Goodbye HughesNet Bad Last Impression

[Danger]

Was able to receive AT&T Fixed Wireless Internet, as part of the CAF funding for our rural area.  It is fantastic- $60 a month for 170GB, and the ability to take on another 1TB in data if needed.  After six years, we are streaming.  Steady 40-50 mpbs with 30 latency.  My speeds with HN were all over the place, despite the 25 mpbs guarantee.

Have some real issues though with HughesNet cancellation policy.  They will bill you for the full month regardless of when you cancel.  They will not refund any unused tokens.  I have canceled several subscription services and never have paid for services not used.  Leaves a bad last impression- although I have no plans on coming back.  I would use Viasat at this point which has improved their pricing greatly in this area.  On top of all of that, my customer service rep must have been from a foreign country; could barely understand me and I had to repeat each sentence slowly three times.

Lack of competition is really killing this part of the Internet service business.  I'm hopeful for everyone out there that you'll get more choices in the future.

[GabeU]

@Danger

When a service cancellation is requested it is normally performed at the end of the current billing period.  However, if immediate cancellation is requested they can immediately cancel the service and prorate the charges for that current billing period, I believe.  

Unfortunately, any token purchases are non-refundable.  It's treated in the same way as remaining plan data, in that it's not refunded.  

Per the subscriber agreement:

6.4 UNUSED DATA TOKENS. 

You agree that any Data Tokens you may have purchased, or which may been provided to you free of charge, have no intrinsic value if you are no longer a HughesNet Subscriber. Thus, any value associated with any such tokens will lapse at the time of termination of your Service. 

[Danger]

Don't disagree that that is the exact contract language; just saying that it's not a good business practice.  You paid for something you didn't use, and they keep the full value.  They aren't put out financially by someone not using tokens.  It's small money, and in the bigger scheme, seems cheap on their part.

As for the prorated balance, the customer service rep struggled so much to understand what I was saying that I'm not sure he would have known this to be true.

Great community on here by the way, especially you Gabe.  But this business model for satellite is so fragile- this fixed wireless is a game changer if they are able to implement it with additional towers over the next few years.  We've saved over $120 a month by also eliminating a landline and replacing with VOIP.  We can also now consider cutting the cord on satellite TV.  Rural areas deserve better, for sure.

[MarkJFine]

Pretty sure the business model is there because the infrastructure costs warrant it. The fee structure is there to:
1. Ensure people think about what they're purchasing before buying.
2. Don't make rash decisions to discontinue.

This is true for terrestrial services as well, but I'm sure the installation and maintenance costs for satellite services vastly outweigh that of terrestrial.

You may not like it from a customer standpoint, but it makes a lot of sense from a business standpoint.

BTW: The above conditions do include expectations-setting. The corporate-level admins on this board go through great pains to rectify anything a salesman said that was problmatic.

[Danger]

It's just not standard business practice, so I find it interesting you defend it.  

I've cancelled satellite radio and television, and I've always received a prorate for what was used, and credited for what was unused.

For a company to fail to credit a customer for what was not used, tells me that their financial situation is poor.  This particular business practice isn't common; I don't see a great need to defend it. 

Contracts, and penalties to break contracts protect the satellite company for these "rash decisions".  There is no need to pile on at cancellation by forcing someone to pay for something they aren't receiving.

I haven't needed a corporate level admin to level set any expectations, as I wasn't promised anything by a salesman.  Perhaps you are thinking of another post.

The community here is very supportive, but often overly defensive of satellite and Hughes Net in general.  Call it like it is- given choice, people will flee in a heartbeat.   Wired and satellite solutions for terrestial customers aren't growing and satellite services will likely serve mostly aircraft and extremely rural areas in the future.  The moves on wireless are changing the game quickly.

[MarkJFine]

You cancelled RECEIVE ONLY satellite radio and television, which neither requires transmitting equipment with limited precise alignments nor specialized equipment to handle time-sensitive ack/nack handshaking over a 75km 3-point datalink. Never mind the sunk costs of the satellite(s), real estate, and the non-recurring and recurring engineering required for several ground stations across the west coast that RECEIVE ONLY satellite and wireless doesn't require.

We're defensive because we hear it all the time: People that don't understand what they bought, but are adamant that it should be something it's not: A drop in replacement for television. By doing so, it not only affects the user, but it puts an extra load, slowing down everyone else sharing the same ground station. It gets old real quick.

Edit: Just went to Verizon Wireless:
"If your contract term results from your purchase of an advanced device, your early termination fee will be $350, which will decline by $10 per month upon completion of months 7–17, $20 per month upon completion of months 18–22, $60 upon completion of month 23 …" Sounds pretty standard to me.

Edit 2: Comcast Xfinity:
"Comcast / Xfinity will charge you a fee to cancel your contract before its natural end. The fee is $10 per month remaining on the on the contract. So if you cancel with 11 months remaining..."

[GabeU]

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@Danger wrote:

It's just not standard business practice, so I find it interesting you defend it.

ViaSat/Exede doesn't refund unused additional data.  

Verizon doesn't refund unused additional data.

AT&T doesn't refund unused add-on data.

Tracfone doesn't refund unused additional data.  I only add this one as I have it, though it's quite different from the rest.   

With capped or soft capped internet service, including the at home versions of the cell services, this actually is a standard business practice.  They pretty much say the same thing regarding the extra data purchase, in that it has "no monetary value" and is, therefore, not refundable.  I'm sure there are examples of companies that do refund them.  

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@Danger wrote: 
For a company to fail to credit a customer for what was not used, tells me that their financial situation is poor.  

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HughesNet's financial situation isn't poor.  This has been their policy for years (I checked my old legacy plan).  

I don't really have an opinion on whether it can be considered "fair" or not.  It just is what it is.  I can say, though, that with the first time I saw this question asked, which was early last year, the answer given wasn't something unexpected, and I had never read about the value of tokens prior to this, with the exception of their purchase cost.  I, personally, never expected any unused portion to be refunded, whether whole or partial.