Hughes Net Internet *non* Service Provider Hughes over sells available bandwidth, causing poor overall Internet service Germantown Maryland
Due to our remote physical location, options for connecting to the Internet is severely limited. We originally signed up with DirecWay in 2003, and though the Internet service has not been outstanding, it has been better than dial-up, which is our only other alternative for now.
After falling victim to Hughes' Fair Access Policy a number of times in the preceding months, we jumped on their recent "free" upgrade offer of more than double the FAP allowance and the promise of faster up- and download speeds.
Boy have we been duped!
After being great for a few days in the beginning, the quality of service has just gone to the dogs. Sites load slower than they ever have, videos and streaming audio is so slow that it is not worth listening to or even trying to download it. The pre-upgrade speeds were better!
While doing some research into the problem (Hughes' customer service is a pure nightmare to deal with, taking up hours of your time and being just frustrating to deal with as far as language issues and lack of solutions offered) we found out that Hughes has in essence been scamming their customers.
They have been selling bandwidth that they do not yet have the capacity to provide. They are overloading gateways with subscribers without being able to increase the service capacity. Apparently there is promise of a new satellite that will alleviate congestion - SpaceWay III. This is nebulous at best and if the DirecTV HD satellite schedule - which was more than a year behind the promised dates - is any comparison, there is no hope for relief in the near future.
In the meanwhile HughesNet keeps adding customers. It is fine to suggest just dumping the service, but with basically no other alternative, Hughes has us and a huge number of other customers over a barrel. They are eager to accept payment, but not so eager to deliver the services they promised.
I find it totally disgusting that they would treat their clients like this. We depend on the Internet for communications with our families across the globe, and banking for business and personal purposes, among a number of other tasks due to our relatively remote physical location. I know too, that access to the web is not a right, but if you are paying a king's ransom for the privilege, one would tend to expect better service.
It was totally disingenuous of HughesNet to over-promise services they knew they could not provide.
What recourse is there for clients that have fallen into the HughesNet trap?
Granitegirl
Chiefland, Florida
U.S.A.
4 Updates & Rebuttals
Alucard
Fennville,Michigan,
U.S.A.
It's So Pathetic That I went back to Dial up
#5Consumer Suggestion
Sat, December 15, 2007
Boy I wish I found this site before I was out the $70 monthly fee and $125 extra the installer charged for extra cable. I was able to get the cost of the equipment back after returning it after talking on the phone with a Pakistani for over an hour. It is rather ridiculous that nobody tells you about this Fair Access Policy which is far from fair. I had to comb their web site to find it after I got ripped off. I should have just done a Google search on Hughes Net. These people asked me all kinds of questions for an hour and acted like it was a hardware issue before telling me about the FAP. I promptly told them that I wasn't paying $70 a month for them to tell me how much I can download and that they could send someone to get the piece of crap.
Jack
Morrison,Illinois,
U.S.A.
get wildblue internet
#5Consumer Suggestion
Tue, December 11, 2007
had direcway got wildblue. direcway is a scam , wildblue is reliable,fast and affordable
Jack
Morrison,Illinois,
U.S.A.
direcway internet is a scam
#5Consumer Suggestion
Tue, December 11, 2007
I had direcway for a year,a frigging nightmare. calls to india because of no service. no local person to call for assistance. finally hotcarded so I could get rid of this scam! I cant believe there is no lawsuit for this faulty product! They oversell their sattellite ,not enough room for everyone. I got wildblue now and it works every day. someone should do something about this company and shut it down. I call this product liability and cant believe they are still in business. I spit on them- ppttteewwwyyy!
Kevin
Lincoln,Alabama,
U.S.A.
Been there done that
#5Consumer Comment
Mon, November 26, 2007
I had their "service" for 2yrs, which was the minimum contract length at that time. I agree that they oversell bandwidth, and the customer service from a foreign country is infuriating. The speeds vary wildly at times, depending on time of day and which satellite you are placed on, and the download limits are all but totally hidden when you start looking at the service. It was my only option at the time, 2003, I can only imagine what the
loading must be like on their system now. Early 2005 I had local dsl finally available and dumped them. I hope you did not get stuck with another 2yr contract extension when you 'upgraded' but that was the requirement when I had their service, any change in service was an automatic contract-extension(they are good at hooking/keeping customers)
You can write letters to the FCC, your local attorney general's consumer affairs division but I'm not sure how much it will help you now. Read the fine print in their Terms of Service-they have every base covered. Might investigate the other satellite service for internet, if you are in a position to drop direcway/hughes.
kd