Experiences with Sonic and/or DishTV?

Hi, I'm currently a Comcast customer and find I'm spending more than I'd like. I'm contemplating becoming a "cord cutter." I'd be interested to hear from Sonic customers about their experience: what they like, any glitches or gotchas. I've seen that people elsewhere in the country are not terribly happy with the Dish network. I'm wondering what experience is like here in Sonoma County with Dish, especially as provided by Sonic.

I'd love to hear about your experiences, advice, recommendations.

David
Rohnert Park

Our experiences with Sonic have been, on the balance, positive. Not perfect but a clear net positive and we have been with them for almost a decade as a result.

We have been thinking of getting Verizon because their service is wireless, which is pretty convenient for a few reasons. But Verizon charges double of what Sonic charges for their services, so we continue to stay with Sonic.

Thanks! Do you also use DishTV through Sonic?

No but we've thought about getting one of the satellite/cable services that are available through Sonic.

All of our entertainment viewing is through Internet and DVDs. Mostly the Internet: Hulu, Netflix, Youtube, Kanopy, Curiosity Stream.

I would like to get HBO online as well but I don't know if they have an Internet only service.

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Posted in reply to the post by Shrinkrap:

Thanks! Do you also use DishTV through Sonic?

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Call Comcast and grouse about the cost, they will usually lower it with discounts, specials, and the like......

I never liked Comcast. I've always loved Sonic! They provide great customer service, something that is virtually unheard of in the satellite/cable/Internet industries. One soft spot about Sonic, though. If you opt for their fastest service, they lease the lines from A T & T and A T & T sucks! There are constant service interruptions. Hence, A T & T's miserable reputation.

I've had Directv for many years and have always been very happy. However, A T & T put their grubby hands on Directv and acquired them recently. Some of Directv's premium features such as Extras like Pandora and weather information are not functioning that well. They're aware of the problems but have yet to fix them. Side-by-side, you would find Directv less expensive than Comcast and the customer service is better.

Have you checked out ROKU? We bought the ROKU 2 a couple of years ago, and it's perfect if you don't need "real time" TV. There are no monthly charges except the channels that you opt for, but many are free. You might pay $40-50 for your preferred channels, but I don't think Comcast offers that kind of a deal.

The remote is so simple a 3 year old could use it easily. I love it! You may want to check it out. I think it's the best way to "cut the cord". You will need a modem, but I don't know the technical details. And headphones are available if you need to mute the sound for others in your household. I think the sound is great!

And here's the "Ultimate Cord Cutter's Guide" from PC Magazine:https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2478213,00.asp

I didn't read it myself, since I don't need to, but it may help many of you save big bucks.

Thanks! I should have mentioned that we have the Apple TV 4th Gen. We love it. I guess I should have said Direct TV rather than Dish TV...

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Posted in reply to the post by Shrinkrap:

Hi, I'm currently a Comcast customer and find I'm spending more than I'd like. I'm contemplating becoming a "cord cutter." I'd be interested to hear from Sonic customers about their experience: ...

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Thanks much for taking an interest in switching. Sonic is a local company - Santa Rosa based, with 330 staff here. We deliver really wonderful local customer care, which is a pleasure when contrasted with the cable and telco alternatives. And beyond just supporting your local community, and getting great customer service, you're also likely to find a substantial financial savings for yourself when you switch too. Sonic's Internet+Phone service is $40 monthly (plus about $17 in taxes and fees), and our bundle with DISH TV is $80 monthly (plus the taxes and fees.) Add a Hopper DVR for $10 more - but bottom line, you'll find it to be much lower cost than bundle alternatives from the two others.

In Sebastopol, many homes also are now offered full gigabit fiber to the home service, which delivers 1000Mbps performance. This is 50-100x as fast as typical connections that most households are used to today, and where available, it's no additional cost.

You can check your location for service availability at our web site: https://Sonic.com

Thanks for your support!
-Dane Jasper CEO, Sonic

Dane, when will gigabit service be available in the Wikiup area?

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Posted in reply to the post by BobHeisler:

Dane, when will gigabit service be available in the Wikiup area?

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We are working every day to expand our fiber coverage, but have no new location announcements that I can make at this time. Today the Gigabit fiber to the home service is available in Sebastopol, San Francisco and Brentwood. We're expanding as fast as our scale allows, so as we grow, coverage grows. Tell a friend!

I would be cautious of Sonic. Not that they are a bad company, but my experience with them wasn't the greatest.

When I first moved I called to see if the duplex I'm in would be in their fiber network. I said explicitly up front that I did not want dial-up or DSL service. I was told that we are in their fiber network so i signed up. They sent me the self-connect kit and I got no signal. I also noticed that it looked a lot like a DSL kit except that I had two connections instead of one.

I called and went through troubleshooting. Still no signal. It took nearly two weeks to get someone to come look at my connections and that's when he informed me that there was no fiber signal at my location, and that to get decent speeds they put me on a dual-DSL setup...only that wouldn't work, either, because there is only a single phone line connected to my house.

I called to cancel and was initially told that I was outside their cancellation range, despite the fact that I never had service and it took time for anyone to even come out. I was able to eventually cancel and get a full refund but it delayed me getting internet service that much more because I was mislead.