Forum Discussion

bc5989's avatar
bc5989
Freshman
6 years ago

Worst billing method and service I've ever had

I knew my bill was due on the 20th, so 3 days earlier I logged in to pay my bill, it said I had $0 balance. This morning I received a email that my bill was generated and to sign in to view or pay. New bill was there, so I clicked on pay now, entered everything including amount to pay, received an error that I couldn't pay more than what was due. The amount was the same as the bill. Checked with bank and payment was already made. So as soon as the bill is generated Hughes net grabs their money, there is no review time. Normally a bill is generated and you have about 7 to 10 days to pay it. After that I didn't want auto- pay, called support to opt out. Apparently Hughesnet has never heard of paperless billing. The option to opt out meant I would have to incur a $5.00 additional monthly fee for a invoice that I didn't want. My best option to be sure funds were there was to change billing date. Took awhile while he talked to another department as he relayed questions as to why I wanted to do this, but finally got that done. I really don't like anyone except for my bank to have my credit card or checking account on file. It's the bad guys I don't trust! The web page under support states, "

To disable your automatic payment you can contact Customer Care at 866-347-3292, start a chat or email. Business customers call 800-347-3272 for assistance.  Printed invoices are provided at the customer’s request and require an additional monthly fee of $5."

I was not requesting and invoice, I just wanted to opt out of auto pay. Surely the bills can be generated at least a week before the due date giving the customer the option to view or pay before its due or use another method of payment. I've been paying bills online for over 15 years and have never seen this method of "bill,grab, and run." Plus they deducted $1.00 from my accouunt when I changed cards 3 days prior, probably charged $1.00 to the previous card, Nice scam to collect a few extra dollars. I was furious and tried to use their contact us page to email my frustration. Another waste of time since it must have a 300 character limit but doesn't tell you that, it just stops accepting characters. So called support again to speak with a manager who offered me 3 free months of invoices,that doesn't resolve the issue, with 21 months to go thats an extra $105 dollars in their pocket, another nice scam. Told her the support statement was misleading,the contact us email was basically useless with its limit of characters.

If your reading this as a review  of Hughesnet as a potential provider, I say Run and find a different provider. Service is the slowest I have ever had!!

  • Hi bc5989,

     

    Thank you for reaching out to us here. We are the office which receives the letters you mention, as our direct manager is Ellen, the same one you addressed above. I checked around the inbox and inquired with my coworkers, but we do not have a letter from you yet which means our corporate representatives have not had a chance to discuss this with you.

     

    All in all, the information you've already been provided is correct. We do not offer paperless billing without some kind of payment method on file and unfortunately there is not any kind of indefinite discount we can apply to cover the $5 if you want the paper bill but don't want to pay for it. We do have a new preference center area which you can use to adjust your notification settings, which if you have not seen, I suggest giving it a look to see if anything there would be helpful for you. Here is a short announcement on it: https://community.hughesnet.com/t5/About-the-Community/New-Notification-Options/m-p/110924/highlight/true#M1271

     

    Thanks,

    Amanda

  • GabeU's avatar
    GabeU
    Distinguished Professor IV

    bc5989 

     

    The $1 is for an account check that's performed just prior to the payment transaction.  The $1 is on temporary hold by your financial institution, and that hold will drop off after a few days.  This will occur every time a payment is automatically charged or a manual payment is made.   

     

    If you're having a speed issue with your service and you would like it addressed, please start a new topic in Tech Support.  

    • bc5989's avatar
      bc5989
      Freshman

      I had expected a reply fromyou seeing that you seem to be a spokesperson for hughesnet. Forget the $1.00 charge, hopefully it will go away. I was expecting one of your cute replys, like I should sell my house and move where there is terestrial cabling, or you should of done more research. I should have checked into Viasat the only other nationwide provider that has faster speed and billing that from what I have been told is more in line with standard billing practices. As for speed, please use the speed test under support, write the numbers down,then go to measurement labs and try their speed test and compare numbers. I have the impression Hughesnet is fudging the latency out of the test. Measurement labs responder was actually a 150 miles closer and there dowload mbps is actually more inline with what I'm experiencing. I lived in Oman for 4 years 8 years ago and had satellite service there with zip for issues, billing, speed, service. I can see your reply now, "Well maybe you should sell your house and move back." If the job was still there i would consider it. Being an ex-pat pays a heck of a lot more than retirement. I have written my letters to  Ellen Martz Senior Director Customer Service, and CEO  Pradman Kaul. I will probebly cancel my service, and eat the $400 ETF which is better than paying $1320 on life of contract. But thanks for worrying about my $1.00.

      • maratsade's avatar
        maratsade
        Distinguished Professor IV

        "I should have checked into Viasat the only other nationwide provider that has faster speed"

         

        Faster speed! LOL