"Confirm your Sonic contact information" mesage

[rcoaster]

Hi all-

I got an e-mail message from Sonic titled "Confirm your Sonic contact information". Let's see, I have wired service, so obviously my address did not change, and my bill has been paid, so obviously my payment account information has not changed. I sent the response below. I appreciate any comments you may have. Thanks!

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Hi-

Since I received your message and because I have not told you that I moved, by definition, my contact information is correct, thank you.

I hold Sonic to a high standard for customer service, because your company has earned this respect. However, I will not "follow the link" or log on to "confirm" my information. The reason is, that --every-- other company that --ever-- has asked me to "update" or "confirm" my information, has in fact only wanted to try yet, yet, yet again to badger me into giving them my -cell phone number-. EVERY time, that is the first thing they push for, relentlessly.

I thoroughly hope that Sonic is/was not going to ask me that same question as well, but I am not going to go and find out. I am happy if you will comment on my notes above, and if you include me in your list of people who have truly confirmed their contact information. Thank you!

Chris
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[rcoaster]

I got a nice, quick reply from Sonic customer service. I should be all set now.

[dane]

Yes, getting a good cell number on every account is a goal, because we now have automated outage notifications that provide updates on the repair progress until it’s complete. Goal is to provide proactive service, where WE notice the issue rather than customers wondering what’s going on and having to contact us.

Related: I hate squirrels.

[virtualmike]

...--every-- other company that --ever-- has asked me to "update" or "confirm" my information, has in fact only wanted to try yet, yet, yet again to badger me into giving them my -cell phone number...

Notwithstanding Dane's response below, get a Google Voice number. 98% of the time, that will be accepted as a mobile number. You will need to provide a number that Google can verify to get the GV number, but once that's done, you can ignore incoming calls and texts.

[rcoaster]

Thank you for the suggestion, Mike. I do already have a Google Voice number, and indeed, I have used it in cases where I truly had no choice but to risk exposing a text-capable number to undesired organizations/people. (I do not consider Sonic to be "undesired", of course, but I also see no reason whatsoever for them or any other business to use this most-intrusive-possible method to make contact with me.) If my Google number ever does get compromised, I can just burn it/ignore it and get a new one, yes.

[virtualmike]

... If my Google number ever does get compromised, I can just burn it/ignore it and get a new one, yes.

And you may not need to do that! If you start getting calls from just a few numbers, you can block them. Only if your number gets on a list that is sold would you need to do the nuclear option.

[kgc]

I'll just add that while we do want to collect valid SMS capable numbers like Dane said, we also want people to review their contact information to ensure that additional contact email addresses and voice number are correct. This helps ensure that important things like failed payment notifications actually reach you as well as ensuring that you're able to recover your account password on your own and that these contacts are able to be used for MFA.

[virtualmike]

Last time I logged into members.sonic.net, I was challenged to verify my contact info, and for some reason, my "Current Email Contacts" field was empty. I added my primary account email address, and it's still reflected there, but I have no idea why it disappeared. I was still receiving monthly billing statements, so it was somewhere in the system, but not on https://members.sonic.net/account/member_info/ .

[rcoaster]

Thank you all for your comments and suggestions. Dane and Kelsey, I understand the potential of the repair-status system if it should come up. Maybe it is mostly just me, having ADHD, which makes me want to go to obsessive/extreme methods to -reduce- any and all "information provided to me before I asked". For all of those who would highly appreciate a 9 AM message "your service will be restored by 12 PM" followed by a 10:30 message "your service will be restored at 11 AM", such messages would drive me rip-roaring, utterly crazy. E-mail updates are ideal in my case.

Mike, you make a good point about just blocking rare, intrusive numbers. I hope to remember that if/when I have my first bad text experience with my Google number. Thanks!

And for Dane, one more thought. If single-mode fiber did not taste so darn much like peanuts, you would not have to hate squirrels!