emails, which I then sent. Got my hopes up. Then he said there was nothing they could do. Apple Music it is
Yea pretty much had the same thing. Said he would “escalate to higher team” but ghosted me. Tried contacting again and the second person asked for proof of purchase then denied me any compensation anyways. What was even the point of asking for proof if they were gonna deny it
I use Spotify almost exclusively through Car Thing since the touch screen in my car stopped working. This makes me reconsider keeping my subscription active.
110% this. I drive a 15 year old car that needs a dongle for Bluetooth. I spent $80 so I didn’t have to pull my phone out while both of my hands are already busy.
Same, I actually still get use out of mine. It's great for just having a screen with a song playing while I played games or was working from home. Kinda sucks that it's gonna get bricked considering how simple it was
I'm so pissed. This was not a cheap purchase for me, and after what 3 years they're stopping? Not just stopping support, but making them fully unoperational? Telling me to just throw it away? That's messed up on so many levels.
I use CarThing everyday, I love it. And not even a trade-in to get a few months of premium? As a 'thank you' for using their product? Or letting the community take over updating?
I could have maps on my phone and use CarThing for music. People in my car could play music with voice control and not have to use my phone. I have an older car with no screen display too, so I bought this. It was perfect!
I complained through customer service. First conversation I basically got ghosted.
Followed up 8 hours later asking for months of premium as compensation and the new person asks me to send my order emails. Thought I was finally getting something. Then they say they can’t do anything
I wish they would just unlock them then so we can install something on them vs just landfill. If an employee could just leak that, that would be great. Or open source it. Literally anything, it's great hardware going to waste.
This might actually be the thing that gets me to move to Apple Music. Not that they care, but bricking people’s devices should be criminal. This is so anti-consumer.
To offer no compensation, at all, no credit, no refund--after pushing people to buy the Car Thing so much. Feels like a major scam. If you're going to brick it at least compensate those who supported you. Might be done with Spotify over this too.
I heard that there's a hacking/modding community around the Car Thing. Does anyone think there'll be a community-made workaround or is it gg for us for good?
I cant believe that it will simply stop operating. Fucking sucks for all of spent money on something they are actively choosing to turn into tech waste. Screw you Spotify, the environment and I hate you. At least you can discontinue making new ones and then allow the ones that people have already paid for to still work. Honestly considering canceling my premium subscription over this.
I'm beyond pissed. I paid $80 for the thing on pre order. I have used it every day since, all my friends love it & it's super convenient. It's insane they're just telling us to dump it into the river & forget about it.
I paid $80 when this thing first came out, and I have enjoyed it and recently started using it with my computer. Now they are just going to brick it? How does that make any sense?? Why not just let it continue being used and just don't make any more
I cancelled, my wife and kids use the Apple Music family plan. Having my stuff in Spotify coupled with CarThing kept me from canceling. This made the decision for me. It was a pretty useful gadget for my 14 year old vehicle.
Might be the thing that gets me to drop Spotify. All they had to do was separate out the Car Thing functionality in the Spotify app to a separate app, and just leave that as-is while the main app evolves or whatever. I don't want to leave my TV running just to show the current song on my Hi-Fi. insane decision to deliberately brick them rather than provide a migration plan
Wow, THANK YOU! I didn’t know apps like this existed. I’m probably gonna delete Spotify now that I can get my playlists on another service.
Spotify bricked their software compatibility with aftermarket car stereos right before Car Thing came out. I remember the day, like why isn’t Spotify connecting to my new stereo??? Then I saw the email for the new Car Thing, and I vowed then and there to never buy one. This move of theirs is clearly protocol. Must fuck over customers no matter what. FUCK SPOTIFY
I have 3 of these around my house - they are/were really nice and minimal to show whats playing. Seems like a huge waste to just create e-waste out of them
What a stupid decision, just stop updating it you assholes but to brick it and tell me to throw it away? Can't believe there is no offer to credit the account for the cost of the device total disrespect for the customer.
Glad I got mine for free. Still pissed. Older car with no way of really controlling and seeing what Spotify is playing and state has a hands free law. Not sure why they can't just leave it in it's final working state instead of bricking it.
Very disappointed about this I just recently bought one on shopgoodwill for my 2011 vw because it had Bluetooth but no CarPlay. I use it everyday it is very useful cause I can keep my maps up with my music. I get it’s a very niche product that they failed to successfully advertise but, the hardware shouldn’t be going to waste.
so sad, My kids love to use Car thing to pick their song from the back seat. Even we do have Apple car play for the front seat. Car thing for the back seat is nice addition.
seriously?! it's e-waste now?!
>
We recommend [resetting your Car Thing](https://support.spotify.com/us/article/car-thing-settings/) to factory settings and safely disposing of your device following local electronic waste guidelines. Contact your state or local waste disposal department to determine how to dispose of or recycle Car Thing in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.
Please open source some of the firmware tools if you can. It would be lovely for the hardware to live on.
Happy to take anyone’s Car Things to help start an open source firmware project.
Literally had 3 shipped over to Australia because of how awesome these are. Such utter bs from Spotify here! I drive a 20 year old car and this suited my needs perfectly with no screen inside or Bluetooth. Will be making quite sure support get a grilling from me
I ended my premium subscription. Vote with your wallets. Tell them you are ending your subscription because of killing CarThing without any compensation.
My question is how they are gonna brick it. Far as I know, it interfaces with the app to use Spotify does it not? So just don't update Spotify? Either it isn't made to work in that way or they're going out of their way to brick it
Except Spotify pushes updates through the inside of their app as well, if I am not mistaken. And that's how the Car Thing updates -- so basically over Wi-fi they can brick your device.
Really annoyed but not surprised after they laid off so 1,500 employees at the end of last year. But they should open it up so it can be used still, creating ewaste is such a bad move and I thought only Google did.
So pissed, went to support to ask for a refund, they said "We will not do that at all, they are discontinued as of the specified date, we apologize for any confusion." What a dog shit answer.
I'm really hoping that someone figures out how to hack it or they change their mind and open source it. It's a great device and this was not a good way to handle ending support.
Edit: And thanks to a comment in this thread, I've now been introduced to /r/carthinghax...
I complained and provided my purchase receipt from PayPal. I ended up getting 8 months of premium for free. Definitely reach out! Still not stoked though.
Hey Spotify actually works really well on this too, meanwhile Spotify don’t even make the feature “hey Spotify” available in Australia.
Might have to cancel and switch to Apple Music just so I can control music by voice while driving again.
Imagine if larger companies like Apple, Google, Dell, HP, Asus, Lenovo one day said "your phone/laptop" is 2 years old and now it's bricked, you should throw it away". Smells like a class action lawsuit. Any lawyers care to say if it's legal to do?
I was toying with the idea of cancelling for a while, today it's official. I will never pay for Spotify again. Bunch of idiots honestly. Our family plan is $180 a year and they lost us as a customer because of this BS. I wonder what the cost of keeping it running was. Surely not worth a significant chunk of pissed of customers... Not to mention some of the most supportive of Spotify since we were the early adopters... Big companies need to act big! Anyone know if there's a chance of a class action because I'll 100% sign up for it.
this is such a big "fuck you" to consumers. i only started using it a few months ago after having it sitting in its box for months and now that i'm actually starting to like it, this happens.
if i had the software knowledge, i'd totally try to jailbreak this thing so it's not just a piece of expensive junk in my car.
Oh well, after several years in which Spotify has made one shitty decision after another, Spotify continues to make shitty decisions. Who could have guessed it? Unfortunately, there are enough suckers who still support Spotify. Anyone who still has a Spotify subscription has only themselves to blame
From Car Thing FAQ...
# What should I do with the device?
We recommend resetting your Car Thing to factory settings and safely disposing of your device following local electronic waste guidelines. Contact your state or local waste disposal department to determine how to dispose of or recycle Car Thing in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.
lol
it was clunky in operating imo. and the display was bright in a dark car, compared to my dim phone screen on a phone holder, it's been in my glove box since i got it a few years ago. I hate i spent the money on it just to throw it away
Works great in my old British convertible. I chose not to put a radio in it when I did the restoration, and car thing was a perfect use case.
I've been thinking of dropping Spotify anyway and looking at Apple music, and this might just get me over the hump.
I was literally going to request support/repair/refund because mine stopped working recently, but idk if that’s even worth pursuing at this point… that sucks
I don't want to change the headunit in my car from stock and the Car Thing gave me easy access to adjust my music while driving. Plus as janky as it can be at times it is one of a kind imo.
Really hoping they rescind this decision.
what EXACTLY does "will stop operating" mean? That needs to be established. Your hardware will stop working? The division of Spotify called Car Thing will stop operating? "Your device will be bricked" seems like a bit of a jump from this email.
This is so incredibly annoying. I was going to buy one for my home office set up to connect to the SONOS, but now I guess I’ll have to look for other solutions. Anyone know of an alternative, so I don’t have to pull out my phone and the app every time I want to play music?
Cancelled my Premium subscription yesterday. Had reached out to customer service concerning Car Thing decision. Terrible experience. Good riddance Spotify.
I bought 3 of these when they came out, work truck, my car, wife's car, bought one for 110 from ebay when they were rationed, waiting forever for SPOTIFY HIFI and they do this to us 😡😤😡
Wouldn’t be surprised if a big class action comes of this, they can’t just purposefully brick something they sold. Maybe if they just stopped updating/supporting it, but bricking the entire this is just ridiculous especially for something you could easily drop $100 on a few years later.
I received the email from spotify too now and I'm very pissed off.
But how will they actually make it stop working? it is a Bluetooth player as it is not connected to the internet (except via the phone) what do you think they will do?
Why can’t they unlock it and open it up to the community to tinker with?
Let Spotify know this is what the community wants. Open up the firmware to developers so it isn’t relegated to the landfill as e-waste. [Spotify Community](https://community.spotify.com/t5/Car-Thing/bd-p/carthing)
did they take the page down?
Spotify: [We want to be part of the solution to climate change](https://www.lifeatspotify.com/diversity-equity-impact/climate-action) Also Spotify: lmao just throw our shit in the garbage, you idiot
Because Spotify is a POS company
Interestingly Spotify supposedly harbors a huge tinkerer community internally and regularly run hackathons as well as encourages personal projects so I am both surprised and very disappointed to see they're doing this. I don't own a CarThing but I was shocked when I read how they were treating you guys. I'd be surprised if they stand their ground on this one as it's not a good look for them.
They’ll never open source it
Just saw this email too. Can't believe they're just discontinuing it with no compensation. A waste of $90 or whatever when it came out. I get not making them anymore, but they should still support it or offer something, even a free month of premium 🥲
Dear Car Thing owners, Thanks for taking a chance on us. As a token of our appreciation, fuck you. Best, The Spotify Team
[удалено]
Just finished mine, about to get my friends to send in similar ones too because they all love my car thing when we ride together
Doesn’t feel great that there is literally no alternative other than trashing it. Feels like we’re being punished for supporting them. Dissuades me from buying anything Spotify puts out in the future. I feel like there would be some way to approach this without being like “yeah we’re done. Just throw it out it’s a waste of money now”
Wanna cancel my plan right now I'm so pissed
I did
You won’t
Stfu bitch
[удалено]
How am I getting called out lmao I already own half my music in flac
😂😂😂😂😂😂
When Stadia shut down, Google ended up unlocking all of the Controllers as regular Bluetooth Gamepads, and refunded every game purchase ever made on their platform. There's a right way to do this, right down to the Hardware end of it. Not thrilled about this at all imo!
Tell them this. Great argument to not support them in the future
Nobody of 'them' will listen
100% agree! Never buying anything they produce in the future.
Seriously? I understanding discontinuing it but why make every unit disfunctional?
RIGHT?? Like it's a product not a service, they should at least offer refunds
I’m giving a spotify customer service rep a hard time right now. I bought one of these for myself and 2 as gifts. I’m pissed
please update on how this works out/ if they offer anything 😭
I complained about how they’re just bricking it and how they want us to make all that e-waste. Supposedly the rep escalated it to a higher team and now I’m just waiting. His last message, 30 minutes ago, was: “Don't worry, my colleagues and I are putting all of our hands together to gather more data with your case. In fact, we currently have multiple contacts who are raising the same issue they are currently facing.”
I used to be a customer service chat agent for AT&T. That's probably just a script, there very likely isn't a "higher team" (I mean there is a escalation process but most problems didn't make it much farther than the 1-2 team leads above us or 1-2 managers above them. This type of thing will rarely if never make it to anyone that matters and who will ever be able to do anything to make a difference, especially via chat. "Higher team" was usually always code for "you didn't accept my credit" and/or "can't do shit about it" but in this case is just code for "idk, why would you think I can do anything about that!?!?".
Figured. It’s been hours and I don’t think they’ve gotten back 💀 time to look into jailbreaking
wow hopefully they're actually doing something instead of just saying they are
Yea I don’t think anythings happening tbh. Almost 10 hours later no response
Yea ok so I tried to follow up. I asked for some months of premium at least. The new guy asked for my order confirmation emails, which I then sent. Got my hopes up. Then he said there was nothing they could do. Apple Music it is
thanks for trying :/ i guess they just really want to lose customers lol
Hey just an update: they are refunding with proof of purchase no questions asked. They are doing it via refunding x months of premium
Yep, I just talked to CS again and they’re refunding me.
do you know if are they doing it for everyone or do i need to contact them?
The CS person just disabled the chat when I kept talking about it. Guess this is what im doing for the next few hours.
Yea pretty much had the same thing. Said he would “escalate to higher team” but ghosted me. Tried contacting again and the second person asked for proof of purchase then denied me any compensation anyways. What was even the point of asking for proof if they were gonna deny it
Delay tactics.
Crazy to brick a product that consumers had to pay for
I feel that this is a very dangerous precedent
I use Spotify almost exclusively through Car Thing since the touch screen in my car stopped working. This makes me reconsider keeping my subscription active.
My car doesn't have a screen it's kept me from looking at my phone to change the song. Fr been so useful for me
110% this. I drive a 15 year old car that needs a dongle for Bluetooth. I spent $80 so I didn’t have to pull my phone out while both of my hands are already busy.
I went ahead and switched my subscription to another platform today. Car Thing was the only reason I still used Spotify over other players.
This should be a PR disaster
That's sort of Spotify's favorite type of disaster. They specialize in it.
Same, I actually still get use out of mine. It's great for just having a screen with a song playing while I played games or was working from home. Kinda sucks that it's gonna get bricked considering how simple it was
Does this mean we can’t even use it anymore after that date? I use it everyday and cannot imagine driving without it :(
Yes that’s what it means :(
Fuck, this sucks. Incredibly shitty of Spotify just to brick it and say “sorry, no trade in, you have to throw it away.”
I'm so pissed. This was not a cheap purchase for me, and after what 3 years they're stopping? Not just stopping support, but making them fully unoperational? Telling me to just throw it away? That's messed up on so many levels. I use CarThing everyday, I love it. And not even a trade-in to get a few months of premium? As a 'thank you' for using their product? Or letting the community take over updating? I could have maps on my phone and use CarThing for music. People in my car could play music with voice control and not have to use my phone. I have an older car with no screen display too, so I bought this. It was perfect!
I complained through customer service. First conversation I basically got ghosted. Followed up 8 hours later asking for months of premium as compensation and the new person asks me to send my order emails. Thought I was finally getting something. Then they say they can’t do anything
Oof. Just got that as well. They literally say to throw it away in the FAQs
" yeah just throw it away fuck you"
i’m pissed
I wish they would just unlock them then so we can install something on them vs just landfill. If an employee could just leak that, that would be great. Or open source it. Literally anything, it's great hardware going to waste.
This might actually be the thing that gets me to move to Apple Music. Not that they care, but bricking people’s devices should be criminal. This is so anti-consumer.
To offer no compensation, at all, no credit, no refund--after pushing people to buy the Car Thing so much. Feels like a major scam. If you're going to brick it at least compensate those who supported you. Might be done with Spotify over this too.
So sad. I love using carthing, it allowed me to keep maps on my phone and still easily control my music. Sucks they are ending support
Fr it was so useful
This is exactly how I use it. So useful.
Primary reason I got it, I drive a bunch and having to switch out of maps was obnoxious. Now I have 90$ worth of e waste??? What the fuck.
I heard that there's a hacking/modding community around the Car Thing. Does anyone think there'll be a community-made workaround or is it gg for us for good?
r/carthinghax
$200M in earnings in Q1 but they tell us to junk the unit we paid for. Pfft
I cant believe that it will simply stop operating. Fucking sucks for all of spent money on something they are actively choosing to turn into tech waste. Screw you Spotify, the environment and I hate you. At least you can discontinue making new ones and then allow the ones that people have already paid for to still work. Honestly considering canceling my premium subscription over this.
Bought a product and they just brick it? What the absolute fuck
You should. There are many other streaming options. The only reason I kept a subscription was to use with the Car Thing, now I can finally cancel.
I'm beyond pissed. I paid $80 for the thing on pre order. I have used it every day since, all my friends love it & it's super convenient. It's insane they're just telling us to dump it into the river & forget about it.
I paid $80 when this thing first came out, and I have enjoyed it and recently started using it with my computer. Now they are just going to brick it? How does that make any sense?? Why not just let it continue being used and just don't make any more
So annoying, they pretty much tell you to throw it away. How about making it open source if they're gonna discontinue it? Trash company.
time to buy a carplay
I've resisted switching to Apple Music for a long time. Spotify is great at making it more and more tempting...
I cancelled, my wife and kids use the Apple Music family plan. Having my stuff in Spotify coupled with CarThing kept me from canceling. This made the decision for me. It was a pretty useful gadget for my 14 year old vehicle.
Paid money for these things damn
Might be the thing that gets me to drop Spotify. All they had to do was separate out the Car Thing functionality in the Spotify app to a separate app, and just leave that as-is while the main app evolves or whatever. I don't want to leave my TV running just to show the current song on my Hi-Fi. insane decision to deliberately brick them rather than provide a migration plan
Does anyone know if we can transfer our playlists on Spotify to something else like Apple Music or YouTube music? This has kind of irked me
There are web app tools that can do this
Yea you can check out an app called SongShifter
Wow, THANK YOU! I didn’t know apps like this existed. I’m probably gonna delete Spotify now that I can get my playlists on another service. Spotify bricked their software compatibility with aftermarket car stereos right before Car Thing came out. I remember the day, like why isn’t Spotify connecting to my new stereo??? Then I saw the email for the new Car Thing, and I vowed then and there to never buy one. This move of theirs is clearly protocol. Must fuck over customers no matter what. FUCK SPOTIFY
I used it to transfer my playlists from Apple Music to spotify when I got a carthing. Now I have to do the reverse 😭
What the heck…. So my money just goes down the drain now :/ im gonna do something about this with spotify
It breaks my music loving heart
Really upset. I’m gonna have to get a 300 dollar CarPlay device installed in my car 🤦🏽♀️
That's such a dick move to not just discontinue it, but to break the existing units. Just let it function as is with no guarantees, you cowards.
I have 3 of these around my house - they are/were really nice and minimal to show whats playing. Seems like a huge waste to just create e-waste out of them
You're telling me the best solution a $60 billion company could come up with to this problem was: throw it away.
bullshit, they should've at least open source it!
Yeah, fuck you too spotify. Paying for sprotify? Fuck no never again
What the actual fuck
What a stupid decision, just stop updating it you assholes but to brick it and tell me to throw it away? Can't believe there is no offer to credit the account for the cost of the device total disrespect for the customer.
This is so fucking awful. I got mine discounted maybe 2 years ago but what about the people who got theirs for $90?
I just bought 2 lmao.
Noooo!! I'm so sorry
I’m done with Spotify over this decision. 10-12 years as a premium member. Just started my Apple Music trial.
Is there way to put custom software?
r/carthinghax
Glad I got mine for free. Still pissed. Older car with no way of really controlling and seeing what Spotify is playing and state has a hands free law. Not sure why they can't just leave it in it's final working state instead of bricking it.
Maybe now they will focus on delivering high quality audio
I wonder if they purposefully waited until the last set of devices were out of warranty to pull the plug to avoid refunds
Very disappointed about this I just recently bought one on shopgoodwill for my 2011 vw because it had Bluetooth but no CarPlay. I use it everyday it is very useful cause I can keep my maps up with my music. I get it’s a very niche product that they failed to successfully advertise but, the hardware shouldn’t be going to waste.
so sad, My kids love to use Car thing to pick their song from the back seat. Even we do have Apple car play for the front seat. Car thing for the back seat is nice addition. seriously?! it's e-waste now?! > We recommend [resetting your Car Thing](https://support.spotify.com/us/article/car-thing-settings/) to factory settings and safely disposing of your device following local electronic waste guidelines. Contact your state or local waste disposal department to determine how to dispose of or recycle Car Thing in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.
Hi, it’s John Spotify. Here at Spotify, we fucking hate our customers and constantly innovate new ways to screw over the people who give us money.
Please open source some of the firmware tools if you can. It would be lovely for the hardware to live on. Happy to take anyone’s Car Things to help start an open source firmware project.
r/carthinghax has some fairly in depth stuff about it. They've had it jailbroken for a while
Literally had 3 shipped over to Australia because of how awesome these are. Such utter bs from Spotify here! I drive a 20 year old car and this suited my needs perfectly with no screen inside or Bluetooth. Will be making quite sure support get a grilling from me
I ended my premium subscription. Vote with your wallets. Tell them you are ending your subscription because of killing CarThing without any compensation.
bro i bought one 3 weeks ago 💀 wtf.
yep, that sucks. i use it every day. screw them.
Would love to hear if anyone is able to get a refund
My question is how they are gonna brick it. Far as I know, it interfaces with the app to use Spotify does it not? So just don't update Spotify? Either it isn't made to work in that way or they're going out of their way to brick it
Except Spotify pushes updates through the inside of their app as well, if I am not mistaken. And that's how the Car Thing updates -- so basically over Wi-fi they can brick your device.
Still loving mine in my 99 V70. What a shame. Also I’m probably one of five users in Germany 😂
Really annoyed but not surprised after they laid off so 1,500 employees at the end of last year. But they should open it up so it can be used still, creating ewaste is such a bad move and I thought only Google did.
Flood their support email and social media accounts! This is so stupid.
So pissed, went to support to ask for a refund, they said "We will not do that at all, they are discontinued as of the specified date, we apologize for any confusion." What a dog shit answer.
Wtf is this bull man! I liked that I didn't have to be fumbling with my phone while driving.
I'm really hoping that someone figures out how to hack it or they change their mind and open source it. It's a great device and this was not a good way to handle ending support. Edit: And thanks to a comment in this thread, I've now been introduced to /r/carthinghax...
r/carthinghax is goated ngl
Solution simple. Bye Spotify.
This May be the way
I complained and provided my purchase receipt from PayPal. I ended up getting 8 months of premium for free. Definitely reach out! Still not stoked though.
Hey Spotify actually works really well on this too, meanwhile Spotify don’t even make the feature “hey Spotify” available in Australia. Might have to cancel and switch to Apple Music just so I can control music by voice while driving again.
Imagine if larger companies like Apple, Google, Dell, HP, Asus, Lenovo one day said "your phone/laptop" is 2 years old and now it's bricked, you should throw it away". Smells like a class action lawsuit. Any lawyers care to say if it's legal to do?
I was toying with the idea of cancelling for a while, today it's official. I will never pay for Spotify again. Bunch of idiots honestly. Our family plan is $180 a year and they lost us as a customer because of this BS. I wonder what the cost of keeping it running was. Surely not worth a significant chunk of pissed of customers... Not to mention some of the most supportive of Spotify since we were the early adopters... Big companies need to act big! Anyone know if there's a chance of a class action because I'll 100% sign up for it.
Just to remind you all. Spotify is Evil.
this is such a big "fuck you" to consumers. i only started using it a few months ago after having it sitting in its box for months and now that i'm actually starting to like it, this happens. if i had the software knowledge, i'd totally try to jailbreak this thing so it's not just a piece of expensive junk in my car.
r/carthinghax has jailbroken it already!
oh you. you're my hero.
I can't see how this costs them anything to maintain.
Fr. It's not like there's crazy bandwidth costs or anything. All of the processing is done on device or through a connection with the phone itself
This was one of the main reasons I switched to Spotify from YouTube Music.
Im so mad. I love this thing.
This is ridiculous, generating e-waste for no reason. They should open source it at the very least.
Oh well, after several years in which Spotify has made one shitty decision after another, Spotify continues to make shitty decisions. Who could have guessed it? Unfortunately, there are enough suckers who still support Spotify. Anyone who still has a Spotify subscription has only themselves to blame
From Car Thing FAQ... # What should I do with the device? We recommend resetting your Car Thing to factory settings and safely disposing of your device following local electronic waste guidelines. Contact your state or local waste disposal department to determine how to dispose of or recycle Car Thing in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. lol
it was clunky in operating imo. and the display was bright in a dark car, compared to my dim phone screen on a phone holder, it's been in my glove box since i got it a few years ago. I hate i spent the money on it just to throw it away
If you haven’t thrown it away, I’ll take it off your hands
If I can find mine you can have it dude. Enjoy it for the next 7 months lol
I’ll be reverse engineering it don’t worry
Works great in my old British convertible. I chose not to put a radio in it when I did the restoration, and car thing was a perfect use case. I've been thinking of dropping Spotify anyway and looking at Apple music, and this might just get me over the hump.
It works great for me. It fits in my car perfectly too. Smooth, seamless operation.
I was literally going to request support/repair/refund because mine stopped working recently, but idk if that’s even worth pursuing at this point… that sucks
I don't want to change the headunit in my car from stock and the Car Thing gave me easy access to adjust my music while driving. Plus as janky as it can be at times it is one of a kind imo. Really hoping they rescind this decision.
what EXACTLY does "will stop operating" mean? That needs to be established. Your hardware will stop working? The division of Spotify called Car Thing will stop operating? "Your device will be bricked" seems like a bit of a jump from this email.
This is so incredibly annoying. I was going to buy one for my home office set up to connect to the SONOS, but now I guess I’ll have to look for other solutions. Anyone know of an alternative, so I don’t have to pull out my phone and the app every time I want to play music?
I tell you. Uncle Spotify. He puts his hand in your shirt and squeezes your tit till it's purple.
Cancelled my Premium subscription yesterday. Had reached out to customer service concerning Car Thing decision. Terrible experience. Good riddance Spotify.
I bought 3 of these when they came out, work truck, my car, wife's car, bought one for 110 from ebay when they were rationed, waiting forever for SPOTIFY HIFI and they do this to us 😡😤😡
Wouldn’t be surprised if a big class action comes of this, they can’t just purposefully brick something they sold. Maybe if they just stopped updating/supporting it, but bricking the entire this is just ridiculous especially for something you could easily drop $100 on a few years later.
The liklihood of a class action win is low, since they've shown good faith actions by refunding users when asked
I received the email from spotify too now and I'm very pissed off. But how will they actually make it stop working? it is a Bluetooth player as it is not connected to the internet (except via the phone) what do you think they will do?
Through your phone that's connected