- Report: #273654
Complaint Review: Hughesnet - Direcway - Germantown Maryland
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Hughesnet - Direcway
11717 Exploration Lane Germantown, 20876 Maryland, U.S.A.
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301-428-5500
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Hughesnet - DirecwayHughesnet - Formerly Direcway Changed FAP,Fair Access Polic) with no notification. This changed how recovery rate worked Germantown Maryland
I started doing business with this company when they were still Direcway.Never had any issues or problems, been with them for years. All of a sudden around April or so of this year, that all changed.
I was trying to access the internet one day and couldn't get anywhere it was so slow. Finally went to the support page and found I was subject to the FAP. We have 4 computers in the house on a wireless network.
I questioned everyone to see if they had downloaded anything other than the normal email and they said no. My brother had been shopping for a new truck at the time and he said he had just been viewing pictures on websites the night before.
So between normal email downloads, which isn't in an abnormal range for my family, and his picture viewing, it seems we exceeded 425MBS. This has never been an issue before. As the MB limit was within a 3-4 hour period,and the MB recovery was constant whenever not downloading anything, MB were constantly being recovered.
When I called customer service to find out what was going on, they informed me of the change to the FAP and that now it takes 24 hours to recover. Getting exact answers from them is extremely difficult as it seems they are all based in India. They don't seem to have any
real product knowledge and cannot function without a script.
I called a few times on this occasion as I was first told it would be 24 hours before we got our speed back. So I waited this time and still was not up to speed, called back and was told it would be 10 more hours as our account wasn't fully recovered yet.
I waited 10 more hours and called back because we still had no speed. Was again told it would be another 10 hours. This time I got mad and requested a supervisor. Who again spouted me the same garbage.
So I requested his supervisor. Now this guy started off telling me the same thing, but when I questioned him further on it he said by what he saw I was
right and we should have full access back since it had been 30+ hours.
I think I'm finally getting somewhere, and say that is great, I want you to get it fixed immediately then. He says he cannot do that, they have no way to do anything about it. At this point I'm pretty mad, not being abusive to him but
I explain that it's been the 30+ hours, he is saying that I am right and should have access, and yet he still is telling me he can do nothing. So I told him to cancel my account.
That seems to be the one thing they can do right away as well as charging my account $200 for early termination of service I was not even being provided with.
Where I live this is the only option for highspeed that we have. My family was really upset and miserable so I called the next day and had the service reinstated. They did removed the early cancellation fee so that wasn't an issue.
I guess my bottomline is this...you pay anywhere from $50 and up for plans, for unlimited access. People like myself started off with an FAP that worked, then they change it without notification and it causes all kinds of problems.
If I have to reinstall my operating system on my computer, I would have to go to Windows Update and redownload all of the updates to make sure my computer is protected from unauthorized access. 425MB is all we are now allowed to download in a day....
and this would not allow my system to be filly updated and protected. Their limitations would be making my system vulnerable. Most anything people do on the internet these days, from downloading email, taking advantage of instant movie watching if you have a Netflix account, surfing the web, viewing pictures.....all of this requires MB usage.
And then they will tell you that if you download between 3AM and 6AM eastern time, the MB will not count against you. Well I happen to work and cannot be up at that time, you cannot set Windows Update to download with a download manager, leaving my computer on 24/7 is not an option because it absolutely raises the electric bill and also leaves your computer more open to being hacked.
The point is, Hughes sells the internet service and should not be able to change the way things worked, or dictate when we can use the service, especially when it causes immediately noticeable problems on the consumer end. Seems to me they are wanting to rake in the money and have a lot of downtime in which people cannot use the service.
Can this really be legal?
Nightgypsy
Norman, Oklahoma
U.S.A.
Click here to read other Rip Off Reports on Direcway
I was trying to access the internet one day and couldn't get anywhere it was so slow. Finally went to the support page and found I was subject to the FAP. We have 4 computers in the house on a wireless network.
I questioned everyone to see if they had downloaded anything other than the normal email and they said no. My brother had been shopping for a new truck at the time and he said he had just been viewing pictures on websites the night before.
So between normal email downloads, which isn't in an abnormal range for my family, and his picture viewing, it seems we exceeded 425MBS. This has never been an issue before. As the MB limit was within a 3-4 hour period,and the MB recovery was constant whenever not downloading anything, MB were constantly being recovered.
When I called customer service to find out what was going on, they informed me of the change to the FAP and that now it takes 24 hours to recover. Getting exact answers from them is extremely difficult as it seems they are all based in India. They don't seem to have any
real product knowledge and cannot function without a script.
I called a few times on this occasion as I was first told it would be 24 hours before we got our speed back. So I waited this time and still was not up to speed, called back and was told it would be 10 more hours as our account wasn't fully recovered yet.
I waited 10 more hours and called back because we still had no speed. Was again told it would be another 10 hours. This time I got mad and requested a supervisor. Who again spouted me the same garbage.
So I requested his supervisor. Now this guy started off telling me the same thing, but when I questioned him further on it he said by what he saw I was
right and we should have full access back since it had been 30+ hours.
I think I'm finally getting somewhere, and say that is great, I want you to get it fixed immediately then. He says he cannot do that, they have no way to do anything about it. At this point I'm pretty mad, not being abusive to him but
I explain that it's been the 30+ hours, he is saying that I am right and should have access, and yet he still is telling me he can do nothing. So I told him to cancel my account.
That seems to be the one thing they can do right away as well as charging my account $200 for early termination of service I was not even being provided with.
Where I live this is the only option for highspeed that we have. My family was really upset and miserable so I called the next day and had the service reinstated. They did removed the early cancellation fee so that wasn't an issue.
I guess my bottomline is this...you pay anywhere from $50 and up for plans, for unlimited access. People like myself started off with an FAP that worked, then they change it without notification and it causes all kinds of problems.
If I have to reinstall my operating system on my computer, I would have to go to Windows Update and redownload all of the updates to make sure my computer is protected from unauthorized access. 425MB is all we are now allowed to download in a day....
and this would not allow my system to be filly updated and protected. Their limitations would be making my system vulnerable. Most anything people do on the internet these days, from downloading email, taking advantage of instant movie watching if you have a Netflix account, surfing the web, viewing pictures.....all of this requires MB usage.
And then they will tell you that if you download between 3AM and 6AM eastern time, the MB will not count against you. Well I happen to work and cannot be up at that time, you cannot set Windows Update to download with a download manager, leaving my computer on 24/7 is not an option because it absolutely raises the electric bill and also leaves your computer more open to being hacked.
The point is, Hughes sells the internet service and should not be able to change the way things worked, or dictate when we can use the service, especially when it causes immediately noticeable problems on the consumer end. Seems to me they are wanting to rake in the money and have a lot of downtime in which people cannot use the service.
Can this really be legal?
Nightgypsy
Norman, Oklahoma
U.S.A.
Click here to read other Rip Off Reports on Direcway
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Shari
Decatur,Michigan,
U.S.A.
Another Disappointed Hughesnet FAP customer... WE DO NOT USE 300+ MB in 2 hours!
#2Consumer Comment
Wed, December 17, 2008
Nightgypsy, I could write your very same story as my own. I've been with Hughesnet since it was Directway as well; 3+ years now. Only within the past week have we been experiencing the FAP problem and I'm banging my head up against the wall here. I've called their India 1.888 number only receiving what I already knew: my computer is supposedly downloading stuff from somewhere and I have restored my computer, cut every potential peer-to-peer client program possible and I'm still only able to surf the net for about 2 hours in the A.M. - I have a frick'n Internet store to run until 5:00 PM and I'm really started to get angry; how can I possibly run my business? Hughesnet offers absolutely no trouble shooting ideas for those of us who do not use the MB's that they say we do. We have a year left on the contract as well so they've really got us - we too live out in the middle of nowhere, where nothing else is available... right now it is sooo slow that I may just be typing for no reason right now. If there is someone out there with information on what kind (or names) of programs may unknowingly be on our computers, running in the background, taking up such 200+MB of downloading within minutes please I beg you to speak up. It's very discouraging. I thought it may have been a virus so I brought our McAfee up to date and everything is fine as far as protection. We did at one time have LimeWire which is known to perhaps have an effect on the FAP but I have uninstalled it and every other unrecognizable source. I understand that they want everyone to share the broadband space but we pay 79.00 a month for Hughesnet - we don't watch videos, download movies, etc.! Even if we DID we'd pay enough to earn that right. There is a petition to get rid of the FAP altogether: www petitiononline com /mod_perl/petition-sign.cgi?dpcfap - no spaces... this site just doesn't allow links. I've done all I can do, I hope it helps some other frustrated Hughesnet customer with the FAIR ACCESS POLICY THRESHOLD EXCEEDED problem. Thank you in advance for all of your responses and thank you, Nightgypsy for filing the report. :) In love and light, Shari
