Cancelling a contract without penalty

[4ghawk]

I feel I have some justification to cancel my HughesNet contract without penalty.

In January 2020 I was contacted by a local Hughes Net rep/installer offering to inspect and upgrade my equipment which would result in a decrease in monthly charges. This sounded like a good idea; I accepted the offer and on 1/16/2020 an installer came and installed a new modem which I was told was needed to set up a new account to enable the reduction in monthly charges as promised. I was not aware at this point that it also included a 2 year contract. (Apparently contract and account mean the same).

I received an undated notice later that my HughesNet Service had been terminated, with instructions about returning the old modem. I perceived that this was just a request to return the old modem.  With this I complied, still not realizing I had committed to a new contract.

If necessary I can give the old and current account numbers.

I should have suspected when the 4 GB of data tokens I had didn’t carry over that we were dealing with a completely new commitment.

Things seemed to go well until the 7/16/2020 billing when the amount jumped by about $20.00.  I found out then that the promotional fee that was originally offered was for only a 6 month period; which was not apparent initially. This was certainly a lack of or poor representation of the offer. Now I have to go on every 3 months and ask for a new promotional period rate. This annoyance is actually another story and can be managed.

There is another issue that I feel might justify cancellation without penalty. Prior to the modem upgrade, I was able to stream videos from various sites (like Facebook, You Tube, and Skype) without buffering. This is not the case now.
I contacted support and they walked me through changing the channel I was on and this didn’t make a significant change. I also mentioned very slow upload speeds, which I have been led to believe may be a contributing factor with this problem. I have not called them back on this because my confidence in resolving issues like this with HughesNet is not too high.  

I realize that poor service is not by itself justification to cancel without penalty, but coupled with the lack of understanding regarding the setting up a new account/contract is certainly poor representation if not misrepresentation of what was being offered. If there was not a new contract involved I could cancel now without penalty.

When you call customer service, the reps try to help solve problems and answer questions, but they are not decision makers. Are there any suggestions about how I can proceed? Is there anyone I could contact that might be able to make a definitive determination about this? Could this post be referred to anyone that might be able to help?

• general discussion is not a support area

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• Tags:
• canceling contract
• termination fee

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Reply

[4ghawk]

I feel I have some justification to cancel my HughesNet contract without penalty.

In January 2020 I was contacted by a local Hughes Net rep/installer offering to inspect and upgrade my equipment which would result in a decrease in monthly charges. This sounded like a good idea; I accepted the offer and on 1/16/2020 an installer came and installed a new modem which I was told was needed to set up a new account to enable the reduction in monthly charges as promised. I was not aware at this point that it also included a 2 year contract. (Apparently contract and account mean the same).

I received an undated notice later that my HughesNet Service had been terminated, with instructions about returning the old modem. I perceived that this was just a request to return the old modem.  With this I complied, still not realizing I had committed to a new contract.

If necessary I can give the old and current account numbers.

I should have suspected when the 4 GB of data tokens I had didn’t carry over that we were dealing with a completely new commitment.

Things seemed to go well until the 7/16/2020 billing when the amount jumped by about $20.00.  I found out then that the promotional fee that was originally offered was for only a 6 month period; which was not apparent initially. This was certainly a lack of or poor representation of the offer. Now I have to go on every 3 months and ask for a new promotional period rate. This annoyance is actually another story and can be managed.

There is another issue that I feel might justify cancellation without penalty. Prior to the modem upgrade, I was able to stream videos from various sites (like Facebook, You Tube, and Skype) without buffering. This is not the case now.
I contacted support and they walked me through changing the channel I was on and this didn’t make a significant change. I also mentioned very slow upload speeds, which I have been led to believe may be a contributing factor with this problem. I have not called them back on this because my confidence in resolving issues like this with HughesNet is not too high.  

I realize that poor service is not by itself justification to cancel without penalty, but coupled with the lack of understanding regarding the setting up a new account/contract is certainly poor representation if not misrepresentation of what was being offered. If there was not a new contract involved I could cancel now without penalty.

When you call customer service, the reps try to help solve problems and answer questions, but they are not decision makers. Are there any suggestions about how I can proceed? Is there anyone I could contact that might be able to make a definitive determination about this? Could this post be referred to anyone that might be able to help?

[maratsade]

Is your account business or residential? I ask because this community is for residential subscribers.

You may want to read the subscriber agreement information (something that every subscriber should read before opening an account):

Residential

Business

You are legally bound by the subscriber agreement, and there is a penalty for breaking the agreement before the 24 month commitment. Typically, "I wasn't told/didn't know about it" is not a reason to waive the early termination penalty.  All the information is available freely and openly on the HN site. 

If you are not willing to work with the reps to improve your service, the early termination penalty is normally considered valid and applies. Your best bet is to work with them to improve your experience, within the limitations of satellite internet. 

If you are a residential subscriber, you can work with the corporate reps on this site -- ultimately, they will decide how to proceed with your situation.  Patience and cooperation will go a long way in your favour.

If the reps here need any information from you, they will request it. Do not post any personal information or account numbers here. 

[4ghawk]

Thanks for your prompt and through reply. Looks like my only recourse is to try to "improve the experience".  I have usually contacted customer service by phone. How would I go about working with (or contact) the corporate reps on this site?

[maratsade]

The phone reps are the first tier and they only have so much authority in what they can do; the decision makers are the corporate reps -- your best bet is to work with them here. To do so, stay on the site and a rep will answer your post on this thread.  Keep in mind this is not like chat or phone customer service; it's not 24/7 and answers may not come right away.  

[Remy]

4ghawk,

I see it's your first post! Welcome to the Community! We'd love to help out and look into working on the issues you've been experiencing. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to locate an account attached to your Community profile. Please send me a private message at this link with your account number or a phone number associated to the account attached. This will help us pull up your information and take a deeper dive into the issues you've been having, and will also give us a full rundown on the notes of your previous calls.

Thanks,

Remy