Fusion price increase and fiber expansion

[pboggini]

I too am not too excited about paying $10 more a month and about noticing it only by seeing the difference in price in my bill. Unfortunately for me, I live in San Jose and I'll bet a pretty large sum of money that Sonic is not coming here any time soon. It's too bad Google Fiber decided to pull the plug as it looked as if I might find joy with them. In the original post Dane shared this link:

https://members.sonic.net/connections/serviceupdate/

for upgrade options. Funny, looks like I can upgrade to VDSL for the same price. Hmm, that sounds enticing. So I chat with the support folks only to find that it's a 12 month agreement after they suggested that with my distance and speeds, VDSL might not really be much of a help. Wait, what? I thought Sonic was different? When you have to force people to keep their service for a period of time it means you are doing something wrong (stick vs. carrot).

If I had any confidence that Sonic would have Fiber in my area ever I might be willing to stick it out. But, I bet anyone the amount equal to the increase in my bill for a year that Sonic won't have Fiber in my area before 2020 if ever. Given this and given that they aren't even willing to just let me switch to VDSL w/o resorting to Comcast/ATT tactics I guess I now have to look into both of them to see what the price difference would actually be.

Dane/Sonic, I'll get back to you. Until then, I'm no longer recommending Sonic to my friends. Yes, any time the subject came up, I was the first to chime in about you. At the very least, don't slap a long time customer in the face with a 12 month contract.

[pockyken007]

I believe you have 30 days to cancel if you switch and you are not satisfied with the service ... so no need to tie yourself to 12 months contract if you don't feel the service is what it supposed to be ...

[pboggini]

Yes you do. I guess my point is that this isn't how Sonic used to be which is sad. They seem to becoming more and more like every other ISP, (introductory rates, term agreements, price increases, forcing one to rent a modem, etc). It's sad that today I can get either ATT (with the unlimited option) or Comcast Business (unlimited) for roughly the same price I'm getting my bonded Fusion which gets me an actual download of 23-25Mb. Both the ATT and Comcast speeds are 50Mbps. Yes, those are theoretical but then so is the Sonic Fusion I have. Oh and yea, I know it's VOIP on the phone but, shrug, I don't care too much about that.

If I honestly believed that Sonic was going to get me fiber anytime before 2030 I might feel like I'm making an investment. Otherwise, I feel like I'm funding something that will never benefit me. I guess I'm looking for a little token of appreciation for me 1) being a long time customer and 2) me helping them fund their fiber rollout which may or may not benefit me (I'm betting not) in the future. The _only_ benefit I see to Sonic in my area is the privacy stance. I have to do an honest assessment to see if I really care that much about it or not.

[miken]

@pboggini

The reason we have a 12 month contract with the upgrade to VDSL is because the upgrade itself costs a fair amount of money (new equipment and the installation of that equipment). We try and avoid installation fees where possible and instead have a 12 month contract so we can make sure we are not losing money on those services.

I took a look at your account and I don't think the switch to VDSL would benefit your line. VDSL only really has improvement within the first few thousand feet from the CO and stops really showing benefit around 3,500-4,000ft. Your loop length is coming up around 5,000ft. However, you do have some pretty good sync rates on your lines and I don't see much saturation on there. If you are noticing speed issues, the bottleneck may be somewhere between the modem and the devices you are using. I'd definitely recommend giving our Support a call or sending me a PM on here to see if we can do anything with the speeds you're currently getting!

[mefriedberg]

I have recently been hit with both the price increase and the drop-off of my introductory rate so instead of about $47 per month, I am now paying about $67 per month! This is a huge increase and, as an almost retired 70 year old with PD this increase is difficult to absorb. Do you offer a senior discount?

[bbmak1125]

Dane,
This is unfair for legacy dsl customers. I have been using Sonic since you guys were new kid in my block, and I stucked with the legacy dsl for all these years. The increase in price is more like a penalize to loyal customers. We got a terrible service, and we got an increase in price. For fiber internet, this is more reasonable price. For a legacy dsl speed with 4mb down, and less than 1mb up, this is very unfair. In addition, the fiber promise never fulfill in my area for all these years.
The only reason I stick with Sonic because I believe in Dane's vision about the company and how the company differentiate for ATT and Comast in the beginning. However, Sonic is growing more like ATT & Comcast now. It is focus more on profitability instead of innovation and better quality service. I feel like I am about to making a switch since Sonic is about to become another ATT and Comcast. Honestly, $10 more is okay for me if Sonic provide a better quality service. If the service is terrible, a penny increased is unjustified.

[SuzyQ999]

What? You are getting 5mbps? My highest speed is 3.09 - not even enuf to play You Tubes. I get home and find Sonic is offering 6 mo free to new fusion subscribers in my neighborhood and they can't even provide minimal speed. And, yes, I do rent their modem. Urgh.

[Donot complain]

We aren't allowed to complain or else you'll get this as a response.

Same can be said in reverse those of us who have fiber should not be paying for people wanting to get it but that argument has been discussed here many many times .

Don't worry Ken, I got you bro. I posted it so you don't have to.

[pockyken007]

We aren't allowed to complain or else you'll get this as a response.

Same can be said in reverse those of us who have fiber should not be paying for people wanting to get it but that argument has been discussed here many many times .

Don't worry Ken, I got you bro. I posted it so you don't have to.

Does your service expand pass making responses on the forums , I have a garage to clean and some dishes to wash ...

[lhmeyer]

C'mon people, please don't feed the troll!