Unexpected change of Sonic Mobile/Desktop Communicator Policy

[amayfield]

I am one of the folks who composes and posts the MOTD's from the Support side of things, for example if there is a service outage during business hours usually it's someone from my team that posts the MOTD. Which is one of the reasons why I am engaging in this thread, part of my job is customer experience and communication. You've made some good suggestions and given us some things to think about, and I'll continue to advocate for clarity with regard to customer communications.

[klui]

Here's a new twist. I got email on Thursday from Ray in Tech Support:

"I put forward your request for a means to increase the limit on devices for our VOIP services but that currently is not an option. I do see 4 devices connected to your voice service currently so one should be kicked off soon. I apologize for the lack of forewarning on this change."

What's the actual policy here? This is really upsetting and I'm really refraining from dropping f-bombs.

Please establish and communicate a clear path forward and avoid ambiguities.

[klui]

It's happened again. The system "forgot" I'm "allowed" more than 3 devices connecting to your VoIP system and my PC shows No Network Connection. Logged off from my phone and the PC connection works, then my phone can't connect.

[amayfield]

Thanks for the report Klui. We double checked the settings and your account is still set for 5 concurrent sessions. How many devices / concurrent sessions where you attempting to open?

[klui]

Just 4. I couldn't sleep that day and I now turn off my computer. When I turned it on I noticed the app launched and then within 30 seconds the notification appeared. It happened maybe 3-4 days prior to that but I ignored it and the next day things were fine. This time, though I decided to see if it was a problem with the number of connected devices and sure enough it turned out it was.

If the system says I am allowed more than 3 but doesn't work at around odd hours, it almost seem as though the system defaults to 3 and some back end automation modifies the default after maintenance or something like that.

It was fine the following day.

[amayfield]

The "reverting at night to 3 concurrent sessions then back to 5 in the morning" scenario was one we considered and looked into but we didn't find any compelling evidence that something like that had happened. Not to say it hasn't been happening, just the information available to us didn't suggest it has been.

The team I'm working with to resolve this issue has asked for some additional details - specifically as precise a timestamp of an occurrence of this issue as you can feasibly provide (and as close to when it occurred as possible). And they request a list of your devices that are connecting, specifically the make / model of your phones, the OS version being run, etc. Feel free to PM me that info to keep it off the public board.

[klui]

The time period when this occurred was probably within an hour before I posted my message on Sept 26 at 10:58 PM. The 4 devices are:

1. My ATA
2. My wife's cell - Huawei Mate SE running EMUI 8, Android 8 and Sonic Mobile Communicator 2.31.08 build 42
3. My cell - iPhone 7 running iOS 14.0.1 and Sonic Mobile Communicator 2.31.06 build 013
4. My PC - Windows PC running Windows 10 1909 and Sonic Desktop Communicator 2.31.12.6

[amayfield]

Thank you for providing all that info! I've passed it along to the folks I'm working with. I'll follow up once I have more information for you.

[klui]

It happened just now when I booted up my system. I get a No phone connection error on my PC. My iPhone has a connection.

EDIT: The situation when this occurred was I left my home earlier today and took my cell. My PC was never turned on until now. I came back and I presumed that my cell's connection through Sonic Mobile Communicator was re-established. I never checked. Then I turned on my PC and saw the message. I got a phone call and my cell rang through Sonic Mobile Communicator. Earlier while I was out, my cell also rang through Sonic Mobile Communicator.

[amayfield]

It looks like your iPhone is opening multiple sessions. One thing we'd like to try out is you uninstalling the Sonic Mobile Communicator app from the iPhone, re-install it, and test to see if the issue persists.