HughesNet ,False Advertisement, Highly Overpriced, CRAP COMPANY, and down more than up! A whole new meaning to the word "RIPOFF" Germantown, Maryland

On 06/23/2010 I called HughesNet to order the service cause I didn't think there was any other internet available here aside from dial-up. On the 29th, it was installed. That is, after waiting for the installer to get here about 2 hours later than he was supposed to be here, and an additional 3 hours for him to install it. The installer guy had so many phone calls from his wife, etc. the whole entire time he was here that I still can't see how he ever got done. That aside though, he stuffed so much cord into the wall where he drilled the hole that in order to get it out the hole is now twice as big. Still gotta get that fixed up. When he left, 2 of the 3 computers were connecting, I had to fix the 3rd myself. Let's also keep in mind here that this idiot had never seen a wired router so he had no clue about that and I had to do that myself also in order to get any computer to connect.

Anyway, they do seem to think that if you sign an installer's paper, it magically is a contract. Even though, nothing on this paper says a word about contract, or 2 years, and so on. It does talk about their FAP (Fair Access Policy) but see, you don't know anything about this til after the fact. You don't see this paper til it's all installed and the guy's ready to leave your house. I, myself, play World of Warcraft on a daily basis. Um, people! This is not a service to use to play that game. lol You will have latency normally around 1100. You will see it higher, guaranteed. And this to me, is actually the only guarantee involved here, aside from not being able to stream video like they say you can. My highest latency I saw was over 24000. That renders the game unplayable. I thought I'd throw that in for anyone who sees this and also plays the game or is thinking of playing it.

Also for anyone who has never tried HughesNet and wants to stream video. Ok, on with the story. lol It was down more than it was up. There were 2 full 24-days that it didn't work at all. I only used the service for about 3 weeks, we finally found out about our local cable company here who have "Xipline" which is very similar to Comcast's internet formerly known as "RoadRunner". It's available here and so that's what we have had ever since July 21st and very happy with it. Anyway, I called HughesNet the night before Xipline was to be installed and canceled my account, or tried to. The only good thing about this phone call was that by some miracle it only took 11 1/2 minutes total on the phone with them. That night HughesNet was completely crap, nothing worked for so much as browsing so I decided to cancel that night.

The guy who I could actually understand when he spoke (shocker), named Mike, told me it would be closed on the 29th, 2 days ago. I did check, and it does say it's closed, but yet I can still login which is completely screwed up in itself. The 29th was the end of the trial time so I was ok with that. He also told me they would send me an email ON THE 29th with return instructions and an ID number. I have to put the ID number on the address when I send the equipment back. Here it is the 31st, and still that email has not come. Mike told me my 45-day time window for sending the equipment back would start from the 29th also. I emailed them on the 30th asking them to send this email to me. What do they do? They reply and send an email asking me "If it's not too much of an imposition, would you mind telling us why by answering a short survey?" (this was in the email after stating they'd seen I'd terminated my account) Uh, yeah ok, I figured I'll tell them why, I'll answer their survey and then maybe, just maybe, they'd send me my ID number.

Still nothing! I guess they didn't like my answer. lol I mean, after all, I had already told Mike why I was canceling. When he asked what the reason was, I asked him "which one do you want?" lol He of course tried to get me to take a "complimentary" extention on my first month, which they can't even say is a free trial cause it wasn't free. I'm out about $170 bucks with them. He asked me if I wanted to upgrade and I stopped him and said "NO, I don't wanna upgrade, I just wanna cancel it!!" When I called to order, the rep I talked to then said that my installation of $99 would be free by mail-in rebate. Well what he didn't tell me was that in order to get that $99 back through the rebate, you have to have 2 invoices to send with it, not just a receipt or first invoice. And with that, having 2 invoices means also that you're locked into 2 years of hell.

So I'm out that $99 bucks. I canceled my debit card before I called them to cancel just in case they decided to try to bill me for something else. They're not getting another cent from me! They also don't tell you what plan you have either, only a price. The papers the installer gives you doesn't list that either so I can only assume at this rate that I had the lowest possible plan which allows for a whoppin' 200mb per day. That's crap! Their highest package only allows for 500mb per day. So with that, you can forget about streaming anything. They slow you down before that's used up too. It's so slow that simple browsing doesn't work, it's worse than dial-up. If it's so much as cloudy, it goes down, and if it storms, you might as well just turn off the computer and watch TV all day.

Anyway, I filed a complaint with the BBB about them today before I came here to post my story. I'll update later when and if I ever get the email or get anything done. I told the BBB also that HughesNet should be shut down and put out of business for false advertisement. If I had the money to do it, I would file a class action suit against them, considering all the complaints I've read on this site, among other sites, it seems thousands of people are having a problem with this company. As for this so-called ID number they're supposed to send, 2 days late now and counting, I'll give them some more time to send it. But, if push comes to shove, I'll write the account number on that address and send their crap back to them that way. The ID number probably is the account number and they just don't say that.

So I'll just guess at it if I have to. I'm thinking that they're purposely not sending it thinking that I'll wait for it and then after that 45 days has gone by they're thinking they'll get that $400 bucks outta me. I don't think so. That's my personal opinion of it so don't quote me. lol It would make sense though that the ID number and the account number is actually one in the same. They really don't want me to have to call them again about it, they really don't. I was nice the first time, as much as was possible. I was nice with the email asking them to send the ID number/instructions. If I have to call them again, it won't be nice for whatever foreigner with a normal name answers the phone next time.