Exede wildblue Monopolizing company cheats, lies, and takes advantage of you carlsbad California

In the 49 years that I have been alive, WILD BLUE/EXEDE/VIASTAT is by far the most horrible company I have EVER done business with. I don't even know WHERE to begin... because I'm in such a rural area, when I moved here, bringing my old AT&T account "with" me wasn't an option, as here it's either Exede or Windstream. The latter was never a consideration as they can only offer a measly internet speed of just 3mbps, so I had no choice but to order Exede. (Keep in mind that I work out of the home and rely on the internet to work every day.) I placed my order and the installer no-showed TWICE without even having the decency to call. On the third occasion when he FINALLY showed, he was hours late, and, again, hadn't had the decency to call to let me know. After installing the dish and cable, he was setting the system up in my room when I asked him a couple of basic general questions relating to their internet service. I couldn't believe my ears when he replied, "I really don't know- I don't know much about internet stuff." REALLY?!? To top it all off, I inquired about billing and he advised me that I would be billed $60 THAT NIGHT in advance for my first month's service- no one in sales told me that and had I not asked, I never would have known.

If you've never had it, satellite internet is NOT something you want. Your service can be affected by weather at the drop of a hat, AND it can be weather that is nowhere NEAR you. I live in north Georgia, and, according to an Exede tech, my service comes out of Seattle (!) so any crazy weather between me and Seattle, WA (2,600 miles away) can kill my service! This alone is just LAUGHABLE to me.

Calling Exede for customer service is a chore in itself. I've been a customer for over six months now, have had to call MANY times, and the average wait time is 15 minutes no matter what time of day you call, so customers are OBVIOUSLY not a priority to them. If that's not bad enough, while you're on hold you hear a message EVERY 15 SECONDS (I timed it) reminding you that all agents are busy but that your call is 'important' to them. HA! And if you call after hours and don't realize that they're closed, you'll spend at least five minutes following their prompts whereas they ask you to punch in your account info, phone number, reason for calling, etc. etc.- then after ALL that, you get a message saying, "our offices are closed" and it hangs up in your face.   

One of my calls to them was the day after we had had a particularly strong wind storm. I had totally lost service and they sent a technician out after advising me that I would have to pay for the visit if the problem was due to an "act of God." Well, hell, with satellite service, any issue from wind to rain to ice is an act of God! I had requested they send out a different tech this time, and they did. He re-positioned the dish and added a support bracket to it to stabilize the dish in future wind issues, something the idiot of an initial installer should have done to begin with. Further, he noticed that the cable the first installer had used was cheap and didn't have "messenger wire" attached, so he rewired it for me. (He stated that the installers have to pay for their own cable so they often use the cheapest garbage they can get.) On top of that, he advised me that one of my problems was that the installer should have advised me to plug my modem directly into a wall outlet and not into a surge protector, no matter how good the surge protector is. The installer never mentioned that. (BTW, if you ever go with this company, BUY YOUR OWN modem- if you accept theirs you have to lease it for $10/month for the length of the contract- WASTE OF MONEY.)

Above all else, this is my main gripe with Exede. You pay $60 a month for your service, which, although a bit higher than other companies, isn't horrible. UNTIL you realize that you are limited to just 10kb of data. To those of you who don't really know what that means, I am online for an average of seven hours a day, and 10kb lasts me about 2-1/2 weeks. Mind you, I don't watch or download movies or music or anything- that's just checking my emails, playing around on Facebook, and working. (I will say that we made the huge mistake of trying to stream a Netflix movie ONCE- until I saw that it cost me over $20 in data time to watch just half the movie!!!) Anyhow, when I run out of data (you know immediately because your internet slows to a snails pace and you can't do anything) I am then given the chance to "BUY MORE." This is where you make a purchase of 1GB of data/time, which lasts about 12 hours. SO, if you run out of internet time mid-month like I often do, you have to pay ANOTHER $60-$80 to finish out the month until your regular 10kb allowance is restored. My last full month of service was Feb. 2014 and it cost me a total of $130 just to be on the internet for seven hours a day for 28 days.

Calling Exede to cancel my service was an hour-long disaster. I was put on hold six times only to be hit with a $240 'early termination fee' that I had never been told about. The snippy  supervisor retorted with, "you signed a 14-page contract." I advised her that that was not the case- I'd signed a short 1-paragraph doc that said nothing about a termination fee OR having limited data service. If that wasn't enough, I was advised that no tech would visit to pick up the modem and dish components, and that (get THIS) I have to climb up on my roof, disassemble a unit from the dish, and ship it to them myself to avoid being charged with further equipment fees! When I asked the rep when the early termination fee would be debited from my account, she said, "in 30 days." Noting the hesitation in her voice I said, "are you sure?" She then put me on hold for the 7th time and returned minutes later, saying, "ummm, no, it's going to bill your account today."     

In my opinion, this company is a bunch of thieves preying on those who have no option but to purchase their services. It's a monopoly, and it's outrageous. It's like a tiny town who gets their first and only fast-food restaurant, and the restaurant charging $15 for a happy meal JUST BECAUSE THEY CAN. If you spend ANY considerable amount of time on the web, Exede is NOT for you. And if you do any gaming, streaming, or download movies, music, and the like, you'll use up your $60 worth of data in a week. STAY AWAY- stay far, FAR away from Exede/WildBlue/Viastat!