Hughes Net

[coonhoundmama87]

Does anyone on here have Hughes Net? I'm so incredibly disgusted with ATT right now and I'm looking to switch. We are in a rural area and all we can get is dial-up. We've been with ATT for years but suddenly they started rasing our bill slowly. I didn't notice because I do auto-pay. But today I thought I'd look at the notification email and it was 10 dollars more than the last time I remember

and it's been that way for a few months. I spent about an hour just getting their non dial-up friendly website to load and then my dial-up kicked my off, imagine that. But I discovered eventually they are charging me for long distance even though I don't use my phone (only have a line because I have to). We use our cell phones for everything. But anyways... we got a card from Hughes Net in the mail with a special for $39.99 a month with free installation if you do the lease program which is an extra 9.99 a month. Considering ATT has us up to almost 45 a month for just dial-up I thought maybe it's something I should look into. I know there are lots of rural people on here so maybe you can give me an opinion?? Thanks much!!

 

[speckledhen]

I don't have it but I've heard only bad things about HughesNet, including slow internet and bad customer service. Hopefully, someone with first hand experience will chime in.

My friend Cetawin was forced to have them as her provider and if she had any other choice where she lives, she'd dump them in a NY minute. We use the old Free-to-Air satellites ourselves, but they're a PITA to deal with at times. Hers is much higher than what you mentioned, though.

 

[EweSheep]

We used to have Hughes and it sucked.

We have AT&T and believe it or not, we tried to go back on dial ups after we didn't like the trial period for optic services for high speed. We could not go back to dial ups because it is going to be obsolete in our part of town so we have the lower cost of $20.00 a month for internet service, still have high speed and it was great!

Yep, alot of the internet providers are dropping dial ups and if you do make your changes to higher speed, look out, you may or can not get back into dial ups anymore.

Comcast is the worst offender. Horrible services, customer services and poor connectivity (constant bumping off).

 

[coonhoundmama87]

hmmm... What drives me nuts too is that just down the road you can get ATT highspeed but not by us, and it's not that far away. We also have a service called Open Range around here that I hear is supposed to be decent.

 

[BrokenRoadFarm]

We had it too...when we first moved out to the country all we had was dial up...not even DSL.

So we got HughesNet. Wicked expensive and I spent more time sitting and waiting than I did surfing.

And when the weather was bad, forget it...sometimes couldn't get on for days. And the modem kept breaking - $125 just for the tech to come out...that doesn't include the repair!!

We now have a Sprint wireless aircard. MILES BETTER! And A LOT cheaper!

 

[gryeyes]

Wow. I loved HughesNet. Yes, pricey, yes, customer service was slightly annoying, but I had it for four years until I moved even further out in the sticks. Now I have WildBlue and I like them even better. But that's because I am in the "American Broadband Recovery" area, where satellite installation is free and monthly fee is $39.95.

 

[yinepu]

Quote:
that HAS to be the understatement of the year!

we had hughesnet.. like others we live out in the boonies and had a heck of a time trying to get internet way out here.. their "customer service" is non-existent.. it's so beyond bad I wouldn't even call it customer service.
Even when the skies were clear it would slow down to a snail's pace.. we ended up with the "fastest" package they offered and still spent more time waiting for a signal.. having to reset the modem.. calling customer service.. waiting.. waiting.. and more waiting.. and if it rained you could forget about doing anything online at all

the sad thing is after our introductory period expired the service suddenly got worse (and naturally we were locked into the contract then).. when we called tech support we went around and around with some wonderful inept people from India or Pakistan or some place who would only read from a script and ignored everything we told them.. after several phone calls we finally called the "order new service" number and got a tech from the US that way... he informed us that hughesnet is for reading email ONLY.. they did not want us downloading anything (even though their commercial says otherwise).. did not want us to play ANY online games, no messengers, no message boards... no youtube or any other streaming video or music!.. so basically their commercial was just a bunch of lies and when we asked him he said "it (the commercial) is for marketing only"!

finally Cricket internet came out this way.. so we ended up paying for several months of both while we waited for our contract with hughesnet to expire... then found out that Verizon offered wireless service out here too.. so we switched to it and couldn't be happier



every time their commercial comes on the TV my husband breaks out with his own special version of tourrets syndrome (reserved just for hughesnet) cursing them loudly

 

[coonhoundmama87]

wow thanks for the heads-up guys! I guess we will look into open range again. I guess it's wireless from a tower in town. We aren't that far out. We were tested for it once and it worked but we couldn't get it yet because we weren't technically in their network or some bull. Pretty soon I'm just going to make my dad get internet (he lives in town) and go to his house all day lol!

 

[Creed Bennett]

My dad had Hughesnet and hated it. Fortunately the town he lives near put up wireless internet in his area and he switched to them and loves it. When I moved to my 125 acres of heaven I built my house on a the highest hill in the county and I could get wireless from a town that is 14 miles away. All of my neighbors can only get dial-up or satellite internet. It's good to be king of the hill!!

 

[Stacykins]

Had it. Hated it. Awful internet, awful customer service. It would go out if a horse sneezed down the road.

I got rid of it in favor of a Verizon hot spot. Has a limit too, but at least it actually works in all weather and is lightning fast.