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.
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?