HughesNet Reviews

After speaking with five "customer service reps," we were finally allowed to cancel the service but at a cost of $400.00. I complained because it was not our fault—it was theirs due to false advertising. Didn't matter. They charge showed up on my credit card. Do not give your credit card number to these robber barons! We made a complaint to the Att. General of Arkansas and very shortly received a phone call from an "officer" of the HughesNet Company, who said the best they could do was refund half. $200 is better than $400. We took it gratefully.

Now two months later, there's another charge on our credit card from HughesNet for $324 for who knows what. I will not speak with these liars again. They give no understanding or avenue of escape except paying them. We have again made complaint to the Att. General. Buyer, beware! They'll find some way to get your money. Our businesses both depend upon internet "searches" of suppliers and receiving "e-mails and inquiries" from websites. Of course, this no longer functioned for us as we did not have the ability to stay online for any length of time (fair access) except at 2-3 a.m. What customer is awake at that time?

The next thing is, I called about two weeks ago and they told me that my satellite was unaligned, and that I had to pay $125.00 to get someone to come back out and realign it, because my warranty was up on their product. What kind of ** is that? So needless to say, I did not pay the $125. I told them that I was not paying them $125 for their product. Every time you ask to speak to a manager, they will tell you to hold on one second, then they will come back on with a deal for you, most of the time I tell them no, that I still want to speak to a manager. I would have never, ever, ever bought Hughes Net, if I knew this was the way it was, and I can't get anything else out here. It took them 8 hours each time they have come over here, to do anything. They do not know what they are doing. The economic damage is that I am paying a lot of money for **.

Their way of handling the problems are to drive their customers crazy so they will give up. I could go on and on, but have done that for 2 years and this is the last, unless there is a class action law suit for failure to perform and misrepresentation, of which I will wholeheartedly take part! HughesNet should be held accountable for non-performance of their side of the contract-they are a terrible company and shame the name of Howard Hughes. DSL has finally come to our neck of the woods, and there have been zero problems so far. I am receiving what was promised-fast speeds, reliable connectivity, affordable-I pay $15 a month as opposed to $75 for far far far better service-it is just unbelievable that HughesNet is allowed to still operate. Isn't there laws against businesses misrepresenting in this way?

I paid over $2000 in total for bad internet service-slow speeds, no connection, they nailed the dish to my tree and damaged the tree, the cables are running all over the yard, really unprofessional installation and more unprofessional "service" spent hours (would equal a loss of $750) on the phone trying to get some sort of resolution to the problems at hand, more hours of unnecessary waiting around for the internet to do business (would equal in to the thousands of dollars lost).

This tech knew what he was doing, however, I was still charged $125 by Hughes Net. Arguing that I should not have to pay for service call when the unit was not properly installed, very rude, I asked to speak to manager who also was very arrogant and rude. If you cancel service, you have to pay $400. I can't wait till my contract is up in November. I will definitely cancel and will tell everyone I know to not use this company!

Hughesnet tech support can't even speak English. They only go through a checklist and have no clue what they're talking about. They never answer my questions to my satisfaction. When I requested to speak with someone in America that is higher up in the company, I never get a positive response. The only Americans I have ever spoken to were the ones who set up the appointment for installation and the contractor who installed it and worked on it. It costs me about $150 just to get a service call. They never find anything wrong. They just reset the ** thing and get it working. The same thing I do.

AT&T or local cable provider, please make your service available out here! I am out of several hundred dollars for service I don't receive and stuck in a contract I can't break. Is there any way something can be done to this company?

When you call the company you get some guy called Dave or woman called Mary in New Delhi India that could care less about your problem. They are like a bunch of droids reading from a set of index cards repeating over and over how sorry they are for your troubles. Then they tell you they cannot fix the issue because my modem is outdated even though they have told me that the problem was a connectivity issue with their equipment and that a service person is needed. They will not send someone unless I get the new modem and sign up for 2 more years of service. I told them the modem I have is not the problem and I just want my service fixed,but all to no avail.

I'm sick of it. Nothing has been resolved other than less than satisfactory service and equipment that needs to still be repaired. I will not purchase a new modem, nor will I sign up for more time with this lying company.

Skip ahead a year, I lost my job in February 2010 and immediately suspended my account. I have no problem honoring my contracts with people and/or businesses, but there should be some flexibility for common sense in caring for customers. I am selling my house and moving into a weekly rate motel. I call HughesNet customer care and request to have a box sent to return the equipment and extend my suspension for the remainder of my contract. I currently pay ~$10/month for the contracted lease of the equipment under suspension.

After suspension ends in a month, the best they can do is bill me ~$40/month. I explained to them that I cannot afford ~$40/month with my UI. I can afford ~$10/month. No options were given to me even when I spoke with a supervisor. HughesNet does not care! They would rather bill me $400 for early cancellation that I cannot afford right now. They go through months of trying to collect from me, instead of extending a suspension due to hardship and guaranteeing a monthly payment from me.

And when you do try to cancel, they give you lots of reference numbers, in fact, I have reference numbers for reference numbers. Their system is so convoluted and it is difficult to speak to someone who speaks English and knows what is actually going on. We are sucking it up, paying the early termination fee to be free of this mess and switching to clear.com, which also has a 2 year contract, but actually has a usable connection. We will pay the $400 early termination fee just to be done with them. If someone doesn't believe all these reviews, they should make sure they have a free trial period to test the service and exhaust all other methods of connection!

The download manager that they offer never worked. Then I was told by technical support that the download manager isn't compatible with Windows 7. When I woke today, I had 98% of my download limit. My son and myself had only been to FB and I here. My limit now stands at 68% without any download having taken place with exception of navigating a few pages. After paying $70 per month, an extra $5.00 to get back up to speed after exceeding the download limit feels like highway robbery! Especially since I have been tracking my CPU usage and diligently watching the usage meter and not allowing any downloading until after 1am CST.

I too need to know, to whom do I complain? FCC, FTC, FDA, who? This industry needs regulation because I'm certain that they are siphoning off my download limit as I watch it go away. I read a few more complaints before I decided to write mine. I know that I am not the only one in this area with this issue. A friend of mine thought it was her computer acting up every other day until I explained my issue. I need to know how I can find adequate Internet access in a rural area and how I can fight this conglomerate who I feel is taking advantage of me. I am emotionally stressed from having to call Hughes Net weekly and speak with people I barely understand to try to resolve the issue. I know that I'm paying more than other people with the same service. We need high speed for my wife's online classes, but there's stress through the home wondering when our service will be interrupted while not downloading.

He told my husband that it would cost $190 to mount on the roof, but $125 to be mounted on a pole. My husband opted for the pole mount since it was cheaper, not realizing that the roof installation was included at no additional charge! The check was made out directly to Jason. He also dug too close to swimming pool pipes and caused a leak in our system. He left us no paperwork and gave us no information regarding our rebates or online account management.

After a few days, the extremely slow service stopped working altogether. We called four times to finally get assistance from premium support! We had to request disconnection before anyone would even help us. When I originally asked for the customer service department, we were even told that there was no a customer service department and that no one could help! When I was finally transferred to "retention", the lady offered a trial period to extend to 8/28/10, a credit of $57.87 on my bill, and premium support in the US. After turning off power, resetting and trying various connections, the gentleman in Florida at premium support discovered that there was a problem with the modem.

In total, we spent a couple of hours on the phone to come to that conclusion. He said someone would come to our home and bring a different modem so that our service would work. We told him that we did not want Jason back at our home. The same company 4 hours away called to schedule service. When the man came, he only checked out the system and told us what we already knew - that the modem was faulty. We had been told that they would be bringing the modem, so this was a complete waste of everyone's time. He left and we received another call from the same installation company to set up an appointment for the modem replacement. That appointment was cancelled on the day of the appointment after we made arrangements to be home from work- the install company said their truck was broken. So, we set up another appointment and had to make arrangements again.

Then Jason showed up again - the same guy we had said could not come back to out home. He was again 2 hours later than the agreed upon time frame (2 hours after the latest time not the earliest). He said he didn't know why he was there and that he did not know what to do. While there, he called the company and loudly complained that they were wasting money fixing things that were not broken and was very rude to my family. This was after premium support and his boss had discovered the problem with the modem!

Then on 8/1/10, I discovered that $500.75 was deducted from my checking account. After searching online through Google, I finally found a way to create an online account and look at bills. We had two previous bills dated 6/30 that showed $0 due. There is a new bill dated 7/30/10 that does show the $500.75 due on 8/9/10. I received no information from anyone on how to retrieve the bills, the online system or anything. We also received no emails regarding any billing activity. You cannot just create a bill and deduct it from someone's checking account all at the same time. There must be some sort of notice of the amount and date of deduction. This created a huge problem with my financial situation! I never expected that amount to be deducted.

We discontinued the service 8/1/10 as soon as we saw the deduction. I got back on the website and discovered that it will be discontinued 8/30/10. We removed the equipment on 8/1 and shipped it back on 8/2 at a cost of $39 since there is no local outlet. The service amount for the month of August needs to be refunded. I do not expect to pay for this inferior service or an installation that actually cost me money to repair his damages to my property.

My first use was at my daughter's house. They use AT& T wireless. Everything worked beautiful. Then I went home then nothing, there was no connection. I called Hughes who said that it was the computer and directed me back to Hughes. After going back and forth between them, I was ready to scream and I did at that person in Mumbai who keep repeating my answers to the questions that were obviously popping up on his computer screen. But he wasn't listening because I told him that I was plugged directly into the modem and that the router wasn't being used at this point. I told him twice and he still asked me about what lights were showing on the router and where the plugs were on the router. So yes, I screamed. Then I got to listen to the Bollywood Top 10 hits and then the little worm zapped my IP address. I had someone, who I paid, come to reset things: not the satellite, but just the settings on the computer and get an IP address back and serviced so since.

But lately, it’s been problematic again. So, I called the customer service. I listened to the newest Bollywood hits then talked to Samier or something. Yadda, Yadda, it’s the satellite, 7 to 14 days until only now, they wanted to talk to my husband which would be tricky because I've asked Hughes to change that name several times over the past year since my husband is deceased. They never changed it. Now they need to talk to him to get permission to come to my house to fix that stupid satellite. Their alternative was for me to fax a Death Certificate to the Philippines. There will be a lot more dead people before I do that. Even California DMV didn't need to see that to change the ownership of our vehicles to just myself. Just who does Hughes think they are? This should be a public utility issue and if not, why isn't it? Who watchdogs these people? Right now, having to talk to HughesNet is like having to go to the dentist. Oh no, my dentist isn't that bad.

I replaced the original modem with a supposed upgraded performance DW7000S (requiring a two year contract) on November 11, 2007. The faster DW7000S was rated at 2 Mbps download speeds, although never mind the cleverly worded Hughes Net contract which specifies up to 2 Mbps speed, as you'll never see it.

The below data from 70 nearly around the clock (5 AM to 11 PM) tests, was gathered over a 3 day period and speaks for itself. For example; I was not able to achieve the downward revised 1.5 Mbps contract speed, as has been the case, for many, many months. In the 70 separate speed tests, using PC Pitstop (Dallas server). The advertised typical busy period speeds of 1.0 Mbps to 1.2 Mbps, as stated on the Hughes Net web site, were obtained ONLY between 5 AM to 9:30 AM local time. The speed quickly trailed off to 50% and less of the speeds stated in the contract, after 9:30 AM and there it remained until some time around midnight. The stated peak period performance is a joke, with speeds well under 200 Kbps any time after 7 PM, with lowest performance falling off to 151 Kbps, being very little above dial up speed.

A realistic average speed, during moderate activity periods, is more like 300 to 500 Kbps at best. Most telling is the Ping or latency delay times, which ran well over 1000 ms (the maximum was 1714 ms), in 50% of the tests. The best Ping response was 667 ms. Its acknowledged there is an inherent increased Ping delay time in satellite systems but for comparison, cable systems typically see Ping times of 20~30 ms.

Hughes Net is quick to acknowledge that there is little correlation between receive signal levels and download speeds, but I so noted the data in several reports, including a period when moderate to heavy rain showers were experienced. Ive seen loss of signal in heavier to extreme precipitation, but that was not the case, during the tests, with a minimum indicated receive level of 67. The actual performance appeared to have experienced no significant degradation during the rain.

My interpretation of the extraordinary Ping delays seen with the Hughes Net system, is a strong suggestion that Hughes has oversold the service. Simply stated, they can not service the product they have sold and what is more, we all watch nightly TV, as they continue to sell high speed Internet. Curiously, I note that similar reports from Wild Blue satellite Internet users, typically meet the 1.5 Mbps speed, even during the peak load evening hours!

What is high speed Internet? Several reports I received from friends across the country, typically produced download speed reports, with cable systems providing speeds well over 10 Mbps and as high as 24.86 Mbps. In short it would appear there's a real serious need for some truth in advertising from the Hughes folks.

I spent hours on three calls on July 11, 2010 (I recorded all calls on a digital recorder, and regardless of the woman that hung up on me because I was recording without her consent (well her consent means nothing, as I am recording my business with a commercial company in a commercial issue), I am notifying of the recording, like I told the cop, I don't need permission. All I need to do is notify, at most. And financial issues with commercial companies are one of many exceptions to notification requirements, read the black letter law. I am going by California laws as Hughes is registered with the CA in Business Portal (Sec-state) as a 'foreign corporation operating in California' and bound by California laws!

Anyway, I was on the third call, assured (on the record) that the account was immediately canceled. I am like 12 years past the 24 month deal, and yet, this morning (July 15 2010), I check my account (with Hughes) to find that it still active and tagged with termination on the first day of next month, which no doubt, entitles them to keep the money that they stole from my account via breach of contract and virtual denial of service. I was not fapped back to minimum speed. After ten minutes or so, I was cut off totally.

It took me seven days to download one program - a big one, but still, that was one of the main sales pitches when I bought into the service. I had to download Adobe Photoshop elements 8.0 piecemeal for approximately ten minutes at a time, over seven days. That led me to decide to sign up with Beamspeed (what a relief! No fap, no **!) I will call (and record) again today. Much business is conducted over the phone these days. Protect yourselves and record all transactions! It is your right to have a written receipt for business, and to the best information available to me (California black letter law) under law, any recording is defined as a 'writing', i.e. written receipt for business transacted. Also, this applies to cops, but only for your own business with them. Recording without notice of person in custody is a felony. People, you better check out the laws before that video cam gets you in trouble!

8. So now I have to fax them proof of ownership of this house before they will send a technician out to hook up their "free" upgraded modem. By the way, my current modem works fine. They want me off of it so they can stop supporting what they've sold me.

The tech support is in India-- that actually was not as bad as some Indian support I've experienced. Billing is apparently in the Philippines. Amusing is that they have renamed all of their agents with "Americanized" names as if that will solve the language and cultural barrier. It certainly didn't help the billing department understand the inanity of insisting they had installed the internet dish at a PO Box. My problem is still not fixed. As soon as cable or DSL is available here, I will burn their equipment and have a party. They don't care about customers or what we think of them or their service. If they had competition, they'd be out of business. Stay away if you can.

No one can tell me when they will get their problems fixed. If it's the weather, they say it's beyond their control. Has there been bad weather at the satellite for over two weeks now? I seriously doubt it. I've been told they are trying to boost the signal strength. I was told the problem started in May and I bought the system in June so they knew they were selling me a system I was going to have problems with. That is recorded. Then, I was told the problem started after I got my system. Yeah, right.

I had minor problems with the 7000 system but never like this. They are ripping people off and somebody should be able to do something about them! I have some recorded conversations of all the bull crap they tell me and I have informed them I have recorded conversations (legal in Alabama as long as one party is aware of it and that party is me, already checked into that), but if I can't find who can help with them, what good do they do me? I have asked to be transferred to someone in the United States and they can't do that either. I have requested to be transferred to high-ups and they can't do that either. Keep telling me to wait 2 hours and if the problem continues to call back. I do when I can but then the cycle starts over again with the same crap. Tried to send email on their website and it just clicks the email away! I left complaints for someone to call me. No one called. I have no other option where I live except possible Wild Blue and I understand they are even worse. I paid for a system that doesn't work more than it does and pay $60.00 month and can't even get on or stay on most of the time.

Needless to say, we were billed a disconnect fee for their mistake. I called on 6/11/2010 and spoke to 4 different people in 3 different departments in India, Philippines, and India again with no one supposedly able to help me. I filed a complaint with the BBB, but have heard nothing. I tried Hughes Net again, only on line this time and basically got the same runaround. We, like a lot of other people, are experiencing financial difficulties and unfortunately have to use our credit card sometimes just to buy groceries. So, we do not need this fee added to our credit card.

I called Hughes Network and explained the problem, stating that I felt the satellite dish was not tightened down adequately when it was installed, especially since my DirecTV dish was not affected at all. Can you believe the guy from whatever country told me when I called customer service that it was an Act of God and that they would do nothing about it? I can't wait until my contract with Hughes Network is done, so I can replace them with another service.

I received a call from HugesNet on June 7, 2009 asking for my email address saying they would send me information on returning their equipment, but I never received an email. I called them on June 10 and on asking about the email but my call were never returned. On 6/6/2009, Capital One put a charge on my account for $371.71. I protested the charge as I had not cancelled the dish with HugesNet and they took the payment off for about 2 months and they put the charge back on stating that after checking with HugesNet, they had determined that the charge was legal. I wrote back that they should check my credit state men, it would show that I was paid up to 06/29/09 and they would see that I was paid up and beside they were the one who cancelled my account. But they refused to remove the charge. Now I am hit with over the limit fees and late payment charges. My only income is from retirement and any unplanned payment I have to do without things that are badly needed. It is recorded on my credit report, I have had to do without thing that are badly needed because with the inflated payment with Capital One.

A few months later, I was offered a job in Boston but was now locked into a 2-year contract with them. I returned the equipment and had to pay a penalty to discontinue the service. They were supposed to refund me some money for returning the equipment that I bought. I never received a refund and they continued to charge my card $60 a month without me knowing for the past year. My fault for not checking my account closer I know but after going out of my way to drive to their office to return equipment, I assumed the matter was settled. It was like pulling teeth to get the service discontinued in the first place and figure out how to return the equipment. And now, I find out they have been charging me for a year! As far as I'm concerned, they owe me $720 for the year of service and $200 for the returned equipment!

I know the last time I used my card, there was plenty of money there. The service is not as great as they say. Over half of the time, you cannot get connected. I never authorize them to take money out of my account. I pay my own bills. So now, I have to cover all the overdraft charges and all. They just help their self to your money ad keep charging you more and more. I think something needs to be done about businesses that can take advantage of people.

On 5/16, I could not get online and after same 2 trouble shooting sessions, I need higher level help who will call within 48 hrs(?). 48 hours later, I called.They were to look into it. The big problem is, I am at work during the day and that's when they called. This outfit should not be allowed to false advertise and take advantage of public.

This means I can only download a few items per day during a certain period of time or what they referred to as "peak" hours and online game play was definitely out of the question since, at the time I had a 3-year old at home who loved Nick Jr. online and the games associated with it and other educational websites, but we had to limit that due to "fair access policy" threshold. I also had a teenager who loves YouTube, but who had to limit that to maybe one video per day. Aside from that, the costumer service never got an English speaking person and they could get me to the department to handle my concern without me being hung up on almost every time they were attempting to transfer me. I had to tell my story to everyone I talked to just for them to tell me they were not the department that handled those issues. I needed customer service, and customer service tells me I need tech support, and tech support tells me I need billing, and billing to tell me to hold on let me see what we can do, and guess what, I get hung up on then I have to start the process over again.

I get what is supposed to be the direct number for the correct department, only to be given the same number I already had only with an extension, but lo and behold there is never an option to dial an extension, so here I am at square one. They want 285.00 on top of my monthly fee of 79.99 for me to have them move my services from one address to another, and that's if I take down all the equipment and carry it with me and all they do is connect it, but if they have to take down and move the equipment and connect it at the new location it's 385.00. This whole system is a rip-off! I would highly suggest that anyone thinking about doing business with this company think again and don't do it! You will be out of your hard-earned money, time and frustration dealing with their customer service reps and bad service. I was charged $400 which was drafted directly out of my account, for what they call early termination fee, but I never called to have my services terminated. I only wanted to have it moved from one location to the other, and never hooked my computer back up to the system because I was not living at the service location any longer. The timing of them taking the fund out of my account couldn't have been any worse because I had rent, light bill, car payment, and car insurance due during said time and it set me back.

Today, May 13, 2010, I called back and after being on the PC for for 1 hr checking mail and again, the fair access policy was exceeded. This time, they told me my dish was out of alignment due to winds, etc. We have had no winds to cause a dish to be moved, and I had to pay $125 for a tech to come out. I did not buy the equipment. I pay to lease it every month but they said the warranty had run out. I argued this point and got nowhere, and of course, they offered to credit my account 1 month service. This still does not compensate for all the $5 charges to have speed restored to use the internet, and I do not think I should be responsible for a service call due to the fact I lease the equipment for $9.99 a month. Nor do I feel that since they have a known issue with the modem I have, I should be credited back for the restore tokens as well. I am thoroughly disgusted with this whole matter and had to agree to a 2 yr contact. I would not recommend this service to anyone.

Then I got a bill for the modem which was not cheap and I called them and told them I had a coupon for it and they told me that they new nothing about a coupon for this modem and that I had requested it and would have to pay for it. The speed of the computer never did get better only worse. Since that time we have called tech support and talked to a person who cannot speak English many, many times. Many times no service and many times service so slow dial up was fast compared to this.

Then we found out about limited access a term I had never heard in relation to internet service. This means if you down load or try to down load a movie you have exceeded you what you are allowed for the day. When this happens, your computer is so slow that to just get on line takes up to ten minutes. I live out in the country and have no other service except dial up which we are going back to. I have checked into other satellite services and I read that most are as bad a Hughes net. Even that some of them use Hughes' satellites. I can't wait until we have another service and then I can take a sledge hammer to Hughes' equipment so the don't stick someone else with it.

I canceled the service in February 2010. I was never informed that I only had 45 days to return the equipment at my expense. I did return the equipment when I could get the $18 to ship it back via UPS. That was an expense that hurt my budget. Also, when they initially installed the service I did not have my desktop computer unpacked yet from moving to my current residence, so I used a friend’s laptop to make sure the service was working. It would not work on my friend’s laptop but did work on the installer’s laptop.

After I returned the laptop to my friend they discovered it was no longer usable. It would not even work on their air card which was working just fine before. I had to take it to a shop and they had to wipe everything out and start over, so my friend lost many personal pictures, including pictures of the first time they held their new grandson. It cost me $75 that I really did not have. Now, I am getting the runaround about getting the money back they took out of my checking account without my permission. At first they said 45 days which would make it May 8th. Now, they are saying it will be May 25th and then another 45 days after that. They said it may be June before I get it! I have serious doubts about getting my money back. Every time I call customer support, the operators have a heavy accent that I can barely understand. I am on a fixed income and had to get a loan to pay my rent or be out on the street. Still trying to pay off a loan I can't really afford. Also, I am going to miss my daughter’s graduation from college due to lack of funds to get there.

Finally, DSL became available to our area, thanks to Verizon, after I went door to door in my neighborhood and got everyone to commit to DSL. You can contact Verizon to learn more about this option. They are required to bring DSL to your area after enough people commit to the service. I also learned that the Verizon Wireless air cards work very well and they even have an air card that doubles as a wireless modem. If I would have found out about the air cards sooner, I would have switched a long time ago. It is just a shame what poor service HughesNet provided for the amount of money that they charged. Goodbye, HughesNet!

Then they promised me to refund my money just so I would keep the service past the 30-day period. After that, they charged me double the next month and by that time, my service was $80 a month for service that wasn't even usable. I asked to receive documents in the mail about the billing and they told me they would. I waited, after awhile I called them back and they say they do not even do the paper billing or any kind of documents at that. So 4 months went by, no improvement with the service. I called and asked to be taken off the service and they said I was under contract that I would have to pay $480 to break a contract that I never signed and also send the equipment back.

So I talked to them for 3 hours one day trying to tell them everything that's been going on and they finally told me to send the equipment back and they will reverse the charges. So they sent me an email saying 2 unsubscription success notices. 2 weeks rolled by and I got a letter from collections saying I owe them $430. The whole time I was with this company, I was told false advertisements, forced into contract and lied too!

I expected to receive a refund since I never even used the equipment. After 5-10 more emails, I was able to contact someone and they told me all charges were valid and I was not to receive a refund. So I spent $191. to be hassled by HughesNet. Never once did they attempt to make anything right. What an extreme lack of customer service. Don't order HughesNet. I am out $191 and have nothing to show for it but a terrible interaction with a company that doesn't care about its customers. And, in this economy, who can throw away $191? Not me.

I will explain instead of giving exact addresses, dots and numbers etc., perhaps the info will be published and escape their screening process that appears to use keywords and buzzwords to delete contact info. I suggest we confer and move forward in making Hughesnet responsible for the hours and hours upon hours of wasted time on the phone with these people who are trained to give you "the runaround", which equates to loss of income and anguish, which in turn equates to monetary retribution!

I am forging ahead based on principle now! I refuse to let Hughesnet steal from me! I plan on contacting an attorney either way by myself or with others! Remember, the American salesperson will assure you there is no risk. When absolutely nothing is as agreed relating to service, speed, access, reliability, stability and charges on your card, it will be too late. You will have been charged almost $500.00 on your credit card and be forced to deal with Indian employees via telephone to India who read scripts and use condescending tones and "holier than thou" attitudes. It is infuriating. It will consume your life!

I cancelled the repair service and received confirmation number. We decided to put the service on hold and cancel our account when we were in Phoenix. I have spent many hours on the phone trying to cancel my HughesNet account. I do not live anywhere near a place where I might need their service and yet find it impossible to have my account cancelled. I have received two separate confirmation numbers of cancellation. I was told there would be no cancellation fee. I thought I could forget about HughesNet until I started to receive monthly statements telling me that my account was on hold, and HughesNet was charging me $5.00 per statement and subtracting it from the credit I had of over $60. I had been told that I would have that amount refunded.

Now, to add to this chaos, HughesNet has sent me a monthly bill of $117.24 for service I am not using and have not used in nearly a year. They mention HughesNet “Two Way Service –A” on the bill with a cost of $112.24. Two-way service? They aren't sending any signal my way and they certainly aren't getting one either. I have one more idea and that is to first fax them proof of my resident status in Phoenix, AZ showing that I have moved. Then follow that by certified letter. Will it work? I have no idea. HughesNet is a company that steals from its customers, plain and simple. And they get away with it. It must be the American way. My credit rating is at risk if I do not pay their false bills; however, I refuse to pay for a service that I do not use and have not used for nearly a year and for which I have confirmation numbers stating that my account is closed. This is causing me considerable amount of stress and taking up a lot my time.

So I called them. Then the truth comes out. From 2 am to 5 pm is the only time they can guarantee that download speed. So when I’m sleeping and working, I’m getting good download speed. When I want to use it, I’m getting dial-up speed. They withdrew $511 for my account for my installation. I called and canceled my service 7 days later because of the poor service. They advised me that they would only refund $200 of $511 and if that not bad enough, I’ve got to pay another $25 to send their equipment back to them or I don’t even get the $200. What a scam!

I want my money back. This should be illegal. Lying to the consumer to sell a product. I would love to talk to a lawyer about this and looking through the forum on the net, there is thousands of others with the same feelings. I’d like to start or join a class action lawsuit against Hughesnet. I’ve also contacted the FCC and the FTC. I would love to hear from someone in this matter! $511 and 6 hours on the phone fighting with these people in one week.

I conferred with HughesNet several times via chat regarding this problem after I mailed the new check for $171.56. I was told that my service will be suspended on 4/21/10 unless I remit $171.56 before then via electronic payment over the phone. I reminded the HughesNet rep, Nicole, that I had sent $171.56 certified US Postal Service and gave her the tracking number. She told me to pay up with a credit or debit card $171.56 immediately or I would be suspended on 4/21/10, even though I have a bill that reads that $171.56 is due on 4/28/10.

At this time, Hughes has not cashed last month's check for $85.78. At this writing, the certified mailing tracking shows that the check for $171.56 arrived at HughesNet this afternoon at 12:14 pm. I will be watching my bank account to see if the check is cashed. If it is not cashed by tomorrow morning, I will have to give HughesNet another $171.56 via credit or debit card to stop my account from being suspended. If I do not have usage of the internet, I cannot operate my business (property management) to process rental applications and post apartment rentals equally under federal fair housing.

I told Hughes that if they insisted on suspending my account, I would have no choice but to get another internet service provider and the response I got from Hughes was to supply their telephone # for me to cancel. I was again told to pay up electronically and if they receive my checks, those will get posted too and I'll have a credit on my account (if they actually cash the checks and credit the account it will be prepaid three months in advance). The customer service rep didn't seem to be from the USA (strange variances in communications phrases) and really didn't seem to have any comprehension what certified US Postal Service mail is.

Hughes stands to lose nothing as their termination fees are huge and they have a monopoly on the ISP market in the countryside. They are the only effective means and thus they are taking terrible advantage of this situation to pressure customers. It is obvious that their customer reps are trained to use very polite words, while demanding electronic payment/access to my credit and debit accounts. I don't want to give my account information to this company to process electronically but I am being forced into it. I almost cancelled them in the beginning because of equipment, installation and communication problems.

Further, based on the other HughesNet information posted from dissatisfied customers on the internet as well as the problems I am having with them in accounting, I am scared of what this company could do to any of my accounts electronically. I do have a transcript of each one of my chats with the reps at HughesNet and will continue to order and store them.

The folks in India continue to refuse to do what is necessary to correct this problem, and it has happened repeatedly ever since we signed up with Hughes Net. We have now been told three different lies about the source of the problem. The latest fairy tale - that our MAC must have a "virus" that is downloading material while we sleep - is just the latest line of malarkey designed to keep them from taking responsibility for atrocious service. Never ever, ever give your money to Hughes Net. They are crooks. As a retired Criminal Prosecutor, I have seen a few in my time - and Hughes Net is a truly sophisticated cheat. Someone needs to take the whole lot of them out behind the barn.

I have never seen the contract nor was I told by the installer that this is what it entailed. I was told it was about the rental of the modem (which they promised would be faster than the 8000). I have registered complaints with the BBB and the FCC. Thanks for the ideas of contacting the PUC and the Attorney General, I will contact them tomorrow.

I called them on April 13 and they tried to say they just got the equipment, then they changed it to they entered it into their system March 9th. So, my 30 days were up I said. No, now it had to be 30 business days and they say that is April 15th and after that I have to wait 10-15 business days just to get half of my money back. When you call, you get overseas help that you can barely understand and the story keeps changing. You also get a case number but the next time that you call, they never even ask you for a case number. They take your money the day the system is installed but getting any refund takes months. Don't fall for their stories. Get mobile broadband trial. It is much cheaper to see if it works.

On 4/1/10 my bank refunded me $334 for the 1st month's service and the installation charges. They did not refund me the $200 for the equipment because HughesNet said they would refund me that money. On 2/21, I sent the equipment back to HughesNet. On 2/24/10, it was received by HughesNet. On 3/1/10, I called to see when I would be receiving my $200 refund and I was told that it would take 21 days to process my refund. On 3/24/10, I called again looking for my refund to be told that my refund was processed and I should receive it within the next business day. On 3/30/10, I called again looking for my refund and was then told that I had to wait until my "billing" cycle ended, even though I no longer had an account with them on 4/10/10 and they would process it then. I called today, 4/12/10, again looking for my refund only to be told this time that I would have to wait 45 days from the date of 3/24/10 to receive my refund back to my credit card.

I believe this is in very poor taste and practice and would like this matter resolved asap. If someone could look into this matter for me, I would be extremely grateful. In the meantime, I believe HughesNet is a scam company and I am telling all of my friends to never use them.

One system was purchased on 12/27/07 and cancelled on 1/6/10. Other system purchased 5/23/08 and will be cancelled 4/24/10. We had many interruptions of service, estimated time of 15+ hours on the phone, and extremely bad customer service. We paid $300 each for installation and an additional $300 each to cancel = $1,200 plus a monthly fee of $60 and sometimes $120. I have never had a more frustrating situation!

This is the worst company I have ever dealt with. I am down more than I am up and running plus this company has cost me a great deal of emotional stress, loss of money due to online schooling because I am not able to get my assignments done due to no internet. I have also lost money when I scheduled a web seminar. Everyone logged on but me, I had no internet.

If I shut down my account, Hughes.net wants me to pay for service I do not receive plus wants me to pay in full the price of the satellite which is no good to me.

I've tried to download one 30 minutes show and it never works. I've talked to poor English speaking people that are clueless and just tried to pacify you, but no help ever. Just wasting your time. You are required to purchase their equipment. I promise there is no free installation and a 2 year contract. For the first cpl days, I called and complained. They convinced me it was my equipment and I bought a new computer, a new modem, but still it doesn't work anymore than a cpl times faster than dial up and then you reach your limit FAP and have to buy $5. tokens to reboot, or forget it. They keep you hanging until the 30days are up, hyping you up thinking it's such great service, then they will only offer you 1/2 of your money back for equipment but the other several hundred dollars you just lost. Keep you in a contract knowing that most people can't afford to have their credit ruined over Hughes.

I called them 9 times this weekend. They now say they want $400 early termination fee to cancel their service after I've spent several hundred dollars to get installed, (free install) but not free, equipment and they charge my cc every month right on time for their money. Even if you upgraded to the very best plan costing a cpl hundred a month, you could not download a movie. How can they get by with this? Can't anyone help?

Talked several times with American reps about installing Hughes. Everything I was told is a crock of lies to get your money. 50 times faster than dial up, maybe 2 times is actual. Never plan on watching netflix like your cable DSL friends. Never plan on downloading on their download mgr as it will not work. Now I'm told it's the internet's fault as too many people are trying to download in the middle of the night. They boot our calls out of the country and they are all like robots, say the exact thing you can tell it is read from a paper. 13 months of $59 a month, $700 for equipment and free install that the install person charged me in cash and nothing better than dial up. I promise! I asked them for a copy of the original contract I signed with my signature because this fair access policy is new but they refused to send me a copy. I'm out over $1000. for nothing but lies.

In essence, I have paid HughesNet nearly $5,000 for the most ridiculously unreliable service known to man. It is financial ** and every month that I paid the bill, I actually felt a swell of nausea knowing I was paying nearly $80 a month for internet when I only pay $250 a month for groceries! I justified that because I work from home as a medical transcriptionist. This is a job I've had for a number of years, thus, I do not have the wardrobe to run right out and land another job. My vehicle is too old to commute to town daily so I'm sort of stuck with this choice. HughesNet knows this, at the corporate level, because I've told them. Supposedly, corporate put notes on my account that it is never to be suspended due to that fact even if I'm one or two months late.

Over the last five years, my service has been suspended no less than a dozen times for a variety of reasons. Payment has not been one of those reasons because I have always paid them their outrageous fees. "It's a glitch in the system" is what I'm told when I call and complain. This month takes the cake. I was one month behind. They disconnected my service. I lost my job because I did not have connectivity. I tethered off my cell phone, which is as fast as DSL, believe that or not, but it wasn't good enough because my employer's policy remains that the service has to be a broadband type like Hughes or DSL or cable.

I contacted them when I received my invoice today (for one month of service and not due until late April) and was told I'd have to pay that before they could reconnect. The girl said there was nothing she could do. I informed her there was something she could do and that I was willing to take my invoice as evidence to the FCC, the Better Business Bureau, the Utility Commission of Arkansas and whatever regulatory agency would listen. She said "hang on a second and let me check something." Then she told me to call them and gave me an 800#. I called, obviously not in the mood to be reasonable, and the man I spoke with was very calm and reassuring and apologetic. He offered a credit for one month of service. I paid $3 and they restored my service.

Bear in mind, I despise Hughes. If I had another option, I would jump on it happily but again in my line of work I have very few options but satellite. My service is on at present, but I'm begging AT&T to bring DSL out here and am begging my cable company for cable internet. A warning for new customers, if you have any other option, please take it. HughesNet is the absolute worst service you can use.

Two days into the service, I had to get online at a friend because my service was so slow, I could not get my pages to load. I accessed my online account to ask for tech support when I was shocked to find that there was already an outstanding bill posted for my account in the amount of $ 495.82. This of course concerned me because I was not supposed to have a bill yet, and I was certainly not supposed to have a bill that high. My service was supposed to have been $59.99/month and when I asked why, the person at customer care said it was to cover equipment and installation costs. I promptly informed her that the installation and equipment was supposed to be under the promotion. She claimed she did not know of promotion. I told her to Google it that it was advertised through DirecTV and online. The salesperson confirmed it and set us up to be installed with the promotion.

Then I explained that the reason I had called in the first place was to find out if there was something wrong with my service. Why it was so slow? She informed me that I had exceeded the Fair Access Policy, that this was the law about shared bandwidth that I could pay for more bits if I wanted to or go online and purchase $7.99 credits that would restore me to 100% again. I have used Frontier, Charter and Comcast. I have never heard of the Fair Access Policy. I write, search, tweet, listen to playlists and do manuscript submissions online and have never heard of this. Now, I can't spend more than a couple of hours online without losing my speed and my ability to submit the manuscripts. It takes ten or more minutes for one page to load and I keep getting timed out. I called again to complain and request that something be done, that I was assured by the sales person that I would have uninterrupted, unlimited service.

Because this is a rural area, I did not even sign the lease for my residence until I was assured that I would have the internet ability to do my work. It was only after installed that I signed a year lease with my landlord. This company has lied for the benefit of a sale, promised free installation and equipment. Assured me that I would have uninterrupted service. They misrepresented the law with this supposed Fair Access Policy that no one else including myself had ever heard of before. I have been issued a bill that far exceeds what I was told that we would have to pay. They access my computer all the time, hijacking my clicks and redirecting me to the payment center every time I get online, requesting their installation and equipment fees that were supposed to be included in the sales promotion. There is nothing honest about anything I've been "sold" regarding the services I was promised. I will not stand and turn the other cheek. "Give a mouse a cracker, soon it will be asking for milk."

I will be writing this to the state Attorney General about this matter and I do hope this complaint (along with all of the others on this feed that say the same things) falls into the hands that actually do protect the consumer. I am tired of these multimillion dollar corporations sticking it to people under the guise that they call all the shots and we "the consumers" just have to take it. Do something about this. Make them an example that indicates that we are still protected in this country from scams and immoral business practices that are outside legal realms. Thank you.

I called to complain and the lady said "well, just try us out another month on us". She made it sound wonderful of course and they would refund my $29.95, which I still have not received. I called again because my money was not refunded, I was still having problems (slow, very slow! Dial up is much better). So I called and told them I want them to come and get their stuff because I'm still having problems. Of course, still trying to talk me into keeping the service, I said "no! I just want you to refund my money" which was only the $29.95 for a problem that was them and not me. Well, come to find out and my worst nightmare that I have to climb up on a ladder and disconnect the stuff and send it back to them or I need to hire someone.

Of course, no one ever mentioned that to me when I was getting the service because I would have never got it. I am so upset and will tell everyone I know how Hughes Net really is. The people you talk to don't care if your a woman or what age because I could very well have been 80 and they don't care. I would still have to climb up and try to disconnect something I have no knowledge about. This company needs to be responsible in telling the customer what they are getting into. I'm sure if they recorded the conversation they had with me, someone will see they failed to mention a lot! What a rip off! You can't even find a number or name to the home office to complain. Go figure!

Hughes Net offers no apology and will not release me from their punitive 24 month contract. Hughes Net will literally laugh in your face when you communicate with any of their personnel. One young lady told me that even if the President of Hughes Net authorized my contract to be cancelled, she would not approve it. The entire company is a joke.

Do not be fooled into thinking Hughes Net is a good company because they advertise on DirectTV (an excellent satellite television provider). Hughes Net lies to potential customers upfront and then denies them even simple courtesy once they have trapped you into a contract. Hughes Net should be driven out of business, period!

Never again! When this contract is over at the end of October, I intend to park the Dish in my front yard, then pay someone to "wrap" it with a public service notice to warn everyone to stay away from this garbage internet provider! This is $1500.00/24 Month Contract + Installation Charges and untold Millions in Grief and Aggravation! Never again!

Then, last week I, started having connection problems. They did nothing every time I called, except to ask me about the weather and if the weather was fine, they had to send out a service tech, which will cost me $125.00. I rent this equipment! If I had purchased it, then the charge would be understandable. But one of the guys I talked to, Brian, said I would get a free service call and a one month credit, then put me on hold, then came back and said, sorry, he gave me the wrong information, I would not be getting anything free.

I checked the modem, and the way that it was installed, the wires were being constantly pulled away from the modem, so after time, they won't stay snug and don't make good connections. I have had to tape the cords in place, because one little bump disconnects the cords and then it takes hours to get them in the right position where I can connect to the internet. I refuse to pay them $125.00 to come out and change a cord, especially since it is rental equipment. Something needs to be done. I will be starting school soon, and I don't know what I am going to do for internet service. Once I start working, my work will be done online. If my service goes out, I will be forced to pay them to keep my internet.

I found the male high pressured sales person to be so very rude and demanding. He seemed to be very short with me as I ask questions about the service. Again and again he requested my credit card number to get started. I was told that to insure the deal he was going to give me, I would have to give him my card number, but I refused until I had my questions answered. He stated that he would give me only 10 minutes to make up my mind and discuss this service with my wife or the deal was off. He became even more demanding. I tried to tell him that he was upsetting me with his tone but he continued to badger me. He would not stop talking. I finally had to hang up.

It is unfortunate that satellite internet service is so expensive. And have to put up with this rudeness and not businesslike conduct, is uncalled for. As a retired couple, on a fixed income, we wanted to try it. A faster means of service to download photos of our grand kids and keep in touch with our family. Our reaction to the salesman's attitude, has forced us to stay with dial-up service. It might not be the service we were looking for, but our dial-up service people are not rude and obnoxious.

In closing, I feel that the CEO of Hughesnet, I think his name is Whitacre, should go undercover, like the new TV program "Undercover Boss" and find out what the problems are in the company and correct them, and improve the image of Hughesnet. Thank you very much for listening.

When I received my bank statement and saw that, a call was made to cancel HughesNet service, a call that became very frustrating and stressful. Then another $399.89 was taken from my bank, which has been disputed at the bank. Many calls have been made to HughesNet since trying to resolve this matter. The main corporation office has been called. As of this date, a complaint has been filed with Federal Trade Commission, the Consumer Response is they advised that a report be made to Consumer Protection in my state also, which has been done.

The man came to install the dish and hook up the computer on March 4. There was already a pole in the yard from the previous owner who had Hughes Net at one time. The gentleman refused to use the existing pole and installed another pole about 2 feet from the existing one. After installation, he told me the cable was my problem to bury going from the dish to the house. He couldn't put the computer in the room I wanted, so he put it in my dining room. He then informed me that I was under a 24-month contract and that there was a 200-MB download limit per day or my service would slow to half speed if I went over it. He also said that I owed him $125 for the installation.

I asked him about free installation, and he told me he had to install a pole so it was a non-standard installation. I wrote him a check and said I would take it up with Hughes Net themselves. I joked about people selling dishes on the internet, and he said the equipment was mine to keep.

On Tuesday, I checked my bank account online and noticed two more unauthorized charges from Hughes Net, one from the day I originally called for $25.00 and one on the 8th for $170.33. I immediately called their customer service, and they told me I was signed up for auto bill pay. I never signed up on auto bill pay, because I get paid bi-weekly and it is impossible to determine what day of month my checks are deposited.

I told them I never authorized them to take money out of my account, and they flat out denied the $25.00 charge all together. They told me that I was charged $59.99 for a month's service in advance, $9.99 equipment rental fee, and $99.00 activation fee. I told them that they needed to send me an invoice and not auto bill pay. They said fine but that it would cost me another $5.00 a month for that service. So a $59.99 a month internet is now up to $75.00 a month.

I asked them about my rebate, and they said I would have to wait until I received my second invoice, fill out a form on their webpage, and mail it in. They said they would not reimburse me for the "non-standard" installation, even though I didn't need another pole in my yard. It was at this point that I wanted to cancel service. There is a 30-day period to cancel service, according to their webpage. Of course, cancelling during the 30 days would not get me my rebate for activation, because once 30 days is up, it will cost you $300 to cancel your contract.

I told them I wanted them to send the installer back out to retrieve the equipment. They refused and said I had 45 days to send the equipment back to them. I am not an installer, and if I tried to take the equipment down, they could say I broke it or that they never received it. Then they could charge me another $300 for the equipment.

None of these things were explained to me before I agreed to this service. Now they are saying I have to pay to ship the equipment back to them and that they won't disconnect service until the entire month is done. Basically, I am out $320.33 plus what it will cost to ship equipment back. And god forbid, they either "don't get it or it's broken," then it will be another $300+.

How this business is in business I will never know. What they did was criminal. This is my first house purchase, and I wish I had other options to receive the internet. I should have a choice. I just bought this house on the 26th of February, and I am already hurting because of the extra $320.33 I was not budgeting for. I want them to come get their equipment and prorate me for the 7 days I had service.

I am not a sat person and asking me to pull equipment down and mail it back is setting me as the consumer up for failure and takes responsibility out of the company's hand.The installer brought equipment here, he should come retrieve it. This is highway robbery and unfair business practices, deceitful and criminal.

I was told I need a new modem HN7000S. I tried one they mailed to me in November 2008, and it did not work. I sent it back and was not charged. On this date, I agreed to a new modem if installed by their tech. Theresa waived the 12-month service charge on a new modem installed by their technician. On November 2, 2009, HN7000S was installed by Roger from Appleton. On November 11, 2009, I couldn't get online. I attempted to cancel service due to unreliability. I was told I have a free call by a technician if I would keep it by Chris at 11:00 a.m.

On February 19, 2010, I called by Larry to fix. He will be here on Wednesday, the 24th, in the afternoon. On February 24, 2010, Larry and Deb put in a new wire from the dish to the computer, and it seemed to be working fine for a week! I paid $60.00 to them for this, partial service for these days. It's better than it was, but not great. I contacted Larry, and he said I needed a new modem.

On March 9, 2010, I talked to Edlie about $194.99 charged on my credit card. She said it was for the service charge of $125.00 and my monthly bill of $69.99. I was not supposed to be charged a service call. She will adjust so my credit card will not be billed until the $125.00 is made up. On the same date, I scheduled an appointment on Friday for a new 9000 modem.

After the mess above, I cancelled appointment with Larry and Deb for Friday morning. I will not be having anything further done to this system. If any more trouble, I will cancel and go back to dial-up! I have spent so much money on this system, and it still does not work.

On its best day, it is a hair better than dial-up. The modem has to be restarted several times a day in order to get a connection. Their customer service could care less, and they are happy to suck your money from you at $60 a month. The service should be better. Also, they have what is called the Hughes Fair Access Policy. What that means is more money to get extra megabytes for downloading.

On the higher plan that I have, it is 420 megabytes in a 24-hour period, and if you exceed it, you are all but shut down. Now you have 2 choices: you can wait 24 hours to have service restored or pay for a token which is $10.50 to have it restored--another way of overcharging you for an already high cost.

The problem is I have no choice in my area as no one else does. So we are stuck with dial-up and hughes.net which is the same as dial-up. The system is down more than anything. They falsely advertise and take everyone's money and do nothing to keep their end of the bargain.

This is the most unfair service, and they need to have a class action lawsuit for railroading all of its customers. I have spent hundreds of dollars and relentless hours on the phone with techs who know nothing and do not speak English. I had a complaint with the attorney general who gave up because of no response from their company. Please help end the bleeding and bring justice to a ripoff.

Early last year I was basically forced to upgrade to a newer modem, I kept getting pop-ups from Hughes Network Systems to upgrade although no one from Hughes Network Systems seemed to know about these pesky reminders or how to stop them. I finally agreed to the upgrade and instantly after it arrived and I attempt to get it online, the messages magically disappeared although so did my service. I spent two months and countless hours on the phone talking with idiots in India and occasionally idiots in tier-two Tech. I cursed them I hate them, I threatened a lawsuit, and these demons from hell could care less. I sent a return receipt letter to their offices in Chicago although I never received an answer, not even from the post office about them receiving it or refusing to sign for it.

Finally, I got an American technician to agree to send out an installer to switch me to another satellite. Upon switching to a less crowded satellite, everything was fine in my world. My speeds returned to what I was supposed to be receiving and no problems, until now. About a year later, the degradation of service has returned and so has the idiotic phone tag with India, who now refused to have a tier-two level technician call me.

This has got to be the worst company in history. They are nothing but crooks that oversell their own product and pass the shoddy end product on to their customers who are forced to accept it without recourse. I really never thought of mental anguish before dealing with Hughes Network Systems, but now I know why it is a factor in lawsuits. Hughes Network Systems needs to be forced by law to uphold their contracts with their customers who presently have no voice whatsoever. A class action lawsuit is the only way I can see where they can be made to account for their actions

This is a horrible company. You are dealing with idiots in (India) and all you get it "I'm sorry". I have suffered emotional distress a lot. 100 calls probable 200 hundred hours on the phone even today--2.5 hours on the phone and I will be charged for another full months use but it was just fixed today 1 March 2010. Billing date 20th March.

We have spent almost that much money with having a computer tech in my house checking my computer for problems. Now because of this we have Trojans, spyware and virus (9) on the computer and had our computer tech call them and they had him check on the dish and when he told him that the service works through trees, we took the phone and disputed that fact. The problems are more than just this.

Please do not under any circumstance get involved with this company. We are headed to Court. I can appreciate all the other frustrated Hughes customers.

2-25-10 Update: The six week free internet was not given to us. A person who called herself "Sharon" stated Hughesnet would give us this six weeks free on February 13th, for all the inconvenience we had experienced. Well, the bill is due and there were no "free" six weeks. No surprise there. they are liars. We were told we were eligible for a rebate. We jumped through all those loops, well, guess what? We're not getting it.

These complaints seem to be universal across the country. The question is "Where is the class action law suit?" These people should be sued into oblivion. What they are doing is a crime. Does anyone out there know how to get a class action suit started? I would donate my time gladly rather than spend it with Hughesnet tech Support". I am good with research, writing and communication.

Any lawyers out there who can give their two cents? I am in graduate school and the bad service has resulted in me having to drive into town several times to use Starbucks signal to turn in papers even though I pay Hughesnet $79.99 per month. I have also been simply cut off in the middle of important business emails with timed responses. One cost me about $1500.

When we called the Hughes Net offices to voice our complaints, we were simply told "Tough, upgrade or deal". Hughes Net is utterly unacceptable.

We are one such customer who has been made a fool of. We signed up with them for internet services on February 15th and was promised what they offered would be more then enough to exceed what we needed the service for. An hour later, we found out they lied to us and we had limited internet access that would not download files or allow us to play computer games.

We called that same night and wanted them to cancel our service. They kept us on the phone for 2 hours, transferring us from one person to the next, only to have the cancellation unresolved. They basically, flat out refused to cancel our contract. We have every right to cancel this contract. I had to cancel my bank card and red flag our bank account to prevent them from stealing our money and our bank is ready to prosecute them should they make any attempts. We want this company to stand accused for their actions and accept the penalties for what they do to unsuspecting customers. I am providing you with the link to complaints regarding this company for you to take a look. I believe this says it all. Unnecessary stress and aggravation. Holes in my home from installation deception and theft from my bank account.

I have 3 computers,and recently added an XBOX. None of them operate during the week in school and work hours. None of them operate after midnight, until at least dawn, and only the XBOX downloads "big" files (1/4G?). What's funny is that after taking Hughes up on a second offer to use some security software they endorsed, and would provide to for a measly $4 per month, and cover all the PCs in my home, I watched the software constant access the net for updates, and get them, and download them, and further slow my speeds for any other PC on my LAN. They succeeded in charging me to not use their service. They succeeded in charging me to upgrade my service, to pay even more for to not use it. They succeeded in charging me for "security", effectively removing my PCs from the web, thus reducing risks to their system. What a racket!

I picked a date following my successful initiation of of service with Qwest that would have me paying HughesNet for additional months adding up to about 75% of what they told me would be due if I were to cancel service before the end of the 2 year agreement period. I offered to ship them the dish. I offered to ship them the receiver. I explained that I had paid them monthly, while not using the system, their 'fee'. I explained that I had suffered through 3 years of poor service. My offer was for more than half of what they expected, having only 1/2 of the service agreement to go, and that the usage records will show I did not use their service during the identified months.

Note: If you cancel just one or two months in to the 2 year period, you are to pay them $X. If you cancel 23 months in to the 2 year period, you still must pay $X.They did not respond to my written offer, until this week, when I received a collection notice from a hired gun looking for 100% of $X.

They outsource it and you can’t understand them or they can’t understand you and that is just as frustrating as everything else. There has to be something that can be done: the customers are being mislead and taken for a ride in their charges. The stress and anxiety that this constant aggravation has taken a toll on my health. Already, I have anxiety disorder and high blood pressure and the constant stress of just signing in the computer is really starting to get to me. The anxiety of the bill constantly going up and I am on SSI and disability and can’t keep paying $200-$300 or more a month which is the way it is heading lately.

Eventually, I gave up, and asked Hughes Net to cancel my service. They informed me that it would cost $700 to cancel my nonfunctional service, and offered me four free weeks of service while they tried to fix the problem. I accepted, but the service did not improve. I continued to complain to Hughes Net customer care, and I was offered a technician visit at my own expense, which I accepted. I was told that the technician would call to schedule an appointment, but I never received any such call.

At this point, I decided to stop payment on the account, and cancelled the credit card which Hughes Net had on file. I continued to complain, and asked that my account be cancelled without penalty. I was met with stonewalling and demands for more money. At the present time, I'm disputing the Hughes Net charges with the major credit bureaus, and considering legal action for breach of contract.

When I finally got a hold of someone without a name and without specific address, I was told that they were located in the state of Virginia. To make the long story short, it's been two week since I spoke with this people. They were supposed to send me an e-mail with an address for me to return their lousy equipment but to this day, I have received nothing. So this loser rip me off and there doesn't seems to be anything I can do. Shall in your state you have rule against this type of behavior and I believe also there are federal law that prohibit this kind of practice. Your help would be greatly appreciated.

Hughesnet sent me an email saying that my dw6000 modem was obsolete and needed to be upgraded to the hn7000s at no charge to me. So I called. Well, there was no charge except that my small business site has to pay $700 for a new installation and I have to swing for a new 2-year committment! My area gets no dsl, no cable, and the air-cards don't get a good signal here. So it's dial-up or Hughesnet. They know that they've got you over a barrel and they know that you're going to have to pay them if you live in a rural area and want anything faster than a dial-up.

Currently, with my old dw6000, I pay (taking deep breath) $130 a month, don't have a service fee to pay - based on the old contract and have never gotten more than 750 kbs download and 84 kbs upload and that's with the largest dish (0.98) and a 2-watt transmitter.

Now, I'll have to have a new plan and this time, in order to stay in the same price range, I'll need to go down to the smaller dish (0.74), use the new modem (not the hn7000s they promised in the email, but a 9000 instead which is not free). I get to pay $10 less a month, but have to pay a $10 a month service contract fee. Now, here's the part which will take your breath away: they want $700 (that's seven hundred dollars) to install a new dish and the new modem. And, eventually, my old modem won't work so I'll be kicked out of the system completely!

I'm being forced and extorted in a sense, to pay them $700 or lose the service I've had for more than five years and a new $400 early termination fee if I cancel after the new equipment goes in.

One more unbelievable thing is that with the new service contract, if you need service within 30 days of installation, you pay $100 to $200 for the service call but if you need service after the 30 days, then it's only $30 for the service call. So, if they screw up your installation and it crashes one day after it's installed, you pay up to $200 for another (probably still lousy) repair! They've got a monopoly on satellite service. Either you dance to their tune or you stay home.

Eventually, after many complaints, they told me there was something wrong with my hardware (the dish and receiver), that they had to send out service people and that it would cost me $150. Then the local service people called my to set up the appointment and told me that HughesNet had told them that the satellite I was on was being decommissioned and that they were to re-point my dish on a new satellite.

Indeed, when the crew came out, they re-pointed my dish. Not only did HughesNet lie about this, they actually then went ahead and charged my credit card. And the service is no better. We called and eventually got them to give us a credit on the $150. However, we are still stuck for another year with a dishonest company who are not providing the service they promised. Bottom line, do not sign up with Hughesnet. The service costs me $79.99 a month for up to 1500 kbps and I get an average of 354 kbps.

After a long dispute and them trying to get me to stay with them, I canceled my internet (to be canceled on March 3, 2010), as they already took out my payment for February. I asked for the confirmation number and his name and ID number and asked that they send me confirmation through my e-mail. And they said that they could only e-mail a new e-mail account, so I asked them to mail me confirmation on this. And they said that they could not do this either. Please do not get Hughes Net as your provider, as they will clean out your account and all you'll have is slow service.

When I spoke to the limited English-speaking person, he claimed that they could only refund me two months of service and that it would be referred to a higher authority.

Finally after 3 weeks, I got a call from customer care saying they would refund me the total amount. In the meantime, I wrote a letter to the FTC about my situation, and I don't know if this is an outcome or not. I live in a rural part of Texas, and it's dial-up or satellite. I've had Hughes Network since 2002, and it hasn't gotten any better over the years. In fact, speeds are worse and the customer care is at an all-time low. If another alternative exists, I would drop Hughes Network like a hot potato, even if I had to pay their outrageous termination fees.

The first 30 days of service we noticed slow network. I called and complained about system interruptions as well as speed. I felt that dial up would have been just as fast and for a lot less then $91 a month. But I kept it because they informed me that the issues were fixed with the up and down network. They informed me that they could not support me with the VPN connections due to high latency issues of 4583MS.

In late December and early January, I had incidents at work that required me to log into the corporate network to look at the issues. The latency was so bad that I could not work from home. I had to drive 30 miles into work at 3 am. The service is so bad that I can't even pull up online banking because the service recognizes slow speed and offers me a text based online service which I lose functionality that I need to perform remote banking.

After several complaints and several issues with service, I called and canceled. They informed me that there would be a $400 charge. I argued for what? Two months of service that did not provide meet my service needs? They informed me I had until 12 Feb 2010 to withdraw cancellation and I would be billed for the $400 early termination fees. Well, they lied. On 30 January, they charged my bank account $400.

I called customer service and spend an hour and a half hours on the phone being bounced around like a pin-ball in Jurassic park pin-ball game. The end result was no manager is available, system is down and they can't help me, "Please call back again later." If manager is to call me, it would be 5 days before they get back to me. The service is not worth $91 a month and is not as fast as they claim.

I asked several questions to make sure this would be a good fit for me and she assured me that everything would be just fine. I had called around before I went with Hughes Net, so I knew which questions to ask. The salesperson told me that they would send an installer out to set everything up. She never told me that this person did not work for Hughes Net nor did she advise me that the installer would want to be paid as well. She also failed to tell me that I would need a router for the house so the other 2 PCs would work. The installer called and set up a time to come to my house. My 18-year old son was there and had to put the installer on the phone because he wanted money. The installer told me that the dish was heavy and probably shouldn't go on the roof. He said it would cost me $125.00 to put the pole in and install the dish on the pole. Then he called me back and said that I would need a router for the other two computers and said that would cost another $125.00.

I went ahead and paid him because I assumed he was with Hughes Net and if there was any problems, I would have some recourse. Little did I know that Hughes Net would not back up their product or the people they use to install it. The first three days we had internet, it was slow, but otherwise we were able to use it. After the third day, it completely stopped. I called customer service and was told that I hit the threshold (I used it more on the first three days than I did the fourth) and that I would have to wait 24 hours to reset. He was able to give me a "free" reset and explained about the Fair Act Policy (which they never mentioned before). It was very hard to understand him since he didn't speak English well. For the next week, my service was extremely slow and every time I called, I was told that it was fine.

Several times that week we hit the threshold and couldn't use the internet for 24 hours. I did not pay $80.00 a month to have an internet service that I couldn't use. I called them and told them I wanted to cancel. I was within my 30 days and I wanted it done right away. They told me I couldn't cancel until the billing cycle ended. I finally talked with someone who said I would have internet until the last day of the billing cycle, but of course, that didn't mean a lot since I was unable to use the internet because of the threshold. I had a very hard time cancelling the service even though I was within my 30 days. Every time I talked with someone, they kept trying to sell me another month or something else to keep the service.

I called the installer who came out and asked about a refund for the router. I would like to recoup at least some of my money. I would have liked to have the entire $250.00, but was willing to compromise. The installer was not very helpful and didn't want to return any of the money. After calling him several times, he finally gave me the number of his "supervisor". I talked with Andy and he said that Jesus was a contractor and he couldn't make him give me my money back, but he would try and pressure him to. Andy suggested that I get the receipt from Jesus and return the router for my money. At no time during this conversation did Andy say that the $125.00 wasn't the cost of the router. I called Jesus and asked him for the receipt for the router and again got the runaround. He said he didn't know where the receipt was and he would have to look for it. That was 4 days ago.

He finally told me he purchased the router at Walmart. I looked it up online and saw that the router I have cost Jesus $30.00 and he charged me $125.00. I called Andy back and he said that it was normal to charge the customer that much. He said we had the opportunity to purchase our own router and that the extra amount was for "labor". I was never told beforehand that I would need any additional equipment, so I really didn't have an "opportunity" to purchase my own. I am so frustrated right now with Hughes Net, their installers and their overall service.

I will make sure that everyone I come into contact with knows of my experience with this company. I have spent $430.00 for a service that never worked as promised and was the worst experience I've ever had. I am a single mother with three kids and this was a lot of money for me. I am going to post my experience all over Facebook, My Space and any other networking site that I can think of so people can be warned before they encounter the same problems that I have.

When I told them I would not pay and I would be happy to send the modem back, they went ahead and sent a charge through on my card for $300. Luckily, we are closing that account and it only has $5 in it, but they simply just decided to take my money without any type of authorization. Not to mention, we are paid until February 12 and they will not refund us for the unused time, but strangely the service no longer works as of today. How are they allowed to continue with these obviously fraudulent practices? Never do business with these people, you will regret it.

It would take 3-4 minutes for a page to load and a lot of times, it would say that the server timed out or the page wouldn't load properly. Over the next year I stayed on the phone with Hughes Net at least once a week. Moving on to December 2009, this marked my one year anniversary with Hughes Net. My internet was so slow that I could not use it at all. Within one week, I made over 11 calls to Hughes Net and was transferred as many as 5 times during one phone call. One worker advised me to replace some of the cords and so I did.

Needless to say, it did not fix anything. After another week of talking on the phone with Hughes Net, another worker said that I was still under warranty and he was sending out a new modem in 3-5 business days. Great! Or so I thought! After 2 weeks, I received my modem and I installed it myself and for 48 hours my internet was perfect. I thought it was finally fixed until day 3, the new modem stopped working and although I am still under contract with Hughes Net and was told that I would be under warranty until December 2010, Hughes Net has completely stopped trying to help me. They are saying that I am no longer under warranty and if someone comes to my home, I will be charged for their labor and anything that they will have to replace.

I was treated very badly while on the telephone with Hughes Net today and the man to whom I was speaking with argued with me that I had fast internet. When I told him that it takes the pages 3-4 minutes to load, he simply said that I was lying and that my speed test was showing good numbers. After I got firm with him, he started blaming it on the weather but the skies are clear.

I will be calling the BBB on Hughes Net tomorrow and I am going to try my best to get out of what's left of my contract with them. This is the worst internet that anyone could ever buy! If you're thinking of buying Hughes Net, you better rethink it! And you better be bilingual if you have to use the customer care hot line.

If you are looking for satellite internet, check with DirecTV. They have much more reasonable prices and thresholds as well. Thank You,

I called the repair man and ask how much a new modem was and if I could install it myself. He said the modem was $285 and the service call would be $65 he did not mention $65 an hour labor charge and said I could not do it myself. So I made an appointment. 12/21/09 the service man came and changed my power supply cord and it took him 15 minutes. He charged me $90 for the power cord to the modem, $65 service charge and $260 labor for 4 hours of labor when he was there 15 minutes. I have contacted a Lawyer to resolve this issue. I cannot believe how they rip off people. 4 hours labor charged at $65 an hour for 15 minutes of work also not disclosed to me about the charge when I spoke to him to set up appointment.

Hughes Net must have had other complaints about this situation because recently they started allowing customers one voucher per month to submit in case this happens. Any slow down for over usage over that (imposed by Hughes Net) you have to pay them $7.50 to have the slowdown stopped. I was late on my payment and on December 24th they put a block on our internet until payment was made. Payment was made on the 30th and when my new bill came in January, it only reflected a credit of 2 days. I called Hughes Net and told them they shut my service of on the 24th of December and I should have a 6 day credit, not a two day credit. They told me my service was shut off on the 28th. I argued with them about it and told them to check my record of calls on the 24th. They admitted to putting on a block, not shutting it off. I asked what the difference was; I could not use my service anyway and did not believe I had to pay for that period. The 3rd rep I spoke to never came back on the phone after discussing it with her manager. I was on the phone to them for hours, as I have been in the past.

This morning was the last straw for me. I was online checking on my new classes for the semester and our service went dead. All lights on the modem were out. I called Hughes Net and the rep, after trying to get me to complete several tests that required the use of the internet (which we told him over and over was impossible because we had no service) told me it was our modem and for a minimum of $125. Someone would have to come out and check our modem. I was angry and in tears. I told him our service agreement was for 2 years. He said "correct, but your equipment from us is only good for a year and your warranty has expired".

I asked why they didn't send us a notification of upcoming warranty renewal. He said "Hughes Net doesn't do that". He did agree to give us 2 weeks credit assuming that was how long it would take for me to get it fixed. Then, he said he wanted us to try something else. He had us unplug the router and hook up the modem directly to the computer. It worked, and then he insisted it was the router that was bad and that was our problem to deal with. My husband insists that the router has nothing to do with the modem shutting down. After the phone conversation, we plugged the router back in and service was back to normal. It was as we thought, their service just shut down again and as usual, Hughes Net passes the problem along to the customer. Is it possible to file a class action law suit against Hughes Net? I can guarantee I have spent a minimum of 20 hours on the phone dealing with these people. Their service truly is slower than dial up (in spite of the advertisements) and something is fishy about their download monitoring. Thank you.

We called three more times to get a service tech to our home. He arrived on 12/30/09 and again on 1/4/10 and replaced the modem. He left with wires hanging on the side of the house and service is still slow. I called Hughes Net again to complain, asked for a supervisor and was refused because "he will tell you the same." I asked for the name of the representative and the supervisor and was told no names will be given. We have refused to pay for the service when it was inoperable.

Hughes Net technical and customer service is appalling and a direct reflection of the company's management. Mr. K., President and CEO may be an accomplished engineer but he most certainly does not know how to run a service provider.

Then, I finally get on. Guess what, it will only connect at 2KBPS. So I call them and they say I went over 450 MBPS that day and exceeding the fair trading. I explained that I have not even been connected and that was ridiculous. I had been on the phone with them everyday for hours trying to fix it. Well this don't matter to them. So I ask them to please replace this lemon of a modem I must have and they refuse.

I can't believe it. Never in my life have been scammed this bad. They have committed fraud as far as I am concerned. They are charging me for something that they are not providing. Someone, please take these people down for their fraudulent actions! They refuse to do anything but keep telling me to call back. I still have no internet and paid a fortune to get this satellite and get it hooked up.

Yesterday, I noticed $72 was automatically taken out of my checking account, so I knew something was wrong. I called HughesNet, get re-directed to billing, got disconnected, had to call again, got through to billing, explain the situation, they review my information, assign me a ticket number and redirect me to another person. I explain my situation and they tell me that on the phone call I somehow agreed to not have my service cancelled and that I would call at a later time. Now that 30 days have gone by, I have entered a 2-year commitment or face an early cancellation fee of $400 some odd bucks.

I argued and argued. I was so furious I handed the phone to my wife and she ultimately didn't get anywhere with them either. I asked them to send me a copy of the phone recording and they said they couldn't do it. I asked her to read it to me over the phone and she apparently couldn't do that either. I never agreed to "call at a later date to cancel service". They knew I was just a few days away from getting hooked into a 2 year commitment and so they didn't cancel my service. And now they say there's nothing that can be done. They will not concede that they did anything wrong, and now I feel I have been deceived. Very shady business practices going on with this company.

I have called three times this past month about slow service. Yesterday, I was on the phone with them for over an hour. At least they admitted that the problem was them and that it would take 2 to 3 business days to resolve it. You can bet I will be calling them if service does not improve. I run the system response test daily and print out the history as proof of lousy service. We will be adding the expense of an air card and mobile access to our already stretched budget.

Since I had been with them for over two years I called to cancel at the end of December. When I did I was told I would have to pay a $400 cancellation fee! I said I had been with them for over two years, the equipment was mine now and my 24-month commitment was up. They told me that when I signed up for the basic repair service that I extended my contract by another 24 months and that I still had 10 months left on that contract. I asked them to show we where it says that and they just refer me to the Express Repair Terms and Conditions. I have read this document online and I can't find out where it says anything about this extension. The only thing I could find was if you made a claim in the first 30 days of the express repair service, then you had two different ways you could pay: $99 co-pay with a 24-month service commitment or $199 co-pay with no service commitment.

I never had any repairs during the whole time I had HughesNet. They are very hard to contact. When you call or e-mail you get a case number for ever attempt and then they respond by e-mail with a do not reply e-mail and a new case number. Each time I have to ask a question, you have to go to their site, fill out the information and the case number and then reply. You can't reply to their e-mail. Sometimes there are connection problems with their site and the e-mails won't go through. This has happened to me twice. I have complained to our State AG's office and the BBB. Both of them have not had time to respond yet. I was doing a search on the web for problems like this and found your site. I figured I might as well add my two cents. This is also a deceptive practice for your service to be extended when you are purchasing what is basically insurance to protect your investment through them. I have asked them for specific locations where it says I have signed to extend my service.

They just refer me in general to the terms and conditions but not to specific sections. Basically I will be out $400 that I don't think I own them. I could have stayed with them for another 10 months at $65.00 a month but the new DSL is faster and cheaper. I guess $400 is better than spending $650 over the 10 months with service I won't be using anyway. It's just the principle of the situation. I don't own this money, I have been a good customer for my time with them and I just wanted to part in good terms. They saw to it that would not happen.

Now, I called HughesNet customer service (what a joke), they told me that it was my fault for the installation; and if I wanted them to put it in the office, I would have to pay for another wire and installer to come here. I said “No, this is not my fault I had to set the wires up.” They repeated I would have to pay. I said no. I have called them 8 times in this month. I hear the same thing. Their service is a lot slower than dial up. They never ever said anything about this fair access policy (another joke). My computer literally stopped working. I had to call them a few more times finally someone from India that you cannot understand (I must have been on the phone for a good 45 minutes just saying what, what, what, huh, huh I can’t understand you) told me to try a few options; and what do you know, they said it was this fair access policy and that I could have this one time free (ooh, do I feel privileged now).

Okay, this happened a second time and I had to pay more money on top of the $79.00 fee. I will not pay for a service that I cannot use so I closed my account, ripped the satellite off my roof, called them and told them to come get their junk. They are a rip off company, needs to be shut down! If you are thinking about going with their service and this did not help you, please keep reading the other reviews. I wish I would have taken the time to read other reviews. I don’t want to see other people go through this at all. My contract is up! Consequences: the hole in the wall and roof, their clutter in my yard, and the useless phone calls.

I just recently found out that I am getting deployed again, and this time, I faxed them a copy of my deployment orders 4 times and wrote down the representatives' ref. number from each discussion. They verified that they did have it and offered to suspend the account again, to which I agreed but only if I could get a guarantee that it would not be botched. I was told that my services would be suspended, but they were still charging me a fee on $9.80 monthly for their equipment regardless of the fact that I would be in the Middle East! I asked if I could simply return the modem, and they replied that returning their equipment would constitute a cancellation of service and I would be charged a fee of $450.00.

This is a very unethical practice to charge anyone who is called to duty a fee for equipment that is stored away and unplugged, that the company will charge you a fee if you return it and will charge me almost $160.00 in equipment fees over the next 18 months for merely having equipment and for which if you return, they then place you at risk for being charged a cancellation fee.

Prior to any of this taking place, the supposedly offered high-speed services was within itself a joke. I had 3 tech visits in the first 3 months, called in weekly with slow, frozen or non-working internet. This whole company is a ripoff, and the representatives in the billing dept. could not give my consistent answers into the first incidents and appeared to be covering their stories concerning the first deployment issue.

Please, someone. Is there any legal way of getting this company to stop their unethical manipulation of service members and to provide the services they advertise? Either, they charge you $450.00 or monthly fees. And BTW, supervisors would not answer any questions - they were too busy after I waited nearly 30 min. to speak with one.

After several months of poor service, I began to have DNS Server Error issues. I made several more calls but still could not solve the problem. After 20 months and over $2100 in service fees, I still cannot surf the internet at speeds that they advertised except from around 2:00 am to 7:00 am in the mornings. I called to ask that service be discontinued and they want to charge me an early termination fee. This borders on criminal neglect and false advertisement.

You can't understand their tech support guys because I think they are in India or some place and they can't understand your problem. This company needs to be shut down because they are duping people out of their money for a service that they can't satisfactorily provide.

Turns out the move will cost $200 to reinstall and $120 for them to remove the service from our old house. Hughes Net claimed that they had no Hughes Net installers - that they just contract out installers. Now I am going to be out either $350 for moving the dish or $400 for just cancelling the service prior to contract expiration. This company is nothing but a fraud. Their service is no better than dial-up most of the time. They assured me the service could be moved and now have refused to move it. They expect me to believe that I have to move their service just like you move your furniture. I told them I don't own their equipment and I am not a service tech. I also told my credit card company to stop paying them and asked Hughes to pick up their equipment.

Hughes is nothing but a ripoff. The fair and reasonable things I asked them to do were refused. Hughes is criminal. Don's use them for any reason.

The HughesNet guy finished and said basically that was it. The next morning, we had a $20 charge to my husband's debit card from the technician as well as nearly $200 from HughesNet. My husband had left his wallet & work items in our office when he got home that day. We had no idea that a technician would get into his wallet and take his information. That is clearly our fault. However, this technician took our information and submitted it for payment, as well as he accessed 3 ** video sites on my husband's laptop and they were still running when we got to the PC!

We immediately reported it all to HughesNet who refused to help us. They claimed we signed a contract with them and they gave them that information and they couldn't care less what the technician did and as for their charges, they claimed that they may have agreed to no installation fees but they did not agree to no activation fees and therefore they could charge us. I advised them there was a recorded conference call. I contacted Dish and their department made another 3-way call with me and HughesNet to verify and have the charges removed. HughesNet was just as rude to Dish and told them fax them some papers and they would consider the request.

After 6 weeks of struggling to get our needed monies returned and dealing with a service that barely worked as well as phones representatives for Hughes that had the niceties of a caveman and the language of a hardened truck driver, I cancelled the service and phoned my bank to put a block against them, only to have nearly $400 taken out the within minutes of my calling. Hughes claims there is a 2-year contract that if we cancel, they get that money. I demanded a copy of that document which they have yet to produce.

Although my husband actually dealt with the technician & installers, they claim it is my signature on the document. In August, there was nearly another $400 removed and I was terribly upset at how they got past the block. This time, they claimed it was because I had not returned the equipment which I advised they had yet to send us the information to do so and we were on vacation and would not be home for 2 weeks to do so if they would supply. They refused and said two weeks more was past the allowable time.

I called my bank & Visa and reported and disputed, only to find they had pushed all these charges through as "preauthorized debit charges" as if we signed each time. Visa themselves called on a 3-way to demand an address to return the equipment and still a battle ensued. In the long, HughesNet refuses to supply any documentation to prove their claim that I or my husband signed any contract with them and merely claim we owe. My bank & Visa after months of investigating have deemed we didn't authorize anything to them other than the 6 weeks of service ($81+ I agreed to pay) and that the remaining $900+ they have been taking was returned.

HughesNet filed it against my husband's credit and we now have agencies calling nonstop and my husband's high range excellent rating has tanked. He is busy preparing for another deployment so this falls heavily on my shoulders and it is frustrating that no matter how much documentation I have or present, this company refuses to listen, offer assistance, offer supervisors, mailing addresses, etc. and despite the fact that I am the one who cancelled service nearly 6 months ago and have the computer site print out to prove it, the report to my husband's credit claims they just recently closed our account due to nonpayment. How can an agency get away with this?! Everyone run from them like crazy!