Information compromised

[morrisondynasty]

Hello! New to this and was directed by a representative to come here!
So we signed on in December.
In January we were charged $19.95 by a third party company and then the same in February.
I had no idea who this third party company was or what the charge was for so I contacted the phone number on my bank bill. Come to find out this was an IT company.
I was being charged this amount monthly because according to “IT Please” when I signed on with Hughes net we did a bundle with this company for IT services.
The services were for a computer.
We do not own a computer.
So I contacted Hughes net to find out why they had allowed this charge when we had not authorized it and they told me they did not bundle me when we signed on.
When I contacted the third-party company back to find out more information they were able to tell me exactly when I signed on with Hughes net. How did a third Party company receive my credit card information When Hughes net Doesn’t use the services of third-party companies? Did my sales representative give my information out? I would like some answers but unfortunately Hughes net cannot give them to me. Help!

[MarkJFine]

Sounds to me like you actually signed on via a reseller that bundled you, not diretly with HughesNet.

[morrisondynasty]

It was definitely Hughes Net. Unfortunately reading through some of the other posts I’ve seen the same has happened to other people which worries me.

[maratsade]

HughesNet doesn't offer bundles, AFAIK. 

morrisondynasty wrote:
It was definitely Hughes Net. Unfortunately reading through some of the other posts I’ve seen the same has happened to other people which worries me.

---

[morrisondynasty]

Right I know this that’s why all this doesn’t make any sense other than the sales representative authorized something that they had no permission from us to do. Does that make sense?

[morrisondynasty]

I’m sorry what does AFAIK mean?

[maratsade]

Sorry about that! It means As Far As I Know. 

morrisondynasty wrote:
I’m sorry what does AFAIK mean?

---

[morrisondynasty]

Ok, yeah you’re right they don’t offer anything with any other companies. I’m only telling you what the third-party company called IT please told me. It really is all just so bizarre. They signed us on with it when we signed on with Hughes net for a 30 day free trial and then it was going to charge $19.95 Monthly from then on out. It all originated from when we first signed on with HN. They said we probably agreed to it when we first signed on as a bundle. Even though we knew nothing about a bundle. And back to the fact that we don’t even have a computer so why would we knowingly sign on for a service through a different company for coverage for our computer when we don’t even have one and why would we sign on for IT service through another company when we get it through HN already

[maratsade]

I'm not sure HN can do anything about this, unfortunately, as they don't offer 30 day trials either. It seems you signed up with HN via a reseller, that is, a company that sells HN accounts but is not really HN.   You may have to take it up with them, but wait until a HN employee on this site digs a bit and gets back to you.   Hopefully things will get resolved for you soon! 

[morrisondynasty]

Ok how can one find out if we did buy through a resell or whatever it is you said 😂

[maratsade]

A HughesNet staff member will get back to you, hopefully tomorrow. Hang in there!

[morrisondynasty]

And thank you for the help 🙏🏼

[maratsade]

You're very welcome, and I hope this whole thing can be unraveled and fixed. 

morrisondynasty wrote:
And thank you for the help 🙏🏼

---

[MarkJFine]

If you remember the number you called you can probably do a reverse lookup or google search to see if it was an HN number - if they haven't been shut down by now.

There are a lot of unscrupulous resellers out there that put placards out on the roads and advertize via mailers. They make big bucks by offering these bundles, services, and 'trial periods' misrepresenting themselves as either HughesNet or a HughesNet 'partner'. This is not much different than the offers you see in many spam emails that don't originate from the product vendor. Best to stay away from these.

[morrisondynasty]

Only the third party company offered the 30 day trial not actually HN. My mind is just blown right now at how wrong this feels. Sure, $19.95 seems petty but another company that I don’t know has my info. They deleted the account and refunded our money so that’s not the issue, just the fact that no one can tell me why this was authorized through HN for this to happen. It happened the day we signed on for HN. Coincidence? I think not ya know

[GabeU]

---

@morrisondynasty wrote:
It was definitely Hughes Net. Unfortunately reading through some of the other posts I’ve seen the same has happened to other people which worries me.

---

Where?  

[morrisondynasty]

One I saw that was “untrustworthy provider” by a lady named Elizabeth. Her situation is very similar to mine. There were other too

[GabeU]

---

@morrisondynasty wrote:
One I saw that was “untrustworthy provider” by a lady named Elizabeth. Her situation is very similar to mine. There were other too

---

While that's true, you'll notice that the person never replied to the rep's help.  It's anyone's guess as to what actually happened, or if it even had anything to do with HughesNet at all.

[morrisondynasty]

I didn’t see that. Thanks for the info
But see my problem is this- we signed on with HN. We were never told about a bundle. We didn’t sign up with a bundle. We didn’t know anything about it bc it was never told to us. We just know that the day we signed on with HN just so happens to be the day we got “signed up” for the other IT help. We just so happened to see the charge on our bank statement. So all I know is this other company somehow got our info the day our HN technician came and hooked us up.

[GabeU]

@morrisondynasty 

I've no doubt that HughesNet will do what they can to look into this for you.  HughesNet only has a few extra things they offer with their service, and the company/charge you're seeing is not one of them, or at least not that I've ever seen.  

The closest extra they offer is "Home Tech Support", which is by a 3rd party company (Sutherland). 

@Liz  @Damian 

[morrisondynasty]

Your spot on with all of that. However they told me they can’t pull any of our phone calls but that I would have to come to this community for someone to look into it. I have my case number and my DSS number ready if anyone asks. Lol