My nightmare relationship with HughesNet began at the beginning of November. I encountered a number of issues with my phone number being transferred but that was resolved after numerous calls, at which time I turned my attention to the other problem - speed. My tests showed that I was getting upload speeds anywhere from 400kbps to 700 - on the days when my connection was working well enough to run the test at all. I upgraded my plan to a package with a faster speed, hoping to resolve the problem. It actually got worse. The only difference was that now I was paying more.
I've called HughesNet more than a dozen times about this problem. In one call, they transferred me through to their contracted tech service. I granted them remote access to my computer. They checked everything and determined that yes, the speed is unusually slow and it's not my computer nor my router, but instead must be with HughesNet. They sent their report back to Hughes Net who in turn continued to deny there was a problem.
Finally one customer service agent told me the dish wasn't installed properly and she arranged a service appointment. The first appointment was a no show, no call, nothing. I called HughesNet again and they scheduled another. On the day of the second appointment, the service tech called me in the morning, told me it was too far to come out and that he was able to tell from his house that the installation of the dish was fine. The problem was that I needed a more expensive router than the initial salesperson encouraged me to purchase. He said he guaranteed that would fix my problem. I stupidly spent another $75 on a new router. It improved the problem but barely. I was still getting upload speeds in the 600-800 range, and 900 when I was really lucky. But again, this was just during the times I was able to run test at all. Most times the test (the same one used by HughesNet) wouldn't complete at all.
I called HughesNet yet again, more than ready to cancel. They said that they hadn't exhausted all repair options yet but, and here's the "adding insult to injury part", they said that the last service tech reported that he did come to my house and replaced equipment. To be fair, this is not a HughesNet employee, it's a contracted company that does these repair visits. Either he or his superior falsely reported that he had driven to my location and completed this repair. Now HughesNet was believing him. They offered to send me another service technician but since the other one had completed the repair, in their mind, I would have to pay for this visit. It was at this point, I really started to lose it. I was paying for a service that HughesNet couldn't deliver. After being unable to do my work at home due this problem, having it heavily impact both me and the nonprofits I manage, I asked HughesNet to cancel my service. They gave me a choice - pay $580 in cancellation fees or they'll send out one more repair technician. I reluctantly agreed and once again waited the tech to show up.
The tech who was to come that day was the previous "it's too far to drive" guy. He called me first thing in the morning, told me that he was on his way. From his location, he said it would take 2.5 hours (it's an hour and 45 minute drive). Three hours later, my appointment window closed and he still had not arrived. An hour later another technician called to tell me the first wasn't coming and would not tell me why. I was livid. It was the first technician's lies that were resulting in me having to pay for that day's appointment, and now he had done it again - lied to say he was on his way that morning when he clearly was not. This second technician said he was on his way and would be to me in about an hour. I asked if they were going to pay for this since I'd been lied to again. He insisted that no, I have to pay for it. I told him that if he was unable to fix the problem, I needed documented proof of this so I could finally cancel this HughesNet contract.
While waiting for the service technician, I contacted HughesNet and finally reached somebody who wasn't too busy to read from the script and actually was interested in trying to help. He credited me for what I was going to have pay the service technician who was about to arrive. An hour passed and he hadn't arrived. I finally received a text saying that he wasn't coming. I called the satellite repair company that is contracted to do the work. The representative said that the service tech was not coming at all because I refused to pay (not true, otherwise why would I have gotten the charge reimbursed) and was going to cancel my service anyway. Then she read from my account notes that, she claimed, were HughesNet notes -- and suddenly it all became clear. The note on account said:
"It's working fine. Customer just isn't happy with the speed."
I asked her if 400 - 600 kbps is acceptable for the advanced plan I'm on. Her answer was this, even more telling:
"the package says you'll have upload speeds UP TO 2mbps, so yes".
I reminded her that zero also fits in the "up to 2mbps" speed and is that okay? Her answer was that I've already had it serviced twice, which of course is not true. Although they have clearly charged HughesNet for the service calls, they were never performed. She did not believe me. I asked her to ask the service reps to describe my house and me and see if they can do it. She didn't seem interested in investigating and was essentially accusing me of lying. Getting nowhere, I hung up.
As I've explained very clearly to HughesNet, I want out of my contract due to their inability to provide the service that I'm paying for. The financial toll for signing up for this service isn't even about the HughesNet bill, it has prevented me from being able to work as the majority of my work is done online. This is a relationship that isn't working and I have about a dozen "case codes", speed tests and reports to prove it. Keeping me here has taken me from a quietly unhappy customer who would've gone away quietly into an exceptionally angry and extremely loud customer. I've never yelled at a customer service rep before but in dealing with this increasing frustrating situation, being lied to repeatedly, and encountering such unethical business practices, I've yelled a lot. And I'm just getting started.
I'm now waiting, again, for a customer service rep to call me back from Hughes Net. While I've been waiting, and until this is resolved, I'm HughesNet public relations worst nightmare. I'm tweeting, I'm posting, I'm writing letters, I'm letting the world know that the quality of the product you sell is the worst I have ever encountered, the sales pitch is nothing short of fraudulent, the business practices are unethical at best. I'm also writing my Notice of Dispute as the first step to taking legal action.
If you went to a car dealer and signed up to lease a vehicle and then they were unable to provide you with that car but instead handed you a broken wheelbarrow, they certainly shouldn't be able to get away with it. It's wrong there, and it's wrong here. It's time consumers started to standing up to it. I'm not sitting down any time soon.
How would you like to proceed, HughesNet?