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Review by Wcameron 
UPDATED: 331 days ago
member for 3.6 years, 15 visits, last login: 190 days ago
 Anderson,Shasta,CA
 Contract price not specified.
 "Only"
 "Very Expensive, bad latency and serious problem with measuring download usage for FAP"
 "Its the only game around and I am praying for wireless to get our way"
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Wild Blue (Branded Gotsky) is a great ISP if you just cruise the internet and send text emails. Start downloading music, Windows updates, watch movie trailers, or demo programs and you will potentially run into their 800lb gorilla called "Fair Access Policy". While a "FAP" is an understandable tool to keep people from clogging the system up by endlessly downloading movies and music from pirate sites, there is a serious problem with whatever system they use to measure your usage. I ran into major problems when I was at home with a illness and was using the computer more than normal. Some iTunes downloads, a few episodes of Battlestar Galactica and some software updates and I saw a serious jump in my download usage. By the way, Gotsky has a login page where you can monitor your usage. Its archaic and usually 48+ hours behind and runs on a rolling 30 day period. Since I was, at the time, in their middle tier "Select" plan, I was allowed 12000 MB or 11.7 GB per rolling 30 day period I figure I would be ok because that "SOUNDS" like a large amount of DATA and impossible to reach. That's 400MB a day!!! Well, when I saw a huge spike in my FAP meter, I backed off from downloading and just used the net for news, sports and basics. My FAP meter, however, kept climbing. Day after day it just kept rising. I called Gotsky and they looked into the problem and said I showed huge spikes at all times in the day. They said I had spikes at times between 3 and 6 AM!! Spikes at times when all my computers we OFF. My wireless network is heavily locked down and I dont have neighbors within a half mile of me. The Gotsky agent even had me unplug my router and modem for 48 hours while I was out of town. What do you know, major spikes in usage while I was gone. Their answer? Well, its tricky. The Gotsky agent was 100% behind me and worked hard to help me. Gotsky, however, is just a middle man for Wild Blue and acts as a liaison for tech support. All major issues had to be ran past Wild Blue. In other words, I would call Gotsky and report my issues, Gotsky would have to call Wild Blue and discuss the issue and then Gotsky would get back to me. This would often take several days and sometimes even a week. I could never talk to WB directly. In the end, the Gotsky rep (who I had established great rapport with) said that Wild Blue didn't believe that I unplugged my equipment and said there was nothing the could or would do. I found it strange that they suggested I unplug my router and modem and when results came back supporting a problem on THEIR end, well, then I must be lying. Why suggest the test in the 1st place. Feels really nice to hear a company that you pay $80/mo call you a liar!
I had to increase my plan to the highest level so I wouldn't go over the FAP limit. Amazingly, after the final word from Wild Blue when they called me a liar, my FAP meter DROPPED like a rock and I was doing nothing different with my usage.
Long story but indicative of what you are up against with Wild Blue. Their FAP policy and monitoring is wacky and shady. They will not explain exactly how they system works and the fact that the meter is 2-4 days late and runs on a rolling 30 day period forces the user to spend a lot of time making sure everything is correct. Check some of the independent Wild Blue forum sites. Theyare mostly devoted to problems with Wild Blue support and the FAP. This week the strange FAP problems have started again. My meter has spiked 4GB in a few days and the only major download was a couple of ITunes albums (300 MB total). Its really mind boggling.
I will also add the usual ISP complaints about inconsistent download speed problems. With 1.5 mbps down you would think that basic YouTube videos would play without having to pause and buffer every 5 second. Its not computer related as all my computers are less than a year old and stripped of all bloatware.
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Review by (hidden by request)
Posted: 339 days ago
(review was emailed in)
Cincinnati,Hamilton,OH
Contract price not specified.
"none"
"too many to list"
"stay away"
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Be afraid, be very afraid.
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Review by carralo
UPDATED: 344 days ago
member for 4.4 years, 175 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Granite Falls,Snohomish,WA
Contract price not specified.
"Nice if you need to download a large file."
"weak to nonexistant tech support, Latency is outrageous,"
"costs a bundle, contract that is horrible"
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Had WB since Dec, 2005. Could do many things with it. MMO games were not a problem. VPN worked well, file up / down was nice and refreshing compared to dialup. Since November latency has went form an average of 680ms to 1400ms-3500ms and it's all but went out the window VPN doesn't work reliably, games do not work. which makes it an overpriced connection to browse the web and obtain your email. Contract will lock you in while WB goes to the bank with the monthly fees. stay far far away from WB and don't believe anything there website says about how there system is designed to help offset latency and make it better and faster.
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Review by djumpp6
UPDATED: 347 days ago
member for 3.2 years, 1 visits, last login: 347 days ago
Keystone Heights,Clay,FL
Contract price not specified.
"Desperate Dial-up alternative"
"Slow, Slower or Down most of the time"
"Only use as a last resort and keep a dial-up account."
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I have had WildBlue for two months now and it is pathetic. I can't believe DirecTV is willing to sacrifice their reputation by associating with it. You don't get anywhere near the speeds they advertise and when you call all they say is that is that the advertised speeds are up to speeds, not actual speeds.
In the sign up info it mentions fair access, but doesn't define it. About 30 days after signing up, I received a notice in the mail that I only get 12gb down and 3gb up. If you get within 80% of this you are supposed to get a warning email. If you exceed the threshold in any 30 day window, they reduce your speed to 128 kbps down and 28 kbps up, until your usage is 70% or less of threshold. I didn't get the email and instead my service was dropped to the point where I can't access a webpage without timing out.
I complained about the impossible speeds and they suggested I check my email in the middle of the night. They actually had the audacity to tell me that I probably wouldn't have adequate speed to use the Internet most of the day.
If this is the policy, it should have been stated in all caps in the contract before they took a hefty installation fee and a $150 cancellation penalty.
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Review by greghbna
Posted: 348 days ago
member for 348 days, 1 visits, last login: 343 days ago
Nashville,Davidson,TN
Contract price not specified.
"NO good points that I experienced!"
"expensive $$$, unreliable, slow speeds, poor tech support"
"Stay away from Wildblue. Nothing but Issues, Period."
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Tried Wildblue in November 08. while the install seemed to be "OK", the signal and "speeds" weren't verified by the installer before he left.
At first I was on the "value" plan, which was 512K. Never got any more than 400K out of that from the beginning. Speeds at "peak" times were around 150-190Kbps.
Started complaining to tech support. All they can tell you to do is perform a bunch a speeds on toast.net, and they record the results. No one ever calls you back if you deal with a "level-1" tech person.
Found wildblue forums. They did escalate the case to corporate. Did receive a phone call from the CEO, Ken Carroll (kcarroll@wildbluecorp.com)...
He send a field tech out to check the install out. Install was good per thus guy, and I had a "green light" on the signal. After not achieving good speeds even then, all the issues were blamed on my NEW HP computer (less than 1 month old).
Complained more and more, speeds never increased EVEN using a different computer. Case escalated again at corporate. another call from the CEO. Dealt with engineering......Repeated attempts to figure what was wrong failed. It was "pass the blame"....Always reverting back to "you have computer resource issues".. NO WAY!
I did even upgrade from the VALUE package to the SELECT package (1mpbs)...
Speeds were never more than 700 in the day and back down to 200 at nights.
So they basically got me for another $20 a month for nothing...
What has basically happened here is that Wildblue has OVERSOLD this area (TN), and the "beams" that serve the area. They will never admit it, and always try to make other excuses for poor speeds and slow surfing.
The CEO refused to discount my service for all the issues I'd experienced quoting
"we need to part ways. Unfortunately that does not work for us".....
Yeah, right, do what WORKS FOR CORPORATE and your stockholders, but screw the end-user who pays $60 a month for 4x dialup. (200kbps out of 1000).
After writing complaints to the Better Business Bureau of Denver, and another complaint to the FCC, that finally got their attention, and they decided that were willing to cancel my contract. THANK GOD!
By the way, I just got a HUGHESNET 9000 system, and it works flawlessly and provides great service on the 1.0Mbps plan. NEVER less than 850 during peak time!
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Review by rpatricky
Posted: 353 days ago
member for 2.6 years, 3 visits, last login: 353 days ago
Traverse City,Grand Traverse,MI
 Business customer
Contract price not specified.
"Faster than dial up."
"FAP! Very spotty performance. Crap equipment"
"Only worth it if you can not get anything other than dial up"
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When you have to call tech support you go through the same crap every time, like they are reading from a script. "Unplug your modem...wait....plug it back in." Duh! Not like I have not learned that from all the other times I have had to call. You do not get the speeds you pay for but they bill you for it anyways.
Since we can only get dial up in our area this is what we have.
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Review by Cheree
Posted: 353 days ago
member for 353 days, 0 visits, last login: 353 days ago
Russellville,Pope,AR
Contract price not specified.
"Price is reasonable"
"Connection is awful and customer service is worse"
"RUN don't walk to an alternate internet service provider"
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I signed up for the top level of service from WildBlue Communications in June of 2007. Since May of this year (2008) my service has been spotty at best, and for long stretches of time has been completely non-existent.
I called to cancel my account in August, and was asked to give them a chance to correct the problem. They scheduled a service call and the technician was dispatched within 2 weeks -- with the wrong part. I was told it would take 2 days for the correct part to arrive. It is now November, and the technician still has not received the correct part.
For 4 months now, I have been shuttled back and forth between technician, dsi, and WildBlue technical support and customer service. Everyone points fingers at everyone else.
At one point, I was offered a terrific deal of paying only $39.95 a month instead of the $79.95 I pay until they resolve the situation. What a deal! $40 for no service instead of $80 for no service!
December 8th, I contacted WildBlue to demand a refund and cancel my service. I was transferred to a customer service specialist in the corporate office, KG, who assured me he would take care of the problem by 12/12/08. He further assured me that I would receive a phone call from him no later than first thing in the morning of 12/9/08 with a status update. I have received no call. I have called the number he gave me DAILY, but get his voice mail, and he does NOT return my phone calls.
Further, you can't reach any of the executives at WildBlue. There are no phone numbers or email addresses available for anyone except their call center employees who, obviously, do not have the authority or ability to address customer service issues of this magnitude. To make matters worse, they can't even give you contact information for anyone who might be able to help, but simply send you back to the website that provides only the phone number to the call center.
If you, or anyone you know is considering WildBlue for your internet service, RUN don't walk to a different service provider.
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Review by realon
Posted: 363 days ago
member for 4.9 years, 31 visits, last login: 75 days ago
Heath,Franklin,MA
Contract price not specified.
"Quite stable connection, especially for satellite service"
"Expensive service, equipment must be purchased and can't be reused by anyone else, bandwidth cap is extremely annoying"
"Far better than dialup and the best I could do for the three years I had it. Dropped it for DSL at half the price ASAP."
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In the rural area that I live in, satellite was the only option other than dialup (which wasn't really much of an option itself) until recently. We also have no cellular telephone reception in the area at all. For the last three years, I had WildBlue, and the connection was rock-solid except for the worst storms. I could seriously surf even in rain and snow. Only in the worst thunderstorms or blizzards did it cut out, and usually just for a little while. That's better than friends who had worse connectivity nearby with HughesNet. The latency was still horrible, but there's no way around the limitations of the speed of light, so I don't blame that on the company in any way. Once a download or media stream started, it was usually quite solid and at the advertised speeds.
Still, I had to purchase the equipment for a few hundred dollars, sign a 2-year contract, and at the end of it all, the best I could do was to return the modem for a $50 rebate that I haven't yet received (it's been over a month). They insist that every new subscriber still purchase all of the equipment, so I couldn't resell or even give away the equipment to a friend that was interested. That, and the service cost 2-3 times what equivalent broadband of any other type cost. Finally, the bandwidth caps did cause me trouble now and then when I actually did things like downloading an entire game that I purchased online or attempting to download ISOs for RedHat and such. Once they throttle the connection due to exceeding the cap, they don't throttle it back until you're below 70% of the cap. If you exceeded it because of a few large downloads (like I did), then it could take days or weeks until one of those downloads rolled off your rolling 30-day average.
I only dealt with their tech-support on a couple of occasions, and although eventually helpful, it was cumbersome as hell. One time it took over 45 minutes just to get someone to reset the password so that I could login to the portal to view my utilization stats to help avoid going over the cap.
Needless to say, as soon as I had another option (DSL became available), I took it. Amazingly, cancelling the subscription to WildBlue was the best cancellation experience I've ever had. Now, if they just provide the rebate on the modem that I sent back, it'll be a clean done-deal with no real complaints from my end other than that the nature of the service WildBlue provides is only worth the cost if it's the only broadband option available. In that case though, I think it is worth it as long as you're willing to pay and commit for several years.
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Review by captak
Posted: 1 year ago
(review was emailed from domain attglobal.net)
Rochester,Thurston,WA
Contract price not specified.
"They did get the installation done as promised"
"They promised high speed reliable internet connection - don't believe it - they did not deliver"
"Never let your friends do Wild Blue!"
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I would like to post a review on Wild Blue Satellite service. They promised
speeds faster than HughesNet - a more lenient fair access policy - free
installation - reliable access - and delivered NONE of the above. We have
had them less than a month and our internet has been down more than it has
been up.
Followup comments:  BigVe
join:2005-07-15
Gulliver, MI | Just one word apply CANCEL | |
| 
Wild Blue
@wildblue.net | Wild Blue Attempting to do just that - this is also not easy with Wild Blue. Will try again tomorrow. | |
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ftp12345
@wildblue.net
| Wildblue service I must've had a good installation as I've had great success. Whatever speed I was signed up for, I got.
Due to business needs, I'm now using their top services and, except for the usual lag for satellites, I'm very happy. I can even use VPN to gain access to company resources/networks (though at a much slower rate (usually 8-11K download speeds)
I do have problems with weather from time-to-time, but it usually doesn't last long. | |
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TT
@wm.com
| Not impressed at all. For me in NH for highspeed it was Wild Blue or Hughes Net (rural no other highspeed available). Couldnt afford Hughes so I went with wild blue. Nightmare with install - Promised 8am-12 on a monday they showed up at 730 at night. Dish was bad. Promised they would be out on wens 8 am to fix. Tech showed up with NO equipment. Promised he would be back on thursday and didnt show. Promised they would be back on sat didnt show. Finally on monday they showed up and put in new modem and new dish. Worked great FOR ONE DAY. Wens I get rain and lost service. This weather was nothing compared to what I have coming for this winter. If this is the case I will not have internet all winter long. I would NOT recommend this service at all!!!!!!! | |
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Review by (hidden by request)
Posted: 1 year ago
(review was emailed from domain cs.com)
Venice,Sarasota,FL
Contract price not specified.
"zero"
"Not told about possible $200+ additional charges for installation and charged $50 to cancel the order."
"STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY!"
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When I initially called for information about installation, I was not told that a hole would have to be cut into the roof, but on rental property, the owner must give permission. The alternative is to put up a pole and attach the HUGE dish to it. All this at an additional cost of approximately 200 to 300 dollars. When I changed my mind because of the cost, I cancelled the order and was charged a $50 restocking fee. Had I been told about the installation requirements BEFORE I ordered the service, I would NOT have ordered it in the first place. Then they STOLE $50 from my account for a bogus restocking fee.
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WildBlue
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Wild Blue The key word is "WILD"
Service installed in April 08, This is Dec. I have had about 4 weeks of good service and 2 weeks of fair service out of the whole time I installed. Am in process of termination. If there is a class action suit I would be interested. 
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