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Hughesnet voice stopped working after 3 years - no resolution after 2 weeks

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monicosman
New Poster

Hughesnet voice stopped working after 3 years - no resolution after 2 weeks

We've had our Hughesnet voice since 2013 - on Thursday, March 24, 2016 it stopped working. After many attempts to resolve the problem by calling in to customer service and working with the technical people and engineers (last case# 53303896), they have not been able to figure out what the problem might be or solve it.  We have to use a backup GlobalStar satellite phone [edited to protect your privacy] to call in because we don't get cell phone service in the rural area where we live.  GlobalStar disconnects frequently.  Each time we call Hughesnet voice, we have to go through a long tree (press this, etc.) before reaching a person - who puts you on hold and reads off some card to tell you to disconnect this and reconnect that.  The person is not the same each time, so we had to start from scratch each time.  They will not connect you the same person.  We have several call case numbers (most recent shown above) - after about a week, they finally decided to send a new box.  When that didn't work, they said they would get back to us within 48 hours - when they didn't, we tried calling them again this morning - 1st thing was scary - that the phone number we had for several years had been cancelled - then said they were sorry but didn't mean that and indicated it was still active - they are still working on it and will get back to us in 4 days.  Is there any way we can connect with the same person who is familiar with our problem and help us without having to go through having to call customer service?  Thanks
37 REPLIES 37
monicosman
New Poster

Thanks - beginning to wonder if they will not be able to fix this - did they send us a refurbished ATA box?
Liz
Moderator
Moderator

Our options are to send a tech and/or replace the ATA, but our VOIP engineers first want to get to the bottom of why, as you pointed out, SIP is showing as disabled, among other things.

-Liz
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monicosman
New Poster

Not sure what "SIP" means.  Is it something the engineers can work on offsite, or is the ability for the ATA to be 'enabled' something that has to be programmed into the ATA before you send it out?
Robin S
New Member

Would someone please edit out the sat phone number in the first post?
monicosman
New Poster

I'm new to posting - please let me know how to do that - thanks - the phone doesn't work 90% of the time anyway, but it would be good not to have it out there
Robin S
New Member

I don't think you can once your post is acknowledged, it's going to take one of the HN reps to do it and they're gone until Monday. Unless one of them is monitoring the forum over the weekend.
monicosman
New Poster

Thanks Robin - have a great weekend
Liz
Moderator
Moderator

Good morning monicosman,

Just letting you know that our VOIP engineers are still working your case. Please rest assured that you will not pay for any HughesNet Voice fees until we get this resolved for you.

Your patience and understanding are greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Liz
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Liz
Moderator
Moderator

Good news! A VOIP engineer just informed me that you should have a dial tone now. Please confirm that you have dial tone and the voice service is working to your satisfaction.

Thanks,
Liz
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monicosman
New Poster

Hurray!  - Yes just tried it and it is working!  Thanks so much.  Could you let us know what the problem was so we know if this ever happens again!
Liz
Moderator
Moderator

Yes! Glad to hear it. This was a rare case where there was something incorrect on the phone provider's side; something that couldn't have been fixed or prevented by you. Once the issue was found and corrected, the dial tone returned. This was a learning experience for all and will be something else to consider by our engineers for any other dial tone case where the usual suspects aren't the cause, thank you for sticking with us while we worked this out.

As you know now, if you have any other concerns with your HughesNet Voice service, please come back to the community and I'll take care of you.

Thanks,
Liz
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monicosman
New Poster

Yes - there is one more thing that you could help us with.  We are on a monthly plan because when we first started in 2013, we weren't sure that Hughesnet Voice would work - we tried other VOIP that didn't work in the past.  Until we saw that Hughesnet VOIP actually worked we didn't want to commit to a yearly plan.  We have been trying unsuccessfully to switch to a yearly plan instead of a monthly plan since 2013, and each time we call into Hughesnet regarding this issue they say that they can't do it, they give us $10 off a month for a period of time, and they suggest we call back at the end of that period of time to ask again with the hope that the problem switching our billing will change - which we do.  Is there anyway we can switch to a yearly plan without having to return the ATA box?
Liz
Moderator
Moderator

Let me dig further into this for you. As far as I know, you can't switch from being a commitment plan to a non-commitment plan without an ATA replacement. I will let you know once I find out if the converse is the same.

-Liz
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monicosman
New Poster

Thanks Liz, Appreciate your looking into this. This billing process seems archaic and not very efficient.  Why would the ATA box have anything to do with whether a customer would like to switch from a monthly plan to a yearly plan or vice versa? Are the boxes completely different? Now that we have our phone working again, we would hate to have to send it back for another replacement.  An easy solution would be to keep the same box, but just change the billing that is sent to the customer on the plan they want.
Liz
Moderator
Moderator

Hello!

Please check your e-mail for an update! You'll find your concerns addressed in there.

Thanks,
Liz
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monicosman
New Poster

Thanks Liz - we really appreciate the great job you do
Liz
Moderator
Moderator

You're very welcome. Thank you for the kind words, they mean a lot to me. 🙂 Feel free to stop by the community again if you need any help!

-Liz
If you have a tech or billing question and need help, please start a new thread in the appropriate board. Unsolicited Private Messages may not get replies.

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