Spotify is Now Offering Refunds for its Discontinued Car Thing

Spotify’s decision to drop support for its Car Thing on December 9, 2024 was met with backlash from customers who will soon end up with bricked devices. Now that the company is facing a class action lawsuit over its decision to discontinue support for the product, TechCrunch is reporting that Spotify has now accepted to issue refunds.

According to the report, Spotify has started sending emails to customers last week with a link to customer support. While the email doesn’t explicitly promise refunds, the company confirmed to TechCrunch that it has implemented a refund process and customers will need to provide a proof of purchase to get their $90 back.

Spotify’s Car Thing is small display designed to simplify access to Spotify libraries while driving. The device launched in February 2022, but it was discontinued later that year. Spotify never disclosed how many Car Thing units it sold, but the device did have its fans who were legitimately right to complain about it being bricked after just two years.

While Spotify didn’t comment on the lawsuit it’s currently facing, a company’s spokesperson shared the following statement with TechCrunch:

The goal of our Car Thing exploration in the U.S. was to learn more about how people listen in the car. In July 2022, we announced we’d stop further production and now it’s time to say goodbye to the devices entirely. Users will have until December 9, 2024 until all Car Thing devices will be deactivated. To learn more about all of the ways you can continue to listen to Spotify in the car, check out For The Record, and Car Thing users can reach out to Customer Support with any questions: https://support.spotify.com/us/contact-spotify-support/

Overall, this is quite a messy end for what was a short-lived hardware experiment for the company. On a support page dedicated to the discontinuation of its Car Thing, the company said that “this decision allows us to focus on developing new features and enhancements that will ultimately provide a better experience to all Spotify users.”