fcisler
Premium
join:2004-06-14
Riverhead, NY | WOW!
If I were out of distance of DSL (I am) and Cable (Cablevision), I would get a Dial-Up account or two. That much $$ for that performance? Forget it... |
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getoffmylawn
@bek.com
 from:
antdude 
| Whatever happened to that "shotgun" modem pairing technology? |
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caribconsult
Premium
join:2003-03-19
Mayaguez, PR
 ·HughesNet Satellit..
 ·Millenicom
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
| Hughes lousy service
I was a Hughes Net customer for over 4 years, beginning with the 4000 system, and last year moving up to the 7000 system.
To summarize my experiences with them: it just got worse and worse and they could do nothing about it. I spoke to every level of support they have, and except for the Executive Customer Care at corporate, their tech support was essentially worthless. I won't even get into the FAP issue.
I also had over $1,400 invested in dishes and electronics - we here in Puerto Rico don't get the same discounts as statesiders.
I finally got out of it by pressing ExecCustCare. I just told them I wasn't accepting this crappy service any longer, and if they didn't let me out without penalty I'd just 'lose' the credit card it was billed to and they could chase my happy ass here in PR. That did it. I not only got out of my contract early, but received a $400 rebate for the money I'd shelled out for the basically useless upgrade to 7000.
I would advise all other HN users who have ANY alternative (I went to Millenicom wireless broadband) to do the same. You can reach ExecCustCare by calling corporate at (301) 428-5500 and asking for the president's office. Write down the name and extension of whomever you talk to, and press them. Have a history of lousy speed tests using their test. If they want to make a 'last ditch' effort to improve your service, let them. One of two things will happen: (a)-they will improve it, so you're good to go, or (b)-they won't, which will strengthen your argument for cancellation without penalty.
VOTE WITH YOUR WALLET, FOLKS. That's the only thing that will get their attention.
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Franklin CDU/Assent MBR WBB combo, service through Millenicom, 3 XPPro stations, Mozilla everywhere. |
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caribconsult
Premium
join:2003-03-19
Mayaguez, PR
·HughesNet Satellit..
·Millenicom
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
| reply to fcisler
Re: WOW!
FCISLER: have you checked to see if you are within sprint's wireless broadband range? Go to »www.sprint.com and use mapping service to see if you are 'in the orange.' Be sure to select the DATA services tab, not cell phone. I'll bet you are in range; most of Long Island is, especially a major area like Riverhead.
Check the Sprint Mobile Broadband forum here at BBR, and the Millenicom forum as well for reader reviews.
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Franklin CDU/Assent MBR WBB combo, service through Millenicom, 3 XPPro stations, Mozilla everywhere. |
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dbirdman
Premium,MVM
join:2003-07-07
Eureka, CA
| reply to caribconsult
Re: Hughes lousy service
said by caribconsult :I would advise all other HN users who have ANY alternative (I went to Millenicom wireless broadband) to do the same. But, but, but... Hasn't that always been the advice for satellite users of all brands? Are you saying that it was EVER better than any broadband alternative? I think not, and my experience also goes back to the 4000, but spans 6 years to your 4.
The reaction of the first replier is reasonable and expected when they look at the worst-case scenarios, but if they ever found themselves in that position, where the choice during the other 16 hours was dialup at 28.8K (or less), or 800-1000K with satellite, what would be the likely answer?
Incidentally, I'm one of the many not experiencing the severe slowdowns, although my Hughes account now is just a backup to my iDirect account.
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W2K Server|Toshiba Satellite XP Pro|iDirect 3100 on Datastorm 1.2 meter XF3 with 4-watt BUC|HughesNet IA8/1390/7000s Pro on 2-watt Datastorm G74|1990 Blue Bird Wanderlodge Bus "Blue Thunder" |
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cableties
Premium
join:2005-01-27 | users who are well under their FAP limit
That just sounds...well...  |
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en102
Canadian, eh?
join:2001-01-26
Valencia, CA | reply to fcisler
Re: WOW!
For that price, I'd purchase a wireless (GSM EDGE/3G or CDMA 1x /EVDO in the boonies) datacard and have better performance.
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Canada = Hollywood North |
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diskobunny
@comcast.net
| reply to fcisler
and you get suckered into their 2 year contract. The customer support can't speak clear enough English to even understand that a period is the end of a thought. Their contract states if they make changes you have the right to cancel service. This sentence is followed by, subject to early termination fees, you can cancel your contract anytime. They made changes to my account and are not honoring that they made changes and have nullified the contract. I will have to take them to court to have them honor what is clearly stated in their own contract. It's clear English not legalese, they made a change to my account. And the only way they state that I can get out of my contract is to pay them $1200.00. Bologna. Hughesnet is schiesty, unhelpful, and it is true the connection speeds suck. Don't bother, it's not worth it.
Hughesnet subscriber.
PS Subscribing to Hughesnet is like signing your soul over to the devil. IMHO |
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diskobunny
@comcast.net | reply to caribconsult
Re: Hughes lousy service
thank you for the number, I will be using it. they are awful, absolutely awful. |
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Jameson
10-8
Premium
join:2004-05-28
Fallbrook, CA
clubs:  | Bad Publicity
Finally someone is covering this! Keep dishing out the bad publicity, it kicks them in the ass to do something. |
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Subaru
1-3-2-4
Premium
join:2001-05-31
Greenwich, CT
clubs: | reply to getoffmylawn
Re: WOW!
said by getoffmylawn :
Whatever happened to that "shotgun" modem pairing technology?
seems like it never took off |
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mat974
join:2005-12-05
Peoria, AZ
·Millenicom
| They try and keep you
I tried to cancel service within the 30 day trial period and was told that I would have to pay a $400 fee before they would shut it off. Makes no sense if I am in a trial period. I just did the cancel card thing, now lets see if they can get the $400. I never had speed above 70-80/3-30kbs. Terrible. Also, the customer service person was way to hard to understand. |
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Camelot One
Premium,MVM
join:2001-11-21
Sarasota, FL
clubs:
| reply to Subaru
Re: WOW!
It requires the same chips on both the dial in and host side, as well as the software backend. ISP's just never saw a need to invest in it, with broadband working it's way into the picture.
--
Intel Quad Core QX6700 @3500Mhz/Asus P5N32-E SLI/4x 1024Mb Corsair/Seagate 750.10/PNY 7800GTs SLI/Silverstone 850W/Custom water cooler |
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DrModem
Premium
join:2006-10-19
USA
 ·EarthLink
 ·1and1
 ·PeoplePC
| reply to dbirdman
Re: Hughes lousy service
I was faced with that, and I choose... the 28k dialup. Now, despite the slowness, I can actually USE my connection to play games and other stuff you couldn't even think of doing on satellite. (despite the bad speed, my line doesn't have any defects and gets excellent pings and such for 28k) |
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fcisler
Premium
join:2004-06-14
Riverhead, NY
1 edit | reply to caribconsult
Re: WOW!
Oh I get cablevision....30/5 "said speed", I don't need it....
But at $80 a month for satellite.....it's ridiculous. I would go for sprint's service if I really needed a last resort....a guy at work has it, and it works pretty much everywhere...decent enough to watch a good quality slingbox stream. |
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LordFlux
join:2005-04-20
Warner Robins, GA
 ·Cox HSI
·Alltel Axess
| Lucky you...
I signed up with a local ISP who was reselling satellite service (not sure if it was HughesNet, but I'm thinking it was WildBlue). I used it for a month without issue... worked great and I was getting consistent 1mbit download speeds. The next month rolled around and I was getting 30k-40k transfer speeds. I contacted my ISP and they transferred me to the satellite service. They told me that my monthly cap was 250MB and I had exceeded it by 2GB. I would be locked at 56k download speeds until they felt that I could properly follow the Fair Access Policy.
When signing up for the service, I was not notified of any Fair Access Policy. In fact, being one of the first subscribers for the local ISP, they told me to download as much as I could to test the satellite service and to report back with them on how well it was performing -- which I did.
Needless to say, I called back to the local ISP, told them what the satellite provider told me, and cancelled the service. They didn't charge me for my first month.
I'm now with Alltel Axcess (using a Kyocera KPC680 and CradlePoint CRT350). I purchased the card from a 3rd party, so I'm under no contract. It's $60 a month and getting consistent 1.2Mb down / 112Kb up (EVDO). |
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drjim
Premium,MVM
join:2000-06-13
Long Beach, CA
clubs:
| It's always been crummy!
When I worked for DirecTV, we had them install a system to use for a backup while we were broadcasting the FIFA soccer games.
It was absolutely TERRIBLE!
Mind you, we had the top tier, with the best support you could get, seeing as they wanted to help one of their affiliated companies the best they could.
We had the best equipment, the dish was expertly aimed, signal levels were beautiful, and it still sucked.
We had them pull it out after a couple of weeks as it constantly would do weird things.
We could live with the propagation delay, but the service just flat sucked, with random disconnects, wildly varying speeds, and dropped packets.
--
One man's Magic is another man's Engineering. |
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chrisbmoore
join:2003-08-28
Frederick, MD
| Hughes as a company has been in an uncertain state for many, many years. About 6 years ago, I worked for them and they have changed hands and ownership about 6 times since then. They need to concentrate less on selling the company over and over and concentrate more on improving their existing infrastructure. As an employee I had a chance to sign up for the satellite service at a reduced cost......boy am I glad I didn't. I've heard nothing but bad news from everyone. I also will add I sure am glad I no longer work for them, because with reviews like this, they will surely go out of business very soon. |
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antdude
A Ninja Ant
Premium,VIP
join:2001-03-25
| reply to fcisler
Re: WOW!
said by fcisler :If I were out of distance of DSL (I am) and Cable (Cablevision), I would get a Dial-Up account or two. That much $$ for that performance? Forget it... Or move if possible. 
--
Ant @ »antfarm.ma.cx and »aqfl.net. Please do not IM/e-mail me for technical support. Use the forum! Disclaimer: The views expressed in this posting are mine, and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer |
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caribconsult
Premium
join:2003-03-19
Mayaguez, PR
·HughesNet Satellit..
·Millenicom
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
| reply to dbirdman
Re: Hughes lousy service
DBIRD: you said "Incidentally, I'm one of the many not experiencing the severe slowdowns..." and I think that explains, in a nutshell, your somewhat lenient attitude, or so it appears, towards HN. If you had to go through what many others have gone through with their tech support, perhaps you'd be more critical.
Just my thoughts...not a flame.
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Franklin CDU/Assent MBR WBB combo, service through Millenicom, 3 XPPro stations, Mozilla everywhere. |
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