Frustration with billing and this company

[JL72]

I am so frustrated with this comany Im not even sure what to do about it. I had two accounts with Hughesnet. We soon discovered having two was just really a waste and we cut it down to one. I then got charged a 320.00 unreturned equipment fee as i couldnt get the radio off my roof. After speaking with customer service i was told they could send a tech which would cost me 125.00. In my mind i figured i might as well so i could get the whole 320 back again. The guy who came out took down the radio and in doing so also disconnected our active one! So after an hour on hold with Hughesnet they told me they would send another tech out to get the live account up and running again but because no one would be home it couldnt be until Saturday which meant i was going a whole week with no internet. Hughesnet agreed to refund me the 125.00 fee for my trouble. I noticed in my account i now had a negative balance of 225.00 (i looked in the notes and saw they also gave me 100.00 inconvenience credit which i thought was nice. 

Fast forward 2 weeks.I now have my internet back up and running and i have packaged up the small radio and the transmitter and sent them back in the box they provided. I go online and not only do i still see no credit for the returned equipment but now instead of a -225.00 account balance i have a 125.00 pending charge. 

I called several times regarding my returned equipment. I was told they got one piece (modem) and not another (radio)!!! How do you prove everything was sent other than to say "why would i pay someone to come out and take it down if i wasnt going to send it back?". Finally after many calls they agree to manually receive the equipment and i was told to call back in 48 hours, given a case number and told that in 48 hours i can request the refund for the 320.00. Well as im sure you can imagine this did not go so easy. I just got off the phone with them after being on hold back and forth for an hour over this!!! The lady says they processed the refund but wanted me to be aware of the 125.00 pending charge that will come out of that. Upon researching this she tells me its for the technician call!!! WHAT??? I then try to explain that this was supposed to be a refund and the whole story. Another 20 minutes on hold she comes back and sees i was being refunded this fee and apologizes saying i no longer have a pending charge. Well ..hmmm i still have a pending charge (its 140 but only because i had to pay 15.00 for data tokens this morning) and the lady on the customer service chat tells me that she shows i have a 291.00 credit. WHAT? Where did that figure come from??? No one can explain but i have a feeling im never going to see the acutal 320 refund and if i do ill never see the 125 credit becuase now instead of having a negative balanc of 125 they are going to tell me they are taking it out of something else. Im so frustrated and i feel like no one has any clue what they are doing over there. I hate being like this but im so angry and none of this makes any sense.

[maratsade]

Sounds pretty messy! Give the HughesNet mods on this site time to sort things out for you, and they'll contact you on this thread or via private message. 

[Jay · Accepted solution]

JL72, 

Thank you for reaching out! After taking a look at the history of your account, this is what I've found:
 

• 10/18/2019 - You were charged $382.04 
  • This was for your two unreturned equipment fees as well as your bill for the month

• 11/18/2019 - You were charged $168.54
  • $100 (not including tax) was charged for the de-install fee and the remaining amount was for your bill

• 11/18.2019 - You were credited $225
  • $100 should have been for the de-install fee.
  • The $125 credit was applied as the agent thought it was a standard dispatch, not a de-install

• 12/11/2019 - Both credits were removed; however, there are no notes detailing why

• 12/16/2019 - You were credited $431.04
  • $325 for the Unreturned Equipment Fee
  • $106.04 for the De-Install

The unbilled amount on the account is for an upcoming dispatch charge of $125 and the tokens you purchased. I will be crediting your account for the $125 to even that out, so in total, you will have $431.04 of credits on the account to account. These credits account for the de-install fee and unreturned equipment fees that you have paid.

Please let me know if you have any questions concerning your credits.

Thank you,

Jay

[JL72]

First i have to say thank you for taking the time to actually explain this. Its so frustrating to never obtain an explanation and to find out a credit you thought you had and spent so long on the phone with issues over is no longer there with no one having an explanation as to why. Even when the response is "we dont know why that happened" its still better than having no explaination.

However i thank you for going the extra mile and getting it taken care of.

Sincerely,

Judy Lawton

[Jay]

I'm happy to help! Please feel free to reach out if you have any additional questions or concerns.

-Jay

[JL72]

Could i ask one more question regarding the de-install credit? So I actually paid for that already and that was taken out of my bank account a month or so ago and i was supposed to be credited back for what i paid. However now there is ANOTHER pending charge that you are going to credit it against. Yes that will wipe out the pending charge and zero that out but that new charge shouldnt be there anyway because i did not have any additional technician services scheduled. So I never really got that money back. You are only crediting the new one that has for some reason appeared on my account. So if you just credit 125 it to wipe out the pending balance its like not charging me for it (which i shouldnt be as its not an actual call) but im not reimbursed for my original payment. I hope that makes sense.  

[Jay]

No problem, after further investigation, we realized that the charge for the de-install should not have been credited; however because it already has, an additional credit of $18.96 is required to balance the account. I can offer to give you a $10 discount for the next two months to account for this credit.

Would that be alright?

If you have any additional questions or concerns about your billing, I would be happy to provide a full breakdown from May until December. 

Thank you,

Jay

[JL72]

I truly do not understand what you are talking about. Why should it have not been credited? I was charged for an "intall" instead of a deinstall. That should have been refunded but instead it was refunded then cancelled. Then a new bill appears saying i owe an install fee again although nothing new has been done. and then should never have seen another charge on this account as there was no further technician.

Now im facing a new, well not new but new as of today. This same issue with the returned equipment fee. So on the 16th i called in and i was finally told by an agent that my refund for my returned equipment fee would be refunded and in my account as of December 18th (today). She kept me on hold for over an hour while she talked with the advanced billing department (this was right before i posted this original message) and of course its not there. I spoke to someone on chat (case number 125954992) who told me they show it ready to be processed but i had to call in to request it (again). So i just called in and after being on hold again while the agent had to once again call advanced billing i was told i cant get my refund because they need the tracking number for the original equipment. Im so frustrated right now i am ready to go to the better business bureau. We have already been down this road. They are trying to say i never sent back my radio transmitter in the box. I of course did because why the heck would i pay 125 additional for someone to come and take it down if i wasnt going to send it back. It all went out in the box hughesnet sent to me along with the label they sent. Now somehow they have told me in previous calls that they have my modem (in the same box) so obviously they have the tracking number somewhere!! The agent i talked to at the beginning got the ok to manually receive it and this was supposed to be as simple as calling back in 48 hours after it was posted to my account and requesting a refund (this is what i was told). Of course that is not how it went down. Its been a week since then and now they have me back at square one telling me i need a tracking number. This is MY money and it is a credit already on MY account. I want this money back in my account or im taking this as far as i have to. I cannot deal with this anymore. And yes im saving all these messages.

[Jay]

The agents have done nothing currently. All of your credits are still balanced out aside from the $18.96 that I mentioned in my previous post. 

To clarify, you requested a de-install which you were charged for and credited for; however you should not have been credited for this charge. You were also charged for two site visits of $125 each. You have been credited $125 for one of those and by using the credit you should not have received for the de-install, we can cover the majority of the other $125 charge and we are left with $18.96 owed. So, as I offered in my previous post, we are willing to give you a $10 discount for the next two months to account for this credit.

Please do not reach out by phone, e-mail, or chat concerning these billing issues moving forward as I do not want someone else to revoke any credits on the account.

Thank you!

Jay

[JL72]

At this point what would really make me happy would just be cancelling this stupid account. I cannot even count the amount of issues ive had with this company. Id rather authorize you to just keep the credit and I think that Hughesnet should be willing to absorb the rest of the cancellation fee. Things have gotten worse rather than better and id like out so im hoping you could do me that courtesy.

[Jay]

If you are experiencing service issues, I would be happy to assist with those! As of right now, the billing issues have been resolved aside from the remaining $18.96 and as mentioned previously, we would like to offer a discount on the account for the next two months to compensate for that remaining balance.

However, if you simply wish to cancel the account, there will be an Early Termination Fee to do so which, at the current moment, would be covered by the credits on the account.

-Jay

[maratsade]

You can cancel the account at any time by calling 866-347-3292. 

To avoid equipment charges, you will also need to return the equipment (modem, power pack, and the radio from the dish). You will get a kit to return the equipment when you cancel the account.

JL72 wrote:

At this point what would really make me happy would just be cancelling this stupid account. I cannot even count the amount of issues ive had with this company. Id rather authorize you to just keep the credit and I think that Hughesnet should be willing to absorb the rest of the cancellation fee. Things have gotten worse rather than better and id like out so im hoping you could do me that courtesy.

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[seebobfish]

Your response sounds like what I've recently had to deal with. Hughes hires lots of phone support staff who are very poor in speaking clearly. They change their names so you might think they are normal people - they are not! I've spent many hours on phone with tech support people in past years. I am looking for other companies to replace what Hughes provides -100%! THEY WILL LIE, NOT FIB , LIE! And admin supports their basic efforts as well as not addressing the lies. I have always been put on hold as the training they receive is minimal and anything asked of them needs more "training" for the right answer. Hughes is a "one way street" - troubleshooting a minor problem usually works after being put on hold for a few minutes - very few. They will disconnect you while waiting to connect you to their supervisor - many times been done - since no one will get to the bottom of who hung up first. Current issue is their lieing - every call - before you start conversation - warning they are recording for future quality - but when you need to go back to their promise to wave $125.00 for labor to install the failed Hughes equipment, it can't be retrieved. I had one low life Hughes employee tell me the technician needs to eat too! And then I was offered to split the $125 with Hughes so the tech could be paid! The tech who arrived and replaced Hughes failed equipment was the only Hughes related worker I can look forward to working with again! Honest, quick and very tuned in to his work - excellent results! Hughes' name fooled me as I thought high tech, well defined company, very big and successful - maybe so but they "create" problems by hiring people not capable of handling their jobs and put them at the end of the customer support phone! Go figure! This Hughes company is not customer friendly unless you are face to face with them. Too bad Howard isn't still here! This would never have included "poor speakers" as customer interface!

[maratsade]

So you're unhappy and are looking for options, right? Good luck with your next ISP.

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

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@seebobfish wrote:
Your response sounds like what I've recently had to deal with. 

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