Love my new fiber; love Sonic; please be more transparent on rental requirement

Internet access discussion, including Fusion, IP Broadband, and Gigabit Fiber!
10 posts Page 1 of 1
by dpifko » Sun Apr 16, 2017 7:53 pm
Hi guys, and Dane in particular,

TL;DR You're an honest company, please be consistent to yourselves and advertise the $50/mo cost that includes the required router rental, or give us an option to buy our own modem w/out penalty.

After lusting for Sonic for many years, I finally was able to get fiber installed at my place. Thank you.

I love it. Good speed.

The price is even reasonable at $50/month, though I signed up early and was offered $40/month.

The kicker? It was not at all obvious that I'd need to rent a $9.50/month router for the first year. I bought my router when I was at Comcast and, frankly, I don't really need another rental router going forward, even if I had to upgrade. This is inconsistent with Sonic's corporate personality. You (otherwise) come across as local, above board, honest, fighting for the individual, etc. When even a $50/month rate is great for GB fiber, this seems unnecessarily sneaky.

Thanks,

Daniel
by Guest2 » Sun Apr 16, 2017 10:03 pm
Equipment rental is only required for FTTN.

https://wiki.sonic.net/wiki/Equipment_Policy

Gigabit Fiber Internet Customers

Sonic provides residential Gigabit Fiber Internet customers with an Optical Network Terminal (free of charge) plus telephone network adaptor and a router/firewall with WiFi access point for $9.50/month. Both units are warranted and fully supported by Sonic for as long as you have service, and can be replaced at any time for free (shipping fees may apply).

Upon termination of service, router equipment must be returned as directed by Sonic. Equipment non-return fees may apply if router is not returned.

Customers who wish to use their own equipment may do so. Return of rented equipment invalidates any and all promotional pricing. Under some circumstances, Sonic Support may require that the provided equipment is installed in order to perform complete diagnostics. Use of equipment not provided by Sonic may result in some features being unavailable, including technical support. Third party modems are unsupported by Sonic.
by psychicb » Sun Apr 23, 2017 10:02 am
Guest2 wrote:Equipment rental is only required for FTTN.

https://wiki.sonic.net/wiki/Equipment_Policy

Gigabit Fiber Internet Customers

Sonic provides residential Gigabit Fiber Internet customers with an Optical Network Terminal (free of charge) plus telephone network adaptor and a router/firewall with WiFi access point for $9.50/month. Both units are warranted and fully supported by Sonic for as long as you have service, and can be replaced at any time for free (shipping fees may apply).

Customers who wish to use their own equipment may do so. Return of rented equipment invalidates any and all promotional pricing. Under some circumstances, Sonic Support may require that the provided equipment is installed in order to perform complete diagnostics. Use of equipment not provided by Sonic may result in some features being unavailable, including technical support. Third party modems are unsupported by Sonic.
So potential/likely shipping fees, a bit of a penalty(invalidation of promotional pricing, potentially incomplete diagnostics, some features being unavailable, and third party modems are unsupported) if a customer wants to use a potentially higher quality modem, theoretically save a bit of money on the monthly bills and/or be less dependent on an ISP? That seems an awful lot like a stereotypical ISP, considering how Sonic usually seems like the Uber/Airbnb of the ISP industry... :|

I'm all for supporting a more customer friendly ISP, but I'm also a big fan of having control over what I use/don't use at my home and doing my research, so essentially forcing us to use a certain product if we don't want to deal with shipping or those penalties seems a bit backwards...
You can trust me, I'm The Doctor's companion's spouse's friend's sister's dealer of all the alien technology that we find left behind - BTW, bow ties are COOL :ugeek:
by Guest2 » Mon Apr 24, 2017 9:57 am
psychicb wrote:
Guest2 wrote:Equipment rental is only required for FTTN.
So potential/likely shipping fees, a bit of a penalty(invalidation of promotional pricing, potentially incomplete diagnostics, some features being unavailable, and third party modems are unsupported) if a customer wants to use a potentially higher quality modem, theoretically save a bit of money on the monthly bills and/or be less dependent on an ISP? That seems an awful lot like a stereotypical ISP, considering how Sonic usually seems like the Uber/Airbnb of the ISP industry... :|
How would Sonic diagnose or support third party hardware? Besides the crazy number of routers available on the market, would could Sonic have remote access when its not their hardware with custom settings? Additionally, it seems inconsistent to want to be "less dependent" on Sonic, but then expect them to help you when your hardware breaks. What Sonic offers seems fine. Use your hardware if you're an advance user and are comfortable fixing your own problems, or use their hardware if you don't want to bother with it.

You also don't have to pay a shipping fee if you turn down the router during installation. At least, I was able to do it that way.
by pockyken007 » Mon Apr 24, 2017 10:16 am
psychicb wrote:
Guest2 wrote:Equipment rental is only required for FTTN.

https://wiki.sonic.net/wiki/Equipment_Policy

Gigabit Fiber Internet Customers

Sonic provides residential Gigabit Fiber Internet customers with an Optical Network Terminal (free of charge) plus telephone network adaptor and a router/firewall with WiFi access point for $9.50/month. Both units are warranted and fully supported by Sonic for as long as you have service, and can be replaced at any time for free (shipping fees may apply).

Customers who wish to use their own equipment may do so. Return of rented equipment invalidates any and all promotional pricing. Under some circumstances, Sonic Support may require that the provided equipment is installed in order to perform complete diagnostics. Use of equipment not provided by Sonic may result in some features being unavailable, including technical support. Third party modems are unsupported by Sonic.
So potential/likely shipping fees, a bit of a penalty(invalidation of promotional pricing, potentially incomplete diagnostics, some features being unavailable, and third party modems are unsupported) if a customer wants to use a potentially higher quality modem, theoretically save a bit of money on the monthly bills and/or be less dependent on an ISP? That seems an awful lot like a stereotypical ISP, considering how Sonic usually seems like the Uber/Airbnb of the ISP industry... :|

I'm all for supporting a more customer friendly ISP, but I'm also a big fan of having control over what I use/don't use at my home and doing my research, so essentially forcing us to use a certain product if we don't want to deal with shipping or those penalties seems a bit backwards...

You obviously have no idea how network works for an ISP and how does support on the said network works so let me spell it out for you .

By having all devices on the network from HQ / CO to the end user belong to the ISP ( in this case SONIC ) the said ISP is able to monitor , control and troubleshoot issues remotely that includes but is not limited to traffic flow , packet loss , connection issues , config issues etc. now imagine this if points A and B are sonic infrastructure but the last point the end user is not then sonic as an ISP can only see traffic from point A and B prolly up to DMARC and that's it ... which makes troubleshooting that much harder ( they don't know your internal settings ) which if they were to troubleshoot your issues takes time away from their techs ( they have to familiarize themselves with your setup and then start troubleshooting , while this might be not be an issue for you or them , let's say your network setup is easy , I have seen some network setups in my life that have tunnels , ASA , and god only knows what else on the internal network making troubleshooting for an outsider who is not familiar with your network setup a nightmare ) . Said that it's easier for sonic to make a blanket statement ( and save themselves a hassle of troubleshooting cray network set ups ) of if you wanna use your own equipment you can but we will not support you or support will be limited ... hope this explained things a bit :)
by dpifko » Sun Apr 30, 2017 9:21 pm
I'm okay with trading less support in return for having my own, purchased router. In fact, Sonic gives you this option, for no charge and without removing access to promotions, after the first 12 months. Hell, I could do it right now, but would be giving up my $10/mo. discount.

After 12 mos., I'll still have the fiber ONT, just my own router behind it.

You guys are missing the point, though. To be consistent with its "good guy" image, I'm suggesting Sonic be more up front about what they are already offering. $62/month (ish, my total fiber bill) is a good deal. No need to slime it up by burying the rental requirement in the "buy it now, before fiber comes to your network" promo.
by anon94122 » Mon May 01, 2017 12:14 pm
So without the modem rental, everything up to the ONT is covered for service (including truck rolls to cover anything failed up to the ONT).
Does this sound correct?
by amayfield » Mon May 01, 2017 12:20 pm
Up to and including the ONT - if there is a problem that requires a dispatch we won't charge for it, regardless if you're in the rental program or not. Issues on the LAN requiring a dispatch do incur a charge if you aren't in the rental program.
Andrew M.
Community & Escalations Manager
Sonic
by anon94122 » Mon May 01, 2017 12:28 pm
Thanks for the clarification!
by dpifko » Sat May 06, 2017 10:06 am
Thanks, Andrew. I like my new Sonic. Thanks for rolling out earlier than expected.
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