Price Increase for Renewals But Still Advertised at $40/month?

General discussions and other topics.
14 posts Page 1 of 2
by aznliboi689 » Wed Mar 15, 2017 12:49 pm
I just noticed in this month's bill that you guys wrote that price will be increased by about $10 for renewals starting in February. Totally my mistake for not reading last month's bill for the warning...but why is it still advertised at $40/month if it's been increased? I know it said for "renewals", but shouldn't the price increase be passed along to everyone even new members? Or will the $40/month for new members be only for a certain period of time before they get bumped up $10 too?
by dct » Wed Mar 15, 2017 1:59 pm
> Or will the $40/month for new members be only for a certain period of time before they get bumped up $10 too?

This is correct. There is currently a $10 off promotion for new customers. Once they are out of their first year, their price will then revert to the normal monthly rate.
Dan T.
Community & Escalations Manager
707-547-3400
@Sonic
by wjquan » Thu Mar 16, 2017 8:02 pm
Existing members should be allowed to request a new contract once it expires. Saving $10 is still saving $10. If Comcast can lower their subscription price when someone asks via customer support, Sonic should be able to offer the same thing. Not saying it should be advertised but allowed if a customer calls in to request it. Sonic is already a great ISP. Deciding to do this would make it even better.
by dane » Thu Mar 16, 2017 9:22 pm
wjquan wrote:Existing members should be allowed to request a new contract once it expires. Saving $10 is still saving $10. If Comcast can lower their subscription price when someone asks via customer support, Sonic should be able to offer the same thing. Not saying it should be advertised but allowed if a customer calls in to request it. Sonic is already a great ISP. Deciding to do this would make it even better.
We have an opinion on that, here's my write-up:

What about re-rates or retention offers?

It has become commonplace in our industry to offer lower pricing to customers who call to complain about price, particularly if they threaten to cancel service. This is an unpleasant process for both customers and staff of the competitors, but more importantly, it is not fair to those who do not call, who are not aware a lower price is available if only they had called and spent significant time and effort threatening cancellation.

Instead, I hope that every customer will understand our mission, the quality local customer service we deliver, and both the value of our service and the values of our company. Out of concern for what is fair and right for all of our members, and the work environment for our staff, we are not offering a lower price to members who contact us to press for one.
Dane Jasper
Sonic
by wjquan » Fri Mar 17, 2017 7:22 pm
Dane,

I understand your explanation of wanting to be fair to all customers. However, how is offering new members service for $60 a month for a year fair to the rest of Sonic's members who aren't on contract? I get you want to attract new members and offering a discount gets people to sign up but that discount isn't fair to existing members, which includes people who've been with sonic for years. If you want to be fair to everyone you can ditch the $10 discount for new subscribers. Do that and it'll be fair for everyone and you probably won't see anymore posts about the price hike.
by shipo99 » Tue Mar 21, 2017 11:09 am
dct wrote:> Or will the $40/month for new members be only for a certain period of time before they get bumped up $10 too?

This is correct. There is currently a $10 off promotion for new customers. Once they are out of their first year, their price will then revert to the normal monthly rate.
I don't see a little asterisk stating that in the ad/page, do you?
by shipo99 » Tue Mar 21, 2017 11:29 am
One of the things I hated about ComCast was the constant dance that had to be played to get a proper price. Sonic cost more, but it was always stable. Now you are telling me that I have to play the dance here too? This is crazy!

We signed up for the $40 rate. One day the priced jumped 25% without notice. When we go to the website there's no indication that the "real" rate is $50. It says exactly the rate which we thought we were paying. There's no little asterisk stating that the $40 rate is a special deal. In fact it goes on to say the Internet should be affordable. Does an unannounced 25% jump sound like we should be understanding?

I really hate the fact that I'm now forced to think about changing my ISP. GBS is suppose to be something that Sonic wasn't going to engage. :(

dane wrote:
wjquan wrote:Existing members should be allowed to request a new contract once it expires. Saving $10 is still saving $10. If Comcast can lower their subscription price when someone asks via customer support, Sonic should be able to offer the same thing. Not saying it should be advertised but allowed if a customer calls in to request it. Sonic is already a great ISP. Deciding to do this would make it even better.
We have an opinion on that, here's my write-up:

What about re-rates or retention offers?

It has become commonplace in our industry to offer lower pricing to customers who call to complain about price, particularly if they threaten to cancel service. This is an unpleasant process for both customers and staff of the competitors, but more importantly, it is not fair to those who do not call, who are not aware a lower price is available if only they had called and spent significant time and effort threatening cancellation.

Instead, I hope that every customer will understand our mission, the quality local customer service we deliver, and both the value of our service and the values of our company. Out of concern for what is fair and right for all of our members, and the work environment for our staff, we are not offering a lower price to members who contact us to press for one.
by dct » Wed Mar 22, 2017 12:23 pm
shipo99 wrote:
dct wrote:> Or will the $40/month for new members be only for a certain period of time before they get bumped up $10 too?

This is correct. There is currently a $10 off promotion for new customers. Once they are out of their first year, their price will then revert to the normal monthly rate.
I don't see a little asterisk stating that in the ad/page, do you?
The baseline introductory cost for service is $40/mo for the first year, which is why our ads state from $40. If you use our availability checker to determine whether or not service is available in your area, you'll get more information about the available services, and the cost. Here's a screenshot of what it looks like:
SonicAvailability.png
SonicAvailability.png (84.57 KiB) Viewed 3731 times
shipo99 wrote:Now you are telling me that I have to play the dance here too? This is crazy!
Actually, just the opposite! We're not a fan of that dance either. This is an across the board price increase, not a re-term dance. Some providers will continue to raise rates, year after year, sneak them in, and train customers to call in to yell, scream, and threaten to cancel to bring them back into term at the current rate. This isn't what we're doing - we're adjusting the price to better reflect the cost of providing this service, the level of support we provide, the cost of expansion, and the cost of investing in new technology, such as our Gigabit Fiber service.
shipo99 wrote:We signed up for the $40 rate. One day the priced jumped 25% without notice.
I'm sorry if the price increase came as a surprise. We did attempt to notify you a month in advance of the impending price increase, as we sent a notification alongside your invoice. That said, if you weren't aware of it, that means we could have done better, and will use your feedback moving forward to better inform our customers.

Please let me know if you have any questions, and thanks for taking the time to voice your concerns here.
Dan T.
Community & Escalations Manager
707-547-3400
@Sonic
by dmacdoug » Wed May 17, 2017 5:53 pm
Is there a pricing page anywhere on your website? I want to know the price of services some of which are not yet available in my area and I'd rather not have to play the game of making up phony addresses to get the Check Availability page to tell me the price of individual services. There must be a list of prices somewhere, but I have wasted too much time looking and haven't found it yet.
by danielg4 » Wed May 17, 2017 6:34 pm
dmacdoug wrote:Is there a pricing page anywhere on your website? I want to know the price of services some of which are not yet available in my area and I'd rather not have to play the game of making up phony addresses to get the Check Availability page to tell me the price of individual services. There must be a list of prices somewhere, but I have wasted too much time looking and haven't found it yet.
Granted that you can call them to ask any price, and they will tell you, I agree that it would be convenient to see them all at a glance. That said, I'm reasonably sure that the CPUC requires that every CLEC publish their tariffs. A .pdf of that online would be better than nothing.
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