Worst billing method and service I've ever had

[bc5989]

I knew my bill was due on the 20th, so 3 days earlier I logged in to pay my bill, it said I had $0 balance. This morning I received a email that my bill was generated and to sign in to view or pay. New bill was there, so I clicked on pay now, entered everything including amount to pay, received an error that I couldn't pay more than what was due. The amount was the same as the bill. Checked with bank and payment was already made. So as soon as the bill is generated Hughes net grabs their money, there is no review time. Normally a bill is generated and you have about 7 to 10 days to pay it. After that I didn't want auto- pay, called support to opt out. Apparently Hughesnet has never heard of paperless billing. The option to opt out meant I would have to incur a $5.00 additional monthly fee for a invoice that I didn't want. My best option to be sure funds were there was to change billing date. Took awhile while he talked to another department as he relayed questions as to why I wanted to do this, but finally got that done. I really don't like anyone except for my bank to have my credit card or checking account on file. It's the bad guys I don't trust! The web page under support states, "

To disable your automatic payment you can contact Customer Care at 866-347-3292, start a chat or email. Business customers call 800-347-3272 for assistance.  Printed invoices are provided at the customer’s request and require an additional monthly fee of $5."

I was not requesting and invoice, I just wanted to opt out of auto pay. Surely the bills can be generated at least a week before the due date giving the customer the option to view or pay before its due or use another method of payment. I've been paying bills online for over 15 years and have never seen this method of "bill,grab, and run." Plus they deducted $1.00 from my accouunt when I changed cards 3 days prior, probably charged $1.00 to the previous card, Nice scam to collect a few extra dollars. I was furious and tried to use their contact us page to email my frustration. Another waste of time since it must have a 300 character limit but doesn't tell you that, it just stops accepting characters. So called support again to speak with a manager who offered me 3 free months of invoices,that doesn't resolve the issue, with 21 months to go thats an extra $105 dollars in their pocket, another nice scam. Told her the support statement was misleading,the contact us email was basically useless with its limit of characters.

If your reading this as a review  of Hughesnet as a potential provider, I say Run and find a different provider. Service is the slowest I have ever had!!

[GabeU]

@bc5989 

The $1 is for an account check that's performed just prior to the payment transaction.  The $1 is on temporary hold by your financial institution, and that hold will drop off after a few days.  This will occur every time a payment is automatically charged or a manual payment is made.   

If you're having a speed issue with your service and you would like it addressed, please start a new topic in Tech Support.  

[bc5989]

I had expected a reply fromyou seeing that you seem to be a spokesperson for hughesnet. Forget the $1.00 charge, hopefully it will go away. I was expecting one of your cute replys, like I should sell my house and move where there is terestrial cabling, or you should of done more research. I should have checked into Viasat the only other nationwide provider that has faster speed and billing that from what I have been told is more in line with standard billing practices. As for speed, please use the speed test under support, write the numbers down,then go to measurement labs and try their speed test and compare numbers. I have the impression Hughesnet is fudging the latency out of the test. Measurement labs responder was actually a 150 miles closer and there dowload mbps is actually more inline with what I'm experiencing. I lived in Oman for 4 years 8 years ago and had satellite service there with zip for issues, billing, speed, service. I can see your reply now, "Well maybe you should sell your house and move back." If the job was still there i would consider it. Being an ex-pat pays a heck of a lot more than retirement. I have written my letters to  Ellen Martz Senior Director Customer Service, and CEO  Pradman Kaul. I will probebly cancel my service, and eat the $400 ETF which is better than paying $1320 on life of contract. But thanks for worrying about my $1.00.

[GabeU]

@bc5989 

Here's my reply.  It has two parts.

1.  Do you always insult those who give an explanation regarding something you've complained about and advice regarding something you're evidently having an issue with?  

2.  Don't bother answering part one.  I don't really care.  I reserve my concern, and my help, for those who don't insult me.  

[bc5989]

Sorry if I hurt your ego, that was not an insult, but constructive criticism to be more emphatic to customer frustration rather than venting your own frustration with quick witted responses that you have made. Sometimes it's best to step away form the keyboard, get some fresh air, and cool down before we respond.
Several tornados that hit literally blew away the copper infrastucture in this area with a two to three week wait time to restore it completely. My cont
racts nesessitate Internet access and hughesnet was fast to respond and get me back online, my kudo's to the installation tech. It worked for that time frame, and what I needed to accomplish, but I require more. It's hard to keep an ssh connection open with 700ms latency, thankfully that was not necessary during that period.
I'm sure you have helped many on this forum and deserve a kudo for that.My apology for not wording my response to sound less critical, should of taken m
y own advice, lol. As of this morning I am back on wire and will give it a few days to be sure all is well again. Maratsade's response would of been better served with perhaps test results between the two, rather than posting a childish response. Please see https://www.whistleout.com/Internet/Guides/viasat-vs-hughesnet

[MarkJFine]

That's, um, just your opinion, man.

[GabeU]

@bc5989 

First, maratsade's comment.  It's pretty on par with reality, unlike the article you posted, which negates to inform potential customers of the fact that ViaSat's 100Mbps plan is available to pitifully few, as it's only available to those within one of the very few VS2 small beam footprints.  Maybe one in fifty customers.  It also negates to explain the issues with the VS2 satellite, which caused them to recently downgrade not only their more widely available plans, but what those plans offer in the way of speed.  And their "unlimited" plans are no more unlimited than anyone else's with a soft cap, meaning your high speed portion of data, if you can even get what's considered high speed, is capped.  They call it "prioritization" when you hit that threshold.  Everyone else calls it throttling.  

And if you want to compare actual speed test results, and their 100Mbps customers are included in this average....

And cost?  That site needs to update their info on that, too.  My 20GB/50GB, up to 25Mbps, HughesNet plan costs $70 per month.  Their closest plan, which isn't really close, is $200 per month after three months, with an up to 12Mbps speed and a 65GB high speed data threshold.  Half of HughesNet's advertised speed, and barely over one quarter of my actual top speed.   

So, maratsade's reply is pretty much on point, not only in its critique of ViaSat, but its style, as how you comport yourself defines the types of replies you're going to get.  Your very first reply in this Support Community, which was in response to a polite, informational and instructive reply from a longtime member, is to insult them?  That's grand.  

And, trust me, it would take more than you to bruise my ego.  

[MarkJFine]

Don't get wrapped up with a Viasat marketeer, you're just falling for the bait.

[Amanda]

Hello Robert,

  It's been a while since we last heard from you, so we will close this thread. If you still have concerns, please start a new thread and include a detailed explanation so we can better assist you.

Thank you,

Amanda

[maratsade]

"I should have checked into Viasat the only other nationwide provider that has faster speed"

Faster speed! LOL

[Amanda · Accepted solution]

Hi bc5989,

Thank you for reaching out to us here. We are the office which receives the letters you mention, as our direct manager is Ellen, the same one you addressed above. I checked around the inbox and inquired with my coworkers, but we do not have a letter from you yet which means our corporate representatives have not had a chance to discuss this with you.

All in all, the information you've already been provided is correct. We do not offer paperless billing without some kind of payment method on file and unfortunately there is not any kind of indefinite discount we can apply to cover the $5 if you want the paper bill but don't want to pay for it. We do have a new preference center area which you can use to adjust your notification settings, which if you have not seen, I suggest giving it a look to see if anything there would be helpful for you. Here is a short announcement on it: https://community.hughesnet.com/t5/About-the-Community/New-Notification-Options/m-p/110924/highlight...

Thanks,

Amanda