HughesNet Reviews

Hughes sold me services without providing this important detailed information. Now I am stuck with poor service, which causes me to lose money in my business. I can't believe they get away with this. I will have to pay at least $300.00 if I terminate early. I lose at least $75.00-$100.00 daily because when I log into a server to work from home and bill clients sending spreadsheets etc, in some cases it prevents me to send the billing or I lose the information due to it timing out. Also, when posting credit card payments, it times out and I lose information. I have lost at least $325.00-$400.00.

My daughter and I are enrolled in online college classes at our community college to save gas and we are losing out because we cannot participate. These classes are not cheap, neither is HughesNet. To end my contract, they want $300. Why should I pay a termination fee when I feel they broke their part of the contract by not providing the service they promise and advertise? I want Hughes to end the contract for free, then I can get a RELIABLE internet service.

Upon several attempts to log back in after the allotted time, I was unsuccessful. Several hours with foreign tech support left me frustrated and was also unsuccessful. After 5 hours, it was determined that tech support would need to send someone to my house. I made it clear that there was satellite problems early in the installation process and asked if this would be of cost to me. Technical support made it clear that because it was not my computer but the fault of HughesNet and the original installer that the original installer would be billed for this service call.

Repair occurred one week later and after several hours of service, he re-secured the satellite on the roof consequently creating two holes in our roof in order to secure it from sliding and to create a better signal. Satellite connection was successful at this time. After the repair man left, I noticed I could still not access secure websites (ex: e-mail) and other networks on my computer were locked and could not access the internet. I called technical support and was again on the phone for hours.

More phone calls were made on 8/22/08 as I was then subject to the fair access policy?? Because of the language barrier, I did not understand what this was and it was miscommunicated to me that it was a billing issue. I was under the assumption my account was in default and was extremely upset. After more than 2 hours and reaching a person from the United States, my issue of secure website was resolved but not the networking/wireless issue. I was too tired to continue. Called another professional to my house to resolve this issue so I would not have to deal with tech support.

On Oct. 3, I notice my bill (from my bank statement; direct withdrawal) was for $224.87 instead of the $104 (approx) for my upgrade. When I called Billing, it was noted that I was charged for the $125 service repair in Aug. When I told Billing that this was incorrect, they reported that I had agreed to pay this amount. I disputed and reminded them that they were to bill the original installer for his mistake. This was unsuccessful and my request was immediately denied. I ask for the supervisor and at that time requested to cancel my service with them because of my dissatisfaction, my frustration and the charges to my bank account without proper authority or permission.

She told me they would not waive the service fee of $125 and I would be charged $300 for early termination and $180 for satellite rental fees. I agreed to finish the payment of my $180 of satellite fees minus the $125 for the service fee. She informed me that my account would be charged anyway if I canceled service. I requested a paper statement again (which was never received from the first two requests) and told her she was no longer to bill my account via direct withdrawal. I chose not to cancel my service and contact you first.

These are only the major phone calls to HughesNet and does not include other incidental occurrences that have limited my use of the internet and the services they supposedly offer. I was treated poorly in all of my phone calls with the exception of ONE time when I spoke to the lady from the United States. All other phone calls involved nasty and rude service to me and my requests. Hughes Net has not provided me with support/service/availability nor quick response time. I have been put on hold, they have repeated answers to me like a child, and when I have gotten frustrated, they have put me on hold or transferred me to a different department.

I have never been able to speak to the same person twice and when I requested the name of the lady from the United States in case I needed to contact her again, she informed me that due to the number of people at the company I would never be able to contact her again. She couldn't even give me an extension number to reach her. I feel insecure with them now charging my account as they please, I feel violated as a consumer, and I am desperately looking for help in this matter.

How aggravating... dial up is much faster and the service received by HughesNet was awful. I never spoke to a person that did not have a heavy accent - constantly had to ask them to repeat. I am trying to re-establish my credit and this is not going to help because they called today to tell me that they were reporting me to the credit bureau!!!! I have never experienced a service so bad in my life. Who are these people anyway???

Someone needs to take them down. I looked on the BBB site and it listed over 1300 complaints in the past year. I wish I knew more about it. I may take this to my attorney just for the satisfaction. I just got off the phone with them again to request info to send this crap back, and still got the runaround. They claim they sent it to me, almost like I had done something wrong. Then she finally told me there is a place on their website that will tell me how to return the equipment.

I have not been contacted by HughesNet since forwarding them the information. Now I have received a letter from NCO Financial which is a collection agency showing that HughesNet has turned this $166.13 over to a collection agency. This has affected my credit score and has kept me from getting recent credit that I had applied for because this is new on my record. Any help to remove this will be greatly appreciated.

I live about ten miles out of town and can not get any other service but dail up or this junk. I am now ($400 equipment cost, $125 for pole mount, and not to mention the two year contract fee of $59.99 a month). I am demanding refund for this. I can not afford to pay for something that is much slower than dail up. I have done speed test and cleared out cookies and history. I have been told that the peek hours are from 5pm to 2 am. Well I am on in the morning and afternoon and it is still SLOW!

I spoke with tech support and once I got past the non English speaking group I discovered Hughes had their own speed test site which actually keeps a record of your tests. I began running tests at various times of the day and discovered that in the early morning, 5am to 6am, I got their advertised speeds, however as the day wore on the speeds dropped drastically. By 4pm Im down to 90Kbps, by 6pm Im down to 30-40 Kbps, below dial up speeds.

Despite the fact that my equipment works fine in the morning, tech support has determined that the problem is my equipment and I need to pay a $125.00 service fee for a technician to check the ground on my cable. Needless to say Im passing on that offer. Where we go from here Im not real sure. I need service, but because of being 8 miles out of town cable isnt an option and the telephone company isnt providing DSL this far out.

The India tech support / customer service is a joke. They know nothing and well tell you they can't help you - read your contract. I work from home - I can't be limited on amount of download and I need my 1.0 mbps speed to be constant.

they are a rip off and something need to be done about it. We are cancelling are service and they can stick the cancelation fee where the sun doesn't shine.

No service if you download 285 mb of data let say in 5 hr time - you are cut off until 24hr has elapse. Speed isn't what you are told you will get. It was a waste of my money.

Basically, this means that web browsing and downloading speeds are barely faster than a telephone modem. Some web sites won't load because they 'time out.' Downloads must be deferred to the wee hours of the morning. My daughter has a difficult time completing internet-based homework.

The whole situation finally came to a head earlier this month when we returned from vacation in California and I contacted them to let them know that I was able to access this particular website i've only been able to access with their service every other day and they've always acted like the problem is on my end. At the same time I also mentioned that the internet is unbelievably slow. The response I received was that we should upgrade to the next package up - pro I think which would have been $10 more per month. So my husband calls and asks for the upgrade and he's told yes they'd be happy to do that and we'll be billed the difference with our next billing cycle and all I'd need to do is rerun the startup cycle. It didn't work because they changed satelites on us. I had to wait 4 days for the repair guy to come out to discover that they'd switched satelites.

What I found truly peculiar about the service call I made about the internet not hooking up is that the account is now in my name (something I DID NOT AUTHORIZE) but didn't think anything of at the time. Once we had the internet hooked up and running again I began seeing messages appear on my computer screen that they've been unable to process my payment so I went in and made sure the information for my credit card was correct - and lucky me was charged $93.32 on August 22nd... they'd previously taken the monthly payment of $59.99 out on the 11th.

My husband once again calls to find out what the heck is going on and we find out that they've closed the old account and restarted a new one IN MY NAME and we're being recharged for the unit that we've already paid for. They said they'd look into it and then I go to go online and notice they've cut off my internet again while they look into the situation.

So, after all this constant bickering with them and them not delivering the promised services my husband called back and told them to cancel the account and refund our money. Their response was that they'd refund a portion of the amount taken on the 11th (the days we'd used), and a portion of the amount they took on the 22nd (what we hadn't used) and we'd be billed for $300 for closing the account before the two years were up. Today I look at my checking account and there's another deduction for them for $249.42. We never authorized them to take that money from our account. In fact they were specifically told not to touch our bank account or have any contact with us whatsoever.

If there's a class action lawsuit pending for this company I'd certainly be interested in filing a claim. They have terrible service and even worse customer service. the results of them deducting the $249.42 and the $93.32 is that son does not get all the school supplies he should have gotten for this year. We go without decent internet service (I'm currently back to dial up - which in all honesty is faster anyway), I now have to figure out which bills I can and cannot pay and we've spent well over 4 hours on the phone long distance with this company trying to come to a resolution before finally reaching the conclusion that it's not worth it. We've also paid $59.99 for services that were no faster then the $20 we were paying for dial up every month.

When I finally get to someone who can see my case information, they tell me that email support is working on it, and it will be fixed within 24-48 hours. They've been saying this for six weeks now. I keep calling, wasting my time, when I'm pretty confident by now that no one is working on anything; they are just hoping I'll give up.

One fellow, Omar (Florida, he says), really seemed to get my frustration, and said that this time (last week, two phone calls ago) they really were working on it -- that he could see no record of anyone having actually worked on it before, but this time for sure. Since then, I can't get back to Omar, and I'm getting the same 24-48 hours bull from every rep I talk to. Better Business Bureau will be next, although it seems they've had many complaints there to no avail.

In six weeks, I've probably wasted about seven hours of my time on the telephone with Hughes, with no improvement. I waste about 20 minutes per day dealing with the two email issues I'm trying to get fixed.

me: You are not providing the download speeds promised. rude tech support in thick Indian accent: In order to determine that you are not getting the correct speeds, you need to run at least 6 speed tests a day. me: it is so slow, it takes 45 in to do a speed test. tech: you need to upgrade your service. Finally, after taking all the punishment, and wasting all the money on slow service, a dish, a Hughesnet modem, a wireless router, I gave up and cancelled my service. By the way, they tried to send me to tech support to fix my problem when I called to cancel.

For those who think Hughesnet is their only option, because they live in a remote area - call Verizon. Massively better service, for slightly less.

My wife just spent 1 hour with Level 3 Tech Support, with Darnell(Fla), Miguel(Fla) and Michael(Fla). While speaking with Darnell, they gave us a case# and pin number and another phone number, where she spoke to Miguel and gave him the case number and pin number, she was disconnected, called back and got Michael and he informed her that that case number had been CLOSED. That was all in a period of 10 minutes from her conversation with Darnell! We went with the 2 year contract instead of having to pay the upfront cost option. Now I don't know what to do. I am on SS and I use the Internet to buy and sell to make some extra money . I am grossly underwhelmed with the Service from Hughes.

I basically don't even try to use the internet to buy and sell antique car parts anymore, its a waste of time and very frustrating.

On july 31 at 6:30 am my speed was reduced to the point of being useless. Backup computer with dial up access was faster.

I called hughes and the reason given was I exceeded my daily download limit. Their usage logs showed 283 meg usage which was well below my 300 meg limit.

After a half hour on hold they tell me the period from 3-6 am is not included in the 24 hour period, so a download made 31 hours earlier has to be counted.

My speed reduced at 6:30 am, hughes said

3-6 am that morning did not count so going back 24 hours there was another 3-6am period that did not count (6 hours total). According to hughes a download made 31 hours earlier was within the 24 hour time frame

Second call to hughes in 2 months, 1st call (unrelated to this issue) I could not understand the person I was talking to. When I asked do you speak english and his name I could not understand a word. Nice guy, but in 15 minutes I have no idea what he said.

Lost a computer sale because I was not able to complete a linux download and my internet connection for at least 29 hours

will be slower than dial up. Waste of time on the phone and

First of all I have had to have a tech come out twice to reposition my satellite because I lost all signal (Days without internet waiting, no refunds on service that I didn't have) Second they keep putting my modem back on the Pro plus satallite and I am getting speeds as pro plus, and being charged for small business. Now my system for the past week has been showing degraded on the system controls. They tried to claim that it was spyware or a virus causing it, but I ran every spyware check imaginable and tested it on a new computer with nothing else plugged in, and a ps3 and I still have random degraded status outages on those. Then they told me they were going to have advanced tech support call me today, and no one called.

I keep getting "techs" that seem to know less about computers then me, who can barely speak English. And quite frankly I am about to tell them to take there over priced connection stuff it. I cant cancel due to a contract but I can't get stable internet for a day lately? Surfing the web, checking email is barely functional, how in the heck am I supposed to upload websites and send graphics to those who need it. Other then my insanity from dealing with [bad] techs, and a cell phone bill calling techs so many times not much.

Since Hughes took over, we are dictated as to how much we can watch, listen & download according to their Fair Access Policy. If ConsumerAffairs.com has a claim against HughesNet, PLEASE count me in. HughesNet has taken advatage of those of us who live in rural areas where BETTER services aren't available.

I understand the need to attract new customers (like me), but this false advertisement is clearly wrong.

Come to find out, he never did a speed test, so he lied about the speeds. My speed tests still showed me to be no faster than 99 down and 90 up. I then contacted customer service again and was on the phone with them an hour. The customer service rep told me he would change a few things and speeds should pick up within 24-48 hours. The next evening, I had the same speeds so I called them back, was on the phone with them for almost 2 hours. I spoke with 3 people, then they determined that my case would need to be moved to a level 4. This is where they have their highest techs look at my problem, analyze it and they would give me a call back within 2 days.

At this time, I requested to speak with a supervisor. The supervisor didn't care AT ALL. I told him how upset I was, how horrible my service had been, and how I NEEDED this connected because I work from home. All he would say is someone will be contacting you. Their customer service is HORRIBLE. They take their time and don't care to make their customers happy. I received a call this evening from a lady saying they were looking into my account and had noticed the issue wasn't on my end, but seemed to be a transit problem. She said they were working on it and wanted me to continue doing speed tests. I asked her how long this would take and she told me she could not give me a time line, they were looking into it and would fix it as soon as possible. I then complained about paying $80.00 per month for this service and not being able to use it, I told her that I needed my account credited due to this problem. She proceeded to tell me that I couldn't be credited anything until this issue was solved.

I'm still waiting. It's extremely stressful and irritating. Also, another thing I would like to point out. When I first had this installed, I asked the installer how well the service would work during the rain. He told me not to worry, the rains and storms wouldn't bother my connection. I'm sorry, but every time we get a cloud in the sky, I lose connection. It doesn't even have to be raining and my connection is dropped. I think they should have to let customers aware of this before installing.

I was already paying $79.99/month and was getting dialup speeds. Everytime I called customer service I would end up talking to someone you could barely understand and who didn't seem to have the slightest idea on how to fix a problem that is apparently on THEIR end. June of this year was our 3 year anniversary with them, the odd thing was I canceled on our 3 year anniversary. I went with an extended high speed service our phone company offered and it's been consistent with no problems and no down time. If I had to go back again, I probably would've just stayed on dialup instead of even getting satellite.

I spent several hours on the phone with technical support going over all the possible problems with my computer, which I already knew wasn't the problem. But I understand that technical support has to go through a set protocol, so I jumped through all the hoops. I had to go through this several times, as some of the changes they made required them to hang up and have me call back later, at which time I had to go through the whole thing again. Once I was given a number to use to expedite my progress through customer service, but when I punched in the number, it said it was not a valid support ticket.

Finally they determined that I needed to return the modem (which I knew wasn't really the problem), but I did what I was told. The new modem arrived, and I hooked it up. The speeds were no better. Finally the problem was escalated to the most advanced level of technical support (which required another hang-up/call-back situation). They worked on the problem and finally got the download speeds approaching 1,000k -- definitely better, but not what was advertised.

The system was installed on May 22. I finally had a reasonable working system on June 12. I determined that Hughes Net was not living up to their promises and that it was not worth the $100 per month it was going to cost me. When I called to cancel on July 4, I was told I would be charged an additional $300 for early cancellation. I informed the customer service agent in no uncertain terms that I did not owe the charge because I had been promised 30 days to evaluate the service.

The service didn't work until June 12, so I was within 30 days of having a chance to evaluate it and decide if I wanted to keep it. Their response was that I was in breach of the contract and they would charge my account. I see that I will probably be billed for equipment, even though the customer service agent said nothing about it on the phone. I would also like to note that they refused to let me talk with a supervisor. Further, never once did they offer any kind of grace period on my monthly fee for the two weeks that I did not have service.

I paid Hughes Net $465 for equipment and installation, then another $100 for one month's service, which wasn't usable. Now they are billing me another $300, plus probable equipment charges.

During a period of frequent equipment failures, I was told that the old modem provided by Direcway was inferior the the HughesNet HN7000 and that I must upgrade. The new modem seemed fine for a while. But the failure service failure rate became more frequent. I began to document the increasing difficult from May 11, 2008. A techician assisted in getting our service restored, but we continued to have frequent brief losses of service. Finally, in June, failures became frequent even when no weather issues were present. When we called tech support they would walk us through the resolution to restablish browsing. We already knew all the processes by heart as we had been resetting the failed modem nearly on a daily basis for over a month.

When we called Hughes (whose corporate headquarters is 15 miles from our home) the only option we have is to speak to tech support in India or billing/customer support in the Phillipines. Tech support faithfully walks us through rebooting the modem to get the modem running again when we tell them that it fails again after a few momements. They have us reboot and note the file that we are able to browse and that they solved the problem. From May 11 to mid June we were constantly rebooting and not calling technical support. Finally the system became so unstable, we could not get the browser to work more than a minute or two.

I called and told Hughes (Phillipines) that Hughes had violated its contract and was not able to provide our service at an acceptible level. They informed me that we would be required to pay $300 or complete paying for 6 more moths of service. They were very courteous and apologetic but were simply not able to comprehend that Hughes should actually be required to provide the service they were getting paid a month in advance for. I asked to speak to someone who could speak for Hughes in regard to their breach and spoke with several different "supervisors" but none would address the issue. I was sent another modem but it did not work. Tech support wants to have us pay for $125 service call because the modem they sent does not work. July 4, I cancelled service. I asked the service person (Phillipines) to note my file that I would contact the Marland Public Utilities Comission unless someone from Hughes contacts me.

Numerous delays of time sensitive business correspondence. Loss of productivity-extremely slow browser service (We were told our download speed should exceed 1000 and upload should be at least 130. Our speed was 1100 & 2. I had to purchase an express card and pay for broadband for my laptop to use as a backup system. At least 20 hours of production time lost directly to troubleshooting

When I called Hughes, they told me these varied install prices were in the contract I agreed to. He said it was up to me to haggle with the installer on the extra charges. It was my fault for not getting a better deal. The next problem occurred when the next week Hughes downgraded the bandwidth threshold that I signed up for. They sent a form email saying that I would be charged the same amount, but that I could not download as much each day. It was a system wide change, but very discouraging that they were downgrading instead of upgrading.

When I called to complain that I was not getting the service I signed up for, they said it was all in the mandatory 2-year contract which I was still obligated to pay. They could change speeds and thresholds as they saw fit. I did get to speak to a sympathetic supervisor who credited me with one free month of service since I threatened to cancel and eat the loss of ending the contract prematurely. In the end, I didn't have much choice but to remain a subscriber. If I wanted to be online in this rural area, I had to go with satellite internet. Hughes handcuffed me with a ridiculously longterm and expensive contract just to test them out. Now that I signed up and am unhappy, it's just too bad.

Eventually i upgraded to the HN7000 modem and the speed was even better. Down load speeds were around 700kbps and up load around 100kbps on average and sometimes going as high as 980kbps on download. Eventually Direcway became Hughesnet.

Around two months ago the great service changed. After 2PM until about 11:00pm each and every day the speed drops off to about 90 down stream and 40 up stream. After talking to various representatives and spending three days doing speed test at the request of Hughesnet they finally informed me that the problem was due to high traffic and there was not an immediate solution and they did not know when there would be.

The economic damage is that I am paying for much higher speeds than I am getting. The fair thing for Hughesnet to do is let customers know that speeds can drop this low for many hours during this time period. The physical damage is wasting three days of my time trying to solve an unsolvable problem that Hughesnet already knew about. Unfortunately there is not a better solution where I live for anything faster than dialup.

When I subscribed to their professional level of service for $69.99 / month they promissed speed of 1000 kbs down and 200+ kbs up. recent measurement made by me using their measurement tool and shared with their technical support staff confirmed 250-400 kbs down and 20-50 kbs up. They are advertising High Speed Internet Access on their web site at speeds of 1000 kbs / down and say nothing about the up speed but state high speed in their advertising up to 30x faster than dial up. while their claim may be correct in the middle of the very early morning when almost no one is using it, it is very misleading in the afternoon and evening when most users seek to use it.

I am barely able to work from home using the service now and at times I have missed key deliverables times as a result. When I first signed up for it their speed was as advertised but now it isn't consistant and is much slower than advertised for most of the day. I think this is a case of false advertising and setting false expectations.

I called Hughes Net to cancel my service. I was explained over the phone that I had to pay $300 as a cancellation fee. I agree to pay the $300 but when the credit card bill came in, I found out that they charged me $655 for getting out of the contract. When I asked why, they said that I had to buy the equipment. I explained that I didn't want the equipment, that I was willing to give it back to them. They said this option was not possible.

I kept calling Hughes Net about it and then I was told that I can only send the equipment back during the first month after I cancel the service, why they did not tell me that from the beginning? I have been calling them about it and, they just ignore me. The credit card agreed with me and, reversed the charge. Now Hughes Net threatened me over the phone that they are going to affect my credit.

Unable to browse the web on HughesNet when I am paying for a service to do so.

We are paying top dollar for a service that is not even close to preforming as advertised and cannot even get out without paying hundreds of dollars more. My wife can no longer work from home and know has to drive 50 miles round trip just to get info from the office computer. In addition, I trade stocks during the day and it is so slow that the programs dont even work and I am constantly being dropped out of the system, seems always at the wrong time. We live just outside the city where we have no other provider other than dail-up. They are well aware that we have no other choice so they choose to exploit that by packing so many people on the system that it over whelms it and it fails.

Last Saturday, we could not access the internet or it took 30 minutes or longer sometimes to get on. We reported the problem. Everytime you call you have to go through the same troubleshooting with the person in the service center. You are put on hold to listen to the most awful music. It is now Wednesday and the problem persists. We were told someone would call us in 24 - 48 hours. No one has called. They cannot give you a number or anyone else to talk to. You are at their mercy. This is supposed to be high-speed internet service.

I asked to be let out of my contract because of all of the problems we have had, but it would cost me $300. How can this company have no one to answer to? It is like running into a brick wall dealing with them. I have spent hours on the phone with them and nothing changes. If they cannot fix the problem why can't they just say that and let me out of the contract so that I can go to another company? I want Hughes Net to be held responsible for not providing the service that I am paying for. I need dependable service where I don't have to spend hours on the phone trying to get someone to make it work.

I am self-employed and the hours spent dealing with Hughes Net has taken me away from my job and things I need to accomplish there. I bought a new computer that I did not have to buy, because I thought maybe that was the problem.

I'd just like the ability to continue doing what I've been doing for the past year with HughesNet), we feel justifiably cheated. Honestly, why would anyone pay SEVEN or more times more than dial up costs for the same abilities? I just raced my 2 computers, one with dial up (BasicISP for $10 a month) and one with HughesNet. Yes, you could tell a difference, but it was negligible. Since Hughes punishes you (or simply doesn't allow) for doing what you bought hi speed for in the first place, their commercials are misleading and completely false.

The other huge complaint I have about HughesNet is their lack of truthfulness. If they would just up and say we blocked you because you used too much bandwidth it would be better than going for weeks with extremely slower than dial up speeds, until my husband finally pried the true cause of our problems out of their customer service. Instead, they gave us the run around, pretending for weeks that the problem was with our dish or modem or computers. Finally, they copped to the fact that they had deliberately slowed us down. The same thing happened when my console stopped working. The customer service wouldn't just say PS3's aren't supported any more. Instead she just said We don't recommend online gaming with a satellite system, contact your gaming system's support staff for help. I spent literally 3 months (and bought a new PS3) because I thought the problem was on my end, but it was Hughesnet all along. So, I spent much time and bucks for nothing.

Purchased a bunch of new computing equipment including a $450 PS3 because I thought the problem was on my end instead of HughesNet. Spent $600 plus $70 a month on a satellite system that only works about 80% of the time and only works at a reasonable speed 10% of the time. Can't get out of the contract without paying an additional $300. Can't use the system for what it was advertised for - high speed downloading.

THEY EITHER HAVE OVERSOLD their available bandwidth or the service is exactly the same for all plans which would be fraudulent and deceptive. I know the Attorney General's Office has many complaints and am wondering why they haven't conducted a full investigation into this matter.This affect many residences and others in many many states. Mainly people that do not have the availability of internet services in more rural areas. We are stuck. There needs to be a class-action lawsuit to motivate this NATIONAL business to be honest and above board.

Frustration, anxiety that you pay more for Professional service and it's just a BIG LIE. Fales ads and deceptive business practices.

We cannot watch a short video from email and have difficulty using the internet at all much of the time. We get nowhere near the promise of 700 KBPS. We have a case number, but there has been no follow up from Hughes. They turned us over to their engineering department. I spent the entire spring break from my teaching, trying to resolve the problems. Hughes, however, continues to advertise these great speeds of 700 KBS and 125 uploads, which are false advertising. If I had a choice to high speed internet, I would drop them in a heartbeat.

We have paid $60.00 a month for service that is barely an improvement to dial-up speeds. Hughes needs to admit they have a problem. Many customers are not aware that they are not receiving the services for which they are paying.

Then we were told it is the curve of the earth!! Go figure. Then we were told we need a reciever upgrade as ours was just too slow. So we upgraded the receiver. Nothing changed. Then we were then told to upgrade our plan from $59 a month to $79 a month as this ensured a faster service. After changing our plan we found NO difference in speed. Then service informed us nothing will speed up our service as the satilite can only allow so much traffic into and out of the satilite at any given time. Upgrading the program does not change this. In other word this program upgrade is a rip off as you get the same at $59 a month as $79 a month.

Finally I found Verizon has a wireless system that works in my area so I switched. Guess what! When I informed Hughsnet I wished to cancel my service I find I owe a $300 disconnect fee because each time the plan was changed (at their suggestion) it started my contract again. Always make sure you read the agreement in detail when on line. Do not take the sales or support persons word on the terms of your agreement.

We were verbally told upgrading our program would not bind us to anything. In fact we could move our plan up or down at will. Guess what every time you change your plan you start a 15 month contract again. Even if you are doing this at their recommendation to resolve an issue. HUGHSNET shame on you! You are truly not being honest with the public.

You cannot download anything without them cutting your power back.

Each time we go through the same ordeal of checking to see if my system is set up correctly. Of course, it always is. Then I have to go through three days of running a System Speed Test for them to look at. When I call back on the fourth day the same process starts all over again. Technical Support transfers you to billing, billing transfers you back to tech support and the new person you are talking to wants you to start the process all over again. Meanwhile IF my system works at all, it is much, much slower then dial up. I cannot check my email half of the time not to mention having the opportunity to watch movies, download music, play games, log into one of my online classes or anything else that you should be able to do.

I live in the country so my choices are very limited for service. At this point I am seriously thinking about opting out for Accelerated Dial-Up. I think it would be better then HughesNet. I am advising anyone that may be considering service with HughesNet to think seriously about it. You are going to spend a lot of money and the service will be terrible. The customer service is even worse. You will be talking with someone half way around the world who really does not care if you are a satisfied customer or not. I wish there was a way to stop them from false advertisement and ripping off consumers. Maybe a Class Action Suit or something. They need to held accountable.

I told them I canceled 2 days into service and have the case number and documentation but they won't listen and insist I owe this money. I am supposed to return the equipment within 60 days to receive a credit but they will not supply me with the de-install and return instructions and now I will be over the 60 day return policy before they refuse to accept the return.

Economically I spend $59.99 per month for a service that works maybe 50% of the time. That is at least $30 per month that is wasted.

They should be made to tell the truth! They are a little faster than dial up as long as you are only on between 2 am and 5 am. They won't try to give you even a reasonable connection unless you wait 2-3 weeks for them to come out, and they will charge you a high service call whether its their fault or not. They do expect their bill to be paid on time every time whether you have connection or not. I thought false advertising was against the law in this country but apparently not.



Sales told me to contact billing when my new modem was installed and I would receive credit for the time I couldn't use internet. There were many days in Nov. up to Dec. 12 when installer came out. I contacted billing, and they refuse to give me credit for those days because I was over my download limit on some days and other days I had some service. How can I have service when lights on modem are not all on? For all the problems I have had since I had this service, no one as ever told me your only allowed to download 200 mb in a 24 hour period. If you go over that you are subject to the fair access policy, and they turn your signal down so you can't use it. This is ridiculous. Most movies you may want to watch on internet are at least 600 mb or more. So forget about watching movies or downloading games or running a small business. I only wish I could get something else, but since I live in a rural area it's between this or dial up. When Hughesnet advertises for high speed internet, this is misleading because it's only high speed until you are subject to the fair access policy, then you can only crawl. Buyer Beware, to me this is fraud.

I

First they do not let you know that you have to wait 2 months to get it. Then i was told the 2 months started from the date i payed for it. When those 2 months were up they changed their story again and stated that it was 2 months after it was installed. Now they say that i need a copy of 2 invoices. I can not pull it up on the computer and they will not mail them to me.

Plus, i got the best plan to get the fastest satalite service $79.99 a month and the internet is not even faster than the dial up i had. Plus, the installer never did get it working correctly & i refused when he left to sign all the paper because of it.

I've been having problems with error messages of 506 for the past 2 or 3 months now. I called Hughes customer Tech service yesterday to find out what was going on.

I was told, totally out of the blue, that I was downloading too much!!! The service rep. said, I don't know whether your aware of this or not....but you can only have so many megabites downloaded per month. WHAT?????!!!! I have never been informed of this before! And I've never had the problem before, my downloading hasn't changed! I can't even bring up my own everyday sites!

I called the Attorney General's office for the State of Minnesota to complain. They agreed that this was not what they advertise on TV. I will be filing an official complaint against them with the state and I will also gather information regarding a class action lawsuit.

2.3. TERMINATION BY SUBSCRIBER.

In the event that HNS modifies this Agreement, the Service or related pricing or billing terms, you may immediately terminate your account and this Agreement. Subject to your payment of the termination charges herein described, you may also do so at any other time and for any reason on written notice to HNS.

So I contacted Hughesnet to cancel my service. After speaking with one of their supervisors I was informed I would still have to pay the termination fee of $300.00 even though they made a change to their service. After several minutes of discussing the issue of the termination fee she stated they cannot waive the fee and even with the wording in the subscriber agreement I am subject to the fee. She also stated she understood how it could be perceived with the first sentence of the cancellation agreement being In the event that HNS modifies this Agreement, the Service or related pricing or billing terms, you may immediately terminate your account and this Agreement. that they can still charge you the fees.

Not only have I paid for a service which they can put you in the fair access policy, they can randomly restrict your speed but I have also been sent a bill for a $300 termination fee.

They offered to send someone to look at it but wouldn't guarantee that it wouldn't be the same guy who installed it. That fellow walked out before we were up and running (we had to figure it out ourselves) and we later learned that some new extra equipment he sold us was actually used equipment in new boxes. We've tried to find someone locally (and are willing to pay them ourselves) but they say there isn't much they can do. We later talked with the representative of another company that provides satellite service who said they warn their customers up front that Oregon's rainy, overcast weather can be a big problem. At the least, Hughes should do the same.

I suggested they check the logs and see if my speed ever achieved even 10% of what they advertise. They HAVE the ability, but refused to do so! I personally feel (due to my technical background) that the system is not installed properly, when I insist the matter they inform me it will be a $170 charge to have a tech arrive. What part of this is acceptable. And if I am dealing with the wrong agency please let me know. FCC, BBB, PUC, who do I file with about this?

I have paid a total of $1620.00 to them in the last 15 months and have received poor service.

The first time this occured, I waited 30 minutes on hold before giving up. I called back hours later, and the first gentlman said it would be 2-3 minutes. I waited 20 and gave up. I called back, and was told I would be connected right away. I spent 40 minutes on hold. The THIRD time, I was transferred and actually waited one hour and 50 minutes. A woman's voice would let me know every 3 minutes that my hold time was more than 15 minutes and suggested calling back at [unspecified] less busy times. Then her message changed to, your hold time is 5-15 minutes, so I thought I was getting closer. Twenty minuntes later, her message reverted to the more than 15 minutes.

Their customer service methods provide NO means to get human help. Their email forms are returned with donotreply@hughes.net addresses, their phone menus offer no means to get to a human operator. IN fact, I have no resources to obtain customer service. Their records indicate my case has been escalated but waiting almost 2 hours on hold is inexcusable.

I live on a mountain top, south of Central City, CO. Satellite is my only option for internet and Hughes is the only provider. I pay $ 59.99 a month for what should be 24/7 service, and only getting about half of that. I can not even get satisfactory assistance or answers through their customer care people.

HughesNet customer service departments will not answer their phone lines or return phone calls or respond to emails for assistance. A technician from somewhere half around the world finally said their obligation was to provide a connection, not speed. Ironic their advertising is for high speed internet connection and their marketing is geared to consumers who like me, have no alternative other than dial-up.

No damage, but potential business clients should know that service is not 24/7 unless there are sunny skies.

My fastest upload speed was 4.35 kbps which is nowhere close to what they promised me. The direcway support & the installer both said it would be at least 6 to 8 times faster then dial-up. I was unable to surf while I was uploading because of the poor installation. I found out over 4 months later that the dish was never fastened down tight and every time the wind would blow I would have no signal for minutes and sometimes over 8 hours at a time. Now Direcway wants to charge me over $700 for terminating my service early for a service I never had and also wants to charge me for a modem that the second installer Pete from the same company in Michigan took with him and never returned to Direcway.