No discount for long-term sonic net users

[lelandv]

Recently, I had a strange experience. I sought to change from a slow, antiquated DSL line that delivered about 2 megabytes per minute to something more respectable. I took the leap and signed up at the Sonic site for the Fusion X for 70 dollars per month not including the required add ons that brings the bill to about 86 dollars per month. In any case, later in the same day, I run across the webpage, signup.sonic.net which provides both new and existing customers a 10 dollar discount per month for the same service I signed up for earlier in the day.
Naturally I wanted to take advantage of the discount. The signup page included existing customers and when I entered my user name, the page completed my identifying information, including the last four digits of my credit card. However, I was reluctant to go ahead with the sign-up deal without talking to a customer representative to see if I could take advantage of the discount without having to void the earlier request and sign-up anew. I was told that's not possible. The offer was only for new customers, even though that's not what the sign-up page stated. So I raise the question, why should not existing customers get the same discount as new customers when an upgrade to service (and cost) is offered. Sonic net seems to be taking long-term users for granted. We need a little sugar too.

[dane]

Each customer gets a discount once - when they initially sign up. So for example for your account, the offer you got in 2013 was a month of free service, a $39.95 credit. Offers vary over time, sometimes they're a month or two free, sometimes they're a monthly discount for a period of time. But each is a one-time event - we don't provide new customer offers to existing customers.

Part of this is business viability (we couldn't keep going as a business if we reduced everyone's price), part is marketing (it takes a compelling offer to get someone to switch from another service), and part is fairness to our members overall.

The last point is key: it is typical in the industry to offer re-rates and save offers to SOME customers, the ones who complain or ask for it or threaten to cancel if their price isn't reduced. We don't feel that this is fair to ALL of our customers, and it also doesn't make for a great place to work for our staff. Instead, we have a one-time promotional offer for each new members, but then all of our members get the same terms ongoing.

There's another layer to this concept of fairness: if YOU get a lower rate, to keep the business online, someone (everyone) else must pay more to make up for that. That's a bit corrosive to a community of members with a common goal: fast, reliable service with improving technology and great customer care. Those things have a cost, and it is not reasonable that those who complain pay less while those who do not bear the resulting higher cost.

I hope this makes sense, and seems reasonable to you. These values are something we've certainly thought a lot about over the years.

[Breda305]

Hello,
This response Is painfully out of touch and quite defensive. Sorry to know, but good to know more about your company.
Sincerely,
Breda

[dane]

Hello,
This response Is painfully out of touch and quite defensive. Sorry to know, but good to know more about your company.
Sincerely,
Breda

Breda, sorry to hear you feel that way. I hear horror stories from people about their experiences calling and fighting with the Cable company every year in order to keep a fair price. It seems to be something people hate most about that business.

[Sonic Guest]

This response Is painfully out of touch and quite defensive. Sorry to know, but good to know more about your company.

I find Dane's response thoughtful and reasonable.