Hughes Net Horrible Company, Service and Customer Care! Despicable! Internet

First of all, I could (already have basically with all the notes I've taken) write a book about this horrible experience.  I signed up for Hughes Net in the summer of 2012. It was very slow and wouldn't hardly work. My mother in law bought us Netflix and Roku as a gift. We used it for one day and then it wouldn't work anymore. It was too slow. I had had to call the company numerous times because our Internet just wouldn't work.

After 6 months of calling very often a representative suggested I upgrade. After he explained the service would be exactly like what we had but more of it and faster, for the exact same cost each month and free equipment. Then he slipped in at the end that I would have a 24 mo contract. I wasn't happy but he guaranteed me that we would never run out of Internet or go over usage again and we could stream netflix all the time with this new upgrade, so I agreed. Well, the first bill was almost $200 (compared to our normal $50/mo)! I was told that was set up fees, etc. I paid it. We were able to use Netflix for 2 days and after that it showed we had reached our allowed usage. So I waited a couple of days, b/c our old plan renewed Internet service every night at midnight. It never would renew so I called and they told me that we had to wait an entire month to get our Internet usage restarted! I was so mad that they didn't explain that to me, but dealt with that. After a month, when I paid my bill and they renewed our service it wouldn't come back on!

That was probably in March of 2013. I have been paying for Internet every single month and not had service (it is now October! and it is automatically withdrawn from my checking acct each month). I was told if I stopped payment I would be charged the early cancelation fee, so I've kept giving them chance after chance to fix it. They determined our modem was "leaking" Internet...??? and sent a new modem. We hooked it up and sent the old one back and still not working. I have called at least weekly since March (would call more often if I had time and if my heart/blood pressure could handle that!) and every time they tell me (as if I don't know b/c of my status meter) that we have gone over our monthly allowed usage. I tell them every time I have not gone over b/c I haven't even had any Internet so I couldn't possibly have gone over.

Their customer service is horrible. I hate the automated system that can't understand anything I say and won't let me choose to talk to a rep directly. It takes at least 10-20 mins to speak to someone. When I do get to talk to someone they don't speak English well and are hard to hear, much less understand. Then they are rude to me as if they can't understand ME! 

I finally called day before yesterday to request to cancel our service and not have to pay the cancellation fee since it is their fault I am canceling. The rep told me they would NEVER do that for any reason and kept trying to "troubleshoot" my problem. I kept telling him they obviously couldn't fix it and I am sick to death of spending hours on the phone unplugging and replugging that modem in. It's obviously not going to work! I eventually got to speak to a manager and was told the exact same thing. I told him that was very bad business. Why is it okay for them not to hold up their end of the contract (NO service) but not okay for me to cancel? He offered (finally after 45 mins) to send someone to my house to work on it. I relunctantly agreed, for my main goal was to cancel my service so I could move on to another company. 

I cannot handle this anymore, it seriously is causing me so much anger and stress I am just sick. It is so unfair and I have played nice and never once not paid my bill. I have spent hundreds of dollars on service I have not been able to use in almost a year! I contacted a lawyer and have an appt this next week with him. He told me to bring my copy of my contract and my bills, however, I never got a contract and since it is automatically deducted from my checking acct I don't even receive bills! I don't know how this will work out, but I hope and pray I get out of that contract and I would not be completely happy until I got reimbursed for all these months of no service, however, I am not expecting that!