I like Sonic. It is the ISP whom I compare against others. But recently things have changed that is concerning to me.
Back on August 10, I noticed my Sonic Desktop Communicator app (Accession/MaX UC) said I had no phone connection. It was strange because it worked for years ever since I upgraded from DSL to resold AT&T VDSL. The symptoms were I could authenticate and login. Providing a bad password gave the expected results. After login, after 15-30 seconds the app would tell me I have no network connection. The recent caller list would refresh within those initial seconds after login. I created a ticket to Sonic Tech Support but after about an hour my connection was fine again. The issue popped up again several days ago. I reverted to the previous version of MaX UC as well as the Sonic-branded version to no avail.
Last night I spoke with James towards the end of TS's business hours and asked him to inform me when it's convenient for him to do more investigation. He did so after hours and told me the root cause through email. Sonic used to allow up to 5 connections to their Metaswitch platform (including the ATA) and they had changed their policy from 5 to 3. Our household had 4 devices connected:
Here's the thing. If Sonic's operations notified their customers over this new limit a month before the policy change went into effect, it would have saved people like me and James the time needed to chase something that is not an actual problem.
What was the reason for this change? My beef here is why is the ATA included in that limit? We are probably one of the diminishing households who still relies on a landline. Granted the app is a convenience. More so on my desktop because I can use it while someone is using our home phone.
The second issue unrelated to voice is the new policy of this forum. Sonic used to allow guest logins but I don't see that option anymore. Again, a stickied post on the General forums would have been appreciated. Sonic prides itself in being transparent to their customers and these two recent examples are behaviors that go against the Sonic that I know.
If @dane is reading this, nip this lack of transparency in the bud. Ensure changes to policies are clearly communicated to affected customers in a timely manner: post in forums through stickied posts, use targeted email distributions. What's next? Change in usage caps policy?
Back on August 10, I noticed my Sonic Desktop Communicator app (Accession/MaX UC) said I had no phone connection. It was strange because it worked for years ever since I upgraded from DSL to resold AT&T VDSL. The symptoms were I could authenticate and login. Providing a bad password gave the expected results. After login, after 15-30 seconds the app would tell me I have no network connection. The recent caller list would refresh within those initial seconds after login. I created a ticket to Sonic Tech Support but after about an hour my connection was fine again. The issue popped up again several days ago. I reverted to the previous version of MaX UC as well as the Sonic-branded version to no avail.
Last night I spoke with James towards the end of TS's business hours and asked him to inform me when it's convenient for him to do more investigation. He did so after hours and told me the root cause through email. Sonic used to allow up to 5 connections to their Metaswitch platform (including the ATA) and they had changed their policy from 5 to 3. Our household had 4 devices connected:
- The ATA
- My wife's phone
- My cell phone
- My desktop computer
Here's the thing. If Sonic's operations notified their customers over this new limit a month before the policy change went into effect, it would have saved people like me and James the time needed to chase something that is not an actual problem.
What was the reason for this change? My beef here is why is the ATA included in that limit? We are probably one of the diminishing households who still relies on a landline. Granted the app is a convenience. More so on my desktop because I can use it while someone is using our home phone.
The second issue unrelated to voice is the new policy of this forum. Sonic used to allow guest logins but I don't see that option anymore. Again, a stickied post on the General forums would have been appreciated. Sonic prides itself in being transparent to their customers and these two recent examples are behaviors that go against the Sonic that I know.
If @dane is reading this, nip this lack of transparency in the bud. Ensure changes to policies are clearly communicated to affected customers in a timely manner: post in forums through stickied posts, use targeted email distributions. What's next? Change in usage caps policy?