 ARPremium,ExMod 2001-04
join:2000-09-21
Toronto, ON | Nice interview! Hey Dane, I've been with Omsoft for over 5 years now but I gotta say, when I heard about the $12 promo from SBC, I had to check with them if I could qualify. I didn't and so I stayed with Omsoft.
How will you compete with SBC on the pricing for the customer who only wants always-on, no frills (that is, doesn't care static vs PPPoE, newsgroups etc) kind of customer? |
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 bobrkYou kids get offa my lawnPremium
join:2000-02-02
San Jose, CA
 ·SONIC.NET
| I don't think they really "try" to. The Sonic.net customer is pretty knowledgeable compared to the typical SBC/Yahoo! customer. It's a losing proposition to them, especially in areas like customer support. Now you get a human on the first or second ring, but if they were serving all those other folks, it woul dbe a lot hairier.
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Iraq Coalition Deaths, Graphic | RC5 | bobrk |
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 DaneJasperSonic.NetPremium,VIP
join:2001-08-20
Santa Rosa, CA
kudos:7 | The secret sauce is customer service. We don't outsource it, and it's provided by friendly, knowledgable folks who are located here in California. That's the one "commodity" that can't be made into a commodity. You really DO have to CARE.
-Dane |
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bobrkYou kids get offa my lawnPremium
join:2000-02-02
San Jose, CA Reviews:
·SONIC.NET
| I've dealt with customer support several times, for problems ranging from a bad card in the R/T which resulted in a truck roll from ASI to "Sir, have you tried to reboot your modem?" and in each case, the manner in which I was treated was exemplary.
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Iraq Coalition Deaths, Graphic | RC5 | bobrk |
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jstack
join:2001-12-09
San Francisco, CA | reply to DaneJasper
When I called about my contract ending yesterday, I got a real person on the first ring. The phone was picked up so quickly that I honestly thought it was a recorded message. |
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DaneJasperSonic.NetPremium,VIP
join:2001-08-20
Santa Rosa, CA
kudos:7 | said by jstack:When I called about my contract ending yesterday, I got a real person on the first ring. The phone was picked up so quickly that I honestly thought it was a recorded message. You've discovered the secret to our success. Stable, fast circuits with lotsa features - but most important, really, really good friendly support.
-Dane |
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ARPremium,ExMod 2001-04
join:2000-09-21
Toronto, ON | Have you heard of that guy who was so great at his job that management laid him off since everything worked just fine and he had nothing to do?
Well, in my 5 years with Omsoft, I've had to call them maybe just twice. So like management, I'm starting to think, why not go with the source, SBC and get their lower price? |
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bobrkYou kids get offa my lawnPremium
join:2000-02-02
San Jose, CA Reviews:
·SONIC.NET
| Because you don't want to give them your money? I don't shop for cheapest. I shop for quality. I can't get a shell account at SBC, can I? Can I program my own CGI's there?
When a network fscks up, Sonic rolls a truck on my behalf. They don't treat me like an idiot. They vouch for me with ASI and stuff gets fixed.
I worked at SBC for about a month on a contract, and I worked on the software supplied with Windows boxes. You don't want that on your computer, that's all I'm gonna say.
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Iraq Coalition Deaths, Graphic | RC5 | bobrk |
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ARPremium,ExMod 2001-04
join:2000-09-21
Toronto, ON | Yes, but AFAIK, the reseller ISP is just reselling SBC DSL. I understand what you are saying: if I had problems, I don't want to be bounced from one 800 number to another and pull my hair.
Initially, when everyone charged $50 and SBC had tons of problems, I was all for reseller ISPs. I had service first from Northpoint, then Atlantech Online, then they sold it to Zyan and finally Omsoft. Over years, as more people have got DSL from SBC and I see no issues, I have started thinking that maybe they really have ironed out the kinks from the early years. |
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