Forum Discussion

Bkward05's avatar
Bkward05
Freshman
5 years ago

Buffering

I got this ridiculous service installed yesterday. Within an hour of the tech leaving, I attempted to stream a movie with Disney plus which is the EXACT reason I gave the salesman for having internet at home. It buffers literally every 45 seconds to 2 minutes. I spent at least 1.5 hours on the phone trying to troubleshoot the service only to be told it has to be upgraded to a higher tech support which could take up to 3 days for them to get back to me. So I asked to cancel only to be told I'll owe a $400 cancellation fee. How can this be legal? I order a service, pay for it, it's not provided, cant be fixed for at minimum days and I cant cancel? There should be at the very least a 24 hour window. Extremely disappointing.
Early Termination Fee
  • maratsade's avatar
    maratsade
    Distinguished Professor IV
    5 years ago

    You  may want to request a sales call review.  The HughesNet staff on this sitereview the sales call to see what the salesman told you and to verify whether poper expectations were set.  If they find you were misled, you may have recourse.  The process usually takes up to 7 business day. 

    • Bkward05's avatar
      Bkward05
      Freshman
      5 years ago
      Thank you. I did speak to someone yesterday and they were able to waive this fee for me. They kept my initial $92 to set up which is irritating in itself since I 1000% believe that salesman should have told me that what I was telling him I needed it for would not work for me. Lesson learned. I didnt see this reply before I spoke to them or I would have requested that. It is what it is.
  • GabeU's avatar
    GabeU
    Distinguished Professor IV
    5 years ago
    Bkward05 wrote:
    So I asked to cancel only to be told I'll owe a $400 cancellation fee. How can this be legal? I order a service, pay for it, it's not provided, cant be fixed for at minimum days and I cant cancel?  

    Many companies that have commitments will not waive their early termination fee when cancelling without first requiring adequate troubleshooting. 

     

    With that said, the ability to stream without issue can't be guaranteed.  This is especially the case in the evenings, when congestion is at its highest due to a large number of people trying to do the same, which stresses the system.  

     

    One other thing to keep in mind that streaming is a very data intensive activity, and Disney + will use a large amount of data to do so. Depending on the settings, it can use well over 2GB per hour.  

     

    As maratsade explained, though, the reps should be able to have your sales call reviewed to determine whether appropriate expectations were set.  

    • Bkward05's avatar
      Bkward05
      Freshman
      5 years ago
      Thank you for your reply. I spent 4 hours trying to troubleshoot this equipment. It started right around 530. Not until about 10 pm did they even offer to send me to the Home Tech Support. Even that lady told me that was crazy. If they couldnt fix it after an hour, I should have been sent on.

      As far as streaming goes, maybe I should have known it eats up the data but unfortunately I'm not a tech person. I did however explain this to the salesman. I explained exactly what I used the internet for and what I needed. I get that they want commission but he definitely should have set those expectations and told me this would not work. I even told him the hours (5-8 pm) were the hours we use it.
      As I said above they did end up waiving the $400 fee but kept the $91 I paid. I still think that's ridiculous because I only had the service for a day and it didnt even work for that day. But I'll take it as a lesson learned. Unfortunately this puts a really bad taste in my mouth for Hughesnet and I dont have a good thing to say about them at all. Now I just gotta figure out how to get this stupid thing off my roof so I can avoid the next fee they want to charge.