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Hughesanon
| HughesNet Sucks
Like I said before people! Maybe if all the unhappy customers start contacting Hughes Executive Customer Care and bombarding them with e-mails and calls about their ridiculous FAP and their horrible customer service something will change. I had to contact the BBB to finally get them to contact me and be able to speak to someone who speaks english as a first language. (301)428-5500 OR: executivecustomercare@hughes.net | |
anoname7
join:2007-11-09
| As a longtime dial-up user and 2 year satellite user I can honestly say that Hughesnet blows dial-up out of the water. Even at it's worst during peak hours (5:00pm - 11:00pm EST) it is still 5 times or more faster than dial-up and 40-50 times faster at virtually all other times. Viewing videos (U-tube, metacafe, etc..) may stutter during peak hours (or not, depending on the satellite load) but all other times is fantastic (1000-1300 Kbps). Downloads which were once impossible are now possible and much less painful.
CUSTOMER SERVICE:
I have only used Customer Service 3 times. The first 2 times (Direcway) were soon after installation and mostly due to the installers not setting up the computer correctly. It was NOT a good experience talking to people in India that I could hardly understand. They seemed to get frustrated with ME when I asked them to repeat themselves. After numerous times on hold we were able to resolve all problems. However, the last time I called Customer Service was when my credit card expired and they could no longer bill me ($69.95 pro plan; 375Mb dl bucket). I talked to a very nice lady named "Karen" who lived on the East Coast (USA) and made the chore a very pleasant experience with her idle chat and obvious knowledge of the geographic area I live in.
FAP:
FAP is NOT a problem as a lot of other people have stated. FAP (Fair Access Policy) is a needed control to keep power users from eating all the bandwidth on a satellite. If you just web surf you will not even put a dent in your FAP. If you like to watch videos you can do so for most, if not all of the evening, without hitting the FAP. (depends on how fast you are downloading) but amounts to the same number of videos. Download entire albums in less time than it used to take to get a song. I recommend getting a FAP monitor program to keep track of how much you have downloaded. I use fapmon.exe and it seems to work well for me. The trick is to never hit the FAP and by the next day you will be completely refilled.
WEATHER:
Weather seems to get a bad rap also for satellite. Heavy rain will put it out for a minute or two as long as it continues but rarely for extended periods. Seems to be a little more sensitive than DirecTV but not by a whole lot. Cloudy skies have never been a problem for me.
BOTTOM LINE:
Go with cable, dsl, or wireless if you live in an area that can provide it but if your only choice is dial-up or Hughesnet then it's a nobrainer. | |
fivekitten
join:2007-11-16
Cattaraugus, NY
| reply to Hughesanon
Thanks for the Executive Office information. I haven't even had it a month and have nothing but problems, even after the first day. (i have earthlink satellite with hughes net satellite dish). Only get reception every other day, then it takes 10 minutes to load one page - slower than my dial up..anyhow I contacted earthlink..first they said i was subject to fap, then they said i wasn't...have to call next time it goes out. I printed Hughes FAP report and the days I was out didn't always coincide with my FAP reports. AND i certainly can't figure out any consistency in their 24 hour timing and limits from these reports (I put them all on an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of them) I totally agree wtih all the complaints everyone needs to get together. They say only 5% of people experience FAP problems?????? I find that VERY hard to believe! I WOULD LOVE TO SEE STATISTICS!!! I downloaded a FAP program, hopefully this will help. I'm waiting to see what earthlink has to say first, if not, definitely BBB - like to see reports/actual figures about their 5% FAP...maybe a bunch of people should chip in and pay for a lawyer to get a refund (mental anguish...lol...), false advertising, etc. etc...a mass litigation suit has more power..(not that I'm sue happy..i'm not, and avoid lawyers at all costs (used to work for them)...but "fair" should be "fair.") Right now, I hate hughes net. I'm in the boonies - got satellite hoping i could get some work online - but can't do that if i can't get online!!!!!! Thought about upgrading but reading too many reviews it doesn't make a difference, and since reviews seem pretty accurate, i'm really really skeptical. And how full can this bandwith get if i'm in the boonies? does everyone in the world use the same resources? (actually, I don't know - very clueless about the whole satellite thing...) Just read about a cell phone plug in..looking into that now...I wanted to get my house wireless - but that'll double the FAP!!!!! The idea was my kids could go on the computer for school work (two teenagers in highschool, one takes online courses, homeschooling my 7 year old and she spends a lot of time on school games) and I can do some online research at the same time. So I'm going to get penalized for our "normal" usage????? What is there "normal" usage from? 98 year old blind monkeys??? Ya - just venting here. Hughes Net is horrible. I'll be writing executive once i get some records and craft a nice professional letter. Thanks again. | |
fivekitten
join:2007-11-16
Cattaraugus, NY
| reply to anoname7
Even at it's worst during peak hours (5:00pm - 11:00pm EST) it is still 5 times or more faster than dial-up and 40-50 times faster at virtually all other times. Viewing videos (U-tube, metacafe, etc..) may stutter during peak hours (or not, depending on the satellite load) but all other times is fantastic (1000-1300 Kbps). Downloads which were once impossible are now possible and much less painful.My experience is different. Can't get on AT ALL during peak times - kids can never get on after school - and during early evening it goes from nothing to 10 minute loading PER PAGE (i am not exaggerating either). Sometimes longer. Videos during peak hours? Ha! that'll never happen!!! | |
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