Hughesnet warning

 I have had Hughesnet "service" for a few months shy of the two year
contract. As a customer and an experienced consumer and having been in
the business world for years, I can say without reservation that
Hughesnet has the most opaque and unsatisfactory customer support of
any internet access company I have come across.

I STRONGLY urge anyone considering "upgrading" to Hughesnet from
dial-up to forget it and chose ANY other internet provider.

My most recent issue of slow access speed was addressed at the initial
call center in India without positive result and bumped up to tier 4.
To get to tier 4, a pin number supposedly good for one week is
required. What is not said is that the pin number is no good once you
have made the initial call, so you cannot get back in touch with the
tech person working on the case.

That means that when you have a situation like mine, where the "fix"
of changing frequency and re-establishing the connection results in
LOWER speed, there is no access to follow-up until the tier 4 tech
calls back in a week.

In essence - once you have entered the system with a tech problem, and
been supplied with a higher level support you are scr*wed for a
MINIMUM of a week unless the tech happens to get the problem resolved
on the first try.

Right now, my DOCUMENTED download speed over the past week has been as
low as 63 (dial-up modems being 56) and upload is in the low 30s -
LESS than dial-up speed.

Supposedly, these are the speeds used when Hughesnet's fair access
policy is exceeded. In point of fact, when the FAP is exceeded, it is
physically impossible to reliably access the net at all.

I rue the day that I signed on to Hughesnet. It is my opinion that the
company should be indicted for fraudulent advertising claiming that it
offers "high speed internet" I have no idea what I will do for
internet access once I can get past the $300 penalty for stopping
service early, but I fully intend to drop service the instant I can do
so.

If you know of ANYONE who is thinking of signing up for Hughesnet,
STOP THEM.

  hchickpea@hotmail.com wrote:

Sounds familiar. We had one at a remote office and they were just as you
described. Sometimes it worked well for satellite but most of the time
the useless low speeds were the norm. Calling India only made you want
to hunt down whomever was in charge of Hughesnet. I bought an aircard
and a router that could work with it and a high gain antenna as a
replacement.

 
Sorry to hear of your problems, do they explain why we don't
see you around here as often as before?