Forum Discussion
New Customers Beware. Relaxed Bandwidth Marketing Tactics and Losing your High Speed Data
My sales rep was beyond friendly. My installer was one of the most professional people I'd ever met in his line of work. Even the customer service reps are nice. Sadly, so far, it appears to be li...
Good morning Moodeeb,
Our engineers have resolved the issue so your data should now be resetting as it's supposed to be during your first 20 days. I do apologize for the inconvenience, it certainly is not normal for your data to not reset as a new customer. Thank you again for reaching out to us so we can take care of this for you.
If you have additional concerns, please don't hesitate to return to the community.
Liz,
I would love to believe that this was horrible timing, and that I just happened to join Hughesnet while a serious issue existed, and the engineers have fixed the issue.
Was I the only one affected? Why did no one know what was going on? And why did it seem like the only solution was to raise heck her on a community message board to get the problem fixed?
I really hope the engineers have fixed the issue. And for anyone that stumbles on this message board, I will say that my data HAS reset. Which is good, and I'm happy it seems to be fixed. For a new customer, who is getting nowhere with customer service, who looks deeper and finds that there is a pleathera of poor reviews and people complaining about the same problem (customer service's inability to fix anything) spanning years... It's really not exactly a comforting thing.
I'm going to come back every couple days, and update this thread. If things continue to go well, I want people to know it goes well, because trust me, there is not very many good things said about hughesnet out on the internet, and if they really have turned over a new leaf, and my situation was a very bad set of circumstances, I want people to know.
I'm tired of people getting the bad end of companies over-promising and under delivering, and if my experiences have to be a warning to others, so be it. However I would much rather my experience be one that is positive so others can see that instead. That's in my best interest afterall.
To be honest, the only positive thing I've read about hughesnet, was "Liz was helpful."
Let's see what happens.
Thank you,
Heath
Hi Heath,
Thanks for your reply. As C0RR0SIVE also mentioned, this is the first we've ever seen anyone NOT have their data reset and you are the only customer we know of who had this experience, so thank you again for bringing it up. The community team works closely with the corporate engineers so with one off cases like this, we are able to put it right in front of engineering for their assistance.
I'm glad our engineers did pinpoint the cause of your data not resetting and fixed it. Do keep us updated if your data does not reset, but I don't expect that to be an issue any longer.
Maybe I was the first, and Maybe if it wasn't such a headache to get decent customer service, it wouldn't have had to escallate. Every phone rep, was zero help. Not until I came to this community to raise heck, did I get any assistance.
I have nothing good to say about hughesnet customer service. As everywhere on the internets can attest to, it's horrible, except you Liz. Apparnetly you are the only person who can get anything addressed.
All that aside, and to be fair - once my relaxed bandwidth was addressed, it worked for the rest of the time period and did not break again. I am so glad, because I was ~ this-close~ to just having the dish pulled off my roof.
Now for what I hope anyone reading this thread will get to, the Hughesnet Gen 5 hardware is remarkable. For satallite internet, Gen 5 has by far exceeded my expectations. Now, I live in the country. I have never had fiber optics, and it's been nearly 10 years since I've had cable internet. Still, Gen 5 is really quick. On average I pull 17 mbps, but I have indeed seen it reach the advertised 25mbps, and unless my eyes were fooling me, I even spiked close to 40 once or twice. (obviously don't expect that.)
Most of the terrible reviews you read are about Gen 3 or Gen4 hardware. Gen 5 is a different animal. I burnt past my allocated data to see how it handles when you go into "unlimited mode" and speeds are throttled, and me personally, living with a pretty clear shot of the sky, I can still stream videos after my high speed gets throttled. So as long as nothing breaks, I feel pretty good settling into a 2 year contract.Yes, I still worry about what will happen next time I need customer service, but honestly the hardware might just be worth the headache. If you are stuck in the middle of nowhere, and want to pay a little more for very respectable internet, Gen 5 Hughesnet is very quick.
PS, they warn you about this up front, but because it's pulling data from space and not the ground, this can't be used for FPS gaming. If you care about that, you know what it means. For turn based? Sure, it's fine. Also, remoting into work is pretty choppy as well, but that was expected. Where this tech really shines is streaming, or updating your software and such.
Ok, well, I hope I don't have to post to this community again for a long time, but I wanted to be fair as I promised.
Good day everyone.
Good morning Heath,
Thank you for taking the time to come back and let us know what happened and sharing your honest experience with the Gen 5 service. This is a very helpful post that may help others. Hopefully you won't need to post back in the community for help, but if you do have any concerns, we're here for you.
Have a good weekend!
Maybe this should be a new thread. IDK.
Well, my worst fears have come true. My billing is wrong and customer service is about to drive me off a cliff again.
LIz, or anyone, the levels of stress this company is causing me are not healthy. Here's the problem, as well as the solution:
1. I was told I could buy my hardware for $350.
2. I have been on the phone, more than once, and customer service even took my credit card number. They told me it would be $450, but then I'd get a $100 credit. ($350 for the hardware total)
3. I am being charged for leasing the equipment on my invoice, so someone messed up again.
I want the hardware charged for $350 like I was told, and I want the leasing charges gone.
What do I have to do to make this happen?
PLEASE HELP. Thank you.
Heath
Guess what. Another month, another exciting chapter of Hughesnet pergatory.
My invoice this month is $485.
Description Total Accounts Charged Amount Taxes Property Tax Surcharge 1 -$0.68 HughesNet Plan Detail Equipment Purchase 1 $199.99 Next Plan Up Promo 1 -$30.00 Standard Installation 1 $199.99 50GB Service Plan 1 $129.99 Equipment Lease-Prorated 1 -$13.54 Total Accounts Charged 1 $485.75 Now, when I signed up, I signed up for $99 a month, plus a one time charge of $350 for hardware.
That's $450 plus tax one time, and $99 plus tax every month for the first year.
So first, why am I suddenly being charged for installation? The chat person said that's part of buying the equipment. Funny, because that was NEVER mentioned to me once. And you can check the phone calls during my sale, because I asked over and over if there was a catch.Second, I was told $350 for a hardware conversion. Obviously whoever told me that was "packing" in the price of installation, even so, again, why am I being charged $400 and not $350?
I swear to god, I have so many grievances with this company, if someone doesn't explain what is going on, and helps me sort this out, I'm going to tell everyone who will listen, social media, news, and if I have to get a lawyer for the fact I have to go through unnecessary stress every single month just to have internet? How messed up is this company's customer service?
I would like to say it's also dishonest and unethical, but deep down, I think it's being run by 4 people, with an outsourced call center, and no one knows whats going on. That's just my theory, and that would be a best case scenario.
I'm going to take a deep breath and hope the one person that seems to have any power to sort things out reads this and walks me off the ledge. Because I'm sick and tired of posting to this message board.
- Update to my 8/10 comment regarding hardware billing.
Short version: I called on the off chance I'd get lucky, because my chat went so poorly, and got a rep named Jorge on the phone.
Its almost too good to be true, but he looked over my account, and understood what had been happening. He fixed my billing by giving me a credit I had been promised months ago. This resolved the hardware charge issue for me.
He also confirmed that starting next month, I would no longer be charged the leasing fee, because I opted to purchase the hardware up front.
Someone write Jorge's name down in the HughesNet Hall of Fame next to Liz, because he's one of the "good" ones. it's not that he gave me what I wanted , it's that he looked at my account and understood what was happening. you can't possibly know how great that feels until you've talked with a half dozen of HughesNet other Representatives who spin you in circles and leave you feeling helpless.
Now listen... because this is IMPORTANT: if you choose to buy the HughesNet hardware instead of leasing it, YOU VOID YOUR FREE INSTALLATION. That's right, you have to pay the $200 install fee if you purchase.
I asked more than once if there was a catch to purchasing the equipment, and my salesman said "no."
Now that we can all see the equipment was only $200 to begin with, it can be easily established, that one listen to my sales call will reveal I was definitely suckered.
If you choose to buy your HughesNet equipment,... I don't know what to say. You could ask your salesman how much to buy, but if he likes to you like mine did, ($350? ha!) You're out of luck. But maybe now that you know, it will help.
If my bill is square, like Jorge says, I hope to be done with this drama. And I might make a YouTube video to help HughesNet customers navigate how HughesNet works, but if this company tries to EF me one more time, I'm getting a lawyer, having them retrieve the original sales call, I'm sick of this crap. Seriously. I mean it.
@Hughesnet. Pull your crap together. Your Gen5 hardware is GREAT. I love my HughesNet internet. But your sales and service are still dishonest and horrible. You have hardware to be proud of now, so fix your customer service and sales tactics to match. I could have been one of your biggest fans because I LOVE the Gen5 hardware, but I had to go through 3 months of stress and h311 to get things straight.
Jezuzz, I hope I don't have to post here again. Please just Bill me what you said you would, give me my gen 5 internet so we can stop talking with each other.
