HughesNet
This company has a business model based on an inferior product, marketed with lies to a captive audience. I contacted Hughes Net for their most basic service plan on December 9. I chose to purchase the equipment because it was cheaper in the long run, basically pays for itself in a year. Due to rain, the equipment was not installed until 12/16 about 12 P.M. Though I was told by the sales person that the technician would make sure I was “connected”, but he just said the modem was working and left. The modem had the same IP address as the gateway computer on my network, 192.168.0.1, so it took about an hour to finally get on line. This was Friday afternoon.
For the rest of Friday and almost all day Saturday we kept getting disconnected. I tried different things, like our existing wireless modem, then a new wireless modem, back to a network switch. Nothing worked. It would kick you off line every five minutes, and sometimes you could not get back on for 15 or 20. Of course, their usage information does not reflect this. Web pages would load like the old DOS system, just text and no images. You could have one of their web pages open and click a link and it would not load, then went you went back to the original page it would disconnect or freeze. Great fun. On the Saturday morning we went down to the office supply store to get the new wireless modem, we were gone for two hours, and their usage info states we were online for 66 minutes during that time and downloaded 21.64 megabytes of files. There were no updates downloaded on any of our computers during that time. On Friday evening I downloaded two program files to install on my wife’s new computer, and we exceeded our download allowance. Of course, we got kicked off, and two files had to be downloaded again, so we used/downloaded 223 megabytes. Their usage info says we downloaded more than 636 megabytes during that time. This exceeded our Fair Access Policy, but since we quit computering about the same time, did not notice any more slowness than normal. That’s another thing, the service is slower than an air card, or cellular broadband, and their speeds were much slower than advertised. I started researching complaints about HughesNet about 4 P.M. Saturday, and I pulled the plug on the modem at 5:30 P.M. I had decided to cut bait and get rid of it. Their usage plan still shows 00.01 megabytes being downloaded every hour with no modem hooked to the antenna/radio. I called to cancel service, and they informed me I had to send a fax in writing to cancel, and someone would call within 2-3 business days. No one called. I then followed up with an e-mail (you can’t e-mail them directly, only through their web site, which limits the amount of information you can document). They responded by e-mail that they had received the fax and someone would be calling me within 2-3 business days. Tried Chat, Chat person could not even officially close the account. Bottom line is if you purchase, you have to pay for the box, shipping, and you may or may not get your $200 back. Leasers get a better deal, they get a box, customized packing material and a paid shipping label. Even if you cancel within a day and a half, you have to pay for the installation and a full month of what they call service. I have heard they just keep billing and billing and billing. We shall see.
This is a predatory company that should be in prison instead of the free market.
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