WildBlue Communications, Inc ViaSat, misrepresented service and contract terms, bait & switch, false advertisement Georgetown, California

I. PRIMARY COMPLAINTS

A. Though our broadband usage is metered and we are expected to monitor it ourselves with their tool, said tool is and has been inaccessible for weeks (at least since the beginning of April (today is June 2, 2011) and there are a number of phone representatives that suggest that the work around is to call them and ask about our usage on a daily or more frequent basis. Meanwhile, there is a "push-button phone queue" associate with the telephone number to get to the representative who will "look up" that information per account and the process can vary in time, but is often 10 minutes or longer. This is an unacceptable workaround in lieu of their web portal technical issues. The portal description of the online process can be found here, while my recent visit to the site gave me the painfully familiar 404 error

B. While I was able to eventually find their corporate address and phone by researching at Hoover's Online for WildBlue and here for ViaSat, there is no way to formally address a complaint on the website as there is no address, no city, and no State, even, listed for the company. This lack of information is compounded by the confusing arrangement of their relationship with their parent (?) or partner company, ViaSat, that acquired them in October of 2009. And I say confused because my multiple attempts to get clear answers from the help staff regarding the new satellite promised here with

 "In late 2010, ViaSat-1 is scheduled to launch, and will deliver next generation broadband services to customers in North America. "

and here with

"Were excited about accelerating your satellite broadband aSat. Learn more about our plans to transform satellite broadband in North America with ViaSat-1, our high-capacity satellite scheduled for launch in 2011"

When I asked the WildBlue phone staff specifically about the press release here at ViaSat's website, they said that they work for WildBlue and can't speak for ViaSat

ref.: KA-SAT has been successfully lofted into orbit by a Proton Breeze M rocket supplied by ILS. Lift-off of the satellite took place on December26. After a 9-hour 12-minute flight, the launcher released KA-SAT into geosynchronous transfer orbit. Europes first High-Throughput Satellite (HTS) will usher in a new era of competitively-priced satellite-delivered services when rollout of new services - called Tooway - begin in May. The total KA-SAT capacity of more than 70 Gbps ranks it as the worlds most powerful spacecraft.

C. While these partner companies have enjoyed a significant chunk of the free government corporate welfare money provided by the U.S. Recovery Act funds to the tune of $100+ million dollars, I have yet to realize any of the promised enhanced services, but instead I am regularly a victim of their fair-use policy. Further, while all references to transmission speeds provided are most often in terms of  "up to" there is no discussion anywhere of average speeds or anything similar. In addition, though there are footer notices offer like this one with "Usage subject to data transmission limits. Speeds not guaranteed. See wildblue.com/legal for details. ", a quick trip to the referenced legal page offers no details as suggested !

II. WHAT I WANT.

In light of the above issues, I feel it would be fair if I got some significant adjustments to my billing until such time I begin to enjoy the speeds promised. In addition, I feel that some sort of consideration or adjustment should be made (in terms of refund or monetary adjustment for the lack of monitoring of bandwidth usage. Either that or a removal of the limit.

Much public money (mine and others) money has gone to the subsidy of companies like these and significant monies have also been spent nationwide to study and report on this disparity in service issue
[ ref. here and here and here ].

Again, in light of all of the above, I expect compensation, but I demand that my complaint be addressed by WildBlue formally, in writing.

Thank you.