Deceptive GEN5 Upgrage Practice, or lack of upgrade.

[jlantz]

I have been trying since Monday to get my system upgraded to GEN5

Every time they try to subnit my order, it returns an error, supposedly saying the system they are trying to contact is not available, and they say they can not upgrade me today... 

I have spent well over 3 hours on the phone and NO ONE WILL OWN AND FIX THIS PROBLEM.

I keep getting passed from sales clerk to sales clerk. They say they will be right back after checking on the problem, and I end up starting all over with a different sales person.. 

I am being forced to stay locked in a higher priced product with lesser service. It is in Hughesnet interest not to upgrade me, because they are making more moneny from me on the old system than if they upgrade me, and take less money from me on the new system.

Sure feels like a scam.. Offer a cheaper product, then keep saying sorry, we can't today.... It's been over a week now, and at one time I was told this probem has been happening almost two months now.. 

What's the issue Hughes?????? What a bad way to do business.. you are looking pretty incapable to this customer

Why can no one own this problem and why can no one upgrade my system?!?!?!

[jlantz]

Here's an idea Hughes... If you really care about your customers, why don't you lower my current monthly payment to $99.99 a month for my current plan, since you say you can't or won't or refuse to upgrade me to the new 50gig plan that is $99.99 a month. 

I am being ripped off by you not upgrading me... You are charging me more, for a lesser plan than your current top tier upgrade... 

I would also love to know why you do not use US call centers? I am sick and tired of trying to understand someone who has no idea how to fix my problem... Also if you "accidently" hang up on a customer, why do you not call them back? OH I KNOW.. because the agent has no way to fix this problem, and wants nothing mere than to get another irate customer off the phone.... Hughes would rather leave a long time customer hanging than give them SERVICE.... 

I don't know.. maybe it's time to go to Excede.. but then again, I'm sure Hughes could really care less...  

[Liz]

Good morning jlantz,

Welcome to the community and thanks for posting. We certainly do want to upgrade you to Gen 5. This is definitely an unusual occurrence, and after reviewing your account's case notes, I'm seeing our agents' reports and copies of the error they're getting when trying to process your upgrade.

If it's OK with you, I'd like to try upgrading you myself to see if this particular error persists. If it does, I can escalate this to our billing team here at corporate. If it comes to that, I will also credit your account while we work on resolving this for you.

Looking forward to hearing back from you.

[jlantz]

THANK YOU LIZ!!!!!!

Yes, I would love if you upgrade me... I want the 50g plan and I want to lease the new equiment.

Im still pretty frustrated that Hughes does not have a way to escalate a consumer problem on the phone, and leaves a person to have air their problems in a public forum until it causes someone to care enough to help.

[Liz]

Hi jlantz,

You're welcome! I tried the upgrade and I got the same error message. Unfortunately it's a cryptic error code that doesn't indicate what the matter is. After digging around a bit, I think I have an idea as to why no one is able to process an upgrade. Please check your private messages in the top right corner of the community page by clicking the envelope icon, I will be sending you a PM to further address your concerns.

[Liz · Accepted solution]

Good morning jlantz,

Please check your PMs, as I've sent you the contact information for your dealer doing the Gen 5 upgrade for you.

[jlantz]

Thaank you so much Liz. You've been a great help with this.

[Liz]

You're very welcome, jlantz. Please don't hesitate to contact us again if you have additional concerns.

Enjoy your weekend!

[dannyleo]

Hughes net meters back all of their signals... no one actually gets what is advertised.  Gen 4 gave me 1.5mb streaming speed ... not enough to view netflix.   Gen 5 is not better... except they promise more speed but deliver none of it.  

[GabeU]

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@dannyleo wrote:

Hughes net meters back all of their signals... no one actually gets what is advertised.  Gen 4 gave me 1.5mb streaming speed ... not enough to view netflix.   Gen 5 is not better... except they promise more speed but deliver none of it.  

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First, Hughesnet doesn't "meter back" anything until one is in FAP.  

Secondly, my Gen5 speed below.  If that's not delivering, I'd like to know what is.  

[Gwalk900]

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@dannyleo wrote:

Hughes net meters back all of their signals... no one actually gets what is advertised.  

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This is soooo very very true !

I can't speak to Gen5 but my Gen4 'up to' 15 Mbps plan routinely gives me 21-27 Mbps speeds. Not at all or even close to what is advertised.

I need to contact the NFL about this.

[GabeU]

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@Gwalk900 wrote:

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@dannyleo wrote:

Hughes net meters back all of their signals... no one actually gets what is advertised.  

---

This is soooo very very true !

I can't speak to Gen5 but my Gen4 'up to' 15 Mbps plan routinely gives me 21-27 Mbps speeds. Not at all or even close to what is advertised.

I need to contact the NFL about this.

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Heck, I didn't even think about my Gen4 plan before I upgraded.  I was getting in the high 20s as well.  How dare they!!!  And my folks' Gen4 plan's advertised speed is up to 10Mbps, and THEY are getting in the high 20s.  Not even close to what is advertised, for sure.  

[BirdDog]

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@GabeU wrote:

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@Gwalk900 wrote:

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@dannyleo wrote:

Hughes net meters back all of their signals... no one actually gets what is advertised.  

---

This is soooo very very true !

I can't speak to Gen5 but my Gen4 'up to' 15 Mbps plan routinely gives me 21-27 Mbps speeds. Not at all or even close to what is advertised.

I need to contact the NFL about this.

---

Heck, I didn't even think about my Gen4 plan before I upgraded.  I was getting in the high 20s as well.  How dare they!!!  And my folks' Gen4 plan's advertised speed is up to 10Mbps, and THEY are getting in the high 20s.  Not even close to what is advertised, for sure.  

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Although I've had some peak time slowdowns lately, my speed is generally above advertised. Even when really slow I can do what I need even stream at low definition. Only impact is I have to wait for off peak times for large file downloads, not end of world, what scheduling downloads with a file manager is for. Latest test is pretty good for a Friday night.

[GabeU]

@BirdDog

Are you not upgrading to Gen5 because you are saving more sticking with the plan you have?  

[BirdDog]

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@GabeU wrote:

@BirdDog

Are you not upgrading to Gen5 because you are saving more sticking with the plan you have?  

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There is that aspect. I see no advantage right now to enter a new contract, pay for upgrade, etc., and definitely don't need a modem with built in WiFi, my ASUS has data tracking by device.

I have Gen4 Ultra and is working well aside from some peak time slowdown. Can still do most everything fine other than large file downloading when really slow.

Is funny in a way, I remember waiting for hours back in the 7000s days for a 100 MB driver file to download or even going to the local library to do it. Now I can't deal with it. Tells me something has definitely gotten better over the years with satellite speed. Some slowdown at times I expect.

Just my opinion but believe much is still going on with the ground infrastructure side of things and a lot tweaking with both J1 and J2 to optimize the whole configuration.

[GabeU]

@BirdDog

That's understandable.  As long as you still like what you have, there's no reason to upgrade.  

I was pretty satisfied with what I had (aside of the evening slowdowns), but when I found out that even after the first twelve months of $20 off per month I'd be saving money while getting more data and higher speeds, I couldn't resist.  I figured I'd have to pay an installation fee or even an activation fee, but when I found out I didn't it was the icing on the cake.  

And, not that I ever plan on running out of data, when I found out the FAP speed was that much higher that was the cherry on top.  LOL.  

I have literally no other option here.  Not even reliable cell service.  So going into a new contract wasn't an issue for me as it's either this or dialup.

They're definitely still playing around with things.  My signal strength has varied a bit, but has been stable now for about a week at around 106.  

[wildcats198308]

I also was glad to hear there was no Cost to Upgrade.  I did not have Gen4, so everything was a PLUS to upgrade except the 50 GB from 2am-8am when I had UNLIMITED from 2am-7am.  The totally free upgrade was the icing on the cake for me as well and the more reasonable FAP speeds!   I was paying $69.99  so after the $20 savings for 12 months it will be the same with faster speeds with slightly more data usage. 

I do have reliable cell service but cell data is expensive for having Hotspot usage plus its one set limit for the entire month (no bonus period with extra data)

My signal has been still around 100.   It did go up some for a few days now its back down.

[BirdDog]

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@GabeU wrote:

They're definitely still playing around with things.  My signal strength has varied a bit, but has been stable now for about a week at around 106.  

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My signal jumped 10 points today and is staying there. Higher than it has ever been and sure don't think it is atmospherics or some other intangable reason. Some kind of adjustments going on IMO.

[udanwudeligv]

GabeU and BirdDog, 
I'm not sure if I should post this here or elsewhere, but I'm shocked at what you say your speeds are.  In the past 3 weeks since I got Gen5 installed, I've gotten around 19-29 Mbps, download, and 1.8 to 2.5 up. 

Previously on Gen4 I could watch a 1 hr show on netflix per day, but chose not to since it ate up a lot of data (this was before I knew you could dial it down to a lower resolution. 
So now that I have Gen5 I've done the Netflix streaming thing and was doing OK up until about 2-3 days ago. NOW I can't get Netflix to work at all. It will spool but never play. And I don't just mean peak times (like now I'm getting 15.8 down and 2.27 up) I mean even in mid-morning, or early afternoon. And that's with it turned down to low resolution. 

EDIT: Well, after I posted this, I thought about deleting cookies, and guess what, it's working now! But I AM still shocked at the speeds your getting! 
 
Isabel 

[BirdDog]

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@udanwudeligv wrote:

GabeU and BirdDog, 
What should I do? I've seen people say Netflix is "easily streamable" but not for me. 
Thanks, 
Isabel 

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I'm sorry but honestly have no idea as I can stream Netflix on my Gen4 plan. About all I can suggest is to turn off the modem WiFi and plug directly into the modem to see if any better.

I personally suggest setting Netflix to low definition streaming regardless if Gen4 or Gen5 simply for the data savings if nothing else.

It may be best to start a new post if you haven't already, we've kind of gone off topic here.

[GabeU]

@udanwudeligv

To be honest, I'm not really sure what the problem could be.  Perhaps BirdDog, or one of the other more knowledgeable people in here might have an idea of what you can try other than what I list below.  

If the devices you are trying to stream on are connected by Wi-Fi, you might try, if you have the ability to do so, connecting a device directly to the modem with a LAN cable and see if it makes any difference.  If you have a device with which you can directly connect, but that doesn't have the ability to stream with Netflix, you could still run some speed tests to see if you are getting the same results as Wi-Fi.  If not, perhaps there is something going on with the Wi-Fi connection and this is what's causing the inability to stream.  

http://testmy.net/

When you speed test, you should be running the tests under and account you create at testmy.net.  Also, when you run the tests, make sure to use the 25MB test file size for download tests and the 4MB test file size for upload tests, but the download tests are the more important of the two.

This is really the only thing I can think of trying.  If this doesn't tell you anything, I hope someone more knowledgeable than I can help.   

P.S.  I know that they are almost assuredly still fiddling with the gateways and even the entire system to get it "dialed in", if you will, but I don't know if that would have anything to do with this issue.  

Edit:  Posted a few seconds after BirdDog, so I didn't know he had chimed in already.  I  also agree that it might be best to start a new post for this issue.  Make sure to start it in "Tech Support."