Hughes Net are thrives & liars!!!!

[jmjohnson61]

I suspended my service in October because I was going to be out of town for an extended period taking care of my sick mother. I called Jan 23 to turn it back on. At that time I paid $85, which I was told was a pro rate from Jan 23-Feb 16 plus the $25 reconnect fee. I was shocked when I called on Feb 16 to pay my Feb-March bill and was told it was $211!!! I spent over 45 min on the phone with some Yahoo from Customer Service who kept telling me a bunch of bs of WHY I owed so much. When I tried to explain what I had been told when I PD the $85 to reconnect in Jan, he said "he was sorry I had been misled." Things deteriorated rapidly from there, especially when he told me my monthly service went from $75/mth to $89.99/mth! I lost it then and told him I would only pay $100 ($75 for my monthly service and another $25 for another reconnect fee). Imagine how ticked off I was when I checked my bank statement and saw the $100 payment I authorized PLUS another transaction for $111.50 that I DID NOT AUTHORIZE!!! I immediately called my bank, who wanted to charge me $50 to stop a payment I DID NOT AUTHORIZE!!! I contacted HN immediately and told them to return the $111.50 or I was charging them with theft!!!! Still waiting!!

[HMichael Hawkin]

Sounds like the experience of many. I'm going to take them to Small Claims Court if they try to charge me for early termination. And I want all the money I paid them over the past six months, because their service is beyond crap! (It's nice to have a son who is a lawyer.) The service is terrible, but their Technical Support is beyond awful.

[Amanda]

Hi jmjohnson,

Welcome to our community and thank you for your post. I am so sorry to hear about all this confusion! I looked at your account and do not see any record of suspension or calls to us in October, but I do see your account was cancelled due to nonpayment (for a few months the payments were being rejected) and reactivated ($25 fee) from cancellation as there is no fee for suspending or unsuspending.

If you can help us out by providing the case number or agent you spoke to regarding suspending your service, that would help us out greatly.

Thank you
Amanda

[HMichael Hawkin]

Good advice. I'll have my lawyer son read it over. If my only option is binding arbitration, I guess that's what I'm stuck with. But I'm yet to find a lawyer who can't find a way around contractual language. I'll let you know what I come up with. Sounds as though you have been through the process. My objective is to get HughsNet to spend as much time and money on me as possible. Even if Small Claims Court isn't viable, I may start there just to make them  show up with a lawyer and introduce the "Binding Arbitration" argument. And as far as spending my money on Small Claims Court, it only cost $10 in my County in Maryland to file a claim and get it on the court calendar.

[GabeU]

And people wonder why I won't sign up for automatic payments.  LOL.  I've been doing them manually for 11+ years and will continue to.  It keeps me safe. 

[C0RR0SIVE]

AFAIK, all they would have to do is respond to the summons and include a contract.  They won't have to send anyone to represent them, because once a judge reads the line about binding arbitration, they will dismiss the case.  The Supreme Courts have already ruled, that binding arbitration is legal, and will stand for DTV customers, which has a very similar contract about legal actions and proceedings as Hughesnet.

By the way, many states require the one that looses a dispute to pay full court costs and reimbursement fees...  I have serious doubts you would want to pay for their (Hughesnets) lawyer the moment the court dismisses your case.

[GabeU]

With regard to the last point, that's actually rarely the case.  Even if Hughesnet were to succeed, they most likely would not be able to collect the legal fees from the "loser."  But, conversely, that would also be the case if HMicheal Hawkins were to win.  No collection of fees there, either.  And with this type of thing, it wouldn't be worth it to the average consumer to go into arbitration.  Companies know this.  That's one of the disadvantages of arbitration to the consumer.  The companies can easily afford the fees, while for the average consumer it's a bit tougher, and again, not normally worth it to even bother, even when they win.

[C0RR0SIVE]

Hmm, here when I was considering taking AAMCO to court, the courts here notified me that if I had lost the case against AAMCO, that I would have to pay court fees, and lawyers fees for both sides of the case, upto $5000 maximum in fees.  That there stopped me from fighting AAMCO (used wrong tranny fluid, didn't feel like paying a lab to test fluids and bleh, would have lost more than gained).

[GabeU]

Ah, but was that a case of arbitration, or was that a standard case of suing?  That might be the difference.  During regular court cases that is the norm, but with arbitration it's not. 

[C0RR0SIVE]

Standard civil case, what I was pointing out, if the user made it to the day IN court (not arbitration), and the Hughesnet lawyers had to show up or act to have the judge dismiss/refer the case, he may be responsible for the fees associated with that one appearance if the court does dismiss/refer it to another level.