Today Hughesnet was down almost all day. When I finally called, I was informed it was the weather and they were having massive outages. Miraculously, internet service was restored about 5 minutes aftter my call. So being as mad as I was, I went ahead and googled "Hughesnet Sucks" just to see if any new consumer complaints had come in and I did find a new link which is shared below with the rest of them, plus a Facebook page titled "Hughesnet Sucks". Seems to be a theme. Since there now seems to be several complaints from people receiving Hughesnet via the "Recovery Act Program" I decided to write the FTC on the issue. The following is a copy of my complaint, please feel free to copy/paste and send it to the FTC on your own behalf, changing my personal history to your history with hughesnet. I think I will also send this to the FCC.
Hughesnet has been used in the Recovery Act Program and given to many people at a steep discount. The problem with this is that HUGHESNET IS NOT REAL BROADBAND AND SHOULD BE BROUGHT UP ON CHARGES OF ADVERTISING FRAUD. The government's goal of a minimum of 4 megs upload is not met, and cannot be met by this company at this time. Also the "fair access policy" (FAP) effectively prevents consumers from having a broadband experience. The so called FAP is a 200-425 mgb (depending on which plan you are paying for but all Recovery Act consumers only get 200 mgb) daily download cap. For the 200 mgb customers, Thats about 10-15 minutes of very low quality video. If you go over your daily mgbs, you get one free token _a month_ and after that you can purchase another 200-425 (depending on your plan) mgb for $10.00. Ten minutes of video is not going to help any of us rural folk get anything more out of the internet than we did before with dial-up. The people who couldn't afford to pay for hughesnet's exorbitant install cost probably can't afford to purchase more mgbs so they can take a class or talk to a doctor, etc. which is what this program was supposed to achieve.
I have been a hughesnet customer for 6 years and paid $750.00 for equipment and installion in 2005 when we built this house. I pay almost $80.00 a month for the privilege of 425 mgbs daily. Lately hughesnet has been down more than its been up. The first 3 people sent out to repair my system found nothing wrong. One repair man finally told me he thought hughesnet had overloaded the satellite the 7000 modems used and I needed to upgrade from the DS7000 to the 9000 which would require a new satellite dish because my "old" dish was not compatible with the 9000 modem AND the new dish needed to be moved from where the old one was to point to a different satellite. I did not upgrade due to the cost. After several months of daily outages and calls to tech support from me (the most recent outage was today for most of the day) I was finally told that "its the weather".
The upshot of this whole thing is that HUGHESNET IS NOT BROADBAND AND SHOULD BE BROUGHT UP ON CHARGES OF FALSE ADVERTISING. hughesnet is not reliable, not affordable, and the rural people you hoped to help will eventually go back to dialup when they are informed that their "old" system is being phased out and will no longer be supported by hughesnet techs.
I suggest you google "hughesnet sucks". And read some of the MANY complaints from unique users. You will see that there is a theme of an unfair FAP policy, lousy customer service, and bad installs. Start here:
DSLreports.com, http:www.consumeraffairs.cominternethughes.html
http:www.facebook.compagesHughesNet-SUCKS316089946898?sk=wall
http:forums.cnet.com7723-7585_102-184658.html
http:www.ripoffreport.comSearchhughesnet.aspx
http:www.pissedconsumer.com?option=com_search&Itemid=38&searchword=hughesnet&go=
Thank you for your attention.
