Hughes Net Refused Customer Support Nationwide

We recently moved to a small town in a rural area, and opted to use Hughes net for our internet. We had it installed at the beginning of July '07, and within 1 week my husband called to that we were unable to down load web pages completely.

My husband has experience in dealing with satelite dishes used for television and thought that if somebody could come out and realign our dish that this might fix the problem. He was on the phone and talked with 4 different people (all in some foreign country) who told him the problem was not the dish and that 50-60% signal strenght was acceptable for being able to surf the internet. They refused to send out a technician until signal strenght was below 50%.

About a week later our signal strength dropped below that (it was a clear blue sky, no clouds). We again called customer support to get an installer out to realign our dish. This time we were told that they only require 30% signal strenght and that if we wanted somebody to come out it would cost us an additional $125 dollars.

At this my husband asked to speak with somebody in advanced technical support. We were transfered to yet another person in basic customer support who told us again that there was no problem with their equipment. After several frustrating attempts at reasoning we were finally transfered to advanced tech support, where we were again told 30% was acceptable.

While on the phone with them we ran 2 different speed tests, the second of which was worse than the first, and we were told by the woman on the phone that she couldn't figure out what we thought the problem was and that it was running fast enough. Did I mention that it took almost 10 minutes to run these tests? With frustration we asked to talk to her supervisor. This man told us again that there was no possible way the dish could be out alignment and that even though were had been customers less than 30 days there would be a $125 fee to have somebody come out an look at the dish.

Frustrated we attempted to cancel our service. We were initally told that we could cancel within 30 days and receive our money back. However, this isn't true. Even if you are within 30 days of purchase they will attempt to charge you an additional $400 for the equipment, which you can then get back $200 if you return it without damage.

I have looked all over for a phone number or email address to somebody other than tech/customer support but can't find anything. And every time we talk to a "supervisor" and ask the name of their superior we are told, "I'm my own boss." Any help in tracking down a President or VP of the company would be GREATLY appreciated.

Cheryl
Oakland, Iowa
U.S.A.