Complaint Review: Hughesnet

Poor customer service and over charging customers

HughesNet has poor customer service with outsourcing its services outside the united states leaving its customers with being frustrated tryng to get help or issues solved through customer service. Hughesnet charges its customers for service calls when the service they are already paying for is not working or functioning. When I started hughesnet service the installation was not done correctly (which I paid for) and when I constantly complained about my service I got no where with customer service, their answer for everything was that I had exceeded my fair access policy. The real problem was the dish was not installed correctly on the roof of my house therefore was unstable and would not hold a signal for transmition. Hughes net wanted to charge me 150.00 an hour to have a service technician come out to fix the problem. I had to go through 3 supervisors before I could get a technician without being charged. The technician that came out took pictures of the work that was previously done for the company to see. Once he had completed the installation correctly the service worked properly. This took almost 2 yrs to accomplish this solution, in which my contract was almost up. I received service with hughes net for only a few hours a day then it was not available to me because of poor signal. I requested refunds for the 2 yrs in which I had paid for full service and did not receive, I was given 25.00 off my bill for 6 months and upgraded to the next level of FAP. This was not really an equal adjustment. However, in the area where I live there was no option at the time so I was stuck. Now other services were available and as soon as they became available I switched. I had hughes net that states they have 10 mbps and I switched to 3 mbps. You would think that my service would be slower, but it was 1000 times faster. Soon my new service will be adding 6 mbps and I can't wait to see that speed. My hughesnet service and speed was slower than dial-up and cost 10 times the amount. I also had technical support companies tell me that the satelite service was the cause of the issues that I was incurring within my school site. This must be true, since I have changed I had not had any issues with my school website or any functions pertaining to those sites. I have also not had any issues with my new service.

When trying to get issues resolved with hughesnet their continued response is that we will have to send a technician out and that will cost 150.00 per hour. Like I stated before you are alread paying for the service and now it does not work so the company should provide this service free of charge. The telephone company will do the same but in a different way, they state they will send out a service repair person and it the situation turns out to be the customer problem (such as they dug a hole to plant a tree and cut the wires) then the customer would be charged, but it the issues is the companies issues the company pays the charge. This is how hughes net should provide service. The cable companies do not charge you to come out to reset or adjust your dish if your cable is not working properly. I understand that these companies do not have the ability to control the weather but neither does the customer. If the company does not want to provide retaining services then maybe they should not be the the satalite business, because this will always be an issues. The other solution is that they incorporate the intended services and include these charges in the monthly charges and spread it out over time.

Hughes net even expressed to me when I complained about the beginning service that I should have told them that the service was not installed properly to begin with, referring to a call from the company asking me if my services had in fact been installed. My response to them was that I was not a satelite installer, I do not know how to do that and I would not know the difference between a correctly installed unit and an incorrect installed unit. I told them that if it was my job to inform them of this then exactly what did their job consist out, because they do not provide service or products and are not able to resolve any issues to the customers satisfaction.

Now that I have disconnected my service with hughes net they are still trying to charge me for things or services that I should not pay for, such as returning the equipment. I am happy to return the equipment but I am unable to access the radio transmitter that is attached to the dish on the roof of my house. Part of the installation was that hughes net place this dish on my house and they placed it there, not me. I contacted hughes net about them removing the equipment and of course they say it will cost 100.00 for them to send a technician to remove and if I don't return the equipment they will charge me 200.00 (for the piece that I am not able to access and 300.00 for all the equipment). These charges should be apart of the companies overhead that they have to endure as a part of doing business. There are ways they can incorporate these charges to be passed on to the customer, however like I said the cable companies do not operate this way and provide the same similar service if not the same.

This would be like disconnecting you power from your current power company and switching to a new one. The old power company would require you to remove the electrical box from your house and return it to them. If you did not then they would charge you for not doing so. 

Lavonda