Where are the Champions?

[maratsade]

When the other board was up, there used to be a heavy Champion* presence on it, so people who posted after hours and on weekends tended to get a quick response.  Since the new board started, the Champion presence has dwindled to infrequent appearances. Where are you, guys?

*Using the old terminology.  I hope there will soon be something to replace this or that the Champion title will be re-awarded to the many who have earned it.

[C0RR0SIVE]

I am sick, and increasingly busy with things that's related to... umm... things... that I can't discuss!
I also have an intolerance for things, so I tend to take a short-term hiatus from this place once in a blue moon.

Gwalk has been incredibly busy with work, seasons changing and his workflow changes with the season...

As for the dog, ever since they got rid of Barb, he hasn't been the same pooch...

[Gwalk900]

I'm at work but do check in when I can.

[maratsade]

Gotcha.... Things do get in the way of things. BTW, I used one of your macros today -- excellent stuff.

Also: Bring Back Barb! Bring Back Barb! Bring Back Barb!

[Ricky]

I can do without Barb. Not to mention Fredrick. Let them rest for sure. hahahaha

[maratsade]

You're just anti-alternative personas, Ricky! LOL.

[Ricky]

Well.....yeah I will have to agree with you there. hahahahahaha

[C0RR0SIVE]

By the way, just saying, Champions don't exist anymore. 🙂

[Reggie]

In my opinion the Champions will be champ, no matter what label this board gives them.

[maratsade]

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@Reggie wrote:

In my opinion the Champions will be champ, no matter what label this board gives them.

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YES. Exactly, Reggie. A rose by any other name, and all that.

[BirdDog]

Thanks for the kind words maratsade, except for the "Barbara" reference.  You to Reggie.

In my case been spending more time outside doing yard work and gradening with the weather getting nicer where I'm at.

Will jump in when I feel I have something to add but really not much help with things like speed issues other than mentioning the usual tests. You guys are doing great getting folks smart on what they need to do.

Also, can't really help those whose main complaint is data caps.

[maratsade]

Sounds good, BirdDog! Happy gardening. 🙂

[maratsade]

And where are the reps?  There used to be a lot more rep activity.  Is everyone tied up with Gen5 stuff? 

[Liz]

Hi maratsade!

We're still here monitoring the boards, but we're taking a more hands off approach with this community since we want the customers to help each other out. We will hop in if we come across a situation where we're absolutely needed, like for issues that can't be resolved via the support center, FAQ, or KB article, or for tech cases which have reached the point where all troubleshooting has been spent and are ready for escalation.

This way the mods can focus more on moderating, working escalated cases, and working in general to make the HughesNet experience better all around. We wear many hats here at the office. 

[Gwalk900]

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@Liz wrote:

Hi maratsade!

We're still here monitoring the boards, but we're taking a more hands off approach with this community since we want the customers to help each other out. We will hop in if we come across a situation where we're absolutely needed,

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This is in a number of ways very sad news.

The Hughes Community forum was always the Hidden Jewel of the Hughes support system. I fear that this new direction will take some of the luster from that jewel.

A Hughes subscriber will have their issues rooted in three different ways

>Those that are Hughes related<

>Those that are related to something on the users end<

>Those on the users end that are percieved  by the subscriber to be Hughes related<

Not all, but many subscribers are not well versed in all aspects of their computers, operating systems, installed software and of course .. Networking.

All of this is going to lead to major frustration on the part of the subscriber which leads to them reaching out for support.

That support is available in several forms.

>Phone<

We have seen countless posts related to frustration with Phone Support be it language issues, long wait times, dropped calls and non-returned calls and the Big One ... non-working PIN numbers if a customer is able to have their issue bumped up the tier ladder. Another common complaint is that every call seems to start from square one.

>Chat<

I never could get Chat to work reliably and many others have reported trouble getting it to work or the Chat session being dropped.

>Email<

I never tried it but many reports of email support requests never being responded to have been posted.

>Hughes Community<

The Hughes Community in my opinion really worked. It is staffed by corporate level employees that are truly dedicated to customer service, understand all aspects of computers and networking and are able to cut all the red-tape and get right to the heart of the subscribers issue.

We Community Regulars would respond to post during weekends and off hours. We would ask questions that if the user followed up on would provide the data that the Mods needed to make a quick reply or to escalate an issue to the proper department and then provide feed-back on the issue status.

The Community Regulars would also pick up on issues the were affecting the customers user experience but after troubleshooting it was determined that the root cause was not directly Hughes related. The Regulars having more time to work one on one in areas like Operating Systems or Router setup among other things.

At times a subscriber would have some doubt as to our purpose or identity and the involvement by one of the Mods would in many cases clear up that doubt.

The lack of future involvement on the part of the Mods in all but the most severe of cases puts the effectiveness of the Community at risk.

Just my opinion.

[Ricky]

I also agree. This was always the place a customer could come and get real help. Top notch help. I am sad to hear that the mods appear to be stepping back from that top notch service.

[GabeU]

Although I can undertand the desire and need to concentrate on additional or other things, I agree with Gwalk for the most part, as well.  

I only hope that this Community can continue to be an affective alternative to the other, sometimes ineffective, and often more frustrating, avenues of receiving help.  

Perception is a HUGE part of customer service, and if that perception becomes that this avenue is no better than the others, that doesn't bode well.  I don't necessarily know that this will happen, but I certianly hope it doesn't.  

I suppose the title of "Customer to Customer Solutions" is a very apt description.   

[Gwalk900]

We as users can learn as much from failures as successes. To do so however requires that you be able to follow the issue from beginning to end. That at certain key points that some aspects are tested (remote diagnostics) as troubleshooting progresses so as to narrow things down a bit.

I don't see many frustrated subscribers working with us fellow users without some contact with/from a Hughes employee.

One thing that this Community had is some "meat" to the support that we collectively provided ... there were procedures posted there were details provided. If you look at the Exede support community you will find none of that .. everything ends with "please send us an email with your account details to ..... ". That is the last you ever see or hear of it. Reading that community is more of a gripe-fest than a real support effort.

I fear that without the involvement of the Mods this support community will go down the same path.

In the past a user could rely on the fact that the Community was an arm of Corporate, now it looks like its Joe talking to Bob.

[maratsade]

"I fear that without the involvement of the Mods this support community will go down the same path."

It's already a very different place.

[bkeeper1]

Hi Liz;

I wondered what had happened.  This is certainly not the place it used to be.  When you helped me two years ago with (to me) a major problem and even last year with a smaller problem - I became a Hughes "Booster".  This year has been different.  I have felt ignored.

A major change in Hughes -- and I really didn't know why  - NOW I do!  

It is sad to see Hughes go (as so many big companies are) down the road of impersonality.

I will still be posting occasionally - and trying to stay positive. Thanks for your help in the past.

Have a good life!

Bkeeper

Cliff

[Liz]

Hi Cliff,

It's been a time of a lot of transitions over here, both in the community and with the arrival of Gen 5. We're trying to move as many people off EchoStar 17 to the new satellite to improve service for all. Until then, there's not much more our network engineers can do, they have already performed capacity expansions on multiple beams for those on Gen 4.

Eventually things will settle down and the kinks will be worked out. There's still a lot of work needed behind the scenes just for the community, plus we're also working on other projects to better serve HughesNet subscribers. We trust the long time posters and experts here to educate the community, and hope that newcomers will gain that trust as well. I have hope and confidence, and we'll help them as best we can.