Repairs to Dish LNB

[Richard3]

Live in eastern North Carolina, had snow last night so Hughes was down this morning. Figured it was snow on dish. Checked the dish for snow/ice found none. Inspected LNB (hope that is the correct term) and found water in the funnel(?) end. LNB has what looks like a clear plastic lens and it was holding water. The lens had a crack in it allowing water to enter. Pressed lens and it was brittle and cracked - water drained out and sat service resumed. Placed a call to Hughes for technical service. Requested replacement of weather damaged equipment. Hughes rep preformed system test and stated system was functional. Rep did not comprehend the configuration of the equipment and implied site visit was not necessary. Explained again same result. This was becoming a very frustrating experience. Finally site visit was scheduled with a charge of $125.00 to be billed to the account. Questioned why end user was being charged for a failure of Hughes equipment. Never received a satisfactory . 

Understand the service company needs to be reimbursed for time and travel but why is it charged to the customer if the failure is on the Hughes Equipment. We do own the modem but didn't think that extend to the dish. Attempted to find information about service charges on Hughes site - waste of time.

Very disappointed with this development. If someone has an explanation of service charges it would be appreciated.

Update- Seems a Service Tech was installing a system a few miles away. He asked if he could service the system today instead of on the scheduled date. Showed up replaced LNB - task completed in 30 minutes- Kudos to the Tech.

Now to understand the $125.00 charge for a failed Hughes piece of equipment. 

[GabeU]

@Richard3 

The $125 service charge is standard, and yes, it's to cover the time and travel of the technician.  The equipment warranty is for 24 months after installation, but the cost of the tech visit is covered only during the first six months of that warranty period.  However, whether weather damage is covered under that warranty I don't know, so warranty coverage may not apply.  That caveat may be irrelevant for your particular situation, as I don't know how long you've had your equipment, but I mention it for others who may read this thread. 

The warranty period is discussed in the HughesNet Subscriber Agreement, which you can read here. 

[Richard3 · Accepted solution]

Gabe

Thanks for the link. Item 12 provided the explaination. Looked every place except at the policy. Our equipment was installed in 2008 and upgraded one time which was several years ago. We are long past any warrenty. Equipment has been through several hurricanes, just have to be more dilligent checking the LNB after storms.  Furstrating that the Hughes tech didn't reference the policy item 12, would have kept my blood pressure down! 

[GabeU]

@Richard3 

You're very welcome.  I was actually going to copy/paste section 12, but after realizing how large it was, and also realizing you may want to read the other parts of the agreement, I figured it would be better to post the link.  I should have specified to look at section 12, though.  

And, actually, with your equipment/service type possibly being older than I assumed, that particular subscriber agreement may not be the right one, though section 12 is pretty much the same in all of them.  If it is older, and in case other info might be different, you can choose the applicable subscriber agreement here. If the one that would apply is older than those listed, a rep may need to give you a link to the proper one if you'd like to see it.