Lessons learnt while signing up for Sonic service

[fourthwall]

I learnt a hard lesson when signing up for Sonic Fusion service.

I will give you a little bit background and why I was frustrated and finally decided to cancel the application.

After reading glowing reviews about Sonic service, I decided to cancel my Comcast service and submitted the application 10 days back. The support mailed me that service will be available in 5 days. Meanwhile I initiated cancellation of my Comcast service as it takes 7 days.

Sonic came back saying that service can be only by Mar 7th and I was still ok for 2 days delay. Meanwhile Comcast disconnected my service and I was out of any network connectivity.

On Mar 7th I received a mail that service is up but unfortunately it is not. I complained about it and they said ATT is to blame. On Mar 8th, I came home expecting service to be up but it still isn't. I was told there is a problem in ATT again about some port switch and it will take 3-4 business days. Meanwhile to complete my office work in night, I was commuting 12 miles to and fro to office since there is no internet connectivity at home. So my schedule from past 5 days is work in office from 10-6pm, come home and have dinner and go to office again at 9pm and come back by 12am. So, yesterday after hearing that the problem can be resolved only after 4 business days I felt totally frustrated and escalated the issue.

On Mar 9th they came back saying that ATT checked the issue but the actual problem is with Sonic equipment itself and the problem will not be resolved till Monday. This is after 10 days of raising the request and 4 days after confirming that my service is up. I am totally pissed off by this time and I did went overboard in my calls to Sonic. But my frustration is to talk to some higher ups so that the issue gets some visibility.

But Sonic's supervisors decided that they can discriminate against my calls and told all agents to disconnect if I call without hearing what I am saying. Before listening to anything I said, just on hearing my user name, they started disconnecting the call. This is from a company which prides itself on customer service. I accept that there was a mistake on my side but I was never treated like this before by any company in the worst of the scenarios.

I am frustrated by this unprofessional behavior and called Comcast and reinstated my service. Of course I have to pay installation charges of $60 and higher monthly charges. All this for nothing and 7 days of no internet and mental agony.

So that is when I called Sonic to cancel my service and before hearing me they started disconnecting the call again.

PS: Its ironic in hindsight that I suggested your service to couple of my colleagues last week even before trying Sonic's service. Now I will feel like a fool if they ask me next week how Sonic service is working.

PS 2: When you purchase a modem for them beware. When first time I called they said Modem price is $39.99 and I told them that I will call back later to order the modem as I was still thinking whether to purchase from Best Buy or Sonic. I decided to order Modem from Sonic and called them back and this time they said the price is $49.99 and when I told the previous agent said that its 39.99, then the agent changed the price from 49.99 to 39.99 and a shipping charge of 12.99. I didn't know that there is such a high shipping charge and I hung up on the order. Third time ,after researching there is no good modem to buy from Best Buy, I called back Sonic and this time the price changed to 19.99 plus 12.99 shipping which I ordered (all this before I eventually cancelled the whole Sonic service). So, when you order modem make sure you are getting the right price.

[rnovak]

I am totally pissed off by this time and I did went overboard in my calls

I'm not sure how to read this, but if you got abusive or obnoxious with them, I completely understand why they wouldn't want to subject their employees to continued abuse.

And it's hardly their problem if you turned off your previous internet before getting the new stuff... would you sell your car a week before buying a new one and cuss out the car dealer if it wasn't ready immediately? (Probably, huh?)

[GuestArty]

I have switched ISPs several times and I would never, ever cancel my previous service without having the new one up and running first. There's way too much that can and does go wrong. It's just not a good idea.

[gp1628]

I guess he did title it right. "Lessons learnt while signing up for Sonic service".
Altho hopefully he is getting the hints of others here that the lesson learned should not be the lesson he thinks it was.

[dane]

Sorry that things went poorly between our firm and you. We have a firm policy about disconnecting callers who are "overboard", as you say. We won't allow our friendly team members to be subjected to it. It doesn't make for a good workplace if we require the team to be treated badly over the phone. We all work hard to deliver reliable and well priced service, backed by friendly local support. And - the technology or the logistics WILL go wrong from time time, we will make errors, deliver late, screw up billing, etc. When we do, we will work diligently to remedy our errors, fix the technology, wrangle our vendors, etc. But in no case does an "overboard" approach help in getting this done.

-Dane

[saronian]

I'm usually very sympathetic when I read about a troublesome install. But I can't believe you canceled your cable Internet before having a working alternative. I kept my AT&T line for an extra month just to make sure the new Sonic service was working reliably. I did this because my work also requires day and evening Internet access.

I believe Sonic does a good job of coordinating with AT&T but there's only so much they can control.

[fourthwall]

I think I lost my plot while ranting or should have waited couple of days before making a more objective post. But yes, as @gp1628 mentioned, I learnt few lessons and my experience might help future customers. I would summarize it as follows -

1) Never ever cancel your existing ISP connection when you are going for a new Fusion connection. Even though Fusion claims that the connection will be up in 5 days there are lot of unknowns and it can take more than 10 days.

Fortunately or unfortunately in last three years any new service I got (including new car) was in less than 2 days. So I am kind of programmed (or in dreamland) that in 2012 all companies are very efficient and turn around time for any new service is much lesser. But as it happened I was brought down to planet Earth.

One more reason why I had to cancel Comcast is that I don't want to pay any more money to that company than required and thinking a 7 day buffer is good enough. I am paying in the range of 150+ dollars and I don't want to pay for both Comcast and Sonic services at the same time. Was just trying to save some money.

2) When buying modem from Fusion, be very sure you are getting right price by contacting different agents. Not sure why different agents give different prices (when asked about this, one agent replied that systems didn't get upgraded with new price and the next agent I called quoted a much lesser price) but this is something you might want to double check.

3) Don't expect any outstanding customer service from Fusion (YMMV). They are like any other company, being small helps them now to give a better service than rest, but in the end its still the same humans behind those telephone lines.

I am not saying this out of the bitterness but there are few things which they could have done "normal". They are transparent, yes, but only in call wait times. When it comes to issues in service to be brought up, no. First two days its blame game with ATT and the next the blame game is on "other" departments. At the end, the issue is with Sonic only and seems more like a basic fix. That bring up my fourth point -

4) There are lots of hoops to jump before the service is up. Its basically a trial and error game till they figure out what is the problem. It can range from "Internal wiring problem" of your apartment (funnily that is the first thing they suggested to fix, glad that I didn't ask my apt manager to change it) to "ATT service is bad so it takes 3-4 days". Bottom line, its not your standard ISP installation. They have a strong dependency on ATT to provide a successful connection and if its not ATT issue then it can be anything from your apartment wiring to Sonic's equipment fault. Be ready to play the long game.

Now coming to the accusations of "abuse",when I said "overboard" I didn't mean abuse. Am I an irritated customer, yes? Am I abusive, no. The only time I came close to abuse is when the agent couldn't find my information after spelling my user name 4 times (this is even before all the issues that cropped up later). The reason they started disconnecting my calls is because I asked for a supervisor to talk to and I said I will not be satisfied till I talk to one. Had if they transferred me to a supervisor and gave me an honest timeframe and the effort they are putting behind it, I am as reasonable as the next guy, and would have been a lot happier to wait. I even asked to tell me what's the problem that is holding up (I have some understanding on network issues) so that I can be apprised why it is taking so much time,but I didn't get any response more than that there is a problem. The funny part is once I decided to cancel and after explaining the reason why I am calling (I explained my situation first and my username later so that atleast they will know that I am not calling for status update but to actually cancel) they still gave me the usual script and hung up on me. There is one thing to follow the script and the other to actually listen and take decision accordingly.

Anyway, as with any other service some people get good service,some people bad. Unfortunately in this case I am in the later group. I only hope the lessons I learnt will be useful to any future customers.

[tikvah]

It is certainly possible to have completely different service experiences even with similar situations. But, speaking as someone who is not adverse to emailing or picking up the phone when there is a problem, here's my experience with Sonic.

I've been a Sonic customer for 8 or 9 years. I got Fusion, ummm a year? two years? ago. It took ***FIVE FREAKING MONTHS*** to get my Fusion service after I ordered it. This was entirely AT&T's fault. I wanted to keep my phone number so I had no choice but to wait for them to release it. I couldn't order Fusion then cancel AT&T once Fusion was up (though there were times I wanted to). AT&T is like Network Solutions; they do not tolerate defection. They make it hard on purpose. This isn't the fault of Sonic or anyone else you want to switch to. The only difference is that Sonic does the work with AT&T to make the switch (with Network Solutions last month, I had to do all the work myself and it was a huge PITA). So it makes it appear like it's Sonic that's not doing anything because they're the ones I interacted with.

I have had some BAD customer service in my day. There are some really awful places out there. They range from the super nice reps who promise you everything will get done then they don't actually do anything to the reps who are nasty because they can be and when you threaten to take your business elsewhere, they say "no you won't" because they know what you know, that you're stuck with them.

If my Sonic file were on paper, it would be at least the size of a phone book. I have two accounts with them plus I manage an account for a nonprofit. I had DSL with them and now have Fusion plus the accounts I have are web/email/domain name. I have not always gotten the service I wanted from Sonic (mostly in billing) but I have never once had a rep hang up on me or refuse to help me. When I have experienced techs who couldn't help me, I have never had any problem being transferred to one who could (sometimes that process takes a few days though, when it's something complex). I do try to be polite but I'm sure I have failed on occasion. The Sonic reps have always been patient with me and tried their best, even when I had lost patience over an issue.

I recommend Sonic to all sorts of people. It is not perfect but it's really really good. The biggest selling point for me is the customer service. I tell my friends: if you call them, you will reach a geek in Santa Rosa, not someone in India or Utah who may or may not know what you're talking about. I've had the experience of having a fantastic ISP (Best) that sold out and got horrible (Verio, shudder). So selling point number two is that Dane promises he'll never sell Sonic to some faceless corporation. Sure, he might change his mind some day (or his heirs might) but the fact that I'm referring to the CEO by his first name and I know what he's promised his customers (because he reads feedback and responds to it) is pretty mind-blowing really. Try doing that with the CEO of AT&T. Or even the vice president in charge of network operations in northern Calif.

So vent away; venting is good for the soul. But I think the biggest lesson is about the bad decision to cancel existing service before the new one was up and running, then taking your frustrations about the delay out on the Sonic customer service reps. I was pretty upset for those 5 months I had to wait, but ya know, I had the same service while I was waiting that I had had for years: AT&T's expensive phone service, Working Assets lovely (but not free) long distance, and Sonic's DSL (basically identical to Fusion but not as fast). Had I had a gap in service, I probably would have made you look like sweetness and light. Even though it wouldn't have been the fault of the people who I had the access to.

Cyndi

[amurdoch]

My mileage did very ...

I received a phone call on Sunday afternoon, telling me that ATT were connecting the phone on Monday and when did I want the technician to visit.
Chris the tech came on Tuesday and was very helpful, polite and very professional, he was so good that I sent an email to support to compliment Chris on his conduct.

I then cancelled Comcast ...

After I was on the internet via Sonic.

[lrw]

I have been a sonic customer for 4 or 5 years now and I must say they have about the best customer service and support oaf any company I have dealt with.

I probably shouldn't let Dane see this-as i dont want to encourage him to raise prices but I would pay a premium if I had to to have Sonic instead of AT&T or Comcast.

Lew


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