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Review by fivekitten 
Posted: 2 years ago
member for 2 years, 2 visits, last login: 1.2 years ago
 Cattaraugus,Cattaraugus,NY
 Contract price not specified.
 "Videos Load Faster than on Dial-up. When it works, it's okay."
 "Only seems to work every other day, FREQUENTLY slow downloads!"
 "Very disappointed but my only options are satellite or dial up."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
(ratings match consensus)
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I am very disappointed with Hughes Net Satellite Service through Earthlink. If I'm lucky, I can get on the internet every other day, I can RARELY get on during peak hours (3 - midnight, which is the only time the kids can get on for homework and online courses). I'm just at the point where I'm going to call and complain but haven't gotten that far yet, just downloaded a program to keep track of the speeds instead of my just writing down hours and days of problems - kids are thinking that dial-up was better - but I want to set up a wireless network and I like the fact that when it DOES work it's faster than dial up and i can watch videos and podcasts, which are almost impossible on dial up unless you want to wait three hours for them to load. Kind of like a no-win situation - I have to pick the worst of two evils. WOULD BE NICE TO HAVE DSL IN THIS HICK TOWN! Another factor is that I'm usually up in the middle of the night which sometimes has worked fast when the whole day it worked slow.
I am not a picky person, and easily satisfied, but I was expecting a LOT better service. Yesterday it was taking 10 minutes to load a page all day. My daughter couldn't get on at all after school. Even when I was on at 1 a.m. it was 10-20 minute page loading times. (my opera browser tracks loading times, I'm not exaggerating.) Today, this morning, it seems okay so far...we'll see. And the service fails in good weather and bad weather.
Earthlink always had horrible customer service. I'm a customer service guru and have a lot of patience, but sometimes I call three or more times for one problem. I'm dreading calling them but I have to cause this service is pathetic. I also know the "can't guarantee speed" thing is probably going to come up.
The installer was not friendly and very unprofessional. When he was putting up the satellite I asked him "if it doesn't work do I get hte $150 back" and he said "oh, it'll work" and i ask him AGAIN and HE SAID THE SAME ANSWER THREE TIMES then I said - so, I won't get my money back if it doesn't work - and he didn't answer. HOW UNPROFESSIONAL IS THAT?????????? And the first time he came he said it couldn't go on the roof (now I think he just didn't want to get on the roof) and i had to pay extra for a pole and trenching. (my house is surrounded by trees so i was expecting problems). So we set up another date - then i called him the day before to make sure he took credit cards - and he didn't answer, showed up the next day and when i told him i could only pay by credit card (cause earthlink only lets you signup if you have a credit card!) he said "oh so you don't have the money well i'm come back when you have the money". Then when he came back he said "so, you have the money now?" real deragotory like. Really made me mad. He didn't discuss payment before he came and he should of. (Granted, I should of asked - but it's really his job to discuss it - and since everything was supposedly through earthlink - it was right of me to assume he would accept the same payment methods as earthlink - AND he didn't call me back even though he said he got my message.) I really didn't like this guy.
When he first tested it, it wasn't that fast, but he blamed it on my toolbars - but I told him I don't use IE because it's too slow I use opera but he said it's slow cause you have all this junk (wherein I repeated myself that I don't use Internet Explorer because it works too slow for me)...he said it should speed up in a while. It did after he left. But not for long. Anyhow, my computer is cleaned out and when it DOES work it's not slow so my "junk" as he put it - search boxes I have because I do a lot of research and writing online - is not the cause.
I thought I was paying around $70 a month - now when i went to my earthlink i see this $30 satellite warranty thing - it better not be a monthy charge...although i was aware the first payment would be higher...
One good thing is my Utorrent downloads much faster at night. And when it is working, file downloads are FAR better than dialup. I just have to figure out the best of two evils. I'll probably stick with the satellite so I can get both the computers in my house set up wirelessly. Now after reading other posts, perhaps they just want to sell me a more expensive modem or service so they make the first one really bad....
I really think I should be refunded for the days I couldn't get service. it's quite substantial. Think I've had it for a couple weeks now and as I said, lucky if I have good service every other day - and hardly ever during peak hours.
I'm not sure if it's satellite in general, or Hughes Net - but I hated the Hughes Net installer's unprofessionalism and reluctancy to give information. I certainly WON'T recommend them to anyone - and wherever I can find a forum or review website to post how UNHAPPY I am I will!
I will probably reluctantly keep this service. Very frustrating too when I am in the middle of paying EBAY or AMAZON and then it stops for hours. One reason I got this service is so I would be able to work from home over the internet. (I'm disabled.) This service is not reliable enough to work in any position that requires me to be online at a specific date or time (example, email representative or live help representative, legal work, blog posting, or anything with a one or two day deadline etc.).
have nothing nice to say expect videos load faster, and when it does work, it works faster than dialup. Although, when I try to open several tabs at once it doesn't seem any faster than dial up (which I was hoping it would because I tab-hop a lot when doing research and writing). It is NOT reliable AT ALL. YOU CAN NOT DEPEND ON THIS SERVICE.
After I contact Earthlink to complain I'll probably post again to report my experience. Seems I won't have much luck based on my prior experiences with earthlink and the other forum posters.
Followup comments:  jwko
join:2007-04-02
Cecil, AR
 ·CenturyLink
| So you are new to Hughes? I'm glad you are enjoying your new satellite service but there are some things I think you should know. There is only a certain amount that you download within a 24 hour period. Most people can download 200MB per 24 hour period and if they go over that amount with that 24 hour peroid they are restricted to dial up speeds for 24 hours or so. It really depends on the plan that you have bought. A person can watch 200MB's of videos via youtube within 30 minutes or so... I bet they did not tell you this when you signed up did they? It's on their website but you have to look for it. I'm sorry that you have fell into the world of Satellite internet, as you will soon see dialup is better.
Here is a snapshot of Hughes FAP.
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kms5808
@qwest.net
|  hughesnet sucks!
Yes it woks great when it works! I have it 7 weeks now and tomorrow will be the 2nd time I had an installer out to fix my problem. Don't get me on the tech support either! Oh my goodness, it sucks! the level 2 is alot better, and no one wants to explain what they'll do for me if nothing improves. I too can only get satelite or dial up, which is what I'm on now until they fix everything!! | |
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