HughesNet Satellite → I need your help with Hughes complaints

I have contacted a local Detroit (Michigan) news station and complained about Hughes Sat service. They run a segment that deals with issues affecting the community. I told them "Hughes is a scam" and to my delight they have contacted me asking for more information.

I plan to discuss the following so please correct me if I am mistaken:

FAP - Hughes does not tell you in a timely manner if you are about to be FAPed. You can install 3rd party software to monitor usage but if you don't know about it you are sol. Yes you can check the download status on your account but only the past hour by which time it can be too late.

FAP - policy states "A small percentage of subscribers who exceed this limit will experience a temporary reduction of speed. I have been FAP';d EVERY time I have gone over and I suspect most have. How about 17k for a 'reduction' of speed. which is what I am currently at as I have been FAP'd since yesterday.

KB/S - my plan states "up to 700k". I only get that in the morning before the world wakes up. In the afternoon it is 300-500 and in the evening 150-200. Of late I have been as slow as 59k. I plan to document 3 speed checks a day - morning, afternoon, evening and present these to the newscaster.

Download limits - sure it is a shared system but isn't cable too? 200meg is the plan I can afford but as I found out last night when setting up a new computer and it went to update software - not enough. No downloading of movies from Netflix either. The solution is to get up between 3 and 6am and do "unlimited" downloading then. Not only is that inconvenient but if we all did that the system would slow to a crawl.

I am not suggesting Hughes is doing anything illegal just that when you see their commercial that says "Think high speed internet is out of your reach..bla bla bla.." I want people to know it is NOT the same as cable and there will be many disappointments.

That being said, if any of you have issues you want me to bring up when I chat with the news people can you please e-mail them to me?
I am Renthorin @ earthlink . net without the spaces.

Please keep these to factual occurrences you have experienced, not opinions on Hughes in general.

Wish me(us) luck.

Will

I have regular issues where my internet will go out. Transmit status always says: "Can't communicate with the Network Operations Center. (TxCode 10)". Anytime I call, they go through their "recipe" troubleshooting tips and in the end, they tell me that I need a tech to come out for $125. I always tell them no, and everytime after a few hours to 1-2 days, it starts working again. That sounds like a scam to me, no matter what anyone says.

Be careful not to misquote. I don't think the FAP wording has changed in a long time, and it doesn't read that way, officially on the HNS site. It says:

"Subscribers who exceed that threshold will experience reduced download speeds for approximately 24 hours."

I don't know where you are reading what you typed, but as I said, the official policy, which is linkable from any page about their plans, does not say that, and the implications of the two statements are substantially different from one another.

Be careful you don't end up looking like a fool. The newspeople love to do that to folks as well. Also be very aware to be accurate in what you say. The Hughes folks have a legal department and if you go out of your way to misrepresent the problem you might get a nasty little letter in the mail.

My biggest complaints about Hughesnet.

1:NO SOFTWARE PROVIDED TO MONITOR UPLOAD OR DOWNLOAD AMOUNTS.

2:NO PAPER DOCUMENTATION.NO WARRANTY DOCUMENTATION.

3:THE REBATE IS HIDDEN ON THEIR WEB PAGE SO YOU HAVE TO DIG TO FIND IT.As advertised $300 AFTER rebate ($400 before)...

4:I signed on with the HOME plan,16 hours later I FAPPED out,So I called for an upgrade to the Pro plan.They said sure no problem,3 weeks later still No PRO plan.Finally FAPPED again for no reason other than surfing the web,found out later that my modem had done a reboot,[Software Cutover Reboot].Apparently it was a firmware upgrade.I emailed Immediately (about 4 or 5 Times)and 10 to 12 hours later I am UN-FAPPED.I thought it took like 24 hours?
I also had to complain that they apparently did not want my money as they still had not upgraded me to the PRO plan.So I had to beg them to take my money?Weird.

5:People that answer the Hughes net telephone that have HEAVY NONE ENGLISH ACCENTS.I am a West Virginia Hillbilly
learn to speak Redneck.Get'er Done;)

I only have one suggestion. Please make sure you stand and speak only for yourself. DO NOT at any time use comments like "all subscribers" or "other customers". I want NOTHING to do with your suicide attempt. I am no idiot. I knew what satellite was when I signed on. I read ALL fine print. Everything you have decided to bring to their attention is all stuff that HN has every right to implement and is well documented if you are a smart consumer and know how to read it before you bind yourself to a legal contract. Personally, I have a near flawless system except for the occasional speed crash which usually lasts no longer than a few weeks. Just earlier, I was getting less than 40Kbps on my 1.5 meg ProPlus plan. Didn't bother me a bit. I know it's only temporary. Other times, I get my full 1500/200 even during peak hours. It's a trade off. That's satellite. I know it and I deal with it. I feel lucky that I have access to a service like HughesNet, otherwise, I would still be on 19-21K dial-up.

Anyway, you are more than welcome to your opinions and certainly have the right to broadcast them across your local media platform if you so choose so knock yourself out but please leave the rest of us out of it and good luck with the lawsuit when HN sues your ass for defamation.

Good luck!!

The FAP policy I quoted is off of the Hughes site but I am at work and do not have the exact link.

Not worried about looking like a fool as I am only speaking with the news lady over the phone and she only knows my first name.

Taz, don't worry I won't include anyone else besides myself in what "I have experienced" as that isn't possible. I will point them to this forum so they can read to their own heart's content.

I am in complete agreement with you that Hughes is not doing something illegal and yes I did read the fine print before signing. I am saying that they go on TV and say "think broadband is out of reach because you don't have cable?" and then go on to say how it is wonderful and you will be thrilled. That is false advertising.

the fap policy has never quoted that a percentage of users going over fap will be enforced,it states that if you go over you will be fapped.their fap tos just states that a small percentage of their users go over fap,and that may be true.i haven't been fapped no more than 3 or 4 times in 5 years.I am in no way thrilled about hughes or their fap,but i also read about hughes and their tos before i had it installed,and knew what to expect before hand

I will agree that hughes fap is way to low.I have 3 computers at my home,and you cant even surf myspace for 2 or 3 hours without being fapped on home plan.I read where you are trying to upgrade to pro plus i don't advise that as i just downgraded from pro plus because i didn't ever get the advertised speed until after midnight,and was a waste of money for me,but if you need the increased threshold and are willing to pay 20 more dollars a month for that then go with it,but if you are expecting better speed then you will be even more disappointed

the only thing i would like to see with hughes is more download threshold at lower price as for the latency and slow peak speeds i can deal with that,and was very informed of it before i installed hughes,when i was on dialup i got a 14kbps connection which is awful so to me hughes is very much better than that.so i encourage all hughes users to try to use dialup for a week,and then see how you view hughes i know because i tried to do that 2 years ago so be very careful what you do because you might find yourself without hughes and back on dialup

customercare.myhughesnet.com/fap_faqs.htm

what do people not understand about this quote it means that all people that go over fap WILL be fapped being a small percentage of their total subscribers that go over fap.it doesn't mean that out of all user that go over fap that they just fap a small percentage of them.that would be useless,and is stupid for people to interpret it like that.if you go over fap you WILL be fapped.come on people if you want more bandwidth your only options are upgrade to higher plan,or move to a area that has dsl,or cable,or go back to dialup its unlimited,but say goodbye to home network,and talking on the phone while surfing,and everything else you like to do on the internet

satt internet will never be like dsl,or cable no matter how much you whine to the press,or post in here so live with it or leave it nobody is making you use it.hughes is a great alternative to dsl,and cable that's all it is not equal to them.evdo may be better in steady speed,but the download threshold is worse plus they charge you for going over their even smaller 5 gig cap.im just glad that hughes doesn't charge for going over on fap

OK. Of course this not the actual policy, but it doesn't exactly say what was quoted. It says:

Only a small percentage of subscribers will experience reduced download speeds as a result of exceeding the download threshold.

Hughes could have made it a bit clearer by saying "That" rather than "Only a", but it is fairly clear as is.

Well I have been still having a problem with Hughes I pay for the pro plus plan and I get (less then dial up speeds) this is ridiculous I barely download anything and flow control is always on 24/7 and I have had to have Hughes to come out here 3 times 1.new dish 2.new modem and 3 one of the transmit coax cables shorted out somehow and caused the modem to go crazy and not work.

so go back to dialup then

Another funny "let's get HN" thread!

Instead of a Hughes bit, the "news station" may as well do one on lousy cable service. At least it would have a lot more universal interest to the community!!!

My above reply is just what bothers me.They are all valid complaints,but may not effect everyone.
Service is one thing functionality is the other.

I to have no other choices other than dial up.So I am taking what I can get.

My speeds are not that bad,it is just on the service side that has the most problems.

I can deal with the FAP,I have problems with streaming sites that automagically load big streams that will get you FAPPED if you are not careful.

I read the fine print when I signed on.

I can also see how alot of peoples problems can come from poor installation,or the installer taking a short cut.
(Mine never provided a grounding rod.)

I am Happy to have it,but the service could be better.