HUGHSNET

[Cherlle]

Since June 2018 I have been a hughnet customer.  The service has never worked correctly.  I specifically asked hughsnet if i could stream TV.  The salesman said "no problem".  That was the first of many lies.  I have ran out of data every month within the first week since getting the service.  Most of that data is used attempting to get on netflix.  Forget regular tv.  Never loads.  I have asked for an amount to get rid of this service.  I have asked on every call to hughnet.  Today while talking to Carlos in Mexico, he informed me that he was very honest and I was going to get charged $295 to disconnect and the $15 a month for 16 months.  I am a vet who lives on a fixed income.  How is this legal?  How do you sleep at night?  Charge me the 295 (which is a rip off because I get terrible service) and the $15 a month???  My bill increased by $20 already and that is money I can no longer use to EAT!!!!!  PLEASE EXPLAIN HOW THIS IS LEGAL?

[Cherlle]

So beside the fact Hughsnet is a horrible service provider, Carlos in Mexico informed me that I have to pay $295 for disconnection and $15 for 16 months on top of that.  Btw, you might want to tell your customer service reps where hughsnet is located in the US cause Carlos had no idea.  Is this factual information?  

[Liz]

Hello Cherlle,

Welcome to the community and thank you for posting. I pulled up your account to address your various concerns, and I see your HughesNet service is already slated for termination 03/05/2019, per yesterday's cancellation call to us.

As you noted, your initial HughesNet order was in June last year, so we wouldn't be able to pull up a sales call for review, due to the age of the order. I can confirm your Early Termination Fee is indeed $295. The $15 a month that Carlos was referring to is the $15 subtracted from the full $400 ETF every month starting 3 months after your initial install. This is explained on our legal site: If you cancel after activation but before the end of your 24-month term commitment, you will be charged a Service Termination Fee of up to $400. The exact amount of the Service Termination Fee will be $400 for the first ninety (90) days after activation of the HughesNet Service. Thereafter, the amount will decrease by $15 per month for each month of active Service.

Regarding your other billing concerns, your account notes show you inquired about being charged for a router. Perhaps you were referring to the monthly lease fee? As a lease customer, your leased equipment includes the HughesNet wifi modem. Your monthly lease fee is $14.95. 

Your 20 GB service plan is $69.99 and is what was charged on your latest bill. You were provided a six month $20 discount last year, and since that discount just expired, your bill reverted to its original price, I hope that clears things up. While some of our customers may receive discounts and/or promotional prices, all of which are temporary, we never change the actual service plan price while you're under contract. 

If you wish to review your bill in detail and print it out, please log into the Support Center: https://my.hughesnet.com/myaccount and follow the instructions here: http://hninfo.us/viewbill To see the breakdown of your bill, open the bill and click the "View Site Details" link in the bottom left corner.

Regarding the technical concerns, the HughesNet system is working normally. Your account notes indicate that the slow speeds were due to running out of data, which was explained on multiple calls. We also suggested disconnecting your Hopper when not in use to conserve your data. Set top TV boxes like that can use very large amounts of data. Currently it's your Roku Ultra that's using the most data. Since Jan 25, the Roku used ~55 GB of data, which is why you're currently subject to the Fair Access Policy and have reduced speeds.

After we found that general browsing and Netflix worked fine, but streaming via Roku was slow, we suggested disabling Interference Mitigation on the Roku. If that is not currently disabled on your Roku, you can do it following these steps to see if that makes a difference:

From the remote control, press these 10 buttons quickly:
HOME-HOME-HOME-HOME-HOME-FFWD-PLAY-REWIND-PLAY-FFWD
From the Platform Secret Screen dialog box, select Wi-Fi Secret Screen from the menu choices.

Otherwise, our agents have noted then, and even right now that your diagnostics show your HughesNet system working properly. I appreciate your time and attention to my explanation. 

Sorry to see you go; we wish you well with your next ISP.