Now Spotify Will Offer ‘Car Thing’ Refunds After Public Backlash

We recently discussed Spotify’s decision to completely brick the Car Thing products it sold to customers up until very recently. While this was a very niche product without a ton of adoption, Spotify’s decision caught my attention for two reasons. First, the company could have updated the devices it didn’t want to support any longer to open them up to third-party firmware so that these paid-for pieces of hardware had some sort of use other than taking up room at your local landfill, but Spotify is apparently unwilling to do so. Second, the company, at the time, was apparently unwilling to offer any sort of refund to those who bought these devices only to have the seller break them remotely.

In fact, the company told tech publications days ago that the whole point of the Car Thing was to serve as market research for the company as to how people listen to content in their cars. In other words, those who bought the devices were paying for the pleasure of serving as Spotify’s lab rats, which is a horrible look for the company when it decided refunds wouldn’t be a thing. The public backlash was understandably severe.

Which is almost certainly the reason Spotify did an about face and will now be offering refunds to those who bought the devices, though you have to jump through some hoops to get one. And there still seems to be some confusion amongst the Spotify ranks as to what Car Thing buyers will get.

That’s led to some trying to directly complain to Spotify via DMs on X with @SpotifyCares or through various Spotify emails shared on Reddit. By doing so, some users reported that Spotify offered them several months of a Premium subscription to make up for their loss, while others claimed they asked customer service and were told no one was being reimbursed.

Spotify tells TechCrunch that it has more recently instituted a refund process for Car Thing, provided the user has proof of purchase.

The ability to reach customer support was officially communicated to Car Thing users in a second email that went out on Friday of last week after the backlash over Car Thing’s discontinuation had grown. In it, Spotify directs users to the correct customer support link to reach out to the company. The email does not promise any refunds, however, but says users can reach out with questions.

Hopefully the company can get its act together and ensure that the rank and file know what the refund program is. After all, the company has invited buyers to call in for support. It would be a damned shame, though not entirely surprising, if support agents weren’t entirely on the same page as the corporate heads.

But while the backlash likely spurred this change in refund policy for Spotify, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s out of hot water over all of this.

Spotify’s headaches around Car Thing’s discontinuation are not over yet, despite the newly introduced — if not widely broadcast — refund process. The company is also facing a class action lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, which claims Spotify misled consumers by selling them a soon-to-be obsolete product and then not offering refunds, reports Billboard. The suit was filed on May 28.

Though the troubles around Car Thing won’t affect all of Spotify’s user base, the news comes at a time when users are already upset that they’re being asked to pay more for things they consider core to a music service, like access to lyrics, a feature Spotify recently paywalled. In addition to complaints over Car Thing, users are threatening to quit Spotify over the paid access to lyrics.

Another case of a tech company falling to the enshittification process, it seems. But while that process is unfortunately becoming a recognizable part of the present reality, at least Spotify Car Thing buyers will have access to a refund for the hardware they bought.