Hughesnet Community

The dish was installed aimed directly at an old farmhouse.

cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
carmenshenk
New Member

The dish was installed aimed directly at an old farmhouse.

Friday, May 13th, an Installer came at 1:35pm to install satellite internet. He was a nice guy, however, it was his first day and there were a few issues with his work.

  • We asked that nothing be attached to the house, but he brought a line from the dish to the electrical panel in order to install a ground. He ran a number of screws into the siding. Landlord is livid.

  • I asked him how much power the system took since we live partly off-grid, he said “none” but than he asked me where to plug in the modem which draws quite a bit of power.

  • The satellite dish is directly aimed at the upstairs of the farmhouse.

  • The satellite dish is located near a young tree.

  • The installer went into the farmhouse without permission.

  • He plugged his cordless tool battery and charger in the farmhouse outlet without asking permission. I didn't discover this until he'd left and it was still there. The next day he came back to collect it without calling first.

  • The installation took four hours but was incomplete at the point that he left.

  • He left cable over a high traffic area of the lawn, without burying it. Strangely, he buried the cable to the house (that he wasn't supposed to touch) but he couldn't bury the rest to our place? I don't get it.

  • He repeatedly asked me to sign his cell phone screen. I asked him what I was signing and he gave me a one-word answer that I don't remember. At one point when I asked what I was signing he just said “Because the last one didn't take”. I have no idea what I signed and he didn't seem to know either.

  • Instead of grounding the satellite to the steel pole he installed it on, he ran line to the main house and installed a ground wire to the electrical panel. His grounding clamp didn't penetrate the paint of the box and was therefore pointless. My husband tested the connection with his own meter, and it did not work. My husband corrected the problem in hopes that we'd get good internet. It didn't help.

  • When the installer asked me if I had found the internet signal, I said yes, but that it was horribly slow. I asked him why it was so bad and he shrugged and acted like that was normal.

  • He was polite and friendly, but unfortunately, his work left a lot to be desired.

I called to let the company know that he had left the cordless tool battery and charger plugged in the main house kitchen and that he needed to return to collect them. The gentlemen on the phone said he was not allowed to call the installer and told me I'd need to call someone different. I didn't have quality cell phone service because of the insufficient internet service, so I gave up.

My husband came home very last Friday evening, and observed the incomplete and botched service and was horrified. Saturday morning he called Hughes Net and was told to call Oracle. He called Oracle Monday from our office in town where his cell phone works great (because the internet service is great). Oracle scheduled the second technician for May 23rd, ten days after the first. The appointment was for between 8-11 am, so my husband canceled clients so that he could be present.

HughesNet made a number of attempts to call between the 13th and the 23rd, however, since the Satellite Internet service is insufficient to make it possible to use our cell phones on wifi, we were unable to receive these calls. We were traveling part of the time, so when we tried to return calls on the road, then the phone system asks if we are calling from the location in question, and if you enter “no” then the system hangs up on you.

Monday, May 23rd came and we were both very hopeful that the problems would be solved that day. Oracle had said someone would be there between 8 – 11 am and my husband cleared his schedule for that time frame.

When nobody showed up, my husband called Oracle at 9:45 am and was told that they fitted another client before us for this technician and he was held up because he had to bury line. She said the technician would be with us at 10:30 am. My husband asked if he could address all our issues with in the half hour that remained in the time we were given. She didn't know.

My husband called Oracle at 10:30 am (since he had a client at 11:30 am) and talked to the woman who assured him that the technician had spoken with the client's wife and that the install was scheduled and it was all fine. My husband came looking for me and asked me if I'd gotten a call. Of course I had not gotten a call so I called the Oracle woman and asked if I was speaking to the woman who had just spoken with my husband. She refused to answer the question. I tried a number of times, in order to save myself the breath of going through everything he'd just explained to her, but she continued to refuse to answer that question. Therefore I explained who I was, explained the situation, again, and that we'd been told that someone had made an appointment to come and fix our installation, but that they hadn't come and they hadn't called either of us to reschedule. I explained that he'd been told that arrangements had been made with the wife, that I'm the wife, and no arrangements had been made with me. At that point the Oracle woman told me the appointment was canceled. It was unclear to me whether it had been canceled prior to Monday, or if she'd just canceled it. No reason was given. I asked for the phone number of someone who could help us, she gave me the HughesNet number.

My husband called HughesNet at 11:26 am, and Jennifer told him to call Oracle. He explained the problems we were having with Oracle and asked her to see if she could arrange an appointment with Oracle that they would actually keep. She said she would, and that She'd call us back. She gave him case #54167032.

Nobody called him back.

Tuesday, my husband canceled clients again. He went into town where he'd be assured of good phone service on wifi and called HughesNet again. He called at 10:06 am and spoke with Joshua, who gave him case #54167032. Joshua was nice. Joshua forwarded him to Mr. Damian Gonzales in Texas who spoke with my husband at length and was quite helpful. He also pointed out another detail of the installation that had been done badly. Mr. Gonzales said he would try to have someone here the same day (May 24th) or the following day (May 25th) at the latest. He said it was important to him to make this situation right. He gave case #54184077 and said he would lower the price of our monthly service by $10 a month for the next 12 months, and said that June would be free. My husband thanked him for the gesture but told him that if there wasn't going to be quality service, there wasn't much point. Mr. Gonzales said a upper level manager would call us shortly. We were very pleased that something was actually going to happen to fix the situation.

Nobody called.

Later we got a voice mail message from Jennifer at HughesNet who left a message with case number #54036165. My husband called and spoke to Megan @ 2:20 pm and gave this case number. My husband asked her to look up the case number because he'd already explained this situation so many times.

Megan hung up on him.

In the two months since installation I have repeatedly emailed for customer service to no avail.

7/13/2016 I got a bill. We were apparently given June free because of the badly botched situation.  Unfortunately the situation has not been addressed in any way, but we are billed anyway.

I emailed them and got a message from a DONOTREPLY email that my problem had been solved. They investigated and sent a technician who resolved the problem. Which would be great if it was true. They did not send a technician, and if one showed up, they did nothing. I can see that the dish is still right there where it was, pointed at the farmhouse, the cable was still there strung across the lawn, the service is still so bad I can't use it for making a wifi phone call, or watching a Youtube video, much less NetFlix. “Your case ID for this email contact is 55009213”

I emailed them again and got another message from a DONOTREPLY email that repeated that the problem was solved, and they were sorry I found the resolution unsatisfactory (because there was no resolution). Again they want to call. This time the number is 55014468.

I emailed them again explaining once again that the problem was indeed not solved and they won't be able to call be because the service is not robust enough for my wifi cell phone to make or receive a phone call here.

Then they emailed me again from the DONOTREPLY number and told me a technician would be $125 even though my equipment is under warranty. I can't seem to get through that their technician is the one who pointed the dish at the house resulting in crappy service. And they don't understand that a phone call to my house won't work because their service is crappy and has to go through a farm house to reach me. My repeated requests that someone contact me by email have been ignored. And I have to use up my monthly allowance of GB to repeatedly use a cumbersome web based email system that will only get me another DONOTREPLY email. Again the lady tells me they will call me. 55014468

On social media I was directed to use the Community, so here I am eating up more of my monthly allowance trying to get some kind of answer and I suspect it's all absolutely hopeless at this point. I am at my wit's end. They want to be paid. I want them to fix the mess they made two months ago. They think they sent someone out here to fix it the second time, and I know that is not true. They demand to talk to me on the phone. Their service makes that impossible.

Help.


21 REPLIES 21
Robin Hayes
New Member

and i thought i had problems since upgrading to gen4 over a year ago.  before that the service  was good
C0RR0SIVE
Associate Professor
Chris11
Alum

Hi carmenshenk,

Welcome to the community and thanks for posting. I'm sorry to hear of your experience. Wish this could have been taken care of sooner. However I'm confident we can get this resolved here. FYI, as mentioned. WiFi calling will most likely not work well with satellite internet. Unless you have our own VoIP service. There are too many different types out there for our system to be compatible with. I can see how it can be hard to get things resolved when contact cannot be made unless your off site. That is why I have gone ahead and scheduled a dispatch for this weekend. Your Dispatch is currently scheduled for Saturday, Jul 16, 2016 between 08:00 AM-11:00 AM. The tech should show up even without a confirmation. However if this time is not good for you. You can give us a call anytime before then to reschedule.

I've instructed the tech to look into all concerns you've explained here. Whether it's grounding, cables, and re-peaking the dish, this repair should take care of everything. Please respond soon so that we can make sure this all goes smoothly. Keep us posted after the repair as well. Hopefully the service should improve. Finally all of this is free of charge. We appreciate your patience and cooperation as well continue to address your concerns.

Thank you,
Chris
carmenshenk
New Member

HughesNet turned off our service this morning. My husband spoke to a woman in Asia this morning for 40 minutes and he repeatedly asked to speak to a supervisor. She put him on hold repeatedly but refused to pass him up the line, saying they were busy. Then she kept him on hold and just kept checking to see if he hung up yet. I'm sorry, but this has really gotten funny. The way this situation has played out would make a killer stand up comedy routine. I don't want Oracle on this property, they are the ones who caused this mess and I was treated horribly by their dispatcher. To top it all off, we will be out of town at the time you suggest and I am just concerned to have anyone from their company back here with the damage they could do. What happens now? Well, them turning off our internet and the lady on the phone refusing to help my husband is hilarious. I Who writes the end of this joke?
carmenshenk
New Member

Dear Chris,

I got a phone call from Oracle saying they'd be here Saturday morning as you suggested. We were going to be out of town so we called and rescheduled for Monday morning instead. The lady gave me the time slot I asked for, which was between 8 am and 11 am Monday morning, and assured me that their best tech would be here to address our concerns.

We once more cleared our schedule to be at home from 8 am until 11 am, as scheduled. Nobody showed up, just like our appointment one month ago. At 10:55 I called to see what was happening. The gentlemen who answered the phone assured me that there was no appointment for me this morning. As I started to explain (quite calmly, I assure you) that this has been a two month process of trying to get some things resolved... I heard "click". I think he hung up on me, but my husband prefers to believe that we lost connection due to poor cell phone connection.

You made an appointment for us to see this situation resolved. Oracle did not keep the appointment. We mentioned that they were useless. This just proves it again. Hughes Net has failed to provide the promised service. I'm so tired of this dramatic display of ineptitude.  What now, Chris? 

What now?

Chris11
Alum

Hi carmen,

Thanks for the update. Let me look into all of this. I'll have to contact the dealer myself. Pertaining to having another dealer come out. I also need to see if that is an option. I will update you as soon as I have a better solution for you. 

- Chris
carmenshenk
New Member

HI Chris,

We arrived home a bit ago and noted that the cable that my husband so carefully buried has been ripped from the ground.  The first installer left it on the surface of the ground where it became a trip hazard, and it made mowing a royal pain.  We've been visited by the Oracle fairy who so kindly removed it from it's safe place in the ground, and brought it back out on the surface of the ground for us.  Give that fairy our love.

Secondly, I found a "Repair Reference Sheet" shoved up under the latch of my front door.  Even though the Oracle office said we had no appointment today after I made the appointment myself, now they send us an Oracle fairy without appointment and without permission.  And even though this sheet says he was here between 8-11... for that to be true he would need to be an invisible fairy.  Does he ride an invisible carpet or does he go for more of an invisible work van?  Is there much glitter?  We were here that whole time, you'd think we'd have noticed something.

The "Notes" say "Please repeak dish for optimal signal."  We are so pleased to report that the dish is no longer aimed at the chimney of the farm house.  Thank you so very much, I can't tell you how happy I am!  It is now aimed at the front bedrooms of the farm house instead.  I suspect that the dish was planted in the wrong location to reach the satellite that is on the other side.  Since we are unable to approve the removal of the house at this time, might I suggest moving the dish?

And just out of curiosity, why does the cable that is attached to a dish that is attached to a steel pole buried in the ground... have to go to the farm house to be grounded?  Is not the steel pole in the ground... ground enough?

Finally, we really love living in our tiny house on wheels.  I love it so much, I'm writing a memoir of our time here.  At this rate, Hughes Net will get it's own chapter. 

Please don't send any more oracles or fairies or scarecrows.  I don't know what you can send, but please... no more of those.  No Pokemons either. 
-Carmen
carmenshenk
New Member

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled The dish was installed aiming right at the farm house..

Friday, May 13th, The Oracle came to install the dish. He
installed the dish and aimed it at the farm house, ran a cable to the
electrical panel on the farm house (that he had been instructed not
to touch) to connect to the ground, then left before burying any
cable, and left his tools behind. The resulting service was
horrible. Saturday we called Hughes Net and were told to consult The
Oracle. We got an appointment for Monday between 8-11 am. Nobody
showed up, then Manfriend called and they told him that the installer
would be late. Then he called again and they said that the installer
had been in contact with the wife and rescheduled the appointment.
I'm the wife, so I called and they told me there was no appointment
at all. What a mess. It all boiled down to the fact that nobody was
coming to fix the problem.

We called Hughes Net and explained the situation. She said she'd
check on it and call back, case #54167032. Nobody called.

Tuesday, Manfriend called Hughes Net and spoke with Joshua, who
gave him case #54167032. Joshua forwarded him to Mr. Damian Gonzales
in Texas who said he would try to have someone here the same day (May
24th) or the following day (May 25th) at the latest, case #54184077.
He said he'd call when the apt was scheduled. Nobody called.

We got a voice mail message from Jennifer at Hughes Net who left a
message with case number #54036165. Manfriend returned the call and
spoke to Megan who hung up on him.

Ok, still tryin to play nice.

In the two months since installation I have repeatedly emailed for
customer service to no avail. My cell phone uses wifi, and the
internet service hasn't been good enough for my phone to work
properly.


7/13/2016 I got a bill. We were apparently given June free because
of the badly botched install. Unfortunately the situation has not
been addressed in any way, but we are billed anyway.


They don't answer email, so I used the web mail form and got a
message from a DONOTREPLY email that my problem had been solved. They
responded by saying they “investigated and sent a technician who
resolved the problem.” Which would be great if it was true. The
dish is still right there, pointed at the farmhouse, the cable still
strung across the lawn, the service still horrible. “Your case ID
for this email contact is 55009213” I want to just hit “reply”
and explain, but I can't.

I went back to the web mail and emailed them again and got another
message from a DONOTREPLY email that repeated that the problem was
solved, and they were sorry I found the resolution unsatisfactory
(because there was no resolution). This time the number is #55014468.


I had to go back to the web mail system again and explain again
that the problem was indeed not solved and their next DONOTREPLY
email told me a technician would be $125 even though the equipment is
under warranty. The Oracle pointed the dish at the farm house
resulting in crappy service. Says they will call back, case
#55014468. Nobody calls.


Why can't we just have a normal email conversation?! My cell
phone doesn't work on the wifi, which is frustrating, but it at least
explains why I'm not getting return calls. If email was an option,
that would really help.

I went to Twitter and asked for help there. I was directed to use
the Community, so here I am. That's when I learned that the service
isn't robust enough for my wifi cell phone to work. Ok, expectations
lowered, gotcha.


The following morning Hughes Net cut off my service. My husband
called the service number and talked to a woman in Asia and when she
couldn't help him, he asked to speak with her supervisor. She
refused to allow him to speak to a supervisor and kept putting him on
hold. She kept checking in to see if he'd hung up, stringing him
along for 40 minutes, never allowing him to speak to a supervisor.
That's pretty shocking I think. At least when we finally get someone
on the phone at Hughes Net, they've never been actually rude or
deliberately unhelpful. Even Megan hanging up on him could have been
that the cell phone dropped the call. Trying to understand here.


Chris, an Official Rep in the online community, wrote that he was
sending someone out and “This service call should take care of
everything” and it would be no charge. Excellent! Overjoyed! I
was hopeful that we were nearing the end of this two month long
ordeal and that good internet was on the way. He made an appointment
for Saturday. We were going to be out of town so I called in and
changed the appointment to Monday, 8-11 am.

Monday morning the internet was back on again and we waited and
waited for the installer scheduled between 8-11. Nobody showed. I
finally called The Oracle at 10:55 to see if an installer was coming
and the guy told me I didn't have an appointment. I'd made the
appointment myself, what happened this time!? Then it sounded like
he hung up on me, but it could have just been that my wifi phone
dropped the call. So I went online to tell Chris that The Oracle was
a no-show, and that our appointment vanished again.

So we left the house at 11:10 and went on to work. When I got
home I noticed that the cable that my husband buried had been pulled
out from under the dirt. Oracle apparently sent a guy right over.
He ripped up the cord that my husband had buried, and aimed the dish
at a much lower part of the farm house. So yeah, sorry to repeat
myself, but problem not solved.

It is now 67 days after the original botched installation and the
dish is still pointed at the farm house, the ground cable is still
connected to the farm house they were told not to touch, and now the
cable is up on top of the ground again. Trying to understand.

Today The Oracle left a message for my husband that they would not
be moving the dish from it's cozy spot beside the tree and farm
house. My husband had chosen a spot close to our place with a
perfectly clear line of sight in the same direction as the current
location, only no trees, and no farm house. Without seeing it, the guy said that it
wouldn't work in that location, trees in the way. Alright, I don't
see trees but I'm not The Oracle. So I guess that's it then? It
took us 67 days for them to finally tell us that pointing at the farm
house is the only location on 31 acres that they can put the dish?


The Oracle offered to visit, bury the cable, and to talk to us.
Ok, not tryin to be mean here, but coming over for a chat isn't going
to fix the problem.  Manfriend already buried the cable back where it was so we wouldn't trip over it.


So now what? The dish is on a pole sunk 3 feet into the ground
with concrete around it, and it's sitting there staring at the old
farm house. The Oracle tells us we will need to disassemble and
remove it ourselves or they will charge a removal fee. They tell us
that Hughes Net will charge us for any piece missing or damaged. I'm
trying not to be a gurl about this. How expensive is it going to be
to get this thing off the property? I'm a zero waste person, please
don't tell me this monster thing is going in the landfill.  Do you recycle?  Ok, so not my problem.


So now I'm hoping that this message can actually elbow it's way
past the farm house and out to the ether where maybe it will actually
be read. Chris, or any of you wizards, what can you do? We're done,
right? Nice try and all, but it just didn't work? Is that the
conclusion here? The Oracle is done, I get that, but is there
another option? (That isn't painfully expensive!!) We live in the
boonies, and this was supposed to be a service that wouldn't kill us
in unexpected overage charges. Verizon is our only other option, and
at $10 a day... yeah... No.


Now I can't find the information about the contract we signed, is
there is no web page with that info? Why can't I find the list of
services and prices on the website? I guess it doesn't really matter
if the installer can't make it happen. But I was curious.

An amusing detail: Oracle has this message on the back of their
trucks: “Now Hiring” “No experience necessary”  We're still laughing about that.  It's just so funny!


So now what? Anything? We done? If so, how bad is this going to
hurt me$$?

-Carmen
bdvvdd12
New Member

In Regards to your contract and what not: 
States information for each plan and FAP.http://legal.hughesnet.com/FairAccessPolicyGen4.cfm

Your Contract:
http://legal.hughesnet.com/ForYourHome.cfm

And just a little bit of information... yeah you may have acres to put the dish, but between location for the signal (line of sight), Cable distances (they do have limits), and various other reasons due to safety, or liability reasons, the installer(s) may not want to or be able to place it just anywhere. Just thought I would add my two cents. I hope you can get all of this fixed 🙂 Have a nice one
carmenshenk
New Member

Hey Chris, I haven't heard anything from you in three days.  I'm just checking in to see if there is anything you can do to make this situation better.  It's been a crazy ride.  Hope you are ok.
Carmen
carmenshenk
New Member

Thanks Brandon.  That's why we chose a spot in the clearing near our house with a direct line of sight in the same direction as our dish is currently pointed.  There is no farm house in the way, no trees.  But without visiting, the Oracle says it won't work there.  I don't know.  The whole thing just baffles me. 
carmenshenk
New Member

When my husband communicated with Oracle that there was no need to send an installer if all he will do is talk and bury a cable, the lady was so delighted.  He said she sounded so glad to lose us as customers.

Oracle has a pretty sweet deal.  They show up, botch the install, and get paid.  Then they miss appointments, and show up without appointments repeatedly, without ever fixing anything.  Then they get paid again to remove the gear.

Nice racket.
carmenshenk
New Member

I've read through some other threads briefly and the Hughes Net Reps really are helpful and responsive.  It's pretty impressive, to be honest.  Just a glance through the community shows so many unhappy customers, so it is a tough job.  I haven't gotten a response here in three days so I'm just wondering if I'm holding out hope for nothing.  If anyone has an idea that may help, I'd like ot hear it.  I really really really don't want to have to drive into town each day to get internet. 
Chris11
Alum

Hi carmenshenk,

I've been investigating this and from what I can see on our side, the tech came out and saw nothing wrong with the install. These are the techs exact notes from my dispatch.

Installer : David,Shumway (540)8257303 Resolution:NO REPAIR - NO PROBLEM FOUND Res. Notes:System has good LOS and is Grounded to NEC and Hughesnet Standards. Trailor fed from house with direct plug in so System was grounded at main power meter as required RESID=[480024-1468513931]  Install/Repair complete

Here are some screenshots from this specific techs visit. 




As you can see the line of sight is clear. Seems like a clean install. I currently see no communication form you diagnostics, however please make sure that everything is connected correctly in your home. This tech mentioned that you were not home at the time this visit was done. Can you provide screenshots of the modem unit and how it is connected? Hope to hear from you soon.

Thank you,
Chris
Gokartergo
New Member

And to answer your other question. No.  The pole itself is not a acceptable ground.. Not by Hughesnet standards or the NEC. It must be bonded to the house grounding.
carmenshenk
New Member

I wish they could have communicated that at the beginning.  We went up the chain to Mr. Gonzales in Texas who said it should have been grounded to the pole.  And after we told them that the home owner didn't want that house touched, it would have been nice if they had at least communicated that to us up front.  We could have saved ourselves two months of trying to communicate with the sleeping giant that is Hughes Net.
carmenshenk
New Member

Thanks for your response Chris.  My husband and I really appreciate everything you did to try to resolve the problem.  Dealing with Oracle was horrible from day one, and nobody was able to offer us an alternative.  Quite honestly, the fact that those photos were taken when we were away from the property makes them suspect, especially since they show something different than what I observe when I look at the equipment.  But it doesn't matter now.  I can't waste any more time trying to get the quality service we expected, two and half months of trying was quite long enough.

Right now I have a different issue I would like to bring to your attention.  The website says the termination fee is $400.  The gentlemen at Hughes Net that my husband spoke to yesterday said they would waive this fee.  Now I see on the account that $395 was charged, and a credit applied of $385 leaving a balance of $10.  Will there be further credit applied to cover the whole fee?
Chris11
Alum

Hi carmenshenk,

I'm glad we were able to clear this up for you. I'll look into your billing info and see what was done and get back to you on the fee left over. 

- Chris
Chris11
Alum

Gokartergo,

A pole mount is completely acceptable. I'm not sure what you mean. 

- Chris
Gokartergo
New Member

Has a ground. She kept referring to it has a ground. and not using the house.