Poor Billing Practices and customer service

[Deb Sanford]

I have never in my life dealt with a company that withdraws the payment from your account on the day they send you your bill, which clearly states the due date is 10 days later, leaving you no time to dispute the charges or make sure you have enough funds in your account.

Also the two times I contacted customer service about this I was lied to or not given all the information. The first time the woman neglected to tell me that they would pro-rate my account because I wanted the payment pulled on the due date not the issue date, but all they did was change my billing period. The second time a different woman said she would send me an email with my invoice 10 days before it was pulled and I never got any email until today when they pulled the funds out of my account. Because of this I incurred $70 in overdraft charges on my bank account and received a measly $30 credit. But the biggest thing is that if you want to cancel your automatic withdrawal (which I never signed up for in the first place) you have to pay an additional $5 a month.

I am very disgusted with this company and their business practices and I will not recommend Hughesnet to anyone.

[Janice Carmack]

This is why I rarely ever sign up for auto withdrawal for any bills at all. I do have house insurance and car insurance come out automatically but that is all. I have been messed up way too many times myself with trying to let TV or Internet be taken out automatically. I am on fixed income and the family members who are working do not make much so we really cannot afford to have auto payments. We do have to be late in paying some times just to avoid being neg. at our banks. 

But I have never heard of having to pay an extra $5 monthly to cancel an auto withdrawal, unless you mean that they charge that $5 because they send you a bill. If this is the case, there is a way of not having to pay that, just ask for paperless billing and you won't have to pay the $5. Some even still send you a bill without charging if you sign up for paperless billing, at least AT&T does with my phone bill, why I don't know. I don't mind getting the bill though as long as I don't have to pay that $5.

I have never let hughesnet take auto withdrawals from my account, so I really don't know if something like that might happen to me or not, but don't plan to let them do it anyway. I really have not looked that good at the bill to see if I am paying an extra $5 because I do get a bill each month from hughesnet, but if I am then so be it. I would rather pay that than go through all the problems with overdrawn bank account.

I too have always said that I would never recommend hughenet to anyone even knowing that where I live we really don't have any other choice.  There are enough people who cannot really get good internet that they are not hurting for people. So I am not sure that even bothers them at all. 

[Deb Sanford]

Hi Janice, I never signed up for it or agreed to it, they just did it. Then when I wanted to cancel it she said I would have to pay an additional $5 a month. I don't believe in paying extra fee's that do not cause any extra work on the part of the company. Its a rip off

[Warren]

Hello Deb,

Welcome to the community and thank you for the post.
We would like to look into this further to address this concern. Could you please post one of the following -  a recent case number, or serial number of your modem so that we may look into this?

-Warren

[Deb Sanford]

Hi Warren, the case number I have is #42570821 I believe that is for the credit for the overdraft fee's but can't remember and its the only one I have.

[Warren]

Hello Deb,

Thanks for the info. We will investigate this and post back result on here when complete.
Your patience is appreciated.

-Warren

[CharlesMcCool]

Warren Hughes has done this from the beginning of time, any customer that uses auto pay has their account debited on the day the bill is generated and not the actual due date, and will popup late payment reminders on your screen until its paid even though its not really due. I have commented and complained about this practice for years and have been told by the billing department that its the way the software is setup and the only way to get around it is to prorate your bill and move the due date so you bill is generated on the day you want the payment to come out. which is just wrong. the auto pay should not try to debit your account until the due date and it needs to be fixed

[Warren]

Hi Deb,

We appreciate the feedback and your post regarding the concern. I did verify your case number regarding your overdraft fees on 7/2, that the retention credit was given at that time.

To all, we will continue to investigate each case individually regardless of issue, and apologize for any miscommunication. The billing protocol has been put in place for accountability for each customer transaction and service HughesNet provides for it's customers. 

If you feel that there is a discrepancy with the billing amount, please call Customer Care to dispute: 866-347-3292.

Please let us know if there are any other additional concerns you might have.

- Warren

[CharlesMcCool]

NO NO NO you dont get it Warren I have reoccurring auto payments  for several companys Hetflix, Hulu, and Hughes and Hughes is the ONLY company that debits my account on the date the bill is generated all the others debit my account on their actual due date 

[CharlesMcCool]

This is a very poor billing practice by Hughes and needs to be fixed not just swept away with a generic reply

[Sarah1]

Mine was auto deducted this month too, usually I get the message and go pay it. And since being a finalist in the photo contest I'm supposed to receive free internet for a year, but they billed me. I sent an email with my case number, haven't heard back

[CharlesMcCool]

You know I dont even think thats its legal to debit someones account before the Due Date

[Warren]

All,

Thanks for bringing this up for consideration. From the viewpoint of the invoice, let me say that I do understand the confusion, so allow me to explain.

The "issue date" on the invoice you receive is the date of commission or the date determined of your choice for payment. HughesNet will collect electronic payments or print invoices for mailing on this day. The "due date" marks the end of the 10 day grace period for payment due. Once it has passed the due date, it will be flagged for collections.

As long as you understand that the date commissioned or whatever date you choose for your payment date, will be assigned to your bill as the "issue date". We will attempt to collect from this date up until the "due date" for payment.

I hope this clears this up. Please let me know if you have any other questions.

-Warren

[Warren]

Hi Sarah,

First, Congrats on the Photo contest!
To answer your post here, you were correct on winning the free internet service for a year, but that only included for the service charge, not your lease fee for the equipment, or the state taxes that might apply.

You shouldn't have been charged, but If you were charged for your full service fee,  please call Customer Care to dispute: 866-347-3292.

Please let us know if there are any other additional questions.

- Warren

[CharlesMcCool]

I understand that, but why does the customer get popup windows every time they open their browser until the actual due date when in reality its not due? and this only happens to the customers that are setup on autopay everyone else is not interrupted until the Due date,  

[CharlesMcCool]

I know your going to say that its only suppose to popup 1 time a day but thats not the case it will popup every time you close and reopen the browser. 

[CharlesMcCool]

Im not picking on you Warren this has been a thorn in my side every since it happened to me when my 2nd payment auto debited on the date the bill was generated and I called CS and after 3 reps and 1 supervisor they finally figured why it was happening and I had them prorate my account to move the date my bill was generated on to the day that they were suppose to trying to debit my account and over the years Ive been with Hughes I have seen time and time again where a customer was on here wondering why their account was overdrawn when the bill was not due for 10 more days.

[CharlesMcCool]

So its not FREE for the year, I could understand the state tax but not the equipment lease

[CharlesMcCool]

wait a minute thats not right because I told them the date I wanted my payment due on ( the 3rd ) of every month and thats what my bill showed as the DUE date but the tried to debit my card 10 days before that

[Deb Sanford]

I agree with Charles, I do almost all of my bills online and quite a few are direct debit and they all pull on the due date not the issue date and I always have a chance to review the bill. And there is no "service charge" if I want to pay it on my own. I think you need to get a new billing system this one is definitely a fail.

[Deb Sanford]

I was never asked. you definitely need to train your employees better.