Complaint Review: hughesnet satellite internet - Internet Internet

Originally I spoke with a rep named Bill who I found out was actually repping for many companies. He seemed great, walked me through the different plans and all. I coulnt "qualify" to rent the dish and they swindled me into buying it. He told me that the dish would be $300 and the installation would be $75 and that it would reflect on my first bill and that he needed a CC to authorize the transaction but would not charge the card.

Once the techs finally got there they were part drunk and I told them the layout of the house so they could pick a place to put the dish. They screwed it to the side of my trailer with lag bolts that did not even have rubber washers to prevent leaking into my house. They put the dish up and pointed it over a tree (not toward clear sky) telling me it wasnt quite right but should be high enough over it to work ok. The place they chose was very dangerous to get to espessially on  a ladder. No flat ground, in fact a ditch and in the middle of a pile of junk i have in the back of my place. They even used my ladder that was out back without even asking. I was afraid to even watch them install it and just crossed my fingers that they did not fall and sue me.

When he got it installed and was connecting to their main site it timed out several times and he almost could not connect. He also told me that the signal strength was 1 point away from not being acceptable even by them but didnt adjust it or anything telling me that its overcast and on a clear day it will be better. Once they left I looked at my bank account and they had charged my card that day for $375.29!

 Giving them the benefit of the doubt I said nothing, used it for 2 weeks and it was never faster than dial up not one day! I called them and explained that the tech had even told me it was pointed wrong but would likely work. I asked if they could adjust it. They told me absolutely not and walked me through testing it. Earlier that day I had done their speed test and it came back 6.1 seconds on the average. When they did it it came back .48 seconds every time. After the test they proceeded to tell me that it was my fault and that my computer must be the problem. My computer was a one month old Vaio Laptop with 2.6 ghz dual core processor and 4g ram. I use this computer just fine on any wireless I try always have and still do.

So in good faith I had them upgrade my account to their best plan for $109 per month. I tried it for one more week and it did not change one single bit. It seemed exactly like the $79 service I had originally. After that week I called to cancel and get a refund (mind you it has only been 3 weeks at this point Jan 31 to Feb 23). The rep just kept trying to keep me as a customer and would not listen to me. After some time she finally offers to do a "complimentary overhaul" to tweak the service to work better (they did not have this service a week ago when i asked for it).

I declined as I was already fed up with all of the lies and cheating. I told her I wanted a complete refund and that I have only been here 3 weeks and it should be no problem. She just kept arguing and throwing policies at me telling me that all they can refund is the $200 for the equipment and I have to take it down myself and ship it to them. YEAH RIGHT!! Remember the dangerous place they put it? I will not be caught dead climbing a ladder where they put it and I have been up and down ladders my entire life!

We go back an forth for some time on this matter as she just refused to be in any way helpful. I told her that she was asking me to put my safety at risk in a huge way and there must be another way. She kept regurgitating the same response. I finally demand to speak to her supervisor. I had to demand this over 6 times before she finally put me on hold acting like she was talking with a supervisor.  When she came back it was the same story as before (clearly showing that she never spoke to anyone) and told me the supervisor was busy. After going back and forth again for some time I demanded yet again to speak to a supervisor. Relunctantly and not without arguing profusely, she did the same thing.

When she came back she had exactly the same response, and i mean word for word that she gave the first time she "spoke to the supervisor". I just kept demanding supervisor and not even letting her speak until she did at this point because she was clearly lying. She "spoke to the supervisor" three more time each time the exact wording as if she had to memorize it when she was hired. Finally I spoke with a man named Robert who claimed to be a supervisor.

Calmly I explained my situation start to finish as I have had to do a few time in the past with other companies. Usually the supervisor will try to resolve the issue even if it means bending a policy or two to keep the cusomer happy. Not Robert, He just kept telling me I had to dismantle it myself and ship it to them. He told me that if I want them to take it down they will charge me $100 and I still have to ship it or I could find and call a private tech of my choosing if I wanted it to be cheaper. He said the tech (who brought the dish to my property in his truck himself) could not take the dish to them and I would have to ship it even if I pay $100 to have it taken off of my house!

I stood my ground until I had had enough lies and deceit to fill a lake and finally asked for a supervisor above him. He kept trying to push his "policy" on me refusing to let me speak to anyone above him untill I was so fed up I told him I was going to call my lawyer the second I hang up and it is his last chance. I gave him the name, adress and phone of my lawyer so he knew I was not bluffing. All of the sudden he wants to "speak to higher management" to see what other options he can give me.

When he came back on the phone it was clear he had just done what the original rep did in the first place and never spoke with anyone. He tells me he will have a tech remove it for free but i still have to pay to ship it. By this time I was tired and over this situation. I agreed to his offer and this is what I get: Free removal of the dish, refund for $200 and I pay to ship the thing to them. When I finally hung up I looked at my phone, I had been on the line for 1hr 21 min!! Are you kidding me!?!

After that i found this site and others and on the first one hughesnet had 548 bad reviews and 158 good ones just in the last 6 months!! All the other review sites had basically the same reports. One of the complaints suggested a class action suit which I think is absolutely necassary given this companies track record.

Please if anyone is a good lawyer and can put something like that together, DO IT. You will have my full support and by the looks of it the support of thousands of other people as well.

my email is: mailto:(((REDACTED))) @yahoo.com

This company needs to be shut down and that is all there is to it!!! One person cannot do this alone. There needs to be class action! Someone with the power to do so please take action, I dont know the first thing about this sort of thing but you will have my full support start to finish on this one.
 
Comic relief: hughesnet doesnt have internet they have internot

CLICK here to see why Rip-off Report, as a matter of policy, deleted either a phone number, link or e-mail address from this Report.