HughesNet Really Sucks!

Update February 10, 2010

The HughesNet 9000 modem lasted for a little less than a year. It died suddenly leaving Bob without Internet service. Phoning the HughesNet All-India technical support made it worse. Prior to phoning the "support" person the modem status screen said that both its transmit and receive were functional but it wouldn't find a web site. After the HughesNet tech "support" interacted with it, the modem no longer would even try to transmit. They quoted $125 to send a technician out to look at the hardware. The technician spent 2 hours fiddling with the equipment and said he couldn't fix it. They will send someone else sometime next week.

The problem is most likely at the HughesNet Control Center, the system load shedding probably dropped customers who had been on for a year to free space for big commercial customers, and for new customers. Their management policy and practices are criminal. See HughesNet Still Sucks.


Update February 20, 2009

Despite what they promise on their glitzy TV commercials, the functional speed of HughesNet service is never close to the "up to" that they claim, and continues to decline over time. It gets slower and slower as long term customers get pushed lower and lower on their priority tree. Their HughesNet web terminal host computers serve the priority customers first, and then the lower priority customers when they have time. New customers are added to the top, and long term customers get what’s left. Eventually it becomes as slow as dial up phone service.

After 3 years, Bob’s HughesNet service not only was sloooooooooooooow, but it stopped working at all during peak evening usage hours. Bob phoned the HughesNet Asians who are euphemistically called “customer support.” Their job is to cause the customer to perform a series of useless tests until he becomes tired of complaining and goes away. HughesNet also has “level 2” support technicians, but they still don’t have any authority to raise your priority assignment until you get to their “level 3” technicians who are Americans and can actually speak good English. It is the job of the level 1 Asians not to allow you to speak to the level 3 technicians who have better things to do than take care of customers.

The Level 1 Asians recommended that Bob “upgrade” from the “DirectWay” DW 7000 model modem to a “new” HughesNet HN7000s modem. He said that HughesNet could not fix my problems (dropping out during peak usage periods) unless I paid to “upgrade” my modem. The cost of the HN 7000 modem was going to be $349 counting a service technician to install it.

Bob checked the HughesNet web site and found that they have not provided the 7000 series to new customers for almost a year, since last March. They were demanding that Bob pay over $300 to “upgrade” to an obsolete 7000 series which (according to the local HughesNet installer) is not significantly different from the DirectWay modem except that it says “Hughes” on it. Hughes bought or took over the service from DirectWay about the time that Bob became a customer. “We no longer support the DW modems,” said the Asian “customer service” operator.

New HughesNet customers have been getting a new HN9000 series modem since last March. Their own web site doesn’t even mention the 7000 series at all except when an existing customer requests an “upgrade.”

Bob called the Customer Service Asians back the next day and demanded to speak to someone who could address the change in service during peak hours, and/or provide a real upgrade to the 9000 series modems. Bob must have upset him because my HughesNet service went from bad to not functioning at all while I was talking to him. He refused to consider any options other than paying to “upgrade” to the now obsolete “HughesNet” 7000 modem. After that “customer service“ from Hughes, Bob has been without an Internet connection for about 2 weeks.

Bob phoned the Hughes account department to inform them that Bob would not be paying their bill as long as Hughes is refusing to provide service, and eventually was told that Bob would have to cancel the account in order to be eligible, as a “new” customer, for the 9000 series modems. I told her to cancel my account.

Bob eventually tracked down the local HughesNet installer and signed up for a new account with the new 9000 modem. The local technician said that the “upgrade” HN 7000 modem is no better than the DirectWay DW 7000 modem. He said that he often replaces the 7000 series with the 9000 series because the HN 7000 isn’t worth shit.

There is one other satellite direct Internet provider called “Wild Blue.” According to my installer, they used to sell a lot of Wild Blue installations, but had nothing but trouble with the modems and connections. They also are reported to have very shoddy billing and business practices. Wild Blue is apparently even worse than HughesNet. What ever happened to companies who take care to do a good job and serve their customers?

So Bob is back on-line from home again. There is a wire running across the yard on the snow, and through an open window, but its connected.

If you live in town where Comcast is available don’t ever get HughesNet. Even the phone company now has better service in most places. HughesNet really sucks. Lies and bad service is how they work. If Bob lived anywhere that any other broadband service is available, Hughes would be dumped immediately. At least with Comcast you don’t have to trudge out into the snow to sweep off your dish, it’s a lot faster, and doesn‘t limit your total usage.

Original Article April 24, 2006
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. Every other company I've dealt with at least would talk to their customers, and some of them actually have technical support available. For example, I subscribed to Comcast cable Internet for several years. Their service only went out about once a year, and when I messed something up their technical support was always available for help. Not with HughesNet crap. So fare I've never been able to talk to a live support person, and by now she doesn't want to hear the things I would tell her about how crappy their lack of service has been. As a company, HughesNet makes AOL seem like heaven. I wish we still lived where Comcast serves. HughesNet (DirecWay) has got to be the worst company I've ever tried to deal with. They don't provide the service they promise, and they won't talk to their customers.

Does anyone have a software that will phone their number every 15 seconds? I'd love to call their "customer assistance" line a few hundred thousand times. I'm liable to pack the whole dish up and give it back to them and tell them to sue me. They have failed utterly to provide the service they promised.