Bad experience with resold AT&T

Internet access discussion, including Fusion, IP Broadband, and Gigabit Fiber!
4 posts Page 1 of 1
by eamunozt » Wed Jan 13, 2021 11:14 am
I'm in the process of moving to Redwood City. I tried to get fiber service directly with AT&T and they showed up outside of their window and declared that it was too big of a job to do so late in the afternoon and that I should reschedule.

I have been very happy with Sonic in SF and figure that I should give them a shot. I learned that in RC they're just reselling the AT&T service, but they reassured me that I should expect much better service. Regarding the install, I was assured that while AT&T would do it, because of their relationship with them I should not expect any issues and, if there were any, I could quickly escalate through them.

As it happened, during the window I got a text saying that the AT&T installer should be there. I called them to confirm that nobody was there and they told me that I should just ignore the text (?!) and somebody should be there eventually.

Nobody ended up showing up. And when I called to escalate, the solution that they came up with was to give them a few times that might work better and that they would get back to me the next day on whether any of those worked, because the department that handles that was closed after 5pm.

At that point, it was clear to me that this service was just AT&T, but more expensive and with extra steps and figured out that I might as well go back to dealing with AT&T directly. To their credit, the Sonic folks did not give me a card time and started processing the cancellation right away. Unfortunately, it's not instantaneous and until it goes through on their end and AT&T's, AT&T will not engage with me as their position is that there is already service on that address.

As I said earlier, I am very happy with Sonic in SF and if "real" Sonic was available in SF I'd take it in a heartbeat. However, I am having a hard time understand how resold AT&T makes any sense given that it's more expensive, you're tied into a contract, and if there are issues, Sonic being in the middle just makes everything more painful than dealing with AT&T directly.
by syntaxsid1 » Thu Jan 14, 2021 10:37 am
Hello,

We are very sorry to hear about this experience. It is true that AT&T's communication and lack of available techs result in missed commits or techs showing up before or after their designated windows. With 100% Sonic service that indeed does not happen. We are working with AT&T on this to improve this and communication with our customers but it is a process. Further complications with the Pandemic just made this worse unfortunately. We hope to improve on this as we "flatten the curve" of this Virus.

The price may be higher than going with AT&T directly but remember, AT&T, Comcast and the others institute a monthly data cap. If you go over your "allotted monthly usage" you are then billed for additional data. This just makes your bill higher in the long run since we offer a flat rate fee for UNLIMITED data so you can can use as much internet anytime you want and as much as you want without worry of going over. We also take our customer's privacy MUCH more seriously and we do not throttle our customer's speed in any way. This and the fact that you can speak to a real live person moments after you call are paramount compared to support with the others.

We hope you see the value in what we offer even if it's using our competitor's infrastructure. We plan on getting our own proprietary Fiber service to all of our customers in the future so this is ultimately a means to an end. Thank you for your patience and support while we continue to grow. Have a great day and a happy new year!


Kind Regards,
Jeff M. with Community Escalations @ Sonic
by blumberg » Fri Jan 15, 2021 12:34 am
Att no longer has data caps on fiber and they don't require a phone line... So cheaper and direct with HBO and $200+ in promos when you sign up...
by jonathanscott21 » Fri Jan 15, 2021 9:54 pm
I feel your pain re: pricing and promos that AT&T offers, but it's worth mentioning AT&T's Room 641A https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_641A issue back in the day. If privacy is important to you, AT&T should be considered carefully. Sonic has been consistently rated by third parties to be among the top in the nation (if not #1) for privacy issues like this.
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