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Two Week Wait, and Tech Support doesn't Show

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jlantz
Junior

Two Week Wait, and Tech Support doesn't Show

I am no longer under contract, so you would think it would be in Hughes' best interest to keep long term customers happy and make sure tech support shows up when they say they will. I won't even get into how may hours and people I talked to and got hung up on by, in order get to the point of a tech visiting. . There are other options out there......  I'm about to cancle my account because I am so fed up with Hughe's lack of customer care. Maybe if Hughes didn't sub out their call center to other countries, the phone support people could understand me, and me understand them. There is a LOT lost in translations with phone tech support.

 

Oh, and that message about calls being recorded for training and to improve service.... .. LOL.. yeah right.. now that was about the best laugh I've had through all of this.. 

 

Long story, but the short is, my dish is 30 feet in the air on the roof of my house. The house moves a lot,(very old farm house)  and the dish goes out of alignment fairly often. Also, I did not want it installed on the roof, that was where I found it when I got home after the installer had doen this... (several years ago) Not to mention it is pointed into trees, and the wetter the day gets, the worse the signal drops. My internet is pretty non existant, and my modem logs are constantly filled with errors. On a super great dry day I might get a signal of 54 or so with Gen5. I can't wait until winter gets here and the leaves fall... but probably not, becaue I'm pretty much ready to throw all of this in the garbage and start over with another company. (I bought and own my equipment)

 

Hughes was sending support out to deal with this, but as has happened  before, a two week wait, and no one shows..... 

 

Who plans to pay me for the day I had to take off work to wait for non existant techs? (I don't get vacation pay) I'm pretty irate about this.... 

 

How do I get somone to come fix the problems the original installer created???? My best bet in my mind is find a new provider......... Can't wait for Starlink.... Sounds like it will be much cheaper than the $150 and some odd dollars a month I pay, for this useless system, and for the FINE lack of support Hughes provides...

 

Buyer beware!

20 REPLIES 20
maratsade
Distinguished Professor IV

The official HN reps on this site can check on this situation for you, and hopefully fix it.  They're here M-F during business hours, though sometimes there's a rep here for a little after 5 pm. 

Thank you, I would like to hope you are correct, but where I live in the back woods of West Virginia it is somewhat impossible to find much of any company around that has any kind of worthwhile employees. Most times the ones that do show up have a jacked up trashy truck, a mullet, and just got outta jail last week.... Like I said, this isn't my first time in this rodeo... I'm getting pretty sick and tired of being beat up with Hughes not contracting with reputable companies to service their customers.

 

I have spent MANY MANY MANY MANY hours dealing with Hughes, and have not been a happy customer yet, after too many years.

 

They might some day get this fixed if they want to keep me, but in the mean time, who pays me for all my lost time and wages??? I don't have a job I can just take off any time it suits my fancy..... 

 

maratsade
Distinguished Professor IV

Sounds pretty dire....do you have any other options?

Excede and Viasat.... But then I'm still stuck with a more than likely lack luster dealer.... If my dish wasn't 25 feet up on the eve of my roof, I'd deal with it and get it re-aligned...

 

I have no cell service where I live, and there is no local wi-fi available either. SAT or Dial-up are my only options... 

maratsade
Distinguished Professor IV

Excede=Viasat. From what I have read, not really very good, and expensive.  Why is your dish so high above your roof?

Yeah.. I know neither one of those has a very stellar record either, but if someone is going to take my money and give me little in return, I might as well spread it around some and give everyone a shot... Believe me.. I'm watching Starlink hard...

 

In the mean time, here I am over two years later on Gen5 and still not able to get my internet working correctly.. For over a year now, I've just settled, because they wore me down the last time I complained and I caved...

 

As far as where it is on my roof and why... another really long story concerning the first installer and a cluster mess he was..... the easy to type version is, I live in the bottom of a deep hollow... I call the place Vertical Acres... I live in the bottom of that very deep V for vertical.....  SO the guy was trying to get it to shoot between and over trees, but he still didn't manage.. He didn't want to hike back and forth on a near vertical hillside to put it up there.... and I wasn't home when it got placed... 

...However, it does make for a great way to get a lot of  vigerous excercise during the winter when I need to get a 32' ladder out to be able to read my Sunday morning news after a 6" snow storm and it's 10 degrees outside.. 

maratsade
Distinguished Professor IV

Your situation sounds like something that'd go very nicely in your memoirs. 🙂  (Vertical Acres would be an excellent title, too).

Do you think Starlink will make a difference, given Vertical Acres? 

LOL... oh yeah.. there's a few tomes in there... 

 

As far as Starlink, I have no idea... but at least I'll maybe have one more option, because this one isn't very usable... Onlly time and more money thrown at a problem will tell... You'd think I live in a thrid world country or something trying to get a usuable internet service, but most of them have better options than I do.

maratsade
Distinguished Professor IV

I hope that (1) the HN reps here can contact the tech to see what's going on and that he visits Vertical Acres soon (it's got to be a chore getting trucks up hills over there, right?), and that (2) you have other options soon.  HN works just fine for my needs, so I'm very happy with it and I'm glad that they provide internet where the terrestrial ISPs can't be bothered to.  But I know some people have more difficulties and I sympathise completely.  I hope someone checks with the tech today.

 


@jlantz wrote:

LOL... oh yeah.. there's a few tomes in there... 

 

As far as Starlink, I have no idea... but at least I'll maybe have one more option, because this one isn't very usable... Onlly time and more money thrown at a problem will tell... You'd think I live in a thrid world country or something trying to get a usuable internet service, but most of them have better options than I do.


 

Hahaha.. yeah ok... just like anyone contacted me through here even today... A communications company that doesn't communicate..... and yes, I have a thread here titled that, because I'm so sick and tired of giving my money away to a company that cares less.... 

 

I've spent a big chunk of my day on the phone back and forth with the dealer, who is in another state, and the person who was supposed to show up....:"truck broke down, have the sugars and my foot has to have an ulcer fixed... you mean no one called you to tell you I broke down? They didn't send another tech?"

 

Now SUPPOSEDLY, they are gloijng to be sending someone out Saturday, who they say lives in my county.. which means I"m giving up a day we planned something else for..... but I'm taking this screwing whith a smile, since Hughes doesn't seem to have the least bit interest in me other than taking my money.. and I'm still trying to figure out why I keep giving it to them when they are giving me so little in return?

 

I'm really impressed Hughes... ... thanks for communicating with me and making sure I'm another happily screwed customer....  I've been living with this problem  for several years off and on and not one person at hughes wants to make it right.... THey just want to wear you down with excuses and lots of your personal time taken... The gravy is about to end if things aren't fixed by Saturday,

 

.........and I'm still really hot about losing a days pay!

maratsade
Distinguished Professor IV

"Now SUPPOSEDLY, they are gloijng to be sending someone out Saturday, "

 

Do you have a way to communicate with whoever's coming? Can you stay on top of them and text or call them to make sure they're actually coming?

At this moment, I've only got contact with the dealer, and I'm told the tech will text me when he's on his way.. that's AFTER i've told them I don't have cell service to get texts through...  The lunacy around all this would be quite entertaining if it wasn't all true and happening to me... 

 

I do plan to call them the next day or so and get that tech's number so I can let them know he needs a 32' ladder, which it seems no techs around here own...

 

So no.. I'm still pretty much feeling raw....  and still pretty certain there is no end in sight... 

 

I think Hughes should be paying me their employees'  salary since I'm doing all their footwork trying to get a tech to my house, which THEY were suppposed to arrange.... 

 

Can you tell I' m still trying so hard to keep a big tooth grin?!?!?!?!

maratsade
Distinguished Professor IV

Not having text service just makes everything so much worse. Is the tech close to you? I think I'd just go pick them up and bring them to the site. 

LOL... I like the way you think!!!

 

If I could get the instructions of how to  exactly aim this dish, I'd have it off my roof and placed where it needs to be and done....  TOOOoooo MANY YEARS of this mess....   I can deal with the normal nightly slowdowns and such that comes with the technology, but just getting the dish in a useful place has been my worst nightmare!

 

The day I called to get Excede, and the installer/dealer talked into Hughes has been one of the biggest mistakes I've made in years!!!!  The BIGGEST mistake I've made was not being able to get home when the guy came and installed the dish... I got home by the time he was ready to install the modem. I wasn't happy when I saw where he put it... I went on for a long time with him about the holes he put in my 3 year old shingles and decking... 

maratsade
Distinguished Professor IV

Two things: maybe you can convince the tech to install the dish elsewhere, if that's possible at all, signal-wise. And can you go with another ISP and see if they work better for you? 

Yes, that is what this visit is supposed to be about, finding a better location for the dish, and making sure it can't move around like it does with the house...  Three times people have been here over the last couple years, and not one tme can I get ayone that has a clue what they are doing....  All I want is someone to show up that can do something. Even when I upgraded to GEN5 I thought they would move my dish, but nope, the guy only had the LMB and wasn't going to remove my dish because of the holes in the roof, and said the signal was good enough.. but then again, the leaves weren't all on the tree like they are now... 

 

I would go with Excede or Viasat in a heartbeat, if I didn't have to get into another 2 year contract. Seems to me, a LOT of people will be leaving Hughesnet once Starlink starts taking customers, and who knows, Hughes might start getting to be pretty reliable with a ton less customers. BUT, since hughes hasn't worried about trying to keep customers happy in the past, I'm sure too many will be bailing... I'd stick around and see, if the customer service had acceptable or even seemed like anyone cared about their customers.

 

BUT, since Hughes doesn't seem to care one bit, I'd rather just wait a few more months it sounds, live with this dismal service, and not be stuck in a new contract once the time to jump this sunken ship happens.. 

 

I would also like to take this moment to say THANK YOU to Hughes for even taking a moment to say "We're so sorry you are having these problems."....

maratsade
Distinguished Professor IV

"Yes, that is what this visit is supposed to be about, finding a better location for the dish, and making sure it can't move around like it does with the house... "

 

Seems that, from what you said before, it has to be high up because of the valley....I wonder if there's a very tall pole they can put it on, so it's not on the house and it's at the right height.  Hopefully this visit will be the charm. 

There are a couple places it can be placed, and should be within cable length limits. Problem is, getting Hughes to schedule a tech (always a fight) then having a tech show up... (huge cr$p shoot) and then imagining them to even know how they even got here, much less have the motivation to do what needs to be done... 

 

And this is why I am so tired and worn out and just keep settling on bad serivce, and every so often pop up on here because phone calls and tech support get me nothing... This has all this has cost me a lot of money and time, for a very lackluster experiance.Started  the second that first dealer/installer stepped foot on my property.. 😞 

maratsade
Distinguished Professor IV

I can see you're worn out and disappointed, and I hope this time will be the charm.