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Review by (hidden by request)
Posted: 29 days ago
(review was emailed from domain heathergm.com)
 Springfield,Lane,OR
 Contract price not specified.
 "better than dial up speeds most of the time"
 "slow, unreliable, horrible tech support and frustrating FAP"
 "If you can't get anything else this will mostly work for you"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Mail,DNS,News:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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We live in a pocket in the foothills with no cable, DSL or other internet available. We signed up for DirectWay satellite right away. At first it seemed amazing to have fairly speedy internet for $70 a month (2 year commitment) but the service crapped out in less than a year. After an epic weeklong troubleshooting with their ridiculously poor tech support (which tried to say it was my fault for using Macintosh over Airport) they finally sent a tech out (from the neighboring state) and said the original installation was done incorrectly and water had corroded our wiring. Re-install resulted in lower signal strength but decent service even after upgrade to DW6000 and transition to HughsNet when they were acquired.
But that was when our FAP woes started. With no notice they changed the FAP terms and we ended up going over our allotment and being locked out for 4 days in one month. We became very careful and although the satellite dropped out from time to time it was semi-reliable until this year.
Now speeds are very slow, the signal drops out pretty regularly and the bandwidth constraints are getting difficult to deal with as the web continues to expand and demand more load for even basic pages. I really don't want to extend my contract and from reading the forums don't feel that upgrading my modem or package is likely to help so I am in limbo, limping along until someone brings true high speed service to this area.
So if you can't get anything else HN can work, although its expensive for what you get and not nearly as reliable as you would hope. Avoid dealing with customer service if you value your sanity - but sometimes its your only hope. I hope the Better Business Bureau complaints convince this company to start treating their customers with more respect - like actually providing what they advertise.
Followup comments:  
AshleyChris
@direcway.com
| hughesnet God I agree 100%. I wish I had came to this forum before having hughesnet installed less than a week ago. We have had nothing but trouble with them from day one. I'm lucky that this site is even loading. I had to use my mothers dial up just to print my rebate forms off because of the constant disconnecting. I wake up this morning and it is far slower than dialup on a bright sunny clear day. We have 30 days to cancel but we lose over $400 in the process. There are so many problems we have had with the service I cant even keep track of them all..... | |
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HN Help
@cablerocket.net
| Re: hughesnet You have a 30 day trail(money back guarantee). You should not lose your money. But if you did not get a standard install, had to do a pole mount not sure if you will get that money back, as it is not handled by Hughes Net. If it goes 31 days they will charge the early termination fee. Hope this helps | |
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HNHater
@direcway.com
| "Faster than dialup" ... I don't think so! I can't even begin to tell you how many hours of productivity I have lost since I had to switch my office to HughesNet. We moved to a new office location, and cannot get DSL or cable here. Our only option other than HughesNet is a T1 line, or cBeyond, both of which are cost prohibitive.
The service is slow at best, and unreliable most of the time. It takes forever to send an email with even a small attachment. Sometimes I can email, but can't browse. Sometimes I can browse, but not email. There are days when we get better service in the middle of a rainstorm than from clear blue skies. There's no difference whether we're plugged directly into the modem, using a router, or wireless. Same thing with Mac vs. PC and different web browsers (Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer). The service sucks no matter what you use.
We are constantly exceeding their 425MB allotment...can't even update software on ONE computer, much less the 9 that are in our office without going over. Our employees have to frequently leave the office and go to coffee houses to use their wireless internet in order to complete the required functions of their jobs.
What really annoys me is their stupid (and completely useless) "measure web responsiveness" tool. It took over 45 seconds for that test to complete, only for it to come back and say that it was completed in 3.5 seconds. It's completely unreliable, and their customer service reps will keep telling you over and over again that "everything is working perfectly." Well, I'm sorry, but where I come from, if a user can't load a page in under 2 minutes, then everything is NOT "working perfectly."
Of course, there's also that wonderful required 2 year contract, and even when that is up, I doubt anything else will be available. That's what these people count on...you wouldn't be with them if you had any other options. And, then, of course, if a new option does arrive for your area, then they get you with an early termination fee. Pitiful. Really pitiful.
If you have absolutely NO OTHER OPTION, then go with HughesNet, but go in knowing that you'll be wishing you hadn't. | |
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