HughesNet Reviews

There is a language barrier because most have very heavy accents and refuse to send me back to Executive Customer Care which is in the USA (I was able to get there once, it does exist, but their callback number is blocked unless you have a security code to get past the automatic answering service). Customer service sucks! One more attempt to help them understand the safety issue of their faulty equipment will be made, then I go to the Better Business Bureau

After 4 days went by with no contact (and it had already been 2 weeks since we had any internet connection), I called back to find out that the supervisor had never placed a work order! Then I asked for the service to be disconnected, and they transferred me again to another department (Retention Center or something like that?) who said that I would have to pay a $400 "early termination fee." When I pointed out to them that I felt that they had broken the contract by not providing the service (or any service for that matter) that they had promised, they said that if I didn't pay the fee, they would turn me over to a collection agency. I told that it was their right, but I also told them that I would refute that charge with my credit card company and take them to court if necessary, as I was not the one that had violated the contract.

These people were extremely rude on the phone, never took any responsibility for their part in the problem (this includes workers and the many supervisors whom I spoke to during the course of several hours worth of calls), and then they threatened me with legal action (turning me over to a debt collection agency for the "early termination fee"). These people are absolute crooks and I am in agreement with others that if you have no other choice for your service provider due to your rural location, you are better off with nothing, as that is exactly what you will get from this horrible company! Please do not make the mistake that I made and contact Hughes Net for service!

I canceled it anyway and will talk to AmEx about dealing with this. There are obviously a ton of complaints about this company. Is there anything that can be done? It is criminal. They want to charge me an early termination fee for a mandatory upgrade, saying my modem was discontinued and would be replaced at no charge to me. I did not agree to this and the charge is $400.

On 7/1/09, I inquired about cancellation/termination of my account due to my upcoming move and that I would no longer require their service. I was informed that I was required to return the modem and radio control device for a $200 credit, case # **. I was told there was no way to pre-arrange termination of my account that I would have to call back when I was ready to close the account.

On 7/30/09, I spoke with numerous reps, Jasmin, Chesnit, MaryAnn, and made multiple requests to cancel/terminate my account with no success and each rep asked the same questions. I was transferred to “account retention” yet again to request to cancel/terminate my account, case numbers: **-**. The rep gave me 30 days fee service to 8/30. I explained I did not want or need an extension that I moved on July 27th, I just want the account closed. I was then told that I would not receive a credit for returning my equipment, that I own the equipment.

After 3 hours on the phone with this company, I was assured that my account would be canceled. On 8/23/09, I checked my account to find it was not closed. I wrote an email requesting my account be closed. The reply, Reply Case # **, I received an email reply stating that it would be done. I followed up again on 8/31/09 to find that the account was still not closed/terminated! Case **, I called and after 30 minutes, was transferred to the “account retention” rep 8/31/09 “case **” Christine asked all of the same questions. And finally after explaining that I did not want to be transferred or speak to anyone else that I want the account terminated immediately, the account was finally terminated and me, the customer, was billed a $245 early termination fee.

This is outrageous! I was forced into purchasing a new modem because no one would support the one I had that was only 2 years old, so this put me into a new 2 year contract. Then get the runaround for 2 months trying to terminate my account is unreasonable. I spent no less than 4 hours on the phone trying to cancel my account. This is outrageous! I was billed $245 for early termination which I would not have had to pay if I was not forced into another contract because of replacing equipment. If I hadn't paid for the equipment or the installation, then I would understand the charge, but I paid for the installation and the equipment. More importantly, the aggravation and time involved in trying to close my account is unacceptable.

I have made several calls to find out when I would receive my refund but have been given several excuses as to when I would receive it. First, I was told that I would see the money in my bank account on August 8, 2009, which was the billing period. On August 10, 2009, I called once again, because my refund had not hit my bank. I was told I had to wait seven more days, and then, I would see it in my bank. On August 20, 2009, I made another call requesting my refund, but I was told that I had to wait 45 days from the cancellation date to receive my refund. As you can see from the above information, I have been misled on numerous occasions and feel that Hughes Network is not properly handling their business.

My story to back up this claim is as follows:

After dealing with spotty service with Hughes for close to 2 years and patiently putting up with their offshore support, their technical support team finally discovered that the problem had been the result of a faulty modem the entire time. Since the existing modem was no longer available due to its age, Hughes Net Tech Support (not me) decided to send me a new modem to replace the older faulty one. After waiting for over 2 weeks to receive the new modem shipped from Maryland to South Carolina, I called back only to discover that no modem had been ordered. I provided the offshore tech support person once more with the case number from the prior call that determined a faulty modem. This person ordered a new modem and the new modem was promptly shipped and received within the week. Once I received the new modem and installed it, a Satellite Tech had to come out to perform additional maintenance and cross-pol the dish. Once that work was complete, the Sat Tech performed the steps to activate the new modem.

Skip ahead one year to August 2009. I was forced to relocate from my home to accept another job. Once in my new apartment, I discovered they had cable internet already taken care of as a part of the lease and did not allow privately-owned dish installations to anyone not on a ground floor (I am on the 3rd floor). So, I called Hughes Net to have them terminate my service since I had been a customer for over 2 years and no longer needed the service. I was told by their offshore support that there would be a $300 early termination charge because I ordered an Upgraded Modem which reset my service contract to another 2 years.

When I explained the situation to them all over again, including providing them with the case numbers from my call to them last August (2008), they told me that it did not matter, that my acceptance of the modem, and the subsequent installation of the modem (even though the Sat Tech performed the install and activation), was my acceptance of a new 2-year term. When I tried to get a more senior and better English speaking representative on the line, I was very rudely informed that the more senior person would just tell me the very same thing. After being on hold for more than 10 minutes, the more senior person did in fact tell me the same thing.

My basic logic is this: A. If Hughes Net made the decision to send me the modem because (1) the one I had was faulty, and (2) the old one was no longer available, then the extension of the 2 year commitment does not apply. B. If the Sat Tech performed the installation and activation for the new modem, then I did not see anything where I was required to acknowledge an extension of a 2-year commitment.

Now I find myself in a pickle, an honest guy trying to make a living, trying to go up against a company that has grown so out of control that it no longer cares about doing honest business.

When I asked about canceling, I was told I could get a $200 refund. I have cancelled and gone back to Suddenlink, even though there were times that we did not have service with them. However, their service was so much better than Hughes Net, and I took the $600 lost to prove it. Every person in the sales and billing department lied to me.

I wanted to cancel Hughes Net and get my money back, but they refused. They were not going to refund the installation if I cancelled, so it was going to cost me $200.00 to cancel. I was assured that Hughes Net was much faster than Wild Blue (what I was replacing). I was also told that I could get $100 rebate and how purchasing the hardware made the payments lower. I tried to access the customer care for the rebate center and was told the rebate was out of date. So no rebate! So I was charged $199.00 to install and another $199.00 for hardware, which I was unaware I was going to have to pay for when I ordered the service, plus $59.99 for service that was slower than my previous service when it did work.

Nowhere did it say I was going to be charged any of these fees. They just showed up on my charge account. Instead of refunding my money and canceling my service, I was transferred instead to technical support. Technical support assured me it was my router causing the problem and lead me through rebooting the computer and I was told to do this if the problem happened again. So every day, I went through this procedure thinking it would speed up, but it didn't. Hughes Net was still too slow and I called again to cancel. I was sent to technical support again. I was told I was over my free access limit, no one had been home all day to even get on the internet. So I have to call back again for customer service because I want to cancel.

Now I'm past my 30 days to cancel that's allowed. I was told I would be given 30 days upgrade to the next level to try, but my bill showed a $10.00 increase and I still don't like the service. I was told to cancel, I'll owe $400.00 because I made a 2-year agreement. My 2-year agreement was under the assumption that I would prefer Hughes Net as opposed to Wild Blue and that wasn't the case. Ever since I got Hughes Net, I was trying to cancel and kept getting their so sorry line that it made me sick. I was tired of hearing I'm so sorry to hear that. Their sales staff is conditioned with a script to keep you going and going until it's too late to cancel without the $400.00 cancellation fee.

Their English was poor and it was very difficult to deal with. I said, "just cancel the service, I want out". I hate Hughes Net and will never refer them to anyone. They falsely advertised and keep charging me. I refuse to pay their cancellation fee. I have returned their hardware and want a refund of all their charges for mental stress, anxiety and wasted time they have caused me. My husband had to get on the roof and take down the satellite and repair the roofing. They were going to put another $400 on my charge card last time I talked to them, so I was forced to cancel my account before they charge me more.

Since HughesNet has never resolved my ongoing problem, and since they have never reliably delivered data to me over their network, I would like the right to cancel for non-performance without penalty. There are enough clauses in their contract to protect HughesNet under any and all circumstances even where they fail to deliver. However, this is not the way the service or company is advertised to the consumer.

I'm out of $604.00. I have Crohn's and I am mentally disabled. It has caused me undue distress, pain in my stomach from the stress and basically, I'm depressed and suicidal and that does not help the situation. People should not be treated as such.

Last month, June 2009, I got a pop-up message from HughesNet saying that there was a problem with my account. My CC did expire on 30 May 2009 and I must admit that I just forgot to update the expiration date. After trying to update the information online, I got another message stating that there was still a problem with my card. For a moment, they had me believe there was a problem with my card. I logged it to my CC account and found that everything was just fine. I called support and got someone named Bernice. Bernice explained that since there was a problem with my CC, she would need another card to bill my account. I explained the card information that I was updating would be what I wanted to use. She would not hear of it. I got upset and requested to speak to a supervisor.

After some time, she did connect me with a supervisor. I explained my situation and also asked if I could record the call. The supervisor agreed and I recorded the call. After a considerable amount of time, the supervisor admitted that HughesNet was having a problem billing credit cards due to a program problem. Before discontinuing the call the supervisor assured me that all the information was correct and that on 18 July 2009, my payment would be charged for my monthly payment.

Today is 20 July 2009. I just got off the phone with billing support because the very same thing happened. The first person I spoke with named Maureen actually hung up on me because I asked if I could record the call. I didn't record the call, but she said she could tell that I was recording the call. Why can they record calls but the consumer can't? I called back a cut to the chase and requested a supervisor. After going through a mountain of information, the call taker named Michael finally agreed to connect me with a supervisor but not until he told me that I was not allowed to record the call. Michael also referenced the "user agreement" saying that I agreed not to record any calls as per that agreement.

The supervisor named Crissy explained that she could not use my credit card since it had been rejected. I explained that funds were available on this card to deduct for my account. I also explained what I had been through just last month and why am I going through this again. I was told over and over again that this policy was a HughesNet policy. I explained that the money is available and that they should do what they need to do to bill my card.

Now for the Fair Use Policy, I work 24 hour shifts 10 plus days per month. I am the only one that uses the internet in my house. That means that over one third of the month, I am not using HughesNet services. When I exceed the amount allowed to up/download, I have to wait 24 hours to have my speed restored from less than download speed. I understand the rules, but why is it that I am not credited for the non-use as I'm penalized for over use.

I have spent countless hours on the phone with people who are very hard to understand. I have lost time and time is money. I have had to use resources that are limited by HughesNet to obtain information to correct problems that shouldn't occur in the first place. I have been given incorrect information by HughesNet reps.

Wrong! They never once mentioned that I would be limited to how many megabytes I could download; they only talked about the speed and terms of needs. I never even thought that would be an issue. For the last 8 years, I have had internet service, and it was always unlimited downloads. I didn't even know companies limited down/uploads.

Within the first day, I couldn't get internet. I thought my connection had gone down. I called tech support, got someone whom I couldn't understand because their English was so bad, and finally struggled to understand them. It was explained to me that I had used up my download megabytes and was cut off service for 24 hours. I was furious!

Then they told me I could up my level for another $40.00 a month. Now, I am paying over $100.00 a month and not allowed even what fits on a CD. Supposedly, I can cancel in the first 30 days, but I am out the $99.00 connection fee and the $125.00 installation fee for a pole installation. Nevertheless, I am canceling service. It was a bad learning experience that consumer awareness might help someone else from going through. We are retired, and I feel we were taken advantage of, because we didn't know the right questions to ask. Consumer, be aware!

After many calls to customer service, I finally sent a registered letter to the corporate office. No response was ever received. I was told by customer service that the contract indicates that service is to be provided but not what level of service. I finally bought a wireless card from Verizon and experienced very good service. I was unable to cancel the contract without paying a $400 early termination fee. Finally, my contract is up and it took over 1/2 hour on hold to terminate an automatic renewal. I paid for service that was virtually not usable.

I was asked to do several repair tactics with your customer service department. After that did not work, they said that it was my equipment. I had to wait several weeks for my equipment to arrive. When it came, my internet still did not work. I called and the tech support department went over several repair tactics again which did not work. They then set up a technician to come to my house. I spoke with the tech and scheduled him to come today on June 30 between 9 and 11. The tech never showed up or phoned my house. I called them and they said their computers were down and they would have to come another day. I told them I couldn't take off of work another day and that I was calling Hughes Net back.

After spending over 3 hours on the phone talking to various departments until I had to leave to go to work, I finally just cancelled my service because I wasn't getting any help. I called back to check and make sure it was cancelled and the technician told me that my account had never been unlocked since March. I have been replacing equipment, making phone calls, scheduling appointments, etc and all along my account has been locked in error. They have received my payments so they should have unlocked the account in March. Before I knew that was the problem, I cancelled my account because I couldn't get anyone to get my internet working and I was still paying for the service every month. I think that I should be getting a credit on my account since March and also I should be getting a credit for having to send the receiver (or modem) back to your company instead of doing it at my expense.

When my account was shut off for non-payment, it has not worked since then even though they have had payment. I talked with your level 3 tech support and they said it was locked out since March. You will see no usage since March. It never got turned back on. A new modem was sent only because the technician could not figure out what was wrong and thought that was it. The new modem came, but it didn't help because my service was still shut off. I have tried to resolve this repeatedly, but the one department will not talk to the other department. If I hadn't called, I could understand but there have been several attempts to get the internet working and no one picked up on the fact that it was just that my account was locked out.

I am asking that my cancellation fee be refunded and the months of service that I paid from March to June 30 be refunded. I wouldn't have cancelled my service if they would have gotten it working but no one would come out and no one on the phone realized it was just locked out. It is unfair business to expect me to pay for something that you did not provide. It was an error on your part that my service was never activated again even though you received payment.

I called and told them I was cancelling my account due to breach of contract. They said I couldn’t or they would charge me $300. I told them they are no longer allowed to charge my card but guess what, they tried too but I cancelled the card and I plan on filing a complaint in court for fraud. I even emailed them to let them know. They told me their system is all automated and there was nothing they could do. I filed a complaint with the BBB and I would urge anybody having trouble with them to do the same. They have had 1,803 complaints in the last 36 months and over 800 in the last 12 months.

Unwilling to put hundreds more into this system, I again researched my options and found another service. Finally, something else was available in my little corner of the world. I called Hughes Net back to cancel and was told that cancelling three months prior to my contract end date would cost $300.00! My monthly service plan for three months didn't total that so I asked about downgrading the plan, I couldn't use the service anyway, and was told I could downgrade to $34.99 per month and then call to cancel after July 16, 2009. I was told I must call back to rerun the web setup to change the service plan, which I did, an hour after the call to downgrade. When I reached support, I explained I was downgrading my plan as my modem no longer worked. The technician kept insisting I needed to rerun web setup in order to use the internet. I kept explaining that I couldn't get to the internet with Hughes Net as my modem didn't work.

At no time did the technician tell me he had to try to rerun or else! Imagine my surprise when I opened my bank statement and saw a charge of $267.56 posted June 17, 2009 from Hughes Net. Thinking this must be a mistake, but of course we're talking Hughes Net, so I anticipated the worst, I called customer support and was told that because I didn't rerun my web setup one hour after downgrading my plan, my service was cancelled. As I had a credit of $32.44 on my account for days my service didn't work (an amount given by some kind service rep), my bank statement showed the charge of $267.56, not $300.00 to cancel the plan.

How does Hughes Net decide on the credit amount, I wonder? My service hasn't worked in months and that's worth $32.44? Anyway, I explained to Hughes Net that this must be a mistake. I called to downgrade and was told to call back after July 16, 2009 to cancel with no penalty. No mistake, Hughes Net said. Because I didn't rerun web setup to change the plan, I was not downgraded. I was cancelled! At least ten times I told the rep and then her supervisor that I couldn't rerun web setup because my modem was broken. Too bad! I was told this is "my opinion", that I'm just saying this. Hughes Net, you have not heard the last of me. I am not a liar and I do not appreciate being called one nor do I appreciate your horrible service and your unethical business practices.

A month later, they got it 1/2 right, but it was a continual battle with billing. I eventually had to change credit card numbers to get them to stop billing me. For the first 30 days, the service was as good as expected. I was on the home plan, which provide "up to" 1mbps of service. During the first 30 days, you are in a "customer satisfaction stage", where you can cancel without penalty, return the equipment at your expense, and not be obligated any longer. Your fees you have paid so far are not refundable (other than disputing it through your credit card company). After your 30 days, and after your second invoice generates, whammy! You are at their mercy. Their famous excuse after that is "speeds are not guaranteed". If you have to call tech support, it’s an endless cycle of running speed tests, and talking to someone in India. Billing support is in the Philippines.

With so many issues on this account, and after writing the Better Business Bureau of Maryland, my account was handed over to the corporate office (Executive Customer Care). I give those people credit, they did try to help me with the issues, but given that the NOCC (network operations) was directly controlling speeds at that time thru throttling and flow control, ECC and myself thought that this battle should end (it was stated by tech support, "Your system is running fine. There is nothing else we can do. If you are not happy with the service, either "accept it with its flaws" or cancel it.” What? They admit their service is flawed? I cancelled it. More stupid on my part, we decided to sign up for a totally new account. New install, new equipment, new start.

Once again, everything went perfect for the first 30 days. I signed up for the Pro + package that time, which gave a tad bit more speed, plus more daily usage (425mb). Consistently, everyday, 1.5mbps speeds which was 95% of the plans output. Great, I was thinking. Thirty days passed, second Invoice, speeds went to around 300-400k, then comes the excuses. "You are in peak time usage", you have exceeded your usage, you're in FAP, and the weather at your gateway is bad.

Tech support did admit once (the guy in India) that there was a problem, but it would have to be diagnosed by engineering. Again, and endless cycle of speed tests (in two occasions, put me over my daily usage, FAP, which they were unwilling to release).

So be well aware, if you sign up for a HughesNet account with a HN9000 modem package, you are in for a very long battle. While you may think you're cruising right along at first, wait till you're 30 days are up, and you're in a contract. Two times in 6 months taught me a lesson! Never trust these people. They will never admit that network operations give you whatever speeds they want, whenever they want. The corporate office's response to my second series of complaints was directly from the office of the president and stated "We will not go through this again. Everyone just got your letter today. I called your mother and left a message. There is an open ticket with Tier 4, if they can't resolve, I recommend she cancel immediately. Please refrain from sending e-mails to the customer service group. I am sorry she is, or you are not happy with the service. You and I had an agreement on this next account. No complaints to ECC, and we do not guarantee speeds." Their famous slogan "do not guarantee speeds" just doesn't cut it on a $79.99 a month plan that rates at 1.6mbps, but only providing 300-400k.

This is a true story, and I have no doubt all of these others are true in their own respect at well, forewarned if you are thinking about Hughes. Hughes cannot expect people to continue to keep their service when they do not provide the levels of service consumers are paying for.

We made many phone calls to Hughes Net tech support to complain about our problems about their service, and we were told that their original installer from Hughes Net didn't use the proper size of bolts to install our dish on our roof. We were told again we would have to pay an additional service fee for another technician to come out and correct the original installer's screw-up. By Hughes Net own admission today on the phone, their internal notes stated that all of our problems with their service were due to Hughes Net hiring an incompetent dish installer and they refused to send out an installer to correct the problem for free.

We have terminated their service and do not recommend Hughes Net to anyone requiring good customer service. We wish the news media, such as Fox News, CNN, ABC, NBC, and CBS, do an investigation to see how many other customers are having technical issues that aren't resolved with Hughes Net. We would like a full refund from this company, as we have spent from June 2008 through January 2009 a total of $1394.00 for approximately 4 months of working high-speed internet service.

System set up, 30 minutes after they left the Modem kept rebooting, and leaving me stranded in the middle of conversations with clients oversees. I call tech support, told them the entire situation and only to understand every third word, they started running system check from there end, getting nothing resolved. They said they needed to shut it down for 30 minutes, I decided to deal with this in the morning. Morning came, no internet service. I called tech support, ran me in circles all day long, one case ID # after another. Waste of my day, not to mention the deals I could have accomplished.

They then said they were not going to refund the $50.00 and they were going to send the service guys back out to replace the modem, which would cost me additional fees. Having the worst time understanding them, I told them I wasn't going to pay for their service until everything was up and running correctly, they hung up on me! I then called my bank to stop any transactions in the future from them, only to find out that they have already deducted $190.00 out of my account. Now, nothing was ever mentioned or agreed upon for $190.00 or anything. I just don't understand how companies are allowed to keep ripping people off for products and services that they can't provide. I know there are worst cases out there than mine, but I'm now out $240.00 and two days of work, a total cost of $730.00 just for wanting to better my situation while living in the mountains. There has to be something to stop Hughes from ripping off the people! I work very hard for the little bit of money I have. Very dissatisfied in our system!

Moments later, the automated voice replies that "an equipment failure will cost $125.00 to replace, do I agree to the terms?"Of course not! No way will I agree to any automated message requesting money without more information. I then talked to a live person, and it’s a man in tech support. He tells me that my modem needs replacement, and will cost $125.00, and another $25 for a power cord. The reason, they explained, for the high cost was that we did not have a warranty on the modem. Never once was I explained about warranties at anytime. I then asked to speak to the Sales Department. I needed to know if they plan to not charge me for the days I am without service. After nearly twenty minutes, I still didn't get a direct answer.

At the end of our conversation, I'm told that the replaced modem should arrive in ten working days. About 1 week passed, and I decided to call to see if the modem was sent. Upon inquiring, I'm shocked to learn it hadn't even been sent yet. I was told that due to me not speaking again with the tech department, there was no order filled out. I was never told that I had to speak with them, and was under the impression that we have both agreed on a modem to be shipped, and that it’s on its way. I spoke with the Tech Dept., and now they say I have to wait three to four days. Amazingly, they requested for the old modem to be returned, and I'm to pay for shipping. Another few days passed, I called again, and they told me they are backlogged and it hasn't been shipped.

The same thing happened again a few days after that. So at this time, it’s been almost 1 month since the modem went out, with the new modem not even shipped out yet. This is the only option available in the town I live, other than dial-up. Days have been adding up, and it’s become, to say the least, frustrating.

I have an $80 connection that at times, a dial up would be 2x-5x faster than. Stay away. I honestly don't know another business that can sell you something that they know they cannot provide and they are okay with that.

A movie is 800 MB. So she was lied to, the service was misrepresented and now they want to charge her a fee for removing the equipment and will only refund a small portion of the $410 she spent installing and getting the service. As they tried over and over to confuse her, I repeatedly had to get on phone and ask, “She cannot download more than 200MB in a day, correct?". They answer with "yes", so I said, “A movie is 800 MB, how can you be telling this woman she can download a movie," and they get very quiet and nervous.

At this point they want another $100 to dismantle the equipment and will not refund a $199 installation nor other fees. This is absolutely horrible, I hate seeing our seniors lied to and scammed by companies that use India and Philippines for their customer service. Enough said.

Well long story short, I called talked to different supervisors which are horrible at customer service and one person argued with me for 10minutes and she canceled my account without voice confirmation of saying "Yes". Now, in order to get the service, you have to agree to the installation by saying "Yes". Well, this is kind of odd. How can they do these kinds of things? After she hung up on me, I called back and talked to another supervisor for 1 hour and he argued with me also saying it will be a $25 reconnection fee, even though I didn't give her permission to cancel me. They are now covering for each other and saying different things each time you call.

Anyway, the main reason I wanted to post in here is to let people know it is easy to prove the reps, who said there is no corporate office, are lying and you can use the website (www.hughes.com) as an argument when you are on the phone with them. Under the Contact Us section is the information for the corporate office: Hughes Network Systems, LLC 11717 Exploration Lane Germantown, MD 20876 USA Phone: 301-428-5500 Fax: 301-428-1868. Also the home page of the website states that Pradman Kaul is the CEO. Go after him. I am sure he is not losing sleep over paying bills or refinancing after some Goliath company bilks him for questionable service and business practices.

Love to play games online? Abandon that dream or like as soon as you sign the contract to them. Playing any game online, whether it be Quake 2 or Fear 2, latency is always horrible. The server will even time-out most of the time. YouTube lovers will have to delete that from their favorites because 10 videos, no matter the length, will kill your internet connection.

I hate Hughes Net with a passion; the hidden fees, a commercial that lies, a gook answers the 'customer service' line every time, and etc. If you are planning on Hughes Net, which please don't plan on it, make sure that cable isn't available and do nothing but browse. Hughes Net will go under someday.

All of the above is a crock. We have exceeded the daily usage limit several times within the 2 months of service. The reality is if you have kids at home that go to websites such as YouTube, you’ll exceed the limit in no time at all. When we curtailed the YouTube site, we continued to exceed the limit by simply surfing websites that were busy with graphics. Bottom line, the daily usage limit can be exceeded without too much effort.

My second issue concerns their claim that we would receive dial-up speed during the 24-hour penalty period. In reality, when our limit has been exceeded, we lose internet access for 24 hours, minimum! The speed is so slow, that it’s impossible to open most web pages without timing out. Furthermore, we were never told that if you attempt to use the internet during the penalty period, then the 24-hour period is drastically extended. Don’t count on having your internet access back after 24 hours. Only after I had signed on the dotted line was I told that they recommend unplugging your modem for 24 hours if your daily usage limit has been exceeded.

Lastly, after the phone sale has been completed, that will be the last time you talk to someone in America for anything from technical support to billing inquiries. Their support center is in India, and as you can imagine, it’s nearly impossible to carry on a constructive conversation, because they do not speak good English! When I called to inquire about exceeding my daily usage, I was told everything from my router setting must be incorrect, to someone must be stealing service from me! What the **? When I asked to speak with a supervisor to file a formal complaint, I was given the runaround and told that they have no formal personnel that handle complaints. It literally took me ten minutes of persistence to be transferred to a supervisor, and that proved to be a waste of my time. All I got was lip service, and it wasn’t even in good English! I feel that they misrepresented their product to me. I am planning on canceling my service with them, and I do anticipate efforts on their behalf to collect a breach of contract fee. I will file a claim against them at that time.

They refused to come and fix it for free even though my internet really had never worked, only on the night the two boys came and hooked it up. I told them that I wanted to cancel my service and I wanted my money back for the product that they installed but never worked. The person I was talking to cannot not speak English very well and I could not understand her. A couple of weeks later, I saw that I was still being billed for this service, so I called in again and talked to a guy that once again, I could not understand. I told him that I wanted to speak with a manager because he would not help me.

When speaking with the manager, she would not help me either and told me that there was going to be a $300.00 termination fee and I would get none of my money back. Also, I had to return everything to HughesNet; otherwise, they would charge me about $350.00 for unreturned merchandise. I want my money back and there was never anyone to talk who had the authority to give it back!

The real problem was, we left on vacation to Mexico (Feb-May) and then Canada (June-Sept), paying for the service the entire time we were gone, not knowing we could put it on vacation. We always unplug the unit when we are gone because of fear of lightning strikes. We came home in Sept. and our unit would not boot up. We called Hughes for help and we ran through tests they could do over the phone and nothing worked. They said that we were out-of-warranty and we would need to pay for the service call. We advised we would contact their authorized service contact to come when we were home instead of them calling and us trying to accommodate the serviceman through a 3rd party.

He came and worked 3-4 hours trying to get our equipment up. Finally, after he checked the alignment of the dish, changed our modem and that did nothing and then changed the LNB. Finally, he discovered that Hughes (some time when we were gone) changed the Transponder and the polarity without our knowledge, thus none of our equipment would work. The service call was $150 which we have written letters and spent hours on the phone trying to get reimbursed for a service call that was about their changes and not our equipment.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

My speed reduced at 6:30 am, hughes said

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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