Incorrectly charged 28 months of "Fusion Fiber RG Rental".

[jiachen118]

Hello

I am in San Francisco and have been a Sonic Gigabit Fiber internet user for the past 28 months.
Modem actually stopped working 2 days ago and a field technician came out and swapped my modem the next day! Thank you guys for the fast service.
So I asked the field technician if there are any modems in the market available that can be used with the Sonic Gigabit Internet because I was tired of paying for rental equipment. He told me that the modem comes with the internet service and I shouldn't be charged for rental equipment since that fee is for a router, not a modem.
I called sonic billing and was told that I can only be reimbursed for the previous 3-months of rental equipment charge? I was billed for something that I never had and they're not willing to do anything more than 3-months which is nothing compared to the 28 months that I've paid.

Anyone else experiencing the same issue?

[kyle.depasquale]

The RG is the router. Some of them double as modems for those on DSL service, but it is a router- this charge is likely correct.

[Larns576]

By "modem" I assume you mean the ONT (small white box usually located in the garage). They also shouldve given you a gateway/router during the initial install. If you never returned it, it's ~$10/month

[dane]

Maybe some confusion here. Hopefully this helps clarify:

The Optical Network Terminal (ONT) is the small wall-mounted white box which takes in the fiber and outputs Ethernet and POTS telephone service. This is permanently installed at each premise where we deploy service, and is part of the network itself. There is no monthly fee involved with this equipment.

The Residential Gateway (RG) or router is the unit which provides routing and firewalling, multiple Ethernet ports and WiFi. To date at least, these are all larger, black, desktop units which are made by Pace or SmartRG. We've also recently starting offering Eero products. Each of these is a rented piece of equipment, ranging from $4 (for an Eero repeater) to $9.50 (for the firewall/router/WiFi larger units). This rental fee also covers internal and external wiring, technician visits and any necessary equipment replacement. These are the "Fusion Fiber RG" rental items.

[Naif94702]

okay, so can i purchase my own Pace/Arris 5268AC and get the rental fee waived?

[Naif94702]

okay, i may have stumbled on the answer while perusing another thread, where Dane said on Mayday 2016
quote
Keep in mind that the fee covers equipment, support, and any on-site work. For customers who choose not to participate, any on site dispatches are billed, and support is more limited due to our lack of visibility. Think of it as an insurance policy, where we take end-to-end responsibility, from the couch to the Internet!
endquote
so i interpret that to mean that i can get the rental fee waived, but that means i am on my own if i later run aground. (i.e. i hafta pay someone to bail me out)

[dane]

The ability to opt out of equipment rental varies by product, for some details, see: https://help.sonic.com/hc/en-us/article ... ent-Policy

Key limitation here is IP Broadband, the AT&T Uverse based product. In that platform, they require the use of the AT&T modem, and our bundled voice service requires the VOIP adaptor, so there's no way to opt out of either. (Why do they require their modem? End-to-end visibility and support. How? They embed an 802.1X authentication credential in the modem, so you can't just swap in another unit.)

But also note that for the services where you could use your own equipment, doing so voids any discounted pricing offers you may be getting, which can result in a cost increase. And yes, as you note - any future dispatches may result in fees, and we are also no longer able to provide full technical support. Buyer beware, as they say - saving $6.50-$9.50 may not be worth the potential DIY frustration.

[Naif94702]

thanks dane

[jiachen118]

Hey everybody, thanks for all the replies! I only have the white box by sonic that is mounted on the wall (No Wifi, just power, ethernet port, phone port, and sonic fiber cable port).
I just got billed the same charge even after I called in customer support and figured I should come back to the forums to double-check. Any way this can be fixed? Customer support over the phone basically never even took off the rental charge even after I called in.
Just to clarify, I do not current;y have any sonic rental routers and I've never had one since the beginning of service. JUST the modem (Small white box).

[dane]

Hey everybody, thanks for all the replies! I only have the white box by sonic that is mounted on the wall (No Wifi, just power, ethernet port, phone port, and sonic fiber cable port).
I just got billed the same charge even after I called in customer support and figured I should come back to the forums to double-check. Any way this can be fixed? Customer support over the phone basically never even took off the rental charge even after I called in.
Just to clarify, I do not current;y have any sonic rental routers and I've never had one since the beginning of service. JUST the modem (Small white box).

Our records indicate that when the fiber service was installed, it was deployed with a Sonic Pace 5268AC router and WiFi gateway, which has been on your account ever since. We have no record of that equipment being returned, or any request to do so.

Is it possible that you replaced it with your own router at some point but did not contact us? I see that there is a Netgear device connected on your side now, when did you connect that?