HughesNet

HughesNet Reviews

HughesNet Reviews
2.5(11,104)

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Overall Rating
2.5 out of 5
See all 11,104 reviews

About HughesNet

HughesNet Gen5 offers a range of plans with fast speeds, built-in Wi-Fi and No Hard Data Limits, so you can do more of everything you love online. Available where you live today, even in areas with slow or no high-speed options.

Pros & Cons

Pros

  • Simple plans
  • No hard data caps
  • Good for rural areas
  • 24-month price lock

Cons

  • Expensive cancellation
  • May be slow

Bottom Line

HughesNet offers a variety of benefits, like no hard data caps and a 50 GB bonus zone. While plans are limited and canceling is expensive, the service can be affordable and effective for rural homes and business owners.

HughesNet Reviews

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Page 2 Reviews 10 - 40
Customer Service

Reviewed Aug. 4, 2023

Poor internet. Poor customer service. After attempting to cancel service several times but, continually being charged...several phone calls were made to customer service and emails were sent from February to today's date in August...and after returning the modem and equipment with the label THEY sent me, as well as a confirmation email that my service was canceled, I'm STILL receiving emails that my service will be reactivated in a few days. This company needs to get it together.

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Contract & Terms

Reviewed Aug. 1, 2023

I paid upfront for my equipment. I started the service two months ago. The internet speed was a fraction of what was advertised. The connection would come and go. Speeds were average of 2 upload and 10 download. It was nothing close to the speeds and monthly service that I was paying for. Streaming was nearly impossible. Internet was agonizingly slow. I called to cancel the service and told that I have a 2-year agreement. I signed nothing to begin the service and was never informed of the 2-year commitment. I was referred to the agreement after I attempted to cancel the service. I will inform the state AG since they are insisting on payment of the $400 cancellation fee even though I have only had the service for two months and paid for the equipment in advance.

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PricePunctuality & Speed

Reviewed July 28, 2023

HughesNet could care less about you once you are under their contact. Bad service. Slow speeds. 400$ to cancel. All they want is your $. I had better service less cost with Comcast! Do not sign with them!

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Customer ServiceContract & Terms

Reviewed July 25, 2023

This is the worst company we’ve ever dealt with in 45 years of marriage. Hughesnet has horrible service. We were stuck paying for 18 months, but couldn’t actually watch anything. They told us how to fix it, never improved. They charged us nearly 2 hundred dollars to get out of a contract we never signed! Worst customer service ever! Run, don’t walk! Stay far away from Hughesnet!!!

Billy and Julie **. (disappointed customers)

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Customer Service

Reviewed July 21, 2023

Their Techs don't understand stability, can't read a graph, and are ignorant to line of sight, where my signal come from, or at what capacity my beam is at. Took 6 weeks, 12 e-mails and 16 phone call & 16 hours of my time (running me in the same circles & rabbit holes over and over and over again) to get them to come out and get me on a beam with a signal greater than .23 mbps. Since the (6 months ago) I have -200% stability regularly, no ability to stream without interruptions every 3 secs. I have sent 100's of e-mails showing them 15 sec. graphs of instability in their signal, and their response is to assign me a number and tell me to call theirs. Absolute Idiocy! at one time I had 12 numbers assigned for the same complaint, talked to 6 different "TECHs" for over an hour each time and end with the same result, ZERO, NADA, ZILCH improvement. STAY AWAY! RUN! SAVE YOUSELVES, the misery that is HughesNet.

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Customer ServicePriceStaff

Reviewed July 17, 2023

Extremely expensive, charged me $92 for each of 6 months even though I asked them to put the account on vacation after the 4 summer use months, began recharging the account 2 months before I asked them to reactivate after the account was on vacation. SLOW, SLOW, SLOW, continually buffers. Called to cancel my account and they said they would charge me $130 to cancel. I told them I would contest this if the charge shows up on my credit card. The company charged my cc $130. The customer service rep was extremely rude and hung up on me before letting me know where to return the modem, etc. Anyone looking at this service, BEWARE!

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Price

Reviewed July 13, 2023

Absolutely the worst internet I have ever had!!! It never worked properly, cannot not stream TV for one TV or won't even run a cell phones wifi. My hot spot with my cell phone has better internet. Take my review as a warning and go with another company. The charges more than double the second month of service and this company is charging me a $400 cancellation fee. I cancelled service 8 hours after the 30 days that's ridiculous and of course and manger was not available to speak with me. I had to cancel my credit card just to keep them from continually to bill me.

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Customer Service

Reviewed July 11, 2023

Tell you what you want to hear to get you signed up! Wanting you to buy tokens when doesn’t do what was promised! Data that was sold lasted 1 week before out of data! Frustrating!! Called them several times to try and correct!

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Customer ServiceInstallation & SetupContract & TermsPunctuality & SpeedStaff

Reviewed June 21, 2023

June 2023 - DON’T DO IT!! HughesNet should be considered scammers!! 4 years of the most horrible service I’ve ever experienced. I don’t mind paying for a service I can use and I even expected have a few hiccups now and then BUT HughesNet is a joke. I live alone, no gaming, I have a laptop that I use MAYBE twice a week to Google something, my cell phone has unlimited data (so I don’t need it for that), but I do like to watch movies. Well in 4 years I wasn’t able to watch a movie without it buffering every 5 minutes so therefore I was NEVER able to watch an entire movie!! In 4 years!! NEVER!! That’s sad.

Every time I’d call to cancel over the years I would be threatened with “You’ll have to pay an early cancellation fee!” Cancellation fee for what?? What service?? How about HughesNet credit me for their “contracted services” that they DID NOT PROVIDE!! Then when I finally had enough and was no longer under contract I cancelled the unusable service. They said on 4/22 “We will mail you out prepaid postage boxes to return our equipment.” Two and a half weeks later no boxes. Called them again on 5/12 and I was told “Sorry they didn’t mail the boxes. I’ll have them mailed out to you on 5/27.” In the back of my mind I thought “Why 5/27?, that’s strange.”

I received the boxes on 5/30. My son took down the equipment as per detailed instructions given. I packaged up the boxes and brought them to the UPS Store (1 hour away, I live in a rural area) on 6/2. I checked my UPS tracking numbers today and the equipment was received by the company yesterday. So I know that it will most likely take at least 7-10 days to update my account and remove the $718.14 charged to me for their equipment. I felt confident that the nightmare with HughesNet was finally over. Not so fast….I get home an hour later to find a letter in my mailbox from a collection agency!! Yep a collection agency!! Ironically the date that HughesNet turned me into the collection agency was 5/27!! The same day they said they were mailing out the boxes to return the equipment. Coincidence?? Not a chance in hell!!

They were trying to distort money from me even though I was the one that kept calling to make sure boxes were sent to me and that everything was taken care of on my end. My advice to anyone thinking about getting HughesNet service DO NOT DO IT!! I did finally reach a customer service representative that seemed to be very helpful and assured me that I would be credited for the equipment and that she would let the collection agency know that it was a mistake. I did call the collection agency myself and let them know what was going on. I will wait 5-7 days to check once again to make sure all of this is taken care of and nothing comes up on my credit report. This is so frustrating. Never again!! What an absolute nightmare!!

Update 6/21/2023 - called the collection agency and was told that I still owe HughesNet $61 REALLY?? I called HughesNet. This rude customer service MANAGER says “Yeah we got your equipment back and you were given a credit but you still owe us $61." She gave me some ** about some type of fee from months ago. At this point I said “You know what I’d rather just pay this $61 just to have the peace of mind knowing that I’ll be done with HughesNet forever!!” Peace out ✌.

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Customer ServiceSales & MarketingPricePunctuality & SpeedReliability

Reviewed June 17, 2023

Customer Service: If you ask to be elevated they make you sit on hold then will tell you no supervisor is available. If I still want to talk with a supervisor leave my number to be ignored and forgotten about. Reliability: Very rarely down. If they are down they will not answer the help line. Please stay on the line. Your call is important to us but not important enough for us to answer your call. Speed: The 25mbps speeds are a lie. On an average day my speeds hits 600Kbps. The data cap sucks but with speeds in the kilobyte range I never hit it. With Gen3 I hit it regularly and HughesNet then wants to charge me to reset my data usage. Value: Overall no internet is better than hughesnet.

That which pushed me to write about how bad hughesnet can be: The email lets spam in but will not let me send those same spam to make a complaint. Sending of the message failed. An error occurred while sending mail. The mail server responded: Message has been rejected due to suspected spam content.. Please check the message and try again.

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Customer ServicePunctuality & Speed

Reviewed June 5, 2023

Moved to a rural area and service providers were limited. I explained to this company that I needed reliability for school and would like to stream movies. For 8 months I called and complained that they did not provide what was promised. I travel and still only had adequate internet service for about 5 days out of the month and never in weekends. Poor service availability and they DO NOT provide fast anything.

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Verified purchase
Customer ServiceCoverage

Reviewed May 2, 2023

We have been charged for at least ONE YEAR after we called and had Hughesnet disconnected..We live out in the country and never had good coverage. We switched to Spectrum which all of our neighbors had and called Hughesnet/At&T/DirecTV and cancelled..We returned the Equipment to AT&T/DirecTV but when I called Hughesnet, I was told we didn't have to return the equipment.

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Customer ServiceContract & TermsSales & MarketingStaff

Reviewed April 10, 2023

Complaint about HughesNet. We had HughesNet for about 3 years. My first issue with them are they got rid of the package that we had and never told us they got rid of it, so we had to call to enter a new 1-year contract with the new package they offered, No emails were sent out or anything. Other than the service just not working half the time we were just done with it and decided to cancel once that one year was up and this is where all my issues with them currently are.

I called on March 27th and told them I wanted to cancel. They kept trying to sell me a new package at new prices for over 40 minutes, and once they finally realized I wasn't changing my mind the first agent I talked to said it would be canceled. The boxes would be sent out for me to mail back equipment and if I changed my mind I had 45 to get back with them and I'd have to pay a fee to sign back up. And if I didn't send back equipment we would be charged $300 and we hung up.

A week later we were charged for the month of April service. So I called again on April 2nd to see why we were charged when we had canceled and I was then informed the first agent I talked to didn't cancel our account and flagged us as thinking about upgrading our service. I told the second agent no I wanted it canceled because it was unplugged and I was waiting for boxes to send it all back and already had our new service set up and done. So I want him to cancel it make sure it was canceled and refund us the money that they took out of the bank now putting us behind on our car payment. He said it would be refunded and the service was now canceled. I'd get boxes in 7-10 days. If I don't return there is the fee and he gave me a reference number.

Friday, April 7th we got the boxes. I packed them up but noticed we didn't have the packing slip so I messaged their 24-hour chat Sunday the 9th asking if I needed it. They said as long as I had the label it wasn't needed and since it had been a week I asked if they could see our refund status. They told me it was put on the account as a credit and I would have to call to get the refund again.

So today April 10th I call and they tell me it was not a statement credit and it's a hold on our card to make sure we sent the equipment back which is a lie. So then the third agent says she will call billing and talk to them and see and puts me on hold. I'm then told it will not be refunded until they get the equipment. I told them no. It was a charge for services we didn't receive and a charge we didn't approve. They stole money from our account and I want it put back and because of them we are 2 weeks behind on our car payment. She said she couldn't help because she isn't in billing so I asked to be transferred to billing and she said she can't because it is against policy to transfer me directly so I ask for their number because one way or another I was going to talk to them today because they stole our money and I wanted it corrected. 3 more times on hold. She finally said it would be refunded within 1-7 days.

So I don't recommend HughesNet to anyone and never will, because they are liars and thieves who will take your money without consent when your account is supposed to be canceled and they won't cancel your account when you ask and they will put your account on hold as an upgrade while they keep charging you instead of doing what you asked and you will have to call 3 different times and email and do the online chat just to get it done and get your money back.

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Customer ServicePunctuality & Speed

Reviewed April 6, 2023

Spent more time on the phone with Hughes trying to fix it with my phone. They even left me on hold for over 45 minutes. Never came. **! PLUS I started with 50gb plan burnt that up and went to 100gb and that was gone all in 1 month!! Then canceled in less than a month’s time and they changed my account today! Every time I logged in my account said $00. They took $ today!! They said I was behind in my payment! Behind payment in a month?

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Customer ServiceInstallation & SetupPriceStaff

Reviewed March 13, 2023

This company BUTCHERED my house! There are holes drilled everywhere. The tech had wires going across the floor, along the outside of the ceiling tiles were visible and holes drilled from multiple walls the length of 3 rooms in the home. I had their service before as well as other internet services set up and they did very good so I know what it’s supposed to look like and this was just horrible. I called so many times for the last 6 weeks with no resolution with each rep and manager just telling me that someone would call me back within 2 days time and I never was contacted back.

I have 3 case numbers opened and every time I call they just say they escalated it and will call back and never do. Hughesnet case numbers given were…case number ending in **. That was the first from early Feb., then case number ending in ** from 2/15 and also Case number Hughesnet March 6th post install dept case number ending in **. I also spoke to another supervisor named Chris ** on 3/10/23 and another on 3/13/23. There were many others also but these are just a few.

I was given a post install dept number to call that no one answers but rather asks you to leave a text and they don’t call back. And once they told me they sent me an email to the wrong email address and several reps updated my info and put notes of it and I still didn’t get contacted. Also, the tech put The dish on the side of the house And they did not have to drill holes in the siding considering as there is a small porch there that they could’ve put it on the roof. Very disappointed. I’ve had Hughesnet once before and the reception was horrible and expensive but at least the install was done nicely, this was just horrendous and the tenant of mine who had the account said the exact same thing.

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Customer ServiceStaff

Reviewed March 9, 2023

Worst customer service of any company I’ve ever dealt with. Internet did not work well at our home after the installer they sent out told us it probably wouldn’t and it’s honestly not very good. And since we live pretty far out the odds of it working well weren’t good. Great. Well, he was right. It sucked. It took me seven phone calls to cancel because the ‘customer service’ people are so aggressive about getting you to stay and not listening to what you’re saying. I kept getting frustrated after them going on and on and on about finding a way to make the service work, offering you a discount for the next 6 months, etc.

I eventually had to basically insist that the person stop talking and cancel my account. Today (nearly a month after cancelling) I get a text message from them saying my account will be auto-drafted again on the 14th. I called them to see if the cancellation hadn’t processed or if it was the cancellation fee ($250!!!). The incredibly unhelpful woman that answered said she couldn’t tell me today and I’d have to call back on the 14th to find out. Absolutely infuriating. The way they train their employees to follow a script to the point of ruthlessly pushing their own agenda is disgusting. As a business owner and people manager, I am appalled. Never again. I’d rather go without internet completely.

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Reviewed March 7, 2023

I had 5 GB and lasted all month. Upgraded to 50 and was gone in 2 days. Nothing has changed in my home. Kids are gone during the day and sleep at night. Make it make sense. I live in what's considered a rural area and don't have other choices otherwise I would definitely suggest any other provider.

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Customer ServicePriceReliability

Reviewed March 1, 2023

I've had Hughes Network for two and a half years and finally there's a new network in town. As soon as I can I am going to switch companies. Hughes Network has been totally unreliable, slow and they cap it off even though they say they don't. You can't even watch TV with Hughes network. And the customer service is horrible. Their automated system charged me $15 because they were taking so long to go through the options and I was having a conversation with my sick husband who was on hospice and the next thing I know I was being charged $15 for extra tokens.

I have never purchased extra tokens and that 15 dollars they would not give me back it took me 15 minutes to get through to customer service and she argued with me for an hour and I never got the $15 back. I am going to contest it with my credit card company and leave his Network as soon as possible. Trust me you do not want this company as your internet service.

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Reviewed Feb. 28, 2023

Updated on 03/19/2023: I signed up for internet with this company after hearing all their sales pitch....Big mistake...I called stating I had just about to no internet...Could not make any phone calls....The worst service you could get....I had about a week's stay in the hospital with a heart problem...Doctors, people from their office and the drug store I use all tried contacting me and me with them...Could not communicate with them so after changing to a different internet company I called to cancel their worthless service..I was told after 30 days there was a $400.00 cancel fee...And this was day 39...Anyway I asked them to mail me the $400.00 fee so I could pay it by check when I had enough in my account to cover this bill...I am on social security...They claimed they would...

Woke up this morning to find out I am overdrawn at the bank because HughesNet debited my account and did not have enough money to cover it and the other bills, etc. coming in..So..What am I saying to anyone thinking of using this ripoff company....Little to no service...Terrible customer service...Very rude....And they will lie to you with no regards to what might happen to you....STAY AWAY...DO NOT TRUST THEM...WILL RIP YOU OFF...SAVE YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY!!!!

Original Review: In my opinion this is by far the worst internet service out there....Could not use our cell phones...Could not watch TV...Could not get web service...Save your hard earned money...Stay Away...Oh...and there is a 400.00 early termination fee...Stay Away!

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Customer ServiceStaff

Reviewed Feb. 27, 2023

Customer service has been an absolute nightmare. We moved and the gentlemen I talked to refused to cancel our account. He insisted on suspending the account, which I did to end the conversation. Salesman guaranteed a $300 rebate which I never received. I proceeded to talk to a lady about the situation and it sounded like she was at a high school party. Many people screaming in the background and it made it very difficult to understand her. The most unprofessional company I've ever experienced. Please, learn from other people's mistakes and stay clear of these people.

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Verified purchase
Sales & MarketingPrice

Reviewed Feb. 26, 2023

HughesNet is the biggest scam and joke of an internet service. Need proof? I have more than plenty. I have finally canceled after 2 years of them promising to make it better for me, but nothing changed except my bill and them continuing to charge me more each month. HughesNet continues to take money out of my bank account after I’ve been cancelled for over a week. What part of that is right, or ethical?

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Price

Reviewed Feb. 19, 2023

This Service is.. no this robbery company is ridiculous. They charge such a high price for no internet service at the most important times. You will be waiting for videos and made because you know you're gonna pay a pretty penny for it. Trash again?.. Again? Trash.

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Customer ServiceInstallation & Setup

Reviewed Feb. 8, 2023

Poor customer service, poor installation contractor, poor terms of service. Deactivation fee of $350 is ridiculous. Did not even use the service, shame on me. Shame on HughesNet. Avoid this business if possible.

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Customer ServicePricePunctuality & Speed

Reviewed Feb. 3, 2023

This company needs to be shut down. Horrible customer service, no resolution for any issues and the service is terrible. Extremely slow speeds and they keep wanting you to upgrade to higher speeds and charge more money but it doesn’t change the quality of service. If you wish to cancel because they cannot provide a promised service they charge $500 to cancel. Customers save yourself the trouble. Go with any other company out there. This has got to be the worst internet company on the planet.

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Customer Service

Reviewed Feb. 2, 2023

The installer would NOT let us try or test the system until AFTER we signed the form stating we were satisfied with the system. I told him we should not sign until we tested it out. He insisted I HAD to sign the form first. THEN he left. And the system crawled along slowly and only in one room. I got on the phone with tech support, and they said, "it is not working". Well, duh! The next day I again called in and wanted the system OUT. Hughes made us pay for a month's worth of service. Such a situation fits my definition of a SCAM.

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Customer ServiceInstallation & SetupCoverage

Reviewed Jan. 19, 2023

I recently ordered HughesNet after what I thought was a thorough conversation of what I needed. While the original response time was stellar, it went downhill from there. Once the install was complete, all I have is a buffering service. I was installed on 1/6/23 and here I am on 1/18/23, my service not only buffers all during operation but now the picture is so blurry you can't see faces. I called every day til honestly I'm tired.

I called this evening and was told "Oh it cloudy and it's a storm in the area of your service provider so we can't send out a proper code to your system". I'm like what? So I asked why is that not standard in informing consumers before/during their sign up. This is VERY deceitful for those of us in rural areas that they claim cover so well. My service has NEVER worked fluently ..YET!!! HUGHESNET you should be ashamed of yourself!! I will be reporting this on every platform I can because this is soooo wrong, and I see if we want to cancel service you want to penalize us because we don't want to accept what you give.

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Contract & Terms

Reviewed Jan. 13, 2023

There is good reason this company has a 1.1 rating with the BBB. I don't know which is Worse, the internet service or the customer support! They lie, they threaten, they upgrade my service to extend my contract without my permission. Someone needs to initiate a Class action against this company and shut them down. Use a hotspot or cellular router, avoid HughesNet!

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Customer ServicePunctuality & SpeedStaff

Reviewed Jan. 6, 2023

HughesNet is the only choice in most rural settings so it's NOT THE BEST but the only choice. Worst service, cut off with no signal, 24 hour stream time. Download today, tonight and maybe watch it in a couple days. Wifi so weak it will not connect 25 feet away! Cancelled my service. They billed me another month 15 days ahead of schedule and set an email of cancelation in March. Going to bill me for 2 months after I cancelled. Think I will sue them for damage they did to my roof! Fred Flintstone had better internet service than HughesNet has! They will increase your bill without notice! I called today to tell them I cancelled yesterday and the inept agent kept saying, "but it says March 3rd." I would say it's wrong and she would say "it says March 3rd." They must be on dope! If any other service is available Stay the hell away from the #2 service in the country! Pun intended. Save yourself many headaches!

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Customer ServiceContract & TermsStaffReliability

Reviewed Jan. 5, 2023

I have had HughesNet for 18 months and have called due to poor service every month. Finally had enough and called to cancel. The customer service rep would not stop talking and I had to listen to her for over 40 minutes before she would cancel. I could not speak with supervisor and was also told that if I did not let her go on she would not cancel the account. She tried to make more promises than a used car salesman. Finally she cancelled but charged 200$ for early termination. Said contract was for 24 months no matter how poor or slow service was. Told me that I was overreacting about their service quality, that their service was the fastest and most reliable in the world. No one else even comes close. I will never purchase or rent a Hughes product ever. Have never had a more troubling call. Beware of Hughes

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Customer Service

Reviewed Dec. 7, 2022

I recently purchased a new home, and unfortunately, the only available internet service is Satellite. AT&T recommended HughesNet, and it is garbage. I have called on multiple occasions, and the only thing this company is good for is apologizing. They eventually sent a technician out, only to discover my service had been routed to another Satellite dish, and no one could explain how or why. The technician rerouted it back to the Satellite at my home but the services was still shoppy. I spend hours watching my devices try to connect. When all else fails, which it always fells, I connect to the hotspot on my phone. The technician even said he would never buy Hughesnet because it is junk and advice me to seek other providers. This is the worst experience ever. I am in jephordy of losing my job because my job is 100 % remote.

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HughesNet Company Information

Social media:
Company Name:
HughesNet
Year Founded:
1971
Address:
11717 Exploration Lane
City:
Germantown
State/Province:
MD
Postal Code:
20876
Country:
United States
Website:
www.hughesnet.com

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