Hughes Net dealer jerking us around

[Taylortractornut]

My wife and I finally got tired of paying a phone and internet bill for snails pace dial up. We never use the house phone and figured hughes net costs the same as the phone setup with dial up.
Amy called hughes neat andthey gave us the name of the local provider for the area. It was a dealer in Burnsville MS about 9 miles away. Amy called them and they set up a date got all the information, she had to give her card number to get them to process the account which i wasnt crazy about. They said they would come out yesterday which was Saturday after lunch. I had a long way to go on the compactor so we called it quits at 2. I had been checking with my wife to see if they had come or called and they did neither. by that time they were closed at 12. Im still pi55ed off about rushing home and all and not getting a call. if they say it was too cold to work i will call BS on that one. we may cancel and see if another hughes net dealer can come in and do the install. I wished that they would have at least called because we could have done a lot of other stuff if they werent comming by. Im thinking about calling customer support or something.

 

[thatguy]

I hate to say it.. but this probably is not the first problem you will have with them (both the dealer and Hughes net).. :-( a lot of ppl hate the satellite internet providers but its their only options..

For about the same money you may want to check out the wireless cards that use cellular signal - if you have coverage.. I have one for work and it average about 600 kbs (where dial up is 56)... Not DSL speeds but better than nothing..

Brian

 

[Taylortractornut]

We arent in coverage of any of the wireless providers we went through a bunch of hoops on them having them tell us we have coverage then when we returned them they would tell us that they knew we were all out of coverage. We leased our system recommened by some of our nieghbors. Our neighbors have all had good luck so far. I m just mad that goober didnt come or at least call saying they werent comming. Id keep dial up but every time it rains we loose connection and the phone lines are all old and slow.

 

[Jimbrown]

I can not tell if you are planning on doing VOIP telephone over the internet as skype or majicjack but if you are it will not work on the low level satellite plans.

Also on satellite systems the install is critical. If not set up and aimed and grounded properly it will never work properly. Make sure the guy grounds it.

Book mark this site you are going to need it.

HughesNet Satellite forum - dslreports.com broadband community

The fact that the installer did not want to come on a bad day actually is a good thing. The initial aiming is critical and if there is heavy cloud cover or any precipitation he would not be able to get a good lock on to the satellite. Aiming of the dish is critical and has to be to within 1/32 of an inch on the mount.

You also must be sure that you understand the Fair Acess Policy. That is the amount of data that you can download on a daily basis.

My experience is opposite of Eddie I have two systems one has been in since 2005 and one since 2006 I have never had to have an installer come back or have I had to replace any component of the systems. I say again the install is critical and you want it done right the first time.

 

[EddieWalker]

I had Hughes net for quite a few years, and it was always disapointing. When it worked, it was fast and fun to be online. Unfortunatley, it does't work when it's raining out, cloudy out and sometimes just cold outside. I think dew affects it and I think humidity affects it. I've had my system replaced three times. I've had the cables replaced and I went through three modems.

Every time I had a problem, I spoke to the tech people in India. The first thing they ask you is what the weather is like outside. If you tell them it's cloudy, you won't get much help. If you tell them it's clear out, they will go through a series of tests with you to ping the satelitte and see if you have a connnection. After that, you go to the next level up who has you do some more tests. After that doesn't fix the problem, and it never does, they set up an appointment for somebody to come out.

Every single time, I got a different company to come out. They either close their doors, or Hughes finds somebody cheaper to do it. I don't know how it works, but your tech will always be someboyd new, and he will always tell you how the previous guy didn't know what he was doing, and make some changes.

Their replacement parts are always remanufactured. If a tech shows up with three remanufactured parts, two will not work, and sometimes all three don't work. Then you get to wait until they get another shipment to see how many it will take to get your system working.

My last transmitter lasted 7 months. It was out of warrenty by one month, and the refused to give me another one, or pay for he service call.

I went to Allel for a wireless cell card, and couldn't believe the difference. Since Verizon bought out Alltel, I felt that my speeds have slowed down. The honored my agreement, so there was no rush to change over to Verizon. I bought a new computer with Windows 7, and the Alltel card didn't work, and I couldn't find any support to get it to work. I switched over the the Verizon card and had some problems with Windows 7. Verizon tech support was great at helping me download the new driver for Windows 7. The lady I spoke to was in Boise ID, and very helpful.

It is a night and day difference between Verizon and Hughes. One is good, the other isn't.

Before continuing with Hughes, I would be VERY SURE that there isn't any other choices. Verizon has a 30 return policy, so I'm not out anything if it doesn't work.

If not, good luck and go into this knowing that you are at the mercy of the weather, what materials are used on your install, and who you get to repair it when it quits working.

Eddie

 

[Taylortractornut]

This is scaring me now lol . I didnt know about the Free access thing. How much will it allow. I dont know anything about it and let my wife try it out. The weather was clear just cold. My friend says hes had good service the last 3 months but it does slow some. Im gonna try it, w dont have any card coverage here from any provider. yet.

 

[Code54]

Hughes net was a real pain for us. heck I think I filed at least two BBB complaints against them. When it works it is a good option, when it don't look out. Took them over a month to fix it last time, keep saying I needed a new modem - I kept telling them I did some tests and it was not the modem - waited the month, hooked up the new modem and it didn't change a think. Waited another few days and a tech came out and said the dish was loose and it shifted. Funny thing is they were the ones that repaired it 33 days before this problem all started and they apparently didn't tighten it up enough. (They charged $125 to fix "my" problem)
If we could get cable or DSL I would do it tomorrow!!!

 

[JESSE1]

I've had Hughesnet for about a year now. So far I've been pretty satisfied with it. Slowest time is around 7pm when everybody in the world is on the internet. I had no other choice except dial-up which had gotten extremely slow. My installer went to a lot of trouble when he installed the unit. I forget the terminology but it has to do with aiming the dish, takes a lot of time with instruments hooked up to it. He had installed my big satellite dish in the early '90's and also installed my Direct TV system.

 

[Jenkins003]

I used to have the Hughes system several years ago when it was called something else but it still was the same company. I was never so glad when DSL came to my area. As someone else said when it worked it wasn't bad but that wasn't often. I used to download a lot and the Fair Access Policy would kick in and slow me down to a crawl for what seemed like a whole day. I never paid so much for so little service. I hated every second I was with them.

 

[rdln]

I second the Verizon card or even your cell phone might have "tether capability"

I am suspicious about a company that sends out so many mailings like hughesnet does.