Fusion price increase and fiber expansion

[anthonyinsf]

I do not recall notice of this. I think it is wrong just to blindside customers with an increase. I understand the reasoning behind the increase now, and I'm fine with it. It would have been appropriate to announce this a couple of months prior. Were you afraid customers would cancel?

[pockyken007]

So let me get this straight the same users who complain about subsidizing somebody else build out and are quitting in throngs are ok with somebody else subsidizing their build out and then coming back ? #LogicFTW.

Why not? Some of those now signing up for Sonic Fiber may have chosen Comcast precisely because of poor Sonic speeds, and now that Fiber is being deployed, they're jumping (back) on the bandwagon. I know this is the case for at least one person because my friend left Sonic when he moved. He signed up for Comcast because he went from 12Mbps with Sonic to 2.5Mbps (max) at his new location. Do you fault someone who telecommutes for jumping off the bandwagon when they can't get a solid 2Mbps without constant resyncs? I don't - I call it common (consumer) sense. If I were Sonic, would I blame him for "leeching" off of other Sonic subscribers now that he's signed up for Fiber? I wouldn't because I'd be happy to have him back as a paying customer.

I am not including new users in this equation as it is not their fault they joined just now but since they joined they are now contributing to the future build out ... so they are doing something good

So how is it that those who come back aren't in the same boat of contributing to the future build out?

... also if you read Dane's post carefully you would notice he mentions it several times that the reason for increase is that they don't have enough capital to continue the build out so leaving is now is like shooting yourself in the leg , by leaving you are hindering progress of the build out ... therefore ultimately you are hindering yourself or the guy next door from getting fiber.

Sure, but Sonic is a business, not an NGO, co-op, nor commune. It's great that they have fans - I'm still rooting for them - but they provide a service in exchange for hard-earned dollars. They are *NOT* the only company working towards better connectivity options for Bay Areans either, so I don't think anyone is doing their community any harm if they jumped to LMI (an ISP that is deploying fiber in the East Bay) or Monkeybrains (a SF WISP that would love to micro-trench fiber).

Also as a counter argument one could argue that " haves " should not be paying for " have nots " basically speaking using the same logic that " have nots " are using and reversing it ... give me one good reason why somebody who already has fiber should be paying for somebody who doesn't ? If I already have my " toy " what reason aside from being an altruist is there for me to subsidize the " have nots " ?

To use another analogy, that's "robbing" (or "extorting") from the poor and giving to the rich, which is why so many people are averse to the idea.

As for me being a member I have two residences in San Francisco ( both of them in the avenues area ) one used to be my primary address till I got married and moved out ( my parents took over my old lease and live at my old place now ) . We have been sonic customers at my old residence since the last few months of 2009 ( would have to look up exact date but as far as I remember it was 10/2009 ) and at my new residence since 2 years ago when I moved in there with my wife . I have also converted 3 friends to sonic and advocated for Sonic at city hall meetings and my local community meetings ( which lead to some more people joining in ) so yeah I think I " contributed " enough

I applaud you for your enthusiastic support - both financially and in community meetings - and I can understand your frustration with what you perceive to be an inequity of contributions to Sonic's mission, as well as your concern that others would be left out. Your dismissive tone is doing nothing to convince them to stay, however.

The method by which Sonic decides where to build out Fiber is far from equitable - although definitely sustainable for the business. Customers in low(er)-uptake areas are asked to rally on Sonic's behalf, very often in great futility because those areas are generally under-served by Sonic and will continue to be under-served, as they aren't provably, economically viable. Customers in those areas should not have to rally the troops to sign up for inferior service so that Sonic can be convinced to deploy their infrastructure to their neighborhoods - they should convinced to sign up/stay with compelling value, and not some vague promise. If I were to rally the troops, I'd much rather create a co-op to augment Sonic's efforts, as they will not be deploying Fiber to the Southeastern districts of SF anytime soon.

I'll put my money where my mouth is again, though - if Sonic wants to crowd-source Fiber roll-outs (the right way, with minimal risk to business and customer), I'm willing to pay a $2,500 installation fee (like I did with Monkeybrains) if they'll deploy in my neighborhood within the next six months. I'm sure there would be many others like me at lower pledge points. In this regard, Monkeybrains has done a much better job of convincing adopters to sign up, as there is a measurable benefit on both sides of the transaction. I'm rehashing my older statements and arguments, but so are you.

Thank you for a well thought out post , While I do agree with some of your points ( like speed VS distance VS cost aka users too far from CO or the ones who get speeds below X speed , let's say 25 MBPS should not be affected by the price increase , also users who are nowhere near getting their fiber in the near future AND have crappy speeds should not be affected as well , I also agree that the price for fiber could be increased as the service is amazing and to be honest I wouldn't have a problem paying 50-70$ for fiber line - that would also create additional revenue for sonic while still being relatively competitive on the market . )

Some of the points I do not agree with but for the sake of not rehashing the same old arguments over and over and over again I'll just say we'll agree to disagree and move on to see what the future brings .

[keaton]

What are we doing?

Since launching in 2010, Fusion broadband and phone service has remained at a fixed price, with the standard level of residential service costing $40 monthly. Now, as we head into 2017, we are implementing our first Fusion price increase, ever. Beginning in February, the price for Sonic’s Fusion services will increase by $10 monthly.
.

I stumbled across this forum entry now - today (Feb 7) because we noticed a price increase on our most recent bill.

I do not have issue with Sonic raising its prices - I DO however, take great exception at the lack of notification. I don't expect to have to go to the forums after-the-fact to find out about something I have already paid for.

It worries me that Sonic didn't at least send out an email blast to existing customers at the same time Dane posted this forum post notifying existing customers of the change.

I stay with Sonic for many reasons, cost just being one of them. I like that you are just down the street and I get great support when I call - better yet that it is local - not overseas or even a different state. I realize these things cost more. I deeply appreciate Sonic's commitment to customer privacy !

I am a little concerned about the (lack of !) communication about the price increase, concerned that it might be a symptom of something more systemic and I hope that I can rely on Sonic to continue to keep its promises to customer privacy, and that it isn't just going to become something Sonic is careless about, as it appears to me they were careless about notifying me about that additional money was going to be leaving my bank account from this month forward!

Proper communication and privacy are at least as important as price points and service quality to me. Please assure me that these standards will be upheld going forward.

Thank you.

[keaton]

A couple more points...

1) It would have been simple to just add a notification to the email invoice-receipt and more reliable than a separate email, as I would have noticed if I did not receive the expected invoice-receipt.

2) Sonic's home page still advertises the $40 rate and makes no mention that the price will go up. In fact, I manage my Mom's Sonic account which we set up last Fall and I just noticed her bill has two line items - one for a $50 base rate and one for a $10 credit saying it is a 12 month introductory discount. I KNOW when I set that up for her, there was no mention of it being an Introductory rate.

I like to believe in the integrity of companies I do business with. This looks (at best) careless, or (at worst) like a bait-and-switch. It may just be that Sonic is using a 3rd party billing service or some other issue (giving the benefit of the doubt) so I am writing this to bring it to Sonic's attention so they might address this multiple level communication disconnect with both their existing and potential customers.

[parker_day]

1) It would have been simple to just add a notification to the email invoice-receipt and more reliable than a separate email, as I would have noticed if I did not receive the expected invoice-receipt.

Unless I'm misunderstanding you, that's exactly what they did. From the top of the January invoice email:

Sonic's mission is to deliver fast, uncapped and unlimited service
for a fair price, with the ultimate goal of delivering Gigabit
service over Sonic fiber. Since its launch in 2010, Fusion
broadband and phone service's price has remained the same even
though we've invested in new features and added value. However,
we've found it necessary to increase the price by between $10.00
and $10.05 a month for renewals starting in February. This
increase will support our continued growth, ongoing fiber
construction projects and over 350 local employees.

[keaton]

You are right, Parker, it is in there. I must say, however, a block of text like that with no "NOTICE" and a lot of verbiage is going to get overlooked. To compound the problem, the following invoice had another block of text that didn't repeat the information but said "like we said on our last invoice...." so, I concede, it was there. I missed it. I missed it even today when I was looking for it. Again, this is about clear communication. I am a little more relieved that it is there, now I see it, but I encourage Sonic to look at how to improve their communication skills, i.e. putting "NOTICE" in front of that big block of text so one doesn't assume it is another boilerplate yada yada and second, to make sure the website information about services and pricing is at least accurate and could even be improved by putting the same notice on the webpage where one sees service pricing. But thank you. I'll stand down now.

[dane]

We did make changes based upon member feedback here from folks who didn't see the notice in the last week in December, so all of the notices in invoices sent in January have a new subject line to call attention to the fact that a notice is included.

[pockyken007]

Honestly I don't think it was Sonic intention to blind side or " scam " the end users , and more like just a failure in terms of communicating the increase to all end users in a way that would be CLEAR . Said that I believe that SONIC learned their lesson from this ( seeing Dane responding and giving feedback is a good indication of that - Thank you Dane for being active and always forthcoming , that's what I appreciate about SONIC ) . Hopefully moving forward the communication between SONIC and end users especially about issues that directly impact end users will be more clear

[GREED]

DISSAPOINTED

[d3liam0ll0y]

I just switched to Sonic because I found paying for internet alone was becoming cost prohibitive with Comcast--they wouldn't unbundle my internet service from cable TV--which I don't use--I don't even own a TV. I only need internet. In addition, I haven't had a landline for 15 years; I don't need one. I thought that I was getting away from paying for something that I didn't need or want by switching to Sonic; however, now I see that I'm in the same position: I'm paying for a phone service I don't use and also experiencing the same price increases that will slowly bring me back to the same price I was paying with Comcast. You need to unbundle your services. I'm going to check out my options again.
Delia Molloy--a disappointed customer
San Francisco