Solarus

Review: My land line phone and internet service have been out since Sunday, August 9, 2015 and I run my business from my house. I contacted them on Sunday to get it restored. I entered into a 2 year contract with Solarus which expires August 15, 2015. On Wednesday August 12th Solarus had scheduled a service call to restore my phone and internet. They cancelled the service call on that day after I called to let them know of my intentions to switch providers when my contract expired in a few days. Today, August 13th, I called to let them know that my new service will not start until August 20th and I need my phone and internet working to run my business. [redacted] from Solarus said they would not restore my service because I would be changing providers. He said if I would stay with them I can get my service fixed otherwise they would not send someone out. I reminded him that I was still under contract with them. He said they will knock off my final bill the days I haven't had service. I was basically told in order to have service I would have to sign another contract.Desired Settlement: I don't know what can resolve this. I have been burning up my data plan on my cell phone to work from the house because I have been denied a service I contracted to get. I will continue to do this until August 20th when my new provider can complete installation of my new service. I wanted you and other people to know what type of business Solarus is.

Business

Response:

At Solarus, we record all of our calls. After reading the complaint, I went back and listened to the call between Mr. [redacted] and the sales representative. This call took place on 8/12/15 at 11:13 a.m. Mr. [redacted] advised the sales rep that Charter was coming to install his service tomorrow (8/13/15). We placed a disconnect order through our vendor to disconnect the Internet based on that request. Mr. [redacted] did call us yesterday (8/13/15 at 10 a.m.) and request to have service until 8/20/15 but the order for disconnect was already processed and completed per his request. Now that the service is completely disconnected, what would need to happen is to reorder the service. The reorder process takes 5-7 business days based on the vendors availability to reconnect the service.I am sorry to hear that Mr. [redacted]'s new provider was unable to connect his service on the date they promised but Solarus only did what we were asked to do.

Review: Currently, the "Go Interactive" feature cannot have restricted access no matter the parental controls as stated by their engineers. This feature highlights pornographic material that is available for viewing. Though the purchase to view the videos can be restricted with parental controls, the movie covers are explicit and are available to view at any time. I do not find "we'll pass the suggestion along" to be an appropriate response to my demand of removing pornographic material from the access of children.Desired Settlement: Remove the pornographic material from view of my children.

Business

Response:

The Go Interactive button can have parental controls limit the content that is visible. The customer would need to perform the following steps on each TV in the home that is connected to the cable service:Using the remote control, push the Menu button > using the arrows, scroll over to Settings > using the arrows, scroll down and click OK on Parental Controls. You will need to establish a four digit PIN if you have not already. If you already have a PIN set up, simply enter the PIN. Once you are in the parental locking screen, using the arrows, scroll down to Adult Programs and press OK. Under Lock Adult Programs, press OK again. A lock symbol will appear. Using the arrows, scroll to the left and press OK on Save. Now, when you press the Go Interactive button, you will no longer see the titles or the movie covers. For more information on parental locking, go to the Video On Demand under Training. There is a short video that you can watch on parental locking. Please remember to perform these steps on each TV with a Solarus Set Top Box. Performing these steps on one TV will not lock all the TV's in the home. Thank you, [redacted]

Review: I was originally a customer of Solarus with a phone number originating from them. I then switched to Charter Communications with no problems whatsoever. Last month due to rising communications costs our family decided to check into MagicJack. I checked out number on their website and it said there would be no problem porting the number. Well as it turns out the ONLY problem there was is that Solarus REFUSES to allow calls to go the our newly MagicJack phone. I went directly to there office and they ALL told me almost in unison "we don't do MagicJack, Charter and MagicJack should have told you that ahead of time" Well no one did, and the Magic Jack folks were bewildered as they've never run into this kind of resistance before. to be clear, we could receive calls from any Charter customer and ANY cell phone but NO ONE who is a customer of Solarus could call us (including my mother and my wife's parents, my place of employment, the school our children attend, etc.) I find this a VERY unfair business practice.Desired Settlement: They should welcome competition from companies like MagicJack. At the VERY LEAST I would not like to feel like I'm tied to the only two companies in town and am able to have my number ported to whoever I want. just want some freedom to use the company I want.

Business

Response:

In response to the complaint filed by [redacted], we

have made a change in our system that we believe has allowed Magic Jack to

work. This was made on 5/21/2014 after Mr. [redacted] filled the same complaint

with a different agency. We have made test calls to Mr. [redacted]’s home

telephone number and his voicemail comes on and asks the caller to leave a

message. I have also left a message for Mr. [redacted] on his cell phone asking

him to notify me if he has disconnected Magic Jack. The reason is because every

time we call it goes directly to voicemail. In a previous complaint, Mr.

[redacted] stated that cell phones and Charter numbers work but when we tried

calling from a cell phone it went directly into voicemail.

Unless we hear from Mr. [redacted], we are considering this

complaint resolved.

Thank you,

Sales Manager

Review: A Solarus sales representative recently notified me via phone that I would have to upgrade my service because they were not going to support the current internet service much longer, after a few phone calls with different sales reps I had been given different prices before confirming the actual price for me was going to triple, from $70/month to $200/mo, and this was going to be a forced upgrade. I have been a Solarus customer for six years, on their business internet connection because I wanted a static IP address, the only way they offered it at the time. Now they offer a residential internet connection, same speed as business, with a static IP for $40/mo. I asked to be switched to this service and after going through more phone calls and talking with sales managers, and after waiting several more days for a response they told me I could not switch and had to stay with a business connection. The internet service is connected to my home, where I use it to connect to my work over VPN, my children use it for educational software and games, and my wife uses it as well. I have a computer acting as a firewall, internet filter, and home server. I also have a few web sites on this computer, one for our house which is up for sale, and a couple other non-commercial sites for friends. They stated that I couldn't have a residential connection because of this home server. Each time on the phone I asked them how they define a business, what constitutes the need for a business connection, and asked where their service agreement states that I can't buy a particular service, but never got an answer. One of the sales reps did unofficially say that a business connection would something going to an actual office or place of work, not a residential home, and said I should be able to have a residential connection but she would have to talk to her manager. The manager initially said I could switch to residential, then backtracked and said I couldn't during the same phone call. I am not currently under contract and they don't require a contract for residential connections, and they could not give me an answer as to where my usage violates any service agreements they may have. Basically, they are trying to force me to pay a huge price increase for a category of service that does not fit my usage at all, or lose my only viable internet service option.Desired Settlement: I simply want to switch to their residential connection, this is the requested change I am looking for.

Consumer

Response:

You think I'm trying to "sneak" something around you? I can't believe you would treat a customer that way. Let me explain exactly what happened again because I believe the opposite is happening here. I never received a written notice that there was any change occurring, instead I received a voicemail from [redacted] with no information other than that Solarus was going to upgrade me and I had to call back to schedule a time for the change. When I called in [redacted] didn't have much information for me, I asked for her to send me information on the change. After a second phone call to ask for that information again, she sent me a contract that included an installation fee. I called back to question that and then learned that the pricing in the contract was also wrong. I asked to talk to her manager, and she said you would have to call me back. While I was waiting for a phone call, I called in again and talked to [redacted], she gave me different pricing, even higher yet. So far in the course of my conversations my new price for this upgrade went from $100 to $150 to $200 per month for month-to-month pricing. I cannot do another contract and take on potentially several hundred dollars in cancellation fees because my house is up for sale. I did not try to sneak around what [redacted] told me, I did not like the information I got from her or [redacted] and asked to talk to you, her manager, because of it, that seems to me like the proper channel to follow. So, are you trying to force me into a huge price increase, you still have not given me any reason why I can't switch to a residential connection, other than you don't like that I questioned this upgrade. When I signed up for a business connection six or seven years ago it was because I wanted a static IP and as far as I knew that was the only way to get it, that's not necessary now that you offer the same service for a residential connection, which is really what I am.