Complaint Review: HughesNet

In September of 2007 I contacted Hughes net and asked about their service. Sam (the person I talked to) told me what they offered. He said that downloading was fast and reliable, surfing the web was fast and easy, and that they had a 30 day money back guarantee if you were not satisfied with there service. I asked if it was faster than dial-up and they said yes that it would be much faster and easier to access the internet. I told him that we needed it for online classes at school and we would be e-mailing and downloading frequently. He said that would not be a problem with Hughesnet.
Sam said that it would be easiest for me to go online and sign up for service.

So I went to their web site and ordered service. I signed up for the Pro package and the zero down with a monthly payment of $89.99. I received a confirmation letter a couple of days later, which was the last e-mail I have ever received from them. Within 2 weeks we had a sub-contractor come out and install the dish and set up the other computers. After he finished installing everything I asked him why I was having a hard time accessing the internet he told me that when you first get your service you sometimes have to refresh your page frequently, but then it should be OK. I thought that sounded a bit strange, but he reasured me that it was normal.

A day later we were not able to even get on to the internet. I figured that maybe the connection had be messed with by one of my kids, so I just put it off for another day. then next day I tried again but it still didn't work. I checked all the connections and everything looked fine.

So I called Hughesnet tech support. The man on the other line was from a foreign country and I was having a very difficult time understanding he. I never got his name right. He told me that I had downloaded past what we were allowed, 345MB, and that our service would be up and running in 24 hours. This is called the FAP, Fair Access Policy, I didn't remember reading about this so I went to the library in town and looked it up on the internet. I took me awhile to find it on their web page but I did. It wasn't in the contract or service agreement, which I feel it should be stated there. The next few weeks passed and we continued to have problems connecting and staying on the internet. I would say only 5% of the time were we able to get on. I called tech service and again spoke to a guy named Scott who I was not able to understand very well. He tried many things on his end and walked me through trying different things with my computer and he ended up saying it was not a problem on their end that it must be my computer. I was very frustrated by the time I finally had to get off the phone and head to school. We purchased and new computer and guess what, we still had problems.

I called them again and Talked to a guy named Paul, who again I had a hard time understanding and again went through the same things trying to get the service to work, he hung up on me when I told him that this wasn't working and I wanted to cancel my service. I called them back and got another guy same situation but new name Tom. I told him I wanted to cancel my service and he told me I was not able to unless I wanted to pay a $300.00. early termination fee. I told him that I never had service and wouldn't pay the fee. He said that he couldn't terminate the service. I was so frustrated I didn't know what to do. I tried calling back but the wait time was to long, I had to leave again for school. I tired calling again in Oct and Nov, but was unable to get any help from them.

Finally I called in December and asked to talk to someone who might be able to help me. Again I was talking to someone I had a hard time understanding he put me through the same things, again I lost phone connection with him and again tried to call back I reached a guy who told me that it wasn't Hughes nets problem it was our routers Belkins problem and I needed to contact them. I contacted Belkin they took me through a ton of steps and ended up saying that Hughes net needed to form a bridge from their motem to the router. I called hughes net back and they said that was not their responseablity that Belkin needed to resolve this problem.

I called Belkin back and they said that they couldn't do it because it was not their product or a part of their service. So I again called Hughes net, they said that I needed to purchase another peice of equipment that would fix the problem, they transfered me to another area and when I told the lady what they said she told me that she was unable to help me because she didn't know what I was talking about, I gave her the Ref # they gave me and told her that the guy I was talking to told me that that was all she would need to see what I needed to fix my problem. She started to refuse when I raised my voice and told her that I had been on the phone for over three hours trying to resolve this and if she didn't help me I would have to resort to outside help. She told me what was needed and asked if I was my husband, I told her that was my husband and that I was the one who set up the service, she said she could no longer help me unless he was there to request that this happen, of course he was not home at the time, so I had to end the call.

I then contacted my bank and talked to them about putting a stop payment on the $89.99. They said the only way I could do that was if I had not received service I told them that I had not received what they promised. So she said that they would have to contact hughes net and together we could arrange a dispute against them. We contacted Hughes net and they said until I canceled my service and paid $700.00 or went throught their different stages of techs would I beable to resolve any of this. I told them that I felt because they had not provided the service they started that I should be able to cancel my service without any further action. They still refused and said my husband would have to cancel our service and the $700.00 would be taken out of my account and then I could file a dispute against them. I know I would never see that $700.00 dollars again. Besides we don't have that kind if money in our account to cancel the service.

I feel that I don't have any rights or choices in this matter. Can you help with this situation?

Christina
Prineville, Oregon
U.S.A.