Re: Cancellation Fee - Hughesnet Community

joleenc · ‎01-10-2019

I am so incredibly disappointed with Hughes Net and their customer service. We signed up for internet on December 3rd. To date I have called to complain about our service EIGHT TIMES!! Eight times in a little over a month. We can't watch a show on NetFlix without it buffering every couple of seconds and my kids can't play their XBox. Not to mention my oldest son can't do homework because his internet is CRAP. Every time I call they trouble shoot and it's fixed for a few hours and then we're back to where we were.

I just called to cancel and they told me that I would be charged $400 to cancel. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?? You have records of every call I've made with the same complaint however you still feel justified in charging the cancellation fee?! Absolutely ridiculous!

maratsade · ‎01-10-2019

There are no grace periods for most if not all ISPs and phone providers; most of them also have a 2 year contract and a penalty for breaking the contract. Hughesnet makes this information available to everyone here: http://legal.hughesnet.com/ServiceTermsAndConditions-current.cfm

*I am not a Hughesnet employee or representative. This is a customer-to-customer tech support community, and I am a customer.

@joleenc wrote:
I am so incredibly disappointed with Hughes Net and their customer service. We signed up for internet on December 3rd. To date I have called to complain about our service EIGHT TIMES!! Eight times in a little over a month. We can't watch a show on NetFlix without it buffering every couple of seconds and my kids can't play their XBox. Not to mention my oldest son can't do homework because his internet is CRAP. Every time I call they trouble shoot and it's fixed for a few hours and then we're back to where we were.
I just called to cancel and they told me that I would be charged $400 to cancel. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?? You have records of every call I've made with the same complaint however you still feel justified in charging the cancellation fee?! Absolutely ridiculous!

joleenc · ‎01-10-2019

I can understand that there is no grace period. I asked the gentleman that I just spoke to that exact question and he confirmed once it's installed the "contract" starts. My problem is that with the noted phone calls and issues they still are not able/willing to do anything to work with me.

maratsade · ‎01-10-2019

And I totally understand your frustration, Joleen. The company will work you to improve your system so you can do what you want/need or as much of it as is feasible with the satellite technology. Your system may need some tweaks to make it work better than it's been doing so far. It is unlikely they will let you off the hook with the contract, at least not until avenues of improvement have been explored and exhausted. (This would be the same kind of process Verizon or Xfinity would follow, too. It's an industry standard).

You will get better help on this site than with the phone reps, but you may still have to perform some actions on your side, while the reps here check their side of things. I'm sure someone from HN will reply, or some other customer will get you started.

*I am not a Hughesnet employee or representative. This is a customer-to-customer tech support community, and I am a customer.

@joleenc wrote:
I can understand that there is no grace period. I asked the gentleman that I just spoke to that exact question and he confirmed once it's installed the "contract" starts. My problem is that with the noted phone calls and issues they still are not able/willing to do anything to work with me.

Jay · ‎01-10-2019

joleenc,

I'm glad you found the community, thank you for posting! After taking a look at your account, I see that you did terminate your services. I would be happy to assist you with your issues if you choose to reactivate your services; however, if you decide not to reactivate the account, I will not be able to help you.

Please let me know who you'd like to proceed.

-Jay

joleenc · ‎01-10-2019

@Jay wrote:
joleenc,

I'm glad you found the community, thank you for posting! After taking a look at your account, I see that you did terminate your services. I would be happy to assist you with your issues if you choose to reactivate your services; however, if you decide not to reactivate the account, I will not be able to help you.

Please let me know who you'd like to proceed.

-Jay

So because I terminated my service there is no way to help with the cancellation fee?

Jay · ‎01-10-2019

joleenc,

We have other ways to possibly resolve your issues but since we have not exhausted all of those options, I cannot lower your early termination fee. If you would like to reactivate your account, I would be more than happy to help you get your service working the way you expect it to!

-Jay

joleenc · ‎01-10-2019

Here is my frustration...I have called EIGHT different times in just barely a month. Everytime I call the issue gets fixed for a short period of time (hours) and then we're back to where we were before. Or nothing gets done and I'm told that there's bad weather in the gateway. I had a technician scheduled to come out but that is still over a week away. I have 3 kids who need wifi for different school assignments, I can't wait another week to get this resolved.

Jay · ‎01-10-2019

joleenc,

I understand your frustrations but as maratsade said, this is the best place for you to get 1 on 1 support; however, I cannot assist you if the account has been terminated. If we are unable to determine what the issue is and exhaust all options to resolve it for you, then I am unable to reduce the early termination fee.

-Jay

joleenc · ‎01-10-2019

Okay, so to keep my account active, do I need to call back to the customer service number or can you reactivate it?

Jay · ‎01-11-2019

joleenc,

I can reactivate your account for you or if you'd prefer, you can call in to have it reactivated.

-Jay

joleenc · ‎01-11-2019

Okay then let's reactivate it and see if you can figure out what the issue is.

Jay · ‎01-11-2019

joleenc,

I have reactivated your account and based on your first message, you are having issues streaming and with gaming.

I see that your primary streaming devices are connected to the 5Ghz network but it looks like they do not have a great connection. The first thing I recommend it connecting your devices to the 2.4Ghz network which has a much wider range than the 5Ghz option.

Concerning gaming, with satellite service, the data must travel up to the satellite and back (about 22,000 miles). This round trip adds about a half-second delay to the total time your computer takes to communicate with a Website or host server. That will prevent real-time, multi-player games from establishing or maintaining a reliable connection with the gaming server. So games like Fortnite will not work well on any satellite service due to the latency. As long as they aren't playing real-time, multiplayer games, they should have no issues enjoying their Xbox.

-Jay

GabeU · ‎01-11-2019

@Jay wrote:
The first thing I recommend it connecting your devices to the 1.4Ghz network which has a much wider range than the 5Ghz option.

I'd personally connect them to the 2.4Ghz network, but that's just me.

Sorry, Jay. I just couldn't resist. 😛

joleenc · ‎01-13-2019

Okay so I am connected to the 2.4 and I haven't been able to get on Hulu all weekend. I tried switching to the 5 and still no luck. I understand satellite is not the same as other internet providers but we did not have these issues with our previous satellite provider.
And I understand that there will be a lag with Xbox games, however I asked the saleswoman very specifically if it would be comparable to what we had before and she reassured me that it would. Its been problem after problem since we switched and I'm really disappointed in the fact that I was sold a product that doesn't work with what we need it to.

GabeU · ‎01-14-2019

@joleenc

While streaming with Hulu, are you being sure to turn off, or snooze, the Video Data Saver? This is especially the case if the stream is in HD. Please keep in mind, though, that streaming in HD is a very data intensive activity. I don't know Hulu's data rates, but with Netflix the data usage is around 3GB per hour in HD, 700MB per hour in SD and 350MB per hour in LD.

I am assuming that your previous satellite internet provider was ViaSat/Exede, being that HughesNet and ViaSat are the primary (maybe only?) satellite internet providers in the US. If whatever game(s) is being played worked with ViaSat/Exede it should work with HughesNet, as the latency is practically the same, but there are no guarantees, as there are subtle differences between the two services.

Can you give the names of a couple of the games you are trying to play, as there may be some people on here who have experience with those games on HughesNet. This might help to see if they even can be played.

joleenc · ‎01-14-2019

Thank you for attempting to help...I truly appreciate it.

I will check to see how I'm streaming videos on Hulu at work since I can't even connect currently at home. I know it's not an issue with Hulu because my account was used by my son on someone else's WiFi. Again, i shared with the salesperson what I needed the WiFi for and was reassured we'd have no issues as a family of 5 streaming videos.

My kids play Fortnite and Pub G. Our previous provider was AireBeam (only in Arizona) and they were able to play the games with minimal lag. I don't play the games so I have no idea about it but they said the ping was at 100-200. Currently the ping is at 700-1000 and I watched them play and it jumps drastically. Almost like it's glitching out.

joleenc · ‎01-14-2019

I should also mention that on my last call with Tech Support they had me change my NetFlix settings to a lower viewing option and the shows would play but they were horrible quality.

maratsade · ‎01-14-2019

Were the shows of bad quality during the entire showing? I ask because this happens to me too, but within a few minutes the shows play without any issues and they look very good in SD. Ditto Amazon Prime.

I realise everyone's experience is different due to many different variables, but just wanted to throw this out there.

*I am not a Hughesnet employee or representative. This is a customer-to-customer tech support community, and I am a customer.

@joleenc wrote:
I should also mention that on my last call with Tech Support they had me change my NetFlix settings to a lower viewing option and the shows would play but they were horrible quality.

joleenc · ‎01-14-2019

I let it play for probably 15 mins of a 30 min show and it was really pixelated the whole time.

maratsade · ‎01-14-2019

Well, phooey. That stinks. 😞 Maybe there's a lot of congestion on your beam. I have issues with pixelation during times when a lot of people are home (like weekends or holidays).

@joleenc wrote:
I let it play for probably 15 mins of a 30 min show and it was really pixelated the whole time.