-=PCTechTalk=- Re: high speed internet
- From: Gman <gman.pctt@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <pctechtalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2008 18:44:17 -0400
Sandi,
We had problems with the service almost from day 1. The speeds and
connectivity were great at first, but soon started to drop off. Within
about a month, we were hardly able to connect at all. After several calls
and transfers (and a couple of months complaining), I got to speak with a
WildBlue senior tech who confessed that one of their 5 satellite beams was
having a serious issue and it was affecting everyone running off of that
beam. During our conversation, she asked me if I would prefer to back out
of my contract without penalty. I asked her to give me her personal opinion
on whether the service would be fixed and improved any time soon and she
said she did, but couldn't give me a timetable since the techs themselves
weren't really sure what was at the root of the problem. I knew she was
being real with me (a VERY strange feeling when dealing with most tech
support people) so I told her I'd hang in there a little while longer.
Thankfully, she was kind enough to add that offer to my records so that I
could activate it later if necessary.
Well, they got the beam fixed, but a few months later, we were hit with
a FAP violation and our speeds were cut down to just above dial-up speeds.
Our contract was for their top tier $80 US/month service (1.5Mb/second)
which includes 17000Mb worth of downloads and 256Mb in uploads over any
rolling 30 day period (this is much higher than Hughes FAP limit, BTW), so
there was no way that we had come anywhere near that amount over the
previous 30 days (or ANY 30 day period for that matter). I called to
complain and was told that DishNetwork doesn't monitor bandwidth use and has
no way to even look into the matter. When I asked them to put me in touch
with someone at WildBlue, I was told that my contract specifically states
that I can only get support directly from DishNetwork. I was absolutely
livid! The speed reduction remains in place until the measured use drops
below 70% of the limit, which is 11000Mb in our case. It took about 3 weeks
at those dial-up speeds for it to drop that low and our advertised speeds to
be reinstated.
By now, you can probably imagine where I'm going with this. After
numerous calls, transfers and runarounds (and a couple more FAP violation
accusations/speed reductions), I eventually had enough and decided to play
the wildcard that wonderful WildBlue senior tech had added to my account
record. I backed out of the 18-month contract after about 10 months of
headaches without penalty (although they unsuccessfully tried to charge me
for a lot more equipment than I had used) and switched over to the DSL that
my phone company had JUST finally brought into my neighborhood.
My current connection is now DSL and is the slowest speed the company
offers (1.0Mb/s), but they tell us it's the best they can do for our area.
The funny thing is that our perceived speeds are actually much faster than
when we were using satellite internet, there's no such thing as a FAP and
the company is very responsive, courteous, etc. to customer calls. Oh, and
the package only costs us $20 US/month for the first year under the sale
they had going at the time we signed up. That will increase to the usual
$30 US/month for the second year. Faster speeds, no FAP and decent service
for about 1/4 of the price? Go figure! lol
Peace,
Gman
"The only dumb questions are the ones we fail to ask"
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sandi Beach" <sandib2@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <pctechtalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2008 5:49 PM
Subject: -=PCTechTalk=- Re: high speed internet
> G, did you last through your 18 month contract period or opt out sooner?
> If
> sooner, what kind of a penalty did you have to pay. We will be on a 2
> year
> contract and that bothers me a bit. Especially when I just now thought
> about cleaning the snow off the dish in the winter time!
> I have explored all other options. I thought for a while we might get
> high
> speed with our local telephone service which is Nex-Tech rural telephone
> but
> they could not see us though all the trees. I offered to negotiate
> putting
> up a tower on our property but they have had several offers like that.
> Not
> enough population out here to make that attractive to them. Then I
> learned
> they would be putting up another tower but when I checked on the location
> we
> will still not be within sight so--- just hope HughesNet works for me.
> Several people in this area have told me they are happy with them.
> Sandi
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