First billing?

[stevef]

 Ok, now I'm getting worried.

I switched from Gen 4 to Gen 5.

Reason: I read on the Intenret, that it's going to be 5 dollars cheaper / month to go from Dish to Hughes.

At Dish, no one charged us for any installation. But now I see that now we might get charged?

I'm also worried because of the rental fee thing. I read it's $4.99. Is it though? I'm not sure, as the salesman didn't tell anything about it.

Also,l the salesman said he'll charge us for $9.99. Well, he did. Then 1 dollar more. Then another $1.69.

$12.70 is not $9.99 at all. For people who make 200 dollars a day is probably not a big deal, but my family is way under tha poverty level. We can't afford this. Also why can't we see anything about any exact numbers about the monthly bills? All I see is 59.99. So it's all? And taxes? If it's not all, then it should be metioned. Is the installation was free?

Wher do I turn off auto-paying? Why is it even turned on now? Obviously if they charging my card randomly, then I can't have it turned on. 

I have a feeling that my family is getting into trouble. Suspicious overcharging in the first 2 days? What is going to happen in the next 24 months? No one overcharged us at Dish, ever. They never charged anything for installation either. Yet, at this point we don't even know what is going on, and we are scared, if we have to pay even more than what we paid to Dish, even though the whole point of switching to Hughes, because of the promise of a lower monthly fee. 😕

We paid $72 at Dish, every month, for the lowest service 10/50. Taxes included, there was no install fee or anything.

[stevef]

Ok, I accidentally clicked on a link, now it's broke down to everything.

Taxes
Property Tax Surcharge	1	$0.75
HughesNet Plan Detail
Promo Service Credit	1	-$10.00
Lease Set-up	1	$99.00
Equipment Lease Promo	1	-$5.00
Equipment Lease	1	$14.99
Lease Credit	1	-$99.00
10 GB Service Plan	1	$59.99
Service Credit	1	-$50.00
Total Accounts Charged	1	$10.73

Can a company collect Property Tax? Isn't that a local government's job? I never seen any company collecting it. Sales Tax is different. But I see even that got callected, so what is "Property Tax" that companies collect? I have company, never heard of collecting property tax as a random LLC. One thing is sure, the guy said nothing about it on the phone. Nor about paying 14.99 for equipment lease.

I seen 49.99 for the cheapest one, yet it's 59.99 on the website. So, if it's $59.99, and the Lease is $14.99, + paying sales tax, then how is this going to be cheaper than paying $72? 

Is the Equipment Lease Promo is for every month? Even with that, It would be questionable after sales tax.

So, is there someone at the company who could tell me and make me sure that I don't pay more for the same service I got (Gen 5) then I had before with Dish? (Gen 4). The speed even feels slower now, and it's the same 10/50. No speed upgrade, no data cap upgrade. So the reason I switched, because I was told there is a lower monthly fee if I all in Hughes and ask them for a switch from Dish. 

[stevef]

Lease Taxes
	MI
		Tax	$0.89

If the equipment lease I paid was not 14.99, but 9.99, because of the -5, then why I got charged 0.89 for tax? 9.99 x 0.06 sales tax = $0.59 

Any information about this? I see nothing about the company charging property taxes. 

Additional Property Taxes
	MI
		Tax	$0.05

[Amanda]

Hi Steve,

Welcome to our community and thank you for reaching out to us here. I am happy to help investigate this with you and see if we can't clear the air on some of the concerns you are having, as well as fix anything that may be incorrect. I've located your account and will take some time to review it and escalate it if needed. I will keep you updated on my progress.

Gabe, thanks as always for your awesome help.

-Amanda

[stevef]

Hello Amanda,

Thank you. I'm just really worrying about the monthly bill. I did check the one with Dish, it was not even $72, I paid $70.50 a month. So if the monthly bill with Hughes would be higher, it would mean I made a really bad deal.

(The Video Data Saver / Settings is also missing, hopefully someone can fix that issue at Hughes.)

[stevef]

Also, I thought we have to real and sign some documents.

No one offered us to sign anything. We signed with finger on a phone something, the guy who installed the system. He said we have to sign that, it's about we being satisfied by his install-work.

But no contract to read and sign? Terms of service? User agreement? We read of signed nothing of those. No one sent us any paperwork, not even a PDF file or a link. 😕 

[stevef]

Promo Service Credit

1

-$10.00

Is this a Credit we are going to get every month? That way we could just be at the same as with Dish Network before this "upgrade".

I asked my wife. She told me the same, she didn't sign any useragreement or contract. The sales-person didn't even mention anything about a contract. So, we gave no signature, nor read anything.

I still can't find turning off the auto-payment. I will pay with Credit Card each month, but I don't want any company automatically charging me on random days, not telling me what for, and MAYBE putting it on a bill, that is a mess and shows no details. With dish I got a bill/invoice, then I had to pay in 10 days. It was simple and I never had any issue with them. Over 2.5 years with them, zero issue. 2 days with Hughes, I'm freaking out over the mess I face with. I need answers, asap.

[GabeU · Accepted solution]

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@stevef wrote: 

I'm also worried because of the rental fee thing. I read it's $4.99. Is it though? I'm not sure, as the salesman didn't tell anything about it.

---

The lease fee for Gen5 equipment is $14.99 per month.  And yes, the lease fee is every month.  It appears, however, that you may be getting a $5 discount every month.  A rep will have to verify that.   

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@stevef wrote:

Wher do I turn off auto-paying? Why is it even turned on now? Obviously if they charging my card randomly, then I can't have it turned on.  

---

You have to call to request invoice billing.  866-347-3929.  Please be aware that there is a $5 fee for invoice billing. 

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@stevef wrote:

Can a company collect Property Tax? Isn't that a local government's job? I never seen any company collecting it. Sales Tax is different. But I see even that got callected, so what is "Property Tax" that companies collect? 

---

HughesNet must collect the taxes that are required by law.   

---

@stevef wrote:

I seen 49.99 for the cheapest one, yet it's 59.99 on the website. So, if it's $59.99, and the Lease is $14.99, + paying sales tax, then how is this going to be cheaper than paying $72? 

---

Judging by the breakdown, you may have a $10 credit per month off of the Service Plan cost.  

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@stevef wrote:

But no contract to read and sign? Terms of service? User agreement? We read of signed nothing of those. No one sent us any paperwork, not even a PDF file or a link. 

---

You can see the legal info, including the Terms of Service and User Agreement, here.  Additionally, agreeing to the service and utilizing the service constitutes agreeing to the contract.  

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@stevef wrote:

I still can't find turning off the auto-payment. I will pay with Credit Card each month, but I don't want any company automatically charging me on random days, not telling me what for, and MAYBE putting it on a bill, that is a mess and shows no details.

---

Again, to change to invoice billing you need to call.  The company doesn't randomly charge you.  When you first upgrade there will be prorated charges.  Once your first month of normal charges begins, that's what it will be every month, on the same date, unless and until a promotional discount ends, you purchase data tokens, you upgrade your service or your state and/or local taxes change.  

A rep will have to verify specific charges and your other specific questions regarding fees, like the property taxes.  The reps are on M-F from 8AM to 5PM EST.  They usually answer within a day or two.  

[stevef]

Thank you for the reply.

If there is a -$15 credit, then I'll be ok, that's just slightly less expensive than the Dish Network bill we paid every month. I guess that would be a couple dollars, if If see all these new taxes... Still it would be ok by me.

I don't need paper bills, the invoice is online and I found it. However that's not right if they charge me witout my approval.

Dish had the bill, and they gave us 10 days to pay. They never charged our card without our permission.

I know the 6% sales tax, rent tax, etc. But I never heard of property tax collected by an LLC. Dish never said anything about such a thing, and we were with them for over 2.5 years. They have something special connection to Hughes, I think Hughes gives them the Internet, and they just install it and sending bills every month, but the Net itself they run is by Hughes.

Anyway, thank you for telling me that it's -5 and -10 is for every month and I hope you are right. 15 dollars is a lot money for us.

We are going to call the number tomorrow.

Honestly, I'm not sure what is going on. We barely got any information, only on phone, a guy really fastly said a couple info, but not mentioning important things. No contract, no terms of service, no user agreement, no exact fees or taxes, nothing. No signature either. All really qestionable practice. 😕

[GabeU]

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@stevef wrote:

I don't need paper bills, the invoice is online and I found it. However that's not right if they charge me witout my approval.

---

There are only two choices for billing.  Automatic billing or Invoice billing.   Automatic is without a paper bill.  Invoice billing is with a paper bill, but it also enables you to choose when to pay, as long as it's by the due date, of course.  Invoice billing incurs the additional $5 fee.  

Though I'm sure many people, including yourself, would like to be able to choose when to pay, but not pay $5 for a paper invoice, that option is not available, unfortunately.  

I'm sure when you call they'll be able to verify those two monthly discounts (the $10 and $5).  A rep on here may also verify it for you.  

Regarding the taxes, to be honest, I'd wait to find out what the reps on here say.  Sometimes the phone reps can be a little rote and difficult to understand.  You can certainly ask them, though, of course.  

Edit:  Regarding the automatic billing, it's the default.  I'm not sure if it's part of the scripted speech that they rattle off toward the end of the sales call, but I think it is.  

Regarding the contract: though I'm not positive of this, as I read it online beforehand and just signed the phone when the installer handed it to me, they do have it available for you to read before you sign the phone, but you have to ask to see it, which you have the right to do before you sign.   

[stevef]

"Regarding the contract: though I'm not positive of this, as I read it online beforehand and just signed the phone when the installer handed it to me, they do have it available for you to read before you sign the phone, but you have to ask to see it, which you have the right to do before you sign."

That's the problem. There was a sign, for "starting the install" and there was another one for "finishing it right". So we signed something that we never seen? No one told us that we are signing contract on phone.

And as no one told us, then we cannot ask to read it. We were just surprised that no contract was anywhere provided to us.

I don't know if this practice is legal, but it shouldn't be.

The person on the phone should provide a link to the contract, to the agreement, to the ToS. Then we would have about 20 hours to read it, as the person who installed showed up in 20 hours. 

I kinda think that it's not an accident.

Either way, if there is the -$15 and we get that each month, then it's going to be alright. Even though I think not letting people know about the contract and not letting them to read is pretty much illegal or at least morally 100% wrong. 

(One thing to mention, he did an excellent job, he spent like 2 hours outside, almost in 0 Farenheit, his pants were literally frozen. As the service is so expensive, I hope these employees are getting paid well by the company.)

[GabeU]

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@stevef wrote:

Even though I think not letting people know about the contract and not letting them to read is pretty much illegal or at least morally 100% wrong. 

---

It's not illegal, and it's actually fairly common.  Contracts are "able to be read", for lack of a better term, but not "required to be read", so providers, of whatever type, normally don't provide a contract during installation, or when signing up for the service, unless the subscriber asks for it.  The contracts and any other subscriber related documentation, like the Terms of Service, the Subscriber Agreement, etc, are always available for the subscriber to read, and I believe that companies feel it's the subscriber's responsibility to read it before signing on the proverbial dotted line.  

It's not perfect, but it is what it is.  😞

I'm not sure about the lease fee discount, but when it comes to the Service Plan discount, it may be that it's only for a specific amount of time.  Discounts from the plans are usually for a 12 month or 24 month period, at which time the price goes up to the normal plan price.  This may or may not be the case with your plan discount, though.  I'm sure the reps will verify how long the discount(s) lasts, as well.  🙂

I'll tag the reps so that they will be sure to see this thread and reply to answer your questions and concerns.  

@Liz 

@Hardy 

@Jay 

@Amanda

[GabeU]

I'm hoping that they'll reply soon.  

[Amanda]

Hi Steve

Just to get you some info early on, yes there is a total of $15 is discounts for your first 12 months of service. $5 is off the lease equipment, $10 is a special promotion offer. Some of the things you mentioned here are concerning regarding your sales experience, so I also wanted to let you know we've opened a case to investigate that further. Your monthly bill should be 59.98 + tax (I will also get specifics for you on how taxes are calculated)

Thanks

Amanda

[stevef]

Hi Amanda,

It sounds like then the first 12 month would be just about the same as we paid for Dish Network.

But the 2nd 12 month is going to be so expensive that we are going to lose $180+ tax ... As it's going to be the same speed and same data cap, I'm not sure why Dish told me that we should upgrade to Gen 5, because it's going to be cheaper.

I hope there there is a solution here, the only reason we upgraded, because we were told that it's going to be slightly cheaper. So far, it sounds like we made a really bad deal. I hope something can be done about the 2nd 12 months.

I find it unfair, that no one showed us a contract and nothing about the exact cost of the switch from Dish Gen4 to Hughes Gen5. At Dish, they told us more about what we get and for how much exactly.

[stevef]

I apologize if I sound upset, I just hope we are not going to lose money over this, as we are a married couple living in poverty and the whole point was saving a couple dollars a month by switching the Internet Provider to Hughes. 😞 

[maratsade]

I'm sure that a Hughesnet staff member will address your concerns.  You may have to wait until Monday, though, as they're not usually here on the weekends. 

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

stevef wrote:

I apologize if I sound upset, I just hope we are not going to lose money over this, as we are a married couple living in poverty and the whole point was saving a couple dollars a month by switching the Internet Provider to Hughes. 😞 

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[stevef]

"You can see the legal info, including the Terms of Service and User Agreement, here.  Additionally, agreeing to the service and utilizing the service constitutes agreeing to the contract."

That's one of the issue. They never said anything about these. They didn't say anything about legal info, ToS, User Agreement, contract, etc. We didn't even set automatic payment. Someone at Hughes did. They did put our card info in the system and started to auto-charge it, without our approval or even telling anything about it.

Getting the bill, then paying the bill. That's how it works in business. Sometimes I do business with Chinese companies, but even they send me a bill before asking me to pay. It's shocking that a company can just charge peoples' credit cards randomly for everything, without telling about it. As a victim of a credit card fraud, I really don't appreciate getting unauthorized - unexplained weird transactions on my Credit Card. 

[stevef]

Thinking of the bill, maybe the "Property Tax" is the "sales tax", they just named it wrong on the bill?

I mean I don't see anything "sales tax" charge, so that would make sense.

[GabeU]

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@stevef wrote:

Thinking of the bill, maybe the "Property Tax" is the "sales tax", they just named it wrong on the bill?

I mean I don't see anything "sales tax" charge, so that would make sense.

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I think this might be what it is.  This is from a different provider's site, but it explains what the charge is and what it's for.  It's a copy/paste from that site.

"Property Tax Surcharge is a non-discountable monthly charge, applied to recover property tax assessments and other fees imposed by various taxing jurisdictions upon local exchange carriers and service providers."