How to build a mob (Lesson No. 4)

From the cyberland of Epinions, comes this mix of opinions from HughesNet and WildBlue users about their experiences with their chosen satellite internet products.

Hughes/Direcway
" . . . . As a Direcway/Hughes Net customer for over a year I can say the product is not any better. In fact, all the posts on Wildblue have answered my question about going to that company. It sounds exactly like Hughes Net.

I have recently reinstalled my dialup modem and cannot believe how much faster it is at 44kbps than my Hughes net (which is suppose to have a download of 1Mbps!).

I am in the middle of a dispute with Hughes over their new DW7000 modem that is suppose to be the fast 1Mbps download...It is slower than my previous DW6000 modem. So, in other words, I am more of an idiot because I actually spent more money with the company thinking it might improve things. Their speed tester must be bogus...

Long story short, the new modem is so much worse than the old one that we cannot even have two people surfing the web at the same time. It takes soooo long for the web sites to pop up...I might as well wait my turn on the phone line!

Hughes will not let me send back the new modem and go back to my old one. They wont fix the problem..they wont even acknowledge there is a problem.

At this point, I dont want to deal with them at all. They make sure it is very difficult for you to get anywhere past thier Tech Support location in India. You have no way to speak to anyone in the company that has any clout to take care of the situation.

Anyway....just wanted to give my 2 cents worth in hopes of discouraging any of those who think that jumping from WildBlue to Hughes is better. I know that this website answered my question about jumping from Hughes to Wildblue...NOT! . . . ."



And from DirecWay Uncensored comes this....
" . . . . The biggest complaints seem to be coming from small business owners, who use their HughesNet system for office work. One can only imagine the hassel of having your business internet connection severely reduced for 24Hrs. That could well span from one business day through the next. . . . "



Much love and Namaste to HughesNet.

More to come later!

How to build a mob (Lesson No. 3)

Feel the love.

We'll Downgrade Your Bandwidth 82% And You'll Like It.
" . . . . After 3:01AM April 18th, their so-called "Fair Access Policy" changed to say that now the subscribers can download 375MB but in a TWENTY FOUR HOUR period! What's worse is, if you download more than 375MB in your 24 hour period (which by the way is a rolling period of time -- therefore you never get reset to zero unless you unplug your modem for 24 hours!), then you will be rated limited to sub-dialup speeds for TWENTY FOUR HOURS! The rate limit punishment time used to be 12 hours before this new policy came into effect! . . . . "

And of course, the comments are fun reading! In fact, the comments are more telling because they are people who are sharing their experiences.


Let's put it this way, the future of satellite internet is not looking so bright if your name is HughesNet. Unhappy customers is not a way to stay in business.

We'll be reading about this as a case study in business school one of these days. Especially if HughesNet tries to tell users that they'll get dialup speeds at 3x-4x the price of dialup and they'll have to severely limit their internet usage. Especially, as the rest of the world reduces their internet prices and the US increases their internet prices.

More to come later!

How to build a mob (Lesson No. 2)

A few more people who have experienced HughesNet (be sure to read ALL the comments on the links):

The World According to Bob
" . . . . I subscribed to HughesNet satellite direct Internet. It was DirecWay Internet. I've had it for about a month now and it's the biggest piece of crap I've ever had since I've been on-line. Bob has been on line since the days of Commodore computers and 300 baud bulletin boards. Bob has seen the good and the bad, and Hughes satellite direct Internet service is expensive crapola. About 1 day out of 2 it goes off-line and stays off line for hours. Their "technical support" phone number gives you an endless recording recommending their on-line support web site, which you can't access since their crap Internet service is down . . . .

Priceless (and the numerous comments are even more fun to read).


The Squeaky Wheel has some complaints (listed in alphabetical order, so scroll down the page until you see either Direcway or HughesNet, since it's listed under both names). Here's a couple of them.

Squeaky Wheel - intermittant and slow connection.
". . . . So, we call the 800 # and the wait is so long that by the time we get them on the phone the connection and speed has improved. What do they expect we are calling India to solve a problem in Virginia! We are almost to the point of signing back up with dial up, it is more reliable and consistant. For 59.99 per month the service is a rip off! . . . .


Squeaky Wheel - Overall Service
" . . . . Overall service from HUGHESNET can be described as dismal at best . . . ."


Broadband Reports
" . . . . Now with the new FAP, the $60 account is about worthless. You need to consider a bigger account and if you can afford it, get the 1.2M dish and a business account.

Hughes is now so bad, it should be considered the worst ISP in the United States.

This is not only because of the new FAP, but when they changed it, they didn't inform one single user to be careful because after a 1/3 of your allotment you will be penalized with lower refill rates, nor did they tell people they were going to get 24 hours without internet until it happened to them . . . . "


More to come later!

How to build a mob (Lesson No. 1)

You are not alone!!! HughesNet is gathering quite a few people who HATE their service.

Following are samples of a few choice comments from around cyberia (be sure to scroll down the page to read ALL the comments):

-- Ripoff Report. (link to the whole article and comments)
. . . . I finally got a tech guy (in India) to tell me about this FAP cap that had been implemented. He said, 'Just wait a few hours, your speed will come back'. The Hughes website (I found) says this, too. But, they LIE!

Once I reach my limit, it takes a full day (24 hours) to get my 'high speed' back. Until then, I'm screwed. Just think if they did this with DirecTV. That would mean you could only watch TV for 3 hours per day! I wonder how many people would cancel DirecTV if they did that? . . . .


-- PC Pitstop. (link to the whole article and comments)
. . . . Hughes net is the biggest scam out there! I have had Hughes net for 18 months(Direct Way at that point) and Just when I finally got use to the, bad service, horrible tech support and FAP(Fair Access Policy) they went and changed it today!

Hughes lies! They have these adds that say, "High speed", "fast downloads", "no waiting to get online" and that they are the only option out there if you can’t get DSL! Well let me tell you how my 18 months has gone. . . . .


-- Complaints Board. (link to the whole article and comments)
. . . . I had my email under Direcway for 4 years until somebody, without my consent and without amending my service contract, switched it to "Hughes.net." Now I cannot relay email, nor can I use another ISP to receive email . . . .


-- XOM Reviews (link to the whole article and comments)
. . . . I think a class action suit is in order.
What FAP doesn't say is that when the throttle you down they make email and web browsing totally unusable. I have two days to discontinue the service and get my equipment money back. Guess I'll do that . . . .


Some good things come from people that post negative reviews about HughesNet.

First, it provides a public service and warns people considering their service.

Second, some people actually list alternatives to HughesNet, which I'll include in a separate article.