A fap? What the heck is that?
It only took 3 years to figure out that hughesnet had one in place. Before that, I thought all the reasons that it was sooo slow, was because their internet service was not the fastest around
First, let me start from the beginning
Dec Moved from a city to rural northeast PA (going to manage a property conversion project to a retreat center), where for internet services I had two choices: Dialup or Satellite. The locals, when I was researching companies (there was only one, mind you& the other one only offered download, and you still had to use another service to upload files). Had dialup for 6 months, and when getting closer to opening season, I entertained the notion of getting something faster (19.6K speed for dialup)
May Direcway installation company came up and installed dish (DW6000), and pole (it was either the pole ($150) or install it on a pitch roof or the side of it, both unsightly options dish would probably get fried at the first severe weather storm). This is about the only thing that has been installed right and has worked from the onset. Though, the DW7000 came out soon after this one was installed. No, we didnt want to upgrade to that for another 600. What are we made of? Money?
Also, if you want to be able to upgrade to the or premium plan, get ready to replace the DW6000, because that setup cannot mix with those plans for some reason.
Purchase plan of the dish was spread over 15 months, and the cost of the dish was added to the price of service for the month (59.99). So, each month, I was getting charged $109.99 per month. Much more than any other service out there would charge. I could get BOTH cable internet and tv for less than HALF that.
Never did get my $100 rebate. Wonders never cease. Asked about it, too bad was the response.
July. After many months with the service, I finally find out about the FAP. This was after third call to customer service in 5 days, because I seemed to have a degradation every other day, and no one in tech support (for the previous calls) could tell me what I needed to know, what the real reason was
I can attribute it to my friend, who also didnt know the policy, decided to have a youtube fest and this happened multiple times. This was after time #2.
During the 3rd call, the tech support guy in India told me I was full, and needed to empty out. Upon further explanation, had told me that my bandwidth had exceeded the limits imposed by Hughesnet. Im asking, what limitations He first told me where I could find the info to track my usage via the internet (when it was working right) http://usageweb. Hughesnet.com/shannon/act_usage. Cfm He proceeded to tell me that there were three plans. Basic, and premium.
Basic only allotted 200mg download per 24 hour period. If you exceeded that number, you would be capped at speeds slower than dialup (I can attest its true. You feel like youre on dialup speed when they do exhort their muscle). This was all new to me, as I had never seen such a policy on their website (you had to look real hard for it, after subsequent research), stating such a lame policy, since no other services instilled a bandwidth policy on their services.
If everyone did this, no service like youtube, or any other video/music streaming would exist well maybe, if you paid $300 a month for internet, you might be able to get that, but who really has that type of cash available to waste on the internet?
AUGUST: So, since then, whenever I come up here, I have to put on the bandwidth usage site, and MONITOR the usage, wasting part of my day, so I dont have any more degradation of service. Today, has been a pain, because I have work to do, and I COULDNT DO MY DAMN WORK BECAUSE there is a cap on the service today. Try working when you need three browsers open on your clients site, and see how much damn work you get done. Im spending more time writing this letter complaining about hugesnet than working cause I cant do anything anyway!
CUSTOMER SERVICE/TECH SUPPORT.
Each time I call, Ive gotten India. About 20% of the time, I actually get someone there whos English I can follow, and we usually have a successful end of the call, and Im happy with the service.india is 12 hours ahead of us (EST). The service seems to improve if you happen to call after 8pm (EST). I think Hughesnet picked up just anyone for the night shift out there.
Most larger companies are turning to outsourcing to save money and make their bottom line look better, all for the sake of worse customer service.
Expect to spend at least an hour each time you have to deal with any issues. I look with disdain whenever I have to call them for some reason, cause I have to go through the same verification BS every single time I call.
FASTER
Please. Complete B.S. Ive been at friends houses who have DSL/Cable, and theres no contest. Those two services are MUCH faster. Any claims to the contrary are just baldfaced lies! I never believed them in the first place.
SERVICE:
Try browsing on a cloudy day.
Try browsing during severe weather.
Try browsing when theres a dust of snow on the dish.
CLOSING:
I paid $59.99 per month to be LIMITED/CAPPED/WHATEVER, has got to be the biggest joke going.
ALTERNATIVES: When one doesnt have any other choices outside of DIALUP, theyre screwed, when the other option is huges-ripoff-net. Stay with dialup. Its most likely faster, and cheaper, even with the landline requirement.
WildBlue might be an option I think theyre more limited than the above. Verizon/Cingular/Sprint, spotty in some locations, are offering aircard services for laptops, that are slowly invading the rural space so, maybe, the next time Im in the country, Ill check that service out. I will NOT, nor will I recommend that any of my associates get this service, now, or in the future..
Lets all short HUGH and watch it go down. Maybe, another satellite firm, like CLWR or GSAT will replace them with better services, and better technology, and be able to keep a customer service line that links to people in America, not Inida, China or any other country that isnt the US.
Im planning to contest my credit card bill for this latest round of lacks of service from this shyster company.
0 comments