Spotify creates a refund process for its discontinued Car Thing gadget, as consumers sue claiming Spotify misled them by selling a soon-to-be obsolete product
how to get your money back before Spotify bricks it Tim Marcin / Mashable : Spotify to refund Car Thing purchases. Here's how to get yours. Ayomide Sadiq / TalkAndroid.com : Public Fury Works: Spotify Car Thing Owners Will Get Refunds Laurent Giret / Thurrott : Spotify is Now Offering Refunds for its Discontinued Car Thing Shawn Knight / TechSpot : Spotify gives in, will refund Car Thing buyers following criticism Stuart Dredge / Music Ally : Spotify may refund Car Thing buyers amid class-action lawsuit Bill Donahue / Billboard : Spotify Faces Class Action Lawsuit Over ‘Car Thing’ Deactivation: ‘A Useless Product’ Will Shanklin / Engadget : Spotify says it will refund Car Thing purchases Tyler Lee / Phandroid : Spotify will refund its Car Thing customers Ananya Gairola / Benzinga : Spotify To Refund Car Thing Owners Before Disabling Devices in December, But You'll Need A Receipt Threads: @zenwire_org : I have one, it's fantastic. If they could at least leave it functional as a Bluetooth controller for music (play, pause, forward, backwards - the basics) that'd be fine with me. Bricking it completely really irks me. That'd be such a waste. Andy Cheng / @firerock31 : Spotify is doing the right thing & offering refunds for Car Thing, which will be discontinued on December 4th, 2024. However, I'm puzzled as to why they don't consider open-sourcing the code, allowing developers to continue working on it, rather than rendering all devices obsolete and contributing to electronic waste. … Forums: Hacker News : Spotify won't open-source Car Thing, but starts refund process r/technology : Spotify offers Car Thing refunds as it faces lawsuit over bricking the streaming device r/LinusTechTips : Well, well, well, how the turntables. r/gadgets : Spotify says it will refund Car Thing purchases | You'll need to contact customer service with a valid receipt. BeauHD / Slashdot : Spotify Says It Will Refund Car Thing Purchases
Context & Ripple Effects
Car Thing moved from a $90 U.S. retail product with planned software additions to a discontinued accessory whose service would be turned off. The pivotal change in coverage was Spotify's earlier notice that the device would stop working without refunds, captured in the initial no-refund shutdown notice.
The refund process follows customer backlash and a class-action claim that buyers were misled about the product's useful life. It turns a product-retirement decision into a consumer-remedy and trust issue for Spotify.
First-order effects
- Eligible Car Thing purchasers now have a route to recover their purchase price before the planned shutdown, while Spotify takes on the operational and financial burden of administering refunds.
- The refund policy directly addresses the immediate customer grievance underlying the class-action allegations, though the available record does not establish its effect on the litigation.
Second-order effects
- Spotify's reversal raises the cost of retiring tightly service-dependent hardware: future product exits must account for customer support, refund handling, and legal exposure rather than only technical deactivation.
- Customers evaluating Spotify-connected devices may place greater weight on service longevity and end-of-life terms, particularly after Car Thing's $90 retail launch and promised software updates.
Third-order effects
- If similar disputes recur, software-linked hardware sellers may face stronger pressure to define support periods and remedies when a cloud or subscription service is withdrawn.
- The episode illustrates a broader accountability gap in connected-device markets: ownership of hardware can be limited when its core function remains controlled by the vendor.
The trend: Connected hardware is increasingly being judged not only on launch features but on the clarity and fairness of its vendor-controlled end-of-life terms.