I've been a customer of Direcway and Hughes for 5 years now. Everything was fine before Hughes took over! The service has slowed down to the point that it's no better than a regular ISP service. I've been having problems with error messages of "506" for the past 2 or 3 months now. I called Hughes customer Tech service yesterday to find out what was going on.
I was told, totally out of the blue, that I was downloading too much! The service rep. said, "I don't know weather your aware of this or not... But you can only have so many megabits downloaded per month." WHAT? I have never been informed of this before! And I've never had the problem before, my downloading hasn't changed! I can't even bring up my own everyday sites!
Beware!
When I sign on to Out Look to look at my email, I get a window asking for my password, it appears to be there ... so I over wrote it and put it in again and still deneys me. Do I have a virus?
Just in case download antivirus it never hurts
I sent the complaint I had to the Attorney General of the state they are in, didn't help. Did Minnesota do anything?
I hit my limit in one day after installation. Regular home plan limit is 200 mg in 24 hours. The system goes into sleep mode download according to one of the sites that I checked was 19kb. I thought that I had cut a line or something and called tech support. That's when they explained about their Fair Access Policy.
I never heard of this before, was not advised when I signed up and am absolutely livid about their deceitful practices.
I have spent the last 24 hours in time-out, thanks to their FAP.
I think this is a bunch of B.S. Nowhere on the Hughes Net website does it say that there is a FAP. Just because I'm stuck out in the freaking boonies, and no cable access anywhere, I have to adhere to this bull sh**. If anyone has found a legal solution to their problem let me know.
Thanks.
We were hit with this recently and we've just came out of the 24 hour punishment. I called to cancel and was told $300 penalty. I asked for a paper bill and was told that will be $5.00 extra. I made that change and informed my credit card that Hughes agreed not to charge my card again.
I plan to cancel my service as this is just ridiculous. Punishment at $60 per month.
It sounds absurd.
May 15, 2007 our e-mail went down. Since then Hughes keeps assuring me that it will be fixed. It is now June 3, 2007 and we still do not have e-mail. Each time I call I am assured that this problem will be fixed in the next 24-48 hours. Perhaps their hours are timed differently from the rest of the world!
It's not punishment F.A.P stands for Fair Access Policy, and it is on their website in the faq's and displays in detail that 200MB per 24 hour is the limit, but 3am to 6am are not subject to F.A.P so I suggest you download then by using a download manager to start and end downloading times. as for the 300 dollar late termination (two year commitment) fee cell phone company's have had this for years.
I did my research before I signed up for direcway I knew I would have these problems. But Direcway is certainly better then dialup
Jonathan Berkisczuk,
I'm not sure if you realize this, but 200 mb's can be lost to you in less than an hour surfing just normal webpages. Most main webpages on a site are around 50-100k. Some higher end websites are 500+. So if you look at around, load up 100 pages, you are about a quarter of the way to fap. Sad... so sad... Even on dial up, you can hit your 200mb quota without worrying about dropping your connection down just for downloading. Its sickening, they drop you for 24 hours, regardless of what period your in. Shouldn't it be until the next 24 hours period? not a full 24 hours? No... they WANT you to fap.
Has anyone talked to a lawyer about fap, sounds like grounds for a class action to me.
I have this Shi** A** service too and i am fed up with it! Something needs to be done! I play a large online game and the mbps is just ridiculously ###ed! we even have the upgraded services!
For example: I go to my cousins and play sometimes on the weekends who HAS ground DSL my game play latency is anywheres from 50ms-100ms.
Then when i play at home on hughes net my game play latency bar reads 1400-2500ms this is ridiculous and something needs to be done!
I could get Dial-up and cruise and pay less than half what i am paying now! As a matter of fact, my friends dial-up when he plays this game is faster I've seen it.
Hey Jonathan how long have you worked for hughes? or is your name Akhmed but Johathan is more of a name north american's & europeans can relate to.
What needs to be done is a consumer group be created by State/Location and bombard your respective authority or attorney generals office with complaints one person isn't going to make a difference. Send copy of said complaint to your BBB, and consumer affairs of statewide/local television. Hughes uses a play on words with that nice lady on tv. 1. Broadband Unbound means it's available in most places, 2. Unlimited Access means they don't have a security guard at your house hitting you in the head with a stick every time you check your mail, not unlimited bandwidth.
I do believe FAP is necessary, but at realistic levels.
Hughes net has been a terrible service for speed and customer service... at times the pages just freeze esp when loading email and or pages for bill payment... as for calling customer service... it always is waiting time is over 45 mins or so...this is a very expensive service you would thing that hughes net would love to keep good paying customers... i plan to drop asap and tell everyone on the net i talk to to write the same...
I had this same problem for a week. I called up and they told me about, 200mb download limit. Really i think it's bull, but what can i do? I can't get Dsl or Cable, so it's satellite or Dial-up.
There's another satellite company other then hughes. It think it's WildBlue or something like that. It's $50 a month i think, but i don't know about a FAP by them. I'm gonna check it out.
HughesNet is the worst company I have ever dealt with... service is poor, speed is slow and in my case I haven't had effective service sine June 1st and the service tech can't get to fix my Dish until July 18th -- WOW that's service.
Hopefully a class action suit will be filed soon, mu someone --- I would never renew or recommend them to anyone.
For Now WildBlue is a better choice giving twice the bandwidth (FAP) threshold as Hughesnet but who's to say they will not outsell their capabilities as well especially if we all jump ship and go to WildBlue. I think a Class Action Lawsuit is the only recourse we have. Hughesnet needs to be made accountable for the deceptive practices. Can you imagine the profits this fraudulent provider has gained? It is obvious they have their moles in here to try to discourage us from any such action.
CLASS ACTION PLEASE!
Hughes sucks now,i cant even play resistance fall of man anymore online because my latency is too high. I m leaving this ### service as soon as possible. If you go over the FAP, get free dial up from freecenter.com.
I had the same problem with this FAP crap. I called back my installer several times, because of my slow internet at times. I'd be getting 9 to 13 download and 700 to 1200 upload. Besides downloads I listen to internet radio. He came up four or five times and used my phone to call his tech man for hours sometimes. They change modems, checked Hughes end, even one time changed satellites. It would go away and come back. The next time I was highly pissed over the phone, so they sent the owners of the installation company's son out. He was switched back and forth to tech's over my phone for and hour. He sat there over phone telling these people that he was at my house doing the call, and that we used to different computers and had the same problem ( they tried to say it was my hardware). He even said to them that downloads were ridiculously slow. He got pissed and said he had one other special number to call. Well he got a hold of this lady tech that knew what the problem was right away. She asked for the site Id# and told us about this fare access policy thing. The lady also showed him where to find this FAP readings. Now the installer had no idea about this and we looked and could not find any of this on the contract when I signed up. Before I lived in the sticks, I had Road Runner with no problems at all and it was cheaper, I could also download 24-7 if I wanted to. What was the real kick in the ### is that the tech lady said that I could increase my download threshold by paying more money. So I got pissed again and grabed the phone and said, look I can understand that if you have one satellite thats over crowded and that FAP may be needed. She stopped me and said no there's lots of room, we don't just have one satellite. I said I pay over sixty buck's for 200 meg's, but I can get more if I pay more. So I said what is the need for FAP, or is this just a case of Jesse Jame's without a mask (aka. highway robery)? The conversation was over, she said that's the way it is, and I was not the tech, so I was not the one she should be talking to. If this should not be regulated then I don't know what is.
You can sign a F.A.P. PETITION by going to www.petitiononline.com/dpcfap/petition.html and typing your name and filling in the blanks. If we don't fight back there will be nothing done about it.
The aggravation of dealing with this corporate giant over correcting "THEIR" billing errors and correctly crediting my account with payments made for service has become an incomprehensible nightmare... that old adage has been proven so true and correct...the bigger the corporation... the greater the incompetency... in their case...the biggest part of their head is in the lower and darker recesses of their anatomy.
I have had been with directway for almost four years. NEver had a problem until hughes net took over. Now I am always being penalized for 24 hours just by paying bills online. They say it was in my contract about the limit to downloading but it isn't anywhere on my contract I can find. I went and looked at the BBB and got two numbers for people in charge. I think if we all keep calling maybe they will have to change the way they are doing business. They are ripping us all off and getting rich in the process while we are sitting around waiting for 24 hours to go by so we can get back online. Its ridiculous. I haven't heard of the termination fee yet but I can imagine if I go to terminate they will make me pay as well. here are the numbers I found
Principal Contact of hughes net is Charles McClain. Compalint COntact Ellen Martz/ I am assuming these two do speak english. We can hope. I am calling tomorrow. The two numbers I have are:
[protected]
[protected]
Don't know if these numbers work or not just th ought I would post it for those who want it.
I was considering getting Hughes, after reading all this, I don't know what to do. I also live out in the boonies and my dial up is tooooooooooooo slow. Before I lock myself into a 24 month contract with Hughes, I'd like to know if anyone has had a good result with this service. All the marketing info is positive (of course). Does anyone think the service has been worth the trouble?
We'll we have recently signed up for wild blue and although i do think fap policies are necessaries hughesnet fap's are ridiculous 200mb a day that is bs wild blue is 7500mb a month and my nabor has wild blue and she has been quite content with her system... but wild blue only does have 2 satellites in space so if everyone switches it would probably just turn into another hughesnet. we ordered are wild blue system on august 16 the satellite is still not her, thought they did inform me they were in a 'back order' and said it could take from 2-4weeks to get here so i have been waiting patiently and i decided to look around on there web page and they have stopped letting people order it for the zip code 6674... so they are trying to keep satellites from getting over crowded, last time they did the hold for this area they put a new satellite up.
My email keeps disappearing! All my messages from my inbox just disappear! If I get out of Outlook Express and then get back in a few times they will magically appear but I am afraid one day they won't. What the heck is the problem. I have a hotmail account attached to Outlook also and have no "disappearing" emails with it. Only Hughes.
What the heck.
HughesNet ###ing sucks dog dick! Nothing but a bunch of theives! Tech support ###ing sucks, customer service ###ing sucks, they don't give a red rat's ### about their customers! HughesNet isn't worth a tinker's ###!
I live in the NC Mtns and have no alternative to Hughesnet other than dial up. I want to puke everytime I see the redhead saying how everyone can have high speed. PLEASE - some attorney out there shut the biggest of all marketing lies Ive seen down. I dont want money - just hate being lied to and spending hundreds of dollars plus having some apparatus drilled to my roof for nothing faster than dialup. LIES LIES LIES - hope the owner rots in hell
Hughes Net is horrible when it comes to online gaming. I've heard people say that they have around 700-900 ms with it. Well for me, its usually around 2100-2500ms.. which makes it completely impossible to play any online game at all. Now I know that satellite isn't meant for online gaming, but no one bothered to tell me that before I bought it. "High Speed" psh.
Beware of wild blue! I understand that you have issues with HughesNet, but Wild Blue will not be any better. I know from experience. At least you have connectivity. I've been stuck with Wild Blue for a year now and have been down more than 50% of the time. The rest of the time, the speed and lag are so bad that I might as well be on dialup.
I'm glad to see so many others w/ same problems. My email address is blocked because I am sending spam from it (?). I can barely use my computer! I have been bombarded with junk email and been filtering and deleting as fast as my fingers can move. But somehow something "lodged" into my computer and I am a bad guy w/ malicious intent (?). If any spam has gotten to others posting here from me, I offer my deepest regrets. I don't know if I did something wrong or if it's Just One of Those Things. Anyway, FAP is baloney, service is terrible, and I can't even download anything like Norton to try to protect my computer. I'm pretty illiterate about this stuff, but I do know there has to be a better way. Class Action is too good for them!
Jonathon or what ever your real name is, it must be hot in your country, the USA is cooling off. How much did the Hughesnet folk pay you to say what you did? FAP is crap! Dial-up is better than Hughesnet's POS service. Can't wait for contract to end.
I going to seng my bill smeared in dog crap every month...they lied to me about everything...they waunt to hit me with 400 bucks to cancell...wow...i have only been with them for 1 day and can see they SUCK.
I am going to take that disk and burn it...File bankrup on em...yea...i refuse to pay it!
Then I am going to place an ad in the local news paper and warn people...let them bring me to cort!
bad bad...sham on them
We signed up for Huges net in September, before we even signed up I contacted them and asked if we would be able to download, acess e-mail, and surf the web. They said that their services was the same as broadband if not better. We live in a area where you can not get any service accept dial-up. So we decided to try huges net. From day one we were not able to get on line, and if we did we could only go to one site before it would freeze my computer. we can download any thing. i have called tech service many times and they keep informing me that there is nothing wrong with the service it is my computer. I called and told them that I wanted to cancel and they said that they would charge my card $700.00.This is not right. I would like to see a class action suit filed against them!
Is it really the providers fault you don't read contracts. Remember under UCC you are required to read your contracts or you lose rights. You could always Blue line the contract then that part is removed. I did that on a sprint contract and they never disputed it and lost the ability to charge me a cancelation fee.
Remember its your fault learn to read your contracts or stop complaining when something surprises you.
Wildblue, should be called wild blows. Their service really sucks and they are not friendly at all. I have had them for 6 months and have had nothing, but problems. If you are considering them, consider going back to dial-up first. This company is over priced, over staffed with incompetent buffoons. You need to read the part in the trash policy where they treat you like a child and tell you afterwards that you are restricted to your download speeds and the amount of downloads and if you go over that, which is not clear to start because of a false since of this is a good company grace period. Your speed will be slowede to lower than dial-up for 30 days from the date that you went over. My suggestion is tell these people that to get into the 21st century and out of the stine age. I have seen so many people with this issue it's not even shocking anymore. Oh and watch for the early termination fees, it's just the remainder of the 12 month contract. Trash I tell ya, trash. So who's got a chisel for me to make some square wheel for these people. ;-)
i had hughes for a few months when i found out about this fap. all i did was cancel my credit card and stop paying hughes. i never got one call nor one letter asking to be paid, they just left me alone. if it goes against my credit rating i dont care, my score is good enough this will not have any impact. i suggest you all just do the same. when the money stops comming in there will be no hughes. one problem i did run into is the i paid 400.00$ up front for equipment and now i can't even give it away even though i own it out right. they will not acctivate the modem until the ballance is paid. well in the trash it went and i have recovered. i am now with my cell provider. i pay the same as hughes and i can take my internet with me where ever i go with my laptop. my plan allows for 4gigs a month and i use this thing day and night and all weekend and have yet to run into any problems. i am going on six months of a 2 year contract and if things keep going this well i will resighn and get a new usb modem i another 18 months. go wireless i love it couse im an internet junkie. gl all. hope yall can find a better isp.
I've never had FAP come into effect while just searching web sites... my mom can be on the computer upstairs for hours doing eBay and I can be doing stuff and I've never had FAP go into effect. by using the Hughes Usage page that tells you how much you've downloaded it usually never goes above 10 or 30mb per hour when surfing relular web sites and taking into effect how fast the "bucket" refills you'd need to be online a whole lot to run out your limit.
Not to say I agree with FAP I hate it! But currently it's the fastest solution for us rural customers.
Opps I meant to post as Jonathan Berkisczuk but I messed up! The above post is in response to James Weymouth.
My email was dissabled by hughes net. Unknowingly I called tech support 6 times they reset my password and assured me it would fix my problem. On the 7th call they informed me that my email was dissabled by them for receiving too much spam. I was told They would contact me about it in 2 or 3 days. I asked them to adjust my bill since I spent a week without email. There supervisor informed me that email was a free service provided by hughes net, there for they could not adjust my bill. I asked if tech support was free also but all i got was the run around I promply told them to discontinue my service which the did. had there service for two years never late paying my bill. The dish cost me 700.00 daollars plus. Getting a wirelless car for my pc I suggest anyone who has cellphone service at home to do the same thing!
I've been wrongly charged for a satellite installation in another state for someone I don't even know. Numerous attempts at resolving the problem have been considerably less than satisfactory.
Even though they know that a charge of $494.47 is not rightfully mine they refuse to credit my credit card with the wrong charge. Instead, they say I'll have to go through "dispute" with the credit card company to have the money returned. This will take 6-8 weeks I was told by Visa and of course there's no assurances then.
As a result I've had to cancel my Visa to be assured they won't post any additional charges in the future. Cancelling Hughes Net service prior to the two year agreement will cost me another $300 and still won't correct the bogus charges.
I just went to sign the petition and received 'Web Acceleration Client Error (506) - Suspected Recent Satellite Link Outage' - I literally cut and pasted it from the browser. That should tell you what we are dealing with. Hindsight being what it is I would use a dial-up because even when things are fine dial-up is only a fraction slower no matter what the advertisements, website, salesmen, etc. say. They do not tell you verbally during any transaction about this policy because they realize customers might not buy which should tell you about the unethical behavior this company uses as part of its normal operating procedures.
My PC antivirus software and Java downloaded updates during the same period and I was locked out for 24 hours at less than dialup speed. The antivirus didnt finish because my PC was FAP'd and I cancelled automatic updates because I literally cannot update to my PC to the latest antivirus software now. More things they do not tell you - you cannot VPN unless you purchase an upgraded program and even then performance is reduced to what I would imagine would be less than dialup.
I feel sorry for people that have to pay for this service because they need internet access and cannot get it any other way. People that think this service is acceptable either work for HughesNet or have never used anything other than dialup prior to HughesNet so they do not leverage the internet the way its intended.