HUGHESNET

In March I contracted with Hughes Net for Internet service. I explained what kind of use (one laptop, one TV, minimal streaming) and was told that the $64/mo. plan would serve my needs. I signed up for it. I paid nearly $180 for installation and then each of the two following months my bills were $83 and $93. Within a few weeks I found that I could not stream some channels without the constant reloading. Sometimes I was unable to even connect with a channel. I made a few calls to the tech support and finally was told that the plan that had been sold to me was only 15 gb/mo. and that two hours of streaming with Roku would use about 6 gb. The tech person told me I needed a larger plan. I agreed to try the next level (Performance Plus, I believe it's called) for an additional $20/mo. It didn't take long for me to find that didn't help me. When I again contacted tech support, he explained that the most gb I could buy was 50/mo. for $129.99/mo. I said that was ridiculous and at that point decided to cancel Hughes and go with a fiber optics provider. I had the new service installed last week and so far have had no problems with it. And it's only costing about $70/mo. When I called to cancel the Hughes service, the representative tried to sell me another alternative and said there were adjustments that I could make so the service would work better. I told her I didn't want to deal with Hughes Net anymore and I simply wanted to cancel. I said I didn't trust that any "adjustments" would solve the problem and I was tired of always having to call tech support. Now I'm faced with a $385 cancellation fee which is in addition to the $450 I've already paid in bills and installation. This has been an expensive ($835) and frustrating experience.

After dealing with problems for a long time, I called the local installer who informed me that there would be a service charge for any work, but that there were no guarantees. I declined, feeling that I could live with the situation. About 3 months ago, approx 9 mo. after the 1st call, I lost service completely. I called technical support who was less than responsive. We then attempted to fix the problem ourselves by tightening connections to all the components. A couple of weeks later, I called support again (at HughesNet), who said they would have a service tech call within 3 to 5 days to schedule a visit. Two weeks later, I called a second time, reported the issue again, and was told the same thing. A few days later, someone called to reconfirm my service request & to explain the charges, I said okay. Two weeks later, I called again, same response. Needless to say, this process has been going on for awhile now, and it's been 3 months since I've had service at my business.