Required Modem--Extra 16.3% - 32.5% Per Month?

[virtualmike]

Comcast charges $7.00, but does let customers opt out. So, equipment fees are a typical part of the make-up of these products today.

And when service is disconnected, Comcast will claim it owns the modem and try to ding the account for a non-returned equipment fee.

In my case, the first tier droids insisted I had to produce the retail purchase receipt (from several years prior). I told them to produce a receipt showing that an installer had left it with me, and they threatened to turn it over to collections.

I had to escalate to Executive Customer Service to get it resolved.

[cataha]

......

Yes, if you are one of those that's hitting the limits, then you SHOULD pay the extra $6.5/month.

........

See that's just a pure anger speaking.

Moore's law :
Contents of our web will just going to get bigger and bigger with every year we live in!

Before Youtube was a low resolution videos, music, now a days alot of stuff are 460-1080p/i
Even if you go to any news site they also(almost all now a days) offer video news
If you like to compare new and old site just go to "Wayback Machine" and check for a webpage coding
I remember back in 1998-2000 web pages could be fitted on too a 2-3 pages and now it's more like 50-150 pages long and that's just a bare minimum per webpage/site

So to conclude this without making it boring to read..... soon YOU WILL BE one of those that's hitting the limits yourself,
it's just a matter of time when is your soon comes about

[cataha]

........ the first tier droids ......

As a True jedi, i keep on insisting that i wasn't the droid that they where looking for past 3 weeks from the time of disconnect as well

[Guest]

Hells Bells -- You compared Sonic Net & their charges with DSL extreme. I'm just changing *to* Sonic Net *from* DSL Extreme, and I don't think you are comparing like with like. In my experience DSL Extreme's service is slower (half the speed) for more money, so the modem rental stuff is very much secondary. DSL Extreme gives you a modem only, and I had trouble with the first D-Link router I purchased. So, not only did I have to buy 2 routers, it was hard to isolate where the problem was, and I was not even sure whose tech support to call -- DSL Extreme or D-link. So, between the different equipment offerings and the speed (on our street 10MB vs. 4.5 MB) for slightly less money, I would swallow my irritation and realize that Sonic is still a much, much better deal.

[bfroehle]

Comcast charges $7.00, but does let customers opt out. So, equipment fees are a typical part of the make-up of these products today.

Yes. Reminds me of when I had Comcast. I chose to buy a $80 cable modem with a 1 year warranty instead of the $7/month charge = ($84 / year). This amounted to a nice savings of $7/month after the first year as long as the equipment kept functioning. And as a benefit I was able to resell the modem later to recoup more of the initial cost.

Most of the unrest regarding this policy is due to a difference in the perceived lifetime and discount rate of the modem from the customers point of view and sonic's point of view. Assuming the modem could be purchased separately by the customer for $100, the $6.5 monthly fee would cover the cost of the modem in ~18 months or so (factoring in a reasonable interest rate on the loan). There is some additional value in the implicit extended warranty (beyond what I assume would be a one year warranty if purchased outright).

So overall, this deal seems fair. But remember that many of us still have deep wounds from paying exorbitant monthly rental fees on completely antiquated cable boxes. So you have to understand if we're a little sheepish about jumping into another equipment rental program again.

[dane]

Yup, I certainly understand that sentiment! The current $7.00 Comcast fee doesn't even get you a Wi-Fi router; it's just a basic Cable Modem bridge. But, that is shifting, and leaked early information appears to indicate that Comcast will be re-working their pricing soon with basic modems dropping to around $4, while Wi-Fi devices become available at $7-$10, depending upon capabilities. (I wonder if they will lower the cost for all the customers who have the basic unit!)

[TeamFakefish]

Boy customer service is quick to suggest that you need their new modem when you call. A little too fast for my liking.

[Guest]

Darn... I just wanted to upgrade my ZTE modem and I ran across this discussion. I was never happy with the range of the W300. I thought maybe Sonic had a better modem I could buy. It appears they do have a nice modem now but it cannot be purchased...

[dane]

Darn... I just wanted to upgrade my ZTE modem and I ran across this discussion. I was never happy with the range of the W300. I thought maybe Sonic had a better modem I could buy. It appears they do have a nice modem now but it cannot be purchased...

Yes, our new Pace 4111N offers Wi-Fi N, 2x2 antenna diversity and 400mw of power. It delivers much better reach and speed.

[Guest]

(composed this 10/6/12, tucked it away, now resurrected with addendum, and I see a full three additional forum pages on the subject in the meantime)

So... it's not just me.

I came looking around because a neighbor I'd recommended Fusion to months ago just told me that he hadn't yet switched from AT&T, much as he longs to, because Sonic told him it would cost $175 for the install. I couldn't/didn't believe it.

I did the self-install (switched last year), so that covers $75 right there. But I didn't know about the new (to me) activiation fee (even if it is momentarily waived). Hmmm, some catching up to do...

I *did* know something about a modem rental - I've recently experienced a permanent 10% reduction in my average download speed (but not upload), e-mailed tech support a few weeks ago, was told the ZTE modem "could be" going... but that I could go buy a new one (since the 90s, never had any modem last only a year), or rent one for $6.50 per month, which I thought was absurd, since in a year's time that adds up to far more than the $49 original... and then year after year of that? Really? That was my response... Really?

I may remain generally, if now generically, satisfied with Fusion as a service (and kept the existing modem), but for the first time in ten years I was truly disillusioned by a Sonic response. It felt... different, to say the least.

Confirmed while reading this forum.

Sonic cannot claim "no modem to buy, now we provide the equipment", if they're still going to charge anything at all for it. Paying is paying. Paying more is paying more. Don't kid us that it's some advantage... particularly if it's mandatory. Or is it? Mixed signals.

BTW, don't go on about the 15 e-mail addresses... yes, very nice, thanks, but they're cupholders.

While this may be an excuse to charge $780 over 10 years for a $99 modem, it does not at all justify boldly advertising a rate of $39.95, when the real monthly charge is $46.45. I'd expect this type of deception from Comcast, not Sonic.

do you think Comcast's CEO would be on their forums debating how to address the issue? Clearly Sonic slipped up here, but all companies make mistakes. One of the many things that sets Sonic apart is, on the few occasions they do screw up, they admit a problem and try to fix it quickly. Do you think Comcast's CEO would be here in a constructive conversation with its customers on how to fix its marketing?

...yes, Sonic slipped up, but we'll see what they admit and fix.

I dumped AT&T, obviously... also dumped Comcast, both quite happily.

No, this isn't Comcast, where you would never catch sight of the CEO.

But then, you will at Netflix. Beware catching sight of Reed Hastings.

Clearly, it's a cost, and you need to evaluate whether Fusion service remains a compelling value or not.

...which is to say "gee, sorry you all feel that way."

Guess everyone becomes Netflix after all. As one of their customers (still), I'd wondered if/when it would happen at Sonic.

Just call it what it is... a monthly, mandatory equipment rental on top of the price, that ultimately exceeds the value of the equipment (there's your Comcast), is a monthly price hike.

Jack up the price 32% if you must - and we all know there's lots of room for that, & still be competitive - but don't try to divert, or finesse the terminology, or give us the standard "in order to serve you better". We're smarter than that, if only just enough to be at Sonic in the first place. Those paying attention will still react in the way you, having seen what happened at Netflix, apparently wanted to avoid. So, inform us, and take the lumps.

Sorry, this got longer than the average here... but then, I hardly had to say anything during the previous ten years.

As for my neighbor... well, now it's just embarrassing. I was so insistent - "no no, this is what it is" - but I was grandfathered in, and thank you for that, but I hadn't heard a thing, and I just don't go checking the motd and blogs every day, because that hasn't been mandatory either, up till now anyway.

So another Sonic mistake was your apparently not considering all the veteran users out there gladly promoting your service as usual, as you rely upon us to do, but with the obsolete terms and pricing we still have. It amounts to a bait & switch.

I didn't know my neighbor was talking to the new Sonic.

Being grandfathered, I'll keep the service, and of course Dane knows that.

But my enthusiasm, and thus recommendation, is gone.

And I'm still down the 10%.

Addendum 11/15/12:

I stand by the foregoing. Did talk to Sonic tech once more in the meantime. Nice enough, as usual. But they had no answers about the DL reduction. Got the modem mantra. It was even suggested the splitter (!) might be going.

As for their new modem/router combo, being in a small apartment, I don't need the extra range... in fact, I stopped using the router's wireless, ages ago (a separate router I own outright). And, being in a small apartment, with what that means, the $10 in fees & taxes tacked onto the $39.95 that attracted me is already a hit to the budget.

And now, as of this past weekend, DL speed suddenly down another 10%. Interesting, that, how it plateaus and stabilizes there. Ping unchanged. Upload unchanged. Configuration, positioning, cabling, etc. etc. all unchanged. Voice is fine. But download now reduced a total of 20% since August. So I came back here for a look.

I see, having just checked the three new forum pages since I first held off this posting, that Sonic has, if anything, upped their rationalizing. Birds do it. Bees do it. Comcast does it. And a more take it or leave it attitude - yes, fine, it's a price hike but we don't call it a price hike. As initially put, an "option to opt in to the rental program". Sonic 2.0 indeed. Watch it change in front of your very eyes.

Anyway, as for the DL-only speed reduction, this is not how equipment fails (modem or little plastic splitter).

Boy customer service is quick to suggest that you need their new modem when you call. A little too fast for my liking.

I now believe Sonic is throttling down my DL speed in periodic 10% increments to convince me I'll have to switch to the monthly modem rental. No more grandfathers.