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International phone call bad data connection

Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2018 8:18 pm
by leekevin
I've been recently having issues with phone calls to landlines in China where I could hear the other party, but they couldn't hear me on the at all. This is occurring on both my Sonic landline and the Sonic Mobile Communicator app. I've contacted support, but apparently this is going around in circles.

The frustrating thing about this issue is that I've contacted Sonic support multiple times regarding this issue and they've told me that they've got the logs, but then I get an email a couple days later telling me to provide even more call samples (even though I've contacted support minutes after I made the call samples!). This has been going on for a three times and I've already provided ten samples. I've pretty much given up on providing call samples since by the time the network ops get to it, it's already too old for them to resolve the issue and I don't want to harass any more people because of this issue. I know Sonic can do better, they've resolved issues like this within a week a couple years ago when I had this problem. I've stuck with them for a couple of years since I know they care, but I'm starting to wonder if they can even handle this growth. Honestly, my patience is starting to wear out.

Re: International phone call bad data connection

Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2018 9:42 pm
by liamo
Sorry to see you are having issues getting a good connection internationally. How are local calls? Any issue with those at all?

Have we done basic troubleshooting guides such as factory resetting the phone adapter and as well restarting the modem to establish a new connection? How about a replacement? I checked over the account and do not see any notes on this recently. We have in the past but not now.

We do need fresh 24 hour call examples to determine the issue that is causing this if it is a connection issue to the international provider. I understand it can be a hassle to get call examples quickly that are less than 24 hours old.

The best way to get this fixed it to try the basic troubleshooting steps then to get a hold of support for fresh examples. We do care about getting it fixed as soon as possible but it can take some time to figure out what the cause really is for this issue.

Re: International phone call bad data connection

Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2018 6:00 pm
by leekevin
Hi Liam,

The local calls are doing fine and I don't have any issues with those. I'm only having issues with calls to China on my landline *and* Sonic mobile app.

I've done all the troubleshooting steps, restarting and restarting the modem and ATA, reinstalling the Sonic Mobile app, etc. These steps might not have been recorded since one of the agents that I talked to had to hand over my call to another agent and I completed those steps while he was briefing the other agent. As a result, those steps may not have been recorded in the notes.

I understand that 24 hour rule and get the rationale behind it, but the *real* issue is that by the time the network ops do get to it, the logs are already too old, even though I've called *and* emailed Sonic support *immediately* after I made the call samples. I totally understand that it takes time to resolve these issues, but I can't keep on making call samples if they keep on getting old.

Re: International phone call bad data connection

Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2018 7:16 pm
by liamo
I can understand that reporting the issues over and over again can get tedious especially when no results have been collected.

At least all of the troubleshooting steps have been completed besides our backend issues.

I would give our tech support a call one more time with 24 hour examples between Monday-Thursday preferably in the morning so our NetOps team can figure out the issue and work on getting this finally resolved.

I thank you for understanding and want to get this fixed as soon as possible. You can even post on this thread when you sent over the examples and I can reach out to our Netops to expedite the request since it has been happening for so long.

Re: International phone call bad data connection

Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2018 8:12 am
by leekevin
Hi Liam,

I wanted to provide an update for this situation. I just made two call samples via my landline; however, the calls went through normally and we were able to hear each other loud and clear. Though I do want to stress that due to timezone differences, I typically call in the evening (PST) and not in the morning. I'll go ahead and repeat this next week so that it'll still be within 24 hours of Monday-Thursday work hours and let you know updates then.

Thanks.

Re: International phone call bad data connection

Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2018 1:03 pm
by liamo
The timezone does play a major part in getting good data and that is totally understandable.

Thank you for understanding and glad to see it has been working for the most part.

Re: International phone call bad data connection

Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2018 2:13 pm
by leekevin
Hi Liam,

I made another call to the number that was previously not working last night (PST) and it appears to now work. At the same time, I had asked the other party to tell me my caller ID and it is now reporting my Sonic number (formerly it was a random number in China). I had previously reported the caller ID issue to as part of this ticket, so fixing that probably fixed the underlying issue that caused the call issues. I think we're good for now, thanks for you help!

Re: International phone call bad data connection

Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2018 7:43 pm
by liamo
That's great news!

That could very well been the issue with the caller ID having a mix up. If this matter happens again you know what to do to help us look into it!

Feel free to respond back to this thread for other questions or concerns you may have in the future.

Re: International phone call bad data connection

Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2018 6:32 pm
by leekevin
Hi Liam,

I did another call literally minutes ago and the same issue came back (I can hear them, they can't hear me). This time I was able to get a friend in China to verify that my caller ID was indeed correct, so this is probably another issue.

Thanks!

Re: International phone call bad data connection

Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2018 6:38 pm
by leekevin
Just to add onto the post, here were the methods of calling that I tried:

- Sonic mobile app via my mobile network
- Sonic mobile app via home wifi and VPN
- Sonic mobile app via home wifi
- Wired landline
- Cordless landline

Add had the same effect (or lack thereof).