upgrade

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Reflections of my recent upgrade to Gen5 from Gen4
A couple of weeks ago I called to upgrade from Gen. 4 to Gen 5. To my surprise, it didnt even require an installer to come out, Hughes shipped the new modem and everything was to be plug and play. Could even stay on same plan as I already had, just at a lot faster throughput. I was originally on a legacy plan, and when upgrading to Gen 4, it was a nightmare. An installer had to come out, install a new radio and modem. Somewhere alog the way I was issued a new DSS#, but email accounts were still attached to the old legacy plan. All of a sudden I couldnt access email, and hughes solution was I would have to use a different name for email account, there was no way to move the old email account to the new plan. I called over and over again after about three weeks I finally got them to reactivate the email account, but it was a real hassle. The whole Gen 4 upgrade was. So, after that ordeal, I decided to just stick with Gen 4, it was going to have to be fast enough (usually 1-2.5 Mbps download speeds). Well I called HN a few weeks ago to see what we'd have to do to upgrade, and made sure they wouldnt screw up my email accounts or issue another DSS#. The representative assured me I would keep the same account number, all emails would work just like they always have, etc. if I upgraded. Also, it didnt require an installer to come out for the Gen4 to Gen5 upgrade. HN would ship me a new modem and it would be plug and play. The old Gen 4 modem didnt even need to be shipped back, just throw it away. ALmost sounded too good to be true. I like doing things on my own and usually can do a more professional job than the so called pros anyway. The package arrived the next week, and it took about an hour to be up and running on gen 5. I turned off the built in wifi as I already have a wifi router in living room ran off of cat5e from the modem.(The modem is installed in our bedroom and I'm not crazy about being bombarded with wifi signals while I sleep, ok?) Anyhow, at peak time, on wifi, we have anywhere from 15-30 Mbps. Early morning speeds usually >25 Mbps. Upload speed around 3 Mbps. I have not tested speeds directly connected to modem via ethernet, but wifi speeds are fast enough to stream with no buffering. I posted this to let others know how easy it was to upgrade from Gen4 to Gen5, same cost, only caveat is a new 2 year contract. I don't plan on going anywhere unless we ever get real 4G/5GLTE speed and coverage at home.
mrbrown
6 years ago Place Products and Plans
11KViews
4likes
2Comments
TERRIBLE upgrade experience
I just want you corporate mods and everyone else to be aware of the complete NONSENSE we have been through. I don't appreciate it. We have half a mind to go elsewhere if one more thing goes wrong. I'm not demanding something be done for us specifically; I'm simply sharing this experience in hopes maybe it won't happen to someone else. On November 28th, we had a state code that said there was an outdoor problem. We spent a good length of time on the phone with tech support. This woman came back telling us we NEEDED to upgrade. We said alright, arranged the plan, and we asked her what this would entail. We ASKED if a technician needed to be scheduled. She said NO, we could do it, they would mail us a modem. We would receive it in 3-4 business days. On business day 6, we called to ask where the modem was. On December 7th, we received the modem, and still unaware of what REALLY needed to be done, we went about installing it. After an hour and 40 minutes, we had to call tech support. They continually redirected us to the remaining outdoor problem, even as we explained we weren't sure if we were doing this right. On December 9th, a technician visited to take care of the outdoor problem. We asked him about upgrading. The licensed technician, sent by Hughesnet, told us we could not install it ourselves because going from Gen 4 to Gen 5 requires a dish realignment among other things that a technician needs to do. He could not do this because he did not have an upgrade work order. He only had repair for the outdoor problem. WE WERE TOLD BY HUGHESNET TECH SUPPORT THAT WE COULD DO THIS OURSELVES. WE ASKED IF WE NEEDED A TECHNICIAN APPOINTMENT TO DO AN UPGRADE. WE WERE TOLD NO, YOU DO NOT. On December 9th after his visit, we called tech support to explain and arrange an appointment. They said they would Nothing came of it. We called again Sunday night, December 10th. They said there wasn't a record of an appointment. After being on hold for 45 minutes, the phone call got dropped. We decided to wait and see. This morning, December 11th, we called again. This time we managed to acquire the phone number of the technician company in our area. Upon calling them, we learned that they kept receiving REPAIR orders. Not upgrade orders. In every call since Saturday, we had been extremely clear that nothing needed repaired, we needed our UPGRADE. Our account information had been credited as Gen 5 since the morning of the 29th, the morning after our very first tech support call. It shows that we have it, which is a source of confusion to the tech support phone monitors. We are PAYING FOR IT, but WE DO NOT HAVE IT. We are running our GEN 4 EQUIPMENT. The woman at the technician company got in touch with the District Manager of Hughesnet for our area of coverage, who has tried to intervene on our behalf! TECH SUPPORT SAID NO, THE CUSTOMER HAS TO ORDER IT. AS IF WE HAVEN'T BEEN TRYING!?!? We called tonight, and we went through the same cycle of "ma'am, can you please plug the modem back in" and "our diagnostics show you have internet." I honestly lost count of how many times we said WE NEED AN UPGRADE. WE KNOW FACTUALLY THE DISH NEEDS TO BE MOVED FROM THE GEN 4 SETTINGS TO THE GEN 5. WE KNOW FACTUALLY WE DO NOT HAVE THE INFORMATION NOR QUALIFICATIONS TO DO THIS OURSELVES. If this is not true, we were lied to by our technician, which I just don't believe is the case. Nothing is broken, nothing needs a repair order, we're running the old internet we are no longer supposed to be paying for or having to settle on because some woman at tech support told us we could do this ourselves. And we have gone around in this circle TOO MANY TIMES trying to tell them that we just need someone sent out to upgrade us, that's all we want, please just send an upgrade order so we don't have to call anymore. FINALLY, we were told they would schedule a repair order, but WE HAVE TO PAY $175 FOR IT. We have to pay $175 for a technician to come out and upgrade us, like we've been asking for in the first place, like we were told directly by a technician needs to happen for this thing to be done right, since this past Thursday. We were told after we're upgraded, call back and they would give us information on being credited for the time we did not have the internet we should have had. Frankly I am DISGUSTED. I am angry, I am frustrated, and I'm a little insulted. We agreed to pay ONLY BECAUSE we're so tired of fighting, we just want it done. Fine, we'll pay, just SEND THE PROPER ORDER. We have not been listened to. We have been talked down to when we keep trying to explain there's not a broken object, we never got our upgrade. We have had Hughesnet for almost a decade purely because there's virtually no other option where we live, but as said in my introductory short paragraph, lately there's been developments in that regard and if we have one more run-around with tech support to even a fraction of this extent, we will go elsewhere. This is not a drill. These are not overdramatics. If she would have sent someone out to fix the outdoor problem in the first place, instead of telling us we NEEDED to upgrade to fix the problem, none of this would have happened. Supposedly, the technician is scheduled-- on OUR DIME, with or without a work order this is getting done-- to be out sometime on Wednesday. We will see if this comes to fruition. I just truly felt the need to let it be known how RIDICULOUS the last two weeks have been, and the tech support phone coverage is to blame here. I am sorry to be spouting off rage here, but it needs to be said.
cclk_edwards
8 years ago Place Products and Plans
3.6KViews
2likes
1Comment