Thursday, September 8, 2011

Hughesnet Sucks!

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.

Monday, August 22, 2011

To All Belligerent Atheists

I posted this here: http://www.livescience.com/9910-humans-neanderthals-mated-making-part-caveman.html in reply to a person who called someone with a Christian world view an "asshole" but it probably won't be accepted by the moderators, so I'll post it here too.  In reality, I've wanted to tell quite a few atheists this anyway, so here goes. 

Try to remember that your manners represent your beliefs, or more accurately in your case, your lack of beliefs. Christians are fairly used to being insulted by educrats and their blind followers; seems like it's okay and even politically correct to insult, malign, and be prejudiced against Christians these days.  But that's okay because they get points with God for being thus insulted, so it really doesn't matter.   Go ahead, name call, insult, bully away, make a fool of yourself.

It just proves to Christians that you are bitter and depressed like you should be if you believe that life started accidentally from some primordial stew, which in turn makes humans accidental, parasitic animals with no reason to live other than to conquer each other in a futile effort to be the fittest survivor, and in the process are bound to destroy everything on the earth and then earth itself.  Yup, makes perfect sense.  I'd be depressed and angry too if I thought I was an accident and there was no reason for me to live and ample reason for me and my kind not to live.  What a shame, what a waste, what a sad life.

Look at it this way:  if you are right, and I am wrong and there is no God then there is no heaven and no hell and in the end, we both die and are dead, and that's that.  Except for the fact that we've lived different lives.  You've lived as if there are no moral absolutes, done what you wanted when you wanted with whomever you've wanted.  In doing so you probably have unwittingly contributed to the decay of society simply by not adhering to a moral standard--you might have to think about that one for a while, but that's okay, save that for later.

I, on the other hand have lived my life adhering as closely as I can to a set of moral absolutes which are designed to protect and preserve human life and dignity not to mention make us good stewards of the earth.  So hopefully I have caused less societal decay than you have, but even if I have flubbed up (and who hasn't?) I am forgiven by God and that forgiveness (love and acceptance) compels me to seek forgiveness and pay restitution to those whom I have offended.  My "conscience" (Christians have another name for it) speaks louder to me than yours, because I developed the habit of listening to it instead of drowning it out with continuous thoughts of ME, MY, MINE, ME FIRST, ITS ALL ABOUT ME, WATCHIN' OUT FOR NUMBER ONE--ME!  Yeah, I have news for you, its not all about you, but I digress.

Now, lets say I'm right and you're wrong.  I die and I am instantly in the presence of God-in paradise because I acknowledge the fact that God so loved all of us that He sent His only begotten son (Jesus) to live, and then die for my sins in my place.  You on the other hand, die and get to find out which level of hell you get to go to and then you get to stay and burn in that God forsaken place forever because you rejected your own God given conscience.  You know very well what is right and what is wrong, that there is absolute truth, and that my friend, is another source of your anger and depression.

~~~
Doesn't take a rocket scientist or even an evolutionist to figure out which lifestyle is healthier and does the most good.