Early termination fee with sonic now live - Other bad practi

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by skallestad » Tue Sep 08, 2015 9:05 am
kevinmcm wrote:Does the one year contract come with a performance guarantee? The primary reason for me not switching to Comcast Business is that they guarantee a term of payment but they will not guarantee any performance. If Sonic and Comcast will have similarly hostile contracts, I'd probably go with Comcast's faster service.
Funny you should say this, because a little over a month ago I was looking at Sonic and Comcast. I went with Comcast because I could get a no-contract deal with them. I'm a Sonic customer now, so you can guess how my month with Comcast went.

Sonic does have a 30 day window, though. I forget the wording specifically and can't find it right now, but I had the impression that if the speeds are not as advertised or the service is not to my satisfaction within 30 days that I can cancel without penalty.

So far I've contacted support and received responses quickly. It took me several weeks to get a response from the competition.
by ben.blois » Tue Sep 08, 2015 9:10 am
"Sonic does have a 30 day window, though. I forget the wording specifically and can't find it right now, but I had the impression that if the speeds are not as advertised or the service is not to my satisfaction within 30 days that I can cancel without penalty."


Yes, any customer that is looking to cancel has a 30-day window starting from the day their service is up and running.
Ben Blois
Sonic Technical Support
(707) 547-3400
by blakers » Wed Sep 09, 2015 7:13 am
skallestad wrote:
kevinmcm wrote: ...
Sonic does have a 30 day window, though. I forget the wording specifically and can't find it right now, but I had the impression that if the speeds are not as advertised or the service is not to my satisfaction within 30 days that I can cancel without penalty.
...
Just have/get *everything* in writing. And do not make the mistake of assuming (been there, done that) that if any 'outstanding issues' are Sonic's doing, or lack thereof, and that you're being patient/helpful while "they're looking into it", that there will be reasonable consideration on/after day 31.

It's a vendor contract for a pipe, period. If it ain't in writing, it just ain't. Anything else is just puffery and handwaving.

If you don't have *all* that you need/want by day 30, pull the exit-clause trigger.

As for what'd happen if service/performance tanks after day 30 -- since there's no performance guarantee of any kind, I'd certainly plan on the termination fee to get out.

None of that should be news anymore. The pipe's an off-the-shelf commodity, anywhere. Treat it that way, and plan for it, and there's less disruption.
by Guest » Thu Sep 10, 2015 2:38 pm
Simple question -- the 12 month term commitment with FTTN is clear.

But does the termination fee always apply, no matter the circumstances, such as a service upgrade level change? Or is there leniency because I'm upgrading and not downgrading?

Let's say I sign up for "20 MBps" FTTN and find that it isn't fast enough. If I then wanted to upgrade to the "50 MBps" X2 service, would I still be charged the fee for the change?

Or do I have to decide within the first 30 day satisfaction period? If I want to go from X1 to X2 during the first month, am I "scott free?"
by dane » Thu Sep 10, 2015 2:50 pm
Guest wrote:Simple question -- the 12 month term commitment with FTTN is clear.

But does the termination fee always apply, no matter the circumstances, such as a service upgrade level change? Or is there leniency because I'm upgrading and not downgrading?

Let's say I sign up for "20 MBps" FTTN and find that it isn't fast enough. If I then wanted to upgrade to the "50 MBps" X2 service, would I still be charged the fee for the change?

Or do I have to decide within the first 30 day satisfaction period? If I want to go from X1 to X2 during the first month, am I "scott free?"
No, upgrades, or moves simply re-start the term.
Dane Jasper
Sonic
by Jay » Fri Oct 02, 2015 7:08 pm
Hi -

I was super excited about Sonic and despite needing a visit from an AT&T tech, Sonic tech, and some time on the phone debugging another wifi issue, it started to work. However, I still had lots of issues with a dropped signal, very poor connectivity at times, and inability to connect at others. I refrained from calling support because we have a midi as a backup and I just didn't want to incur costs for my calls. Yesterday, though it just stopped working completely (unrelated to the ddos attack today). I patiently took a day off work (can't work from home because, well, no internet) to have the AT&T tech come again, but it still did not get fixed. Now the earliest a sonic tech can come to address it is 10 days from now.

I understand all the reasons to have an ETF and it's just outside the 30 day activation window for me by like two weeks, but your representatives were totally inflexible about the policy. I can't keep taking days off to wait on techs in hopes that it will work and I just think it is unfair to not let me get out of the contract without paying it. I am an honest person and not trying to play the system, I've just been dissatisfied with the Internet performance and it could just be a function of the building, but the first sonic and att tech visits should have addressed that.

Please can there be some flexibility on this policy for my case?

Jay
by Guest » Fri Oct 02, 2015 10:33 pm
My experience is exactly like yours....no resolution of any issues over several months! Once you have problems it's unlikely Sonic/ATT will ever be able to resolve them.

I suggest dropping Sonic and going with the competition.
by dane » Fri Oct 02, 2015 11:01 pm
Jay wrote:Hi -

I was super excited about Sonic and despite needing a visit from an AT&T tech, Sonic tech, and some time on the phone debugging another wifi issue, it started to work. However, I still had lots of issues with a dropped signal, very poor connectivity at times, and inability to connect at others. I refrained from calling support because we have a midi as a backup and I just didn't want to incur costs for my calls. Yesterday, though it just stopped working completely (unrelated to the ddos attack today). I patiently took a day off work (can't work from home because, well, no internet) to have the AT&T tech come again, but it still did not get fixed. Now the earliest a sonic tech can come to address it is 10 days from now.

I understand all the reasons to have an ETF and it's just outside the 30 day activation window for me by like two weeks, but your representatives were totally inflexible about the policy. I can't keep taking days off to wait on techs in hopes that it will work and I just think it is unfair to not let me get out of the contract without paying it. I am an honest person and not trying to play the system, I've just been dissatisfied with the Internet performance and it could just be a function of the building, but the first sonic and att tech visits should have addressed that.

Please can there be some flexibility on this policy for my case?

Jay
Yes, if AT&T or Sonic delay extends the resolution interval, we make exceptions to the 30 day policy. But customers do need to respond to and work with our team, and be available to troubleshoot in a timely way.

Sorry about the challenges, and thank you for your patience!
Dane Jasper
Sonic
by npavkovic » Wed Aug 09, 2017 11:49 am
I limped along with poor service for three months. When I called tech support, the best they could offer was the upgrade to double-line service. But with speeds that were frequently under 1 megabit, 2x service would still not have yielded usable bandwidth.

I've provided documentation to Sonic, but because I only called tech support once, they will not waive the early termination fee. Tech support did not offer to send a technician onsite.

So...maybe Sonic is a reasonable option if you have a lot of time on your hands to troubleshoot the hardware difficulties...and perhaps don't have other internet options or a day job. In any case, after having spent hundreds of dollars on sub standard service with Sonic, I'm now happily with MonkeyBrains, getting throughput that's twice the (very occasional) best I received with Sonic for a significantly lower price.

At some point, of course, fiber will be available in my neighborhood. I'm sure their fiber offering is fine. But what are the chances that I'll go back to Sonic after being charged an early-termination fee?
by miken » Wed Aug 09, 2017 12:00 pm
npavkovic wrote:I limped along with poor service for three months. When I called tech support, the best they could offer was the upgrade to double-line service. But with speeds that were frequently under 1 megabit, 2x service would still not have yielded usable bandwidth.

I've provided documentation to Sonic, but because I only called tech support once, they will not waive the early termination fee. Tech support did not offer to send a technician onsite.

So...maybe Sonic is a reasonable option if you have a lot of time on your hands to troubleshoot the hardware difficulties...and perhaps don't have other internet options or a day job. In any case, after having spent hundreds of dollars on sub standard service with Sonic, I'm now happily with MonkeyBrains, getting throughput that's twice the (very occasional) best I received with Sonic for a significantly lower price.

At some point, of course, fiber will be available in my neighborhood. I'm sure their fiber offering is fine. But what are the chances that I'll go back to Sonic after being charged an early-termination fee?
I took a look at your account and it looks like your modem is syncing up at around 13Mbp/s and it's only over the wireless connection that your devices are getting 1Mbp/s. While I don't think the upgrade to X2 would directly correct this problem, the 5Ghz router we provide with the service would. If you were still willing to give us a shot, that's something we could send you without the upgrade to X2 for like $3 more a month. Whether this would fix the issue would depend on whether your devices have adapters that support 5Ghz. If you have any questions or would like any help with this, please feel free to shoot me a PM here on the forums.
Mike N.
Development Trainer
Sonic
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