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Worst Service EVER
StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarBy -
Rating: 1/51

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA -- Got the service in May 2022. Service was horrible from the start. I spent many hours on the phone trying to make the internet work better. It would work for a short time, then back to continually loading a show I was streaming or something on my computer. Finally I decided I could not use it anymore. The service techs I spoke with were rude and just told me I had to pay an early termination fee of $350.00. I chose just to disconnect and continue to pay the monthly fee until the 6 month period is up. I would not use this company!!!!

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Poor Service Poor Customer Service
StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarBy -
Rating: 1/51

HARRISVILLE, NEW YORK -- I write you here out of frustration, desperation, and anger too perhaps. My wife and I are seniors who have a small much needed online business to supplement my limited social security income. For many years, we have been customers of and depended on HughesNet to provide our internet connectivity. For most of that time, we have been generally satisfied with doing so but a few months ago, that changed drastically.

For many weeks now, our on-line service has not been working right. We have made innumerable calls to your people. Both your techs and private techs we hired have checked our situation but the problem remains. All of our hardware (computers, routers, etc.,) have checked out to be performing correctly. We need help with this. Our calls to your people have done us no good so I am writing to you directly. It is my hope that your sense of responsible business ethics, and human compassion, will elicit your personal assistance in this matter. Please help us in this matter. Without our little on-line business, we are in a bad situation.

My wife knows much more about computer matters and this problem than I do and she is appending here further information on this. Kaul, I am not sure where to begin because this problem has been going on for over 6 months, the problem of pages not loading escalated beyond compare back in November. For over 2 years we paid over $200 per month for an older business version of your service no one contacted us by mail or by phone to tell us that it was no longer available and yes your service started being metered.

The new service was installed on Dec 29, 2014, and since then technicians have been out six times. On Jan 30, a technician was out at our place and worked with Hughes technicians over the phone for over 3 hours - this time they changed the gateway. (The technician told us that if that did not solve the problem HughesNet would put their “tier four” people on it.) As of this moment the problem remains.

Since November we have lost about $2,000 in revenues. I have had to refund customers and as of today, I still cannot access Shopify once again. Furthermore, I cannot upload product to eBay, my primary store. I can start a listing sometimes it will let me add my pictures without errors and sometimes it will not. When it does, and clicks continue - the pages times out on some of these messages: Your connection has time-out, the page is unavailable, connection has been reset. Sometimes pages load scrambled or with just the HTML other times, they load without the icons.

Let me clarify, this works sometimes: if I reboot the modem, the router and all of the computers connected to our network and try again I may or may not be able to reach the website. We have purchased top of the line routers and extenders - our wireless single is strong and broadcasting. Our private computer tech keeps our computers updated, our virus and malware protection properly installed. He runs regular scans to make sure we have no problems.

Today, January 31, 2014, I had ten business clients here to learn social media for businesses in my workshop. I could not get into my pages before they got here but it was too late to cancel. I could not conduct training this morning - that cost me $550.00? (I refunded their money because I do not know when our business internet service is going to be working properly.)

At the time of my finishing this letter, I am attempting to list product on Shopify for each of the three products I have spend over an hour reloading, hitting the back button and starting all over again. I do hope that you find a solution to this matter as expeditiously as we pay our bill each month for the last 9 years.

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Avoid Hughes Net. Terrible Service, Terrible 'Customer Service'.
StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarBy -
Rating: 1/51

PAHRUMP, NEVADA -- On approx. March 19th 2019 my chronically POOR service STOPPED loading my email and Twitter accounts. I was told this was because I had used all my 'fast' and 'slow' time. (In a matter of eight days.) This had NEVER happened before. Attempts to apply 'tokens' failed. All efforts to 'troubleshoot' with no less than THREE technicians FAILED. There was no 'speed' improvement. After 'jumping thru their diagnostic hoops' and being told everything 'looked' fine, the technician finally admitted that my equipment was 'old' Gen 4 and that in order to get faster service I WOULD HAVE TO UPGRADE to Gen 5. (And oh by the way, I'd have to sign up for another two years of service or face a $400 early disconnect fee.)

NOTE: they did take payment for the service they admitted they no longer supported, however. I asked for a 'supervisor'. Was told there were none available, I insisted and after waiting a LOOOONG time was finally forwarded. Bottom line, she agreed to limit my obligation to 1 year and agreed NOT to charge a disconnect fee if they were unable to provide the type of service they promised... But they would not be able to send a technician out until Wednesday, the 27th. NOTE: I pay an additional $25.00 a month for 'prompt' (2-3 days) home servicing. (Obviously, a waste of money there too. I don't consider a full 6 days of no service as meeting their promised service response time.)

The 'technician' did not show up for his 'between 2-5 pm' service call. In fact he didn't show at all. I called 'Technical Support' AGAIN and was told that the technician didn't show because the order had not been sent to him... because of a problem with THEIR system. I waited a week, for a 'no show'. They did not even have the common decency to call and advise me of THEIR system error.

Today, since Steven, another 'supervisor', could not tell me how long it would take Hughes Net to "get my service up", I am awaiting a call back to tell me how long it will take them to fix their 'system error' so the "UPGRADE?" can be installed. He promised a call tomorrow, the 28th, but believe me, I won't hold my breath. Their 'Customer Service' is abysmal. They have no follow up or checks and balances. Additionally, their Technical Support has little interest in supporting an 'older' system, in the customers home, They are in fact, are FAR more interested in selling GEN 5 AND their mandatory two-year contract extension.

I will update if/when I get my service problems resolved. For any person reading this, Do yourself a BIG favor, DO NOT sign up with this company. Their system is so slow it 'times out' on even BASIC internet functions. Bought/earned 'tokens' are worthless and cannot be applied. Their 'technical support' and 'customer service' is a JOKE. (It is so POOR that they REQUIRE 'new customers' indenture themselves for extended contracts... The only way they can keep them???) More to follow...

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Stay away from Hughesnet!!
StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarBy -
Rating: 1/51

ROY, WASHINGTON -- Hughesnet is not by any means the worst corporate villain out there, and their products will not kill you like cigarettes, known and deadly automotive defects and medical devices with documented (and lethal) side effects, to name a few, but if you have any other alternative for internet service then by all means buy that rather than getting Hughesnet Gen 5 internet satellite.

Like their dishonest, disreputable and more deadly corporate cousins, Hughesnet places profit and share price ahead of morality, honest and simple human decency, although as indicated their satellite internet will not kill you (unless you kill yourself because Netflix streaming is so unwatchable that you throw yourself off of a cliff).

The basic fact that potential customers need to realize is that the advertised speeds do not match the quality of what you realize on your TV. Not even close – you might get a speed test result of 25 MBPS on testmynet.com, but the quality of the viewing is as the Netflix speed test indicates, which is consistently around 0.5 MBPS. And there is nothing they can do apparently to fix that. It must have to do with the way satellite internet works at this point in time.
Cover up is then the name of the game here when you discover that the service does not work for streaming as they advertise, and nothing they do can fix the problem, as happened to me and many others judging by the very poor reviews Never admit anything is the strategy – deny, deny, deny.

So what that I was able to achieve decent internet streaming when I finally managed to get DSL service installed so far away from the DSL node that only 2 MBPS was possible? So what that the Netflix speed test showed 0.5 MBPS with Hughesnet when theirs showed 21 and the picture was so scrambled that I didn't know if I was watching Star Wars or 60 Minutes other than for the sound? So what that an experienced LG TV tech who came out and checked out the TV explained that in his experience you could just not use satellite internet for streaming?

All of that was just fluff and not our problem type stuff when I finally cancelled Hughesnet. And by God were they ever going to stick it to me with a $300 early cancellation fee and a $600 early equipment return fee because this was all as advertised and above board, and strictly, somehow, my problem.

Except that it is not, and it seems that continuous real time streaming is simply not possible with current satellite technology. And, given the number of 1 star reviews I have read that say exactly the same thing in different review forums, they have to know this and simply don't care. If they can sell the service with glib promos and slick sales pitches they will, and when a customer says enough is enough Hughesnet will take as much as they possibly can monetarily to pad their bottom line and try to make it your problem.

I owned my own business (I'm a veterinarian) for many years and we almost always tried to make it right when people were unhappy, even when we had clearly practiced very good medicine and surgery. Simply to help, because that was the right thing to do. Unfortunately, many businesses, and especially large corporations, do not follow this moral compass. Because quarterly profit is all that counts, fair play and basic honesty be damned.

If you do have to get satellite internet because there are no other options, and want to watch movies, it is possible to download Netflix and Amazon movies with either an app or a third party program to your Mac or PC, and then use screen sharing if your computer and TV support that. That is not ideal, but at least you get a watchable TV program or movie on your nice big Smart TV.

It would be really uplifting if for once a corporation like Hughesnet looked at all of this negative stuff and the unhappiness it causes, came clean, and apologized without being forced to by some sort of glaring media exposure. Based on their responses to my Better Business Bureau complaint, that is not going to happen with Hughesnet. But if I can save even one other person the aggravation of having to deal with them, then to inform good people to stay away will at least have been worth it.

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RIP OFF - WORST EXPERIENCE WITH A COMPANY EVER
StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarBy -
Rating: 1/51

GERMANTOWN, MARYLAND -- I signed up for the Hughes.net service for 2 years. At the end of that 2years, Because of awful service and worst speed than dial up - I decided to cancel. I tried to cancel numerous times. I was told over 3 times that I could cancel in May 2017. When I called in May, I was told I could not cancel until August 2017 but they'd be happy to drop my bill down some. Nothing I could do but accept that.

I called in August and it took me over an hour for them to accept my cancellation. I
had to argue over and over and FINALLY got them to process the cancellation. I was told that I would be receiving a return kit to return 3 pieces of equipment.

On Sept 15 I had yet to receive the pckge. I chatted online with a representative who stated the
cancellation has just been processed on 9/13 and the pckge would be sent shortly.

On Oct 15th I called in - explaining I had yet to rec the pckge. Again, I was told it had not been processed and that everything was fine - That I would receive it shortly.

Today, 11/13 they have taken $324 out of my account, unauthorized, for equipment that I have not returned because I have not been given the opportunity to return it.

Today - I have talked to Oriana, Aj and finally after asking over 11 times, a
supervisor Jenny who finally gave me tracking # that shows 1. the wrong address was entered and then 2. they delivered the pckge to the wrong address not even in the same city I live in.

This was shipped on 9/13 - but again, the previous two reps didn't tell me this, rather
told me the package had NOT been shipped. Everytime I communicate with
the company - I get a different version of what has happened.

All of the reps I have talked to today Refuse to refund my $ which is causing
overdrafts and my mortgage payment to not clear. States they can send another return
kit and refund my money in 14 business days. I am a single mother of 3, now
overdrawn, can't pay my mortgage, feed my kids and will have hundreds of dollars in
NSF fees over a mistake that is not my own, when I have diligently tried and tried to
follow up.

Supervisor Jennifer YELLED at me and basically told me that it was my fault and
that I was lying. Over talked me, called me a liar, when I have the print out from UPS stating it was delivered to the wrong address, not even in my city. Refuses to
over night another package, Although Oraina stated to me this morning she could
overnight another return packge to me, Jennifer the supervisor says they can not.

Jennifer tried to tell me my address has changed, but I have lived in the same
location over three years and the length of this horrible experience. Once again, calling me a liar.

Considering the error is on their part, and that I get a different story every time I call,
I do not have much faith this will happen.

This is a scam, even Jenny the supervisor said to me that she answers these kinds of calls all day. There is a website,

https://community.hughesnet.com/t5/myAccount-and-Billing/bd-h/AccountandBilling, full of the same type of complaints.

I have filed a complaint with the BBB, by a scam, taking advantage of people. Also filed a complaint with the Maryland consumer protection agency, as well as any social media site I can find. I would advise anyone not to sign up with this rip off!

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Lies and Poor Service
StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarBy -
Rating: 1/51

TROY, MONTANTA -- Today I spent over an hour with a technical support person as a "courtesy call". I have been with Hughes Net for a year now, and can't wait for contract to end. Over the year while I pay for 15mbps download and 2mbps upload I get nowhere near that. I have complained and complained and complained. I have been given every excuse always blaming me, and lied to every time I have talked to someone, most who don't speak the American version of the English language.

Today they couldn't finish the testing because I run a notebook and a laptop that are WiFi only and I cannot connect directly to their modem. I pay for service calls each month but since they can't finish the testing from long distance they can't send out a technician... So why am I paying the service call fee??? Since they require I be able to connect directly to the modem, I guess that means I have to go buy another computer to be able to prove to them that their equipment is faulty and they are not giving me the service I am paying for.

At the end I asked her if I was going to be reimbursed for the amount of data time I used up to download all the stuff and to be online with her for an hour and she promised me 500mb to be added to my account... It still hasn't happened in 5 hours. This company will lie to you, cheat you, make you sign for a 2 year contract because they wouldn't have any business without doing these things. Don't expect them to give you what they promise you and if you do call them....RECORD the conversation or they will say they never said anything to help you. Good luck.

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Scamming Grammies
StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarBy -
Rating: 1/51

YES, YOU ARE BEING SCAMMED. If you didn't know you were being scammed, you are EXACTLY the kind of person they target. There is no nice way to put it: HughesNet is nothing short of a scam preying on the uninformed. I'm the extended family's branded tech-guru. I'm the one who gets stuck with getting the bloodline right with the technological mumbo-jumbo whenever I'm in town. And you tech-novices can get yourselves into some real shenanigans. But NEVER have I ever encountered such a scumbag company as HughesNet.

They sell paltry service at ludicrous prices through ball and chain contracts SPECIFICALLY targeting those who don't know any better, using INTENTIONALLY misleading sales-tactics. Most internet providers screw over the occasional grandma because she doesn't know any better. Hughes' net intentionally screws over lots of grandmas because they're the only ones who don't know any better.

Basically, their scam is this: Through a bunch of techno-jargon at people they KNOW don't understand what they're saying (five whole gigabytes at ultra high speeds!) and use misleading dazzlers (Elite! Bonus! Complimentary!) to make their customers believe they're getting a great deal. The problem? Five whole gigabytes isn't enough data to last you a week, and those 'ultra high' speeds don't even fall above the 'average' line when comparing other companies.

That 'elite' service is normal service with a higher price tag. Those 'bonus bytes' (a byte is a unit of internet data; if the internet was a book, a 'byte' would be a page you're paying Hughes net to find in the library and bring back to you) can only be used from 2am to 8am, and they're limited. Those 'complimentary' bonus bytes? Not enough data to last you a week AND they can only be used from 2am to 8am. And for the icing on the cake, you're paying double for this pathetic service.

Likely someone sold this to you as your only option, or in some sort of bundle. No, it's not worth it. You might as well not have any internet at all. If you have to choose between dial-up and HughesNet, choose dial-up. At least then you'll get a fair price. It's like if SNL set out to make a skit about the most evil internet provider they could come up with. I'd be laughing if it wasn't going to cost my uncle hundreds of dollars and months of shit service.

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Snake oil, lies, and disapointment
StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarBy -
Rating: 1/51

Dear Hughesnet,
I have been your customer since 2012. Satellite was my only option at that time and you were allegedly the "best"... and slow internet was better than none at all.
I was an early adopter of Gen 5 immediately after the launch of EchoStar XIXI, and that was awesome...temporarily.
Initially, before everyone else jumped on, the speeds were fast and consistent. Unfortunately that is no longer the case. Now your speeds fluctuate wildly making streaming video annoying and nearly impossible. More troubling are the slow page load speeds for normal websites.

My current page load speed in seconds
ap news: firefox 9.91 chrome 16.4
BBC: firefox 21.5 chrome 21.0
CNN: firefox 12.8 chrome 24.7
myhughesnet: firefox 18.8 chrome 24.3
msn: firefox 11.6 chrome 33.1
It is 12:30 in the afternoon here with some sun and no precipitation, and Wichita is partially sunny. You can't blame this on the weather. ;)

I have wasted countless hours on the phone with your outsourced tech support who are coached to blame the problem on the weather (or anything except too many customers on line). I feel so sorry for them. Forced to interact with your angry and disappointed customers, they patiently put up with all the hostility that is meant to be directed at you. What a horrible way to earn a living. By the way... please give them all a raise. They deserve it.

I'm escalated to your upper tier tech support on a regular basis, but they can't seem to find or fix the problem either. (at least they don't try and blame the weather) I have had you out to my house on numerous occasions to troubleshoot, but you never find any problem here. Its not my dish's view of the sky, nor it's signal strength. It's not my cable connections, nor the any of my hardware.

Weird, right? < heavy sarcasm

It's you... not me. I believe that you have, yet again, oversold your bandwidth. Too many people using your network all at once.
Or possibly you simply exaggerate the capabilities of your system to sell more subscriptions. Telling us "All Service Plans Include:25 Mbps download speeds, 3 Mbps upload speeds*" but then at the bottom the * reads "Actual speeds may vary and are not guaranteed." Wait. what?! Ohhhhhhhh I see now. I've been conned.

Whatever the REAL cause, your service has been and continues to be slow, erratic and undependable. I pay in excess of $1800 a year for service that is no better than dial-up.... and often much much worse.

Your deeply unhappy customer,
T Warne

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Unauthorized Payment
StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarBy -
Rating: 1/51

GERMANTOWN, ILLINOIS -- Just like the many MANY other customers, HughesNet also took an unauthorized payment from me. I canceled the very slow and terrible service when a serviceman came out to see what was wrong with my equipment and told me HughesNet does not work well for streaming Netflix. I told him that's all I wanted it for, I was misinformed and take the equipment because I don't want service. He told me that he would put in my cancellation but they would mail a box for equipment.

Almost 2 months later I received a box in the mail and the next day HughesNet took $408 out of my checking account without my permission. I never said ok to automatic payments. I never do with any of my bills. I was NEVER told that I was agreeing to automatic payments upfront and that I had to call later to request a paper bill. I heard that for the first time today on the phone with HughesNet, months after I'd started service. That's their scam. And $408?! They said it was “tokens”. I had to Google what a token even was! I never called and ordered tokens, they told me I did it from my account online, but I've never even used my account online!

It's a scam and it's sad. I am a single mom with 4 little boys, I worked so hard to save that money to buy them Christmas gifts and the exact same day I had money put in my account, HughesNet took it out! 10 days before Christmas! I talked to 4 different people on the phone. Got nowhere. I was waiting for my final bill to come in the mail and planned to pay for it with a different card, not my kids Christmas money! I still never got a bill in the mail! I hope HughesNet is happy that they stole Christmas from 4 little boys. They could've at least waited a couple weeks to steal my money! That would've sat better with me than doing it with my kids' Christmas money!

I'm disgusted with HughesNet for taking money out of my account without ever asking my permission and I'm disgusted after reading how many other people this has happened to. I will be sure to post this on several different sites so that hopefully others don't get screwed over the way I did.

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Terrible streaming
StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarEmpty StarBy -
Rating: 1/51

LAS CRUCES, NEW MEXICO -- Whatever, whatever you do, do not subscribe to HughesNet! Let me tell you about my experience, which I'm seeing repeated all over the internet. I thought I would subscribe because they were new to my neighborhood and I would save a little money. I purposefully asked if I would be able to stream movies and videos and was told absolutely yes, and so went ahead with the install and lengthy service contract. Well, the install tech was friendly enough, but when we went to try it out, it buffered my movies considerably. I asked about that and was told "you just have to wait for it to download it for a minute". Well, I stupidly let it go, and alone, I continued to try to watch my movies. I timed it and it buffered every 15 seconds. Even my tablet would buffer trying to download videos and music.

I ended up calling their technical service 3 times within the first few days. Every time, I would get an overseas operator who would test and fiddle with something on their end, and then tell me to go to their website and change some settings. Nothing worked, not a whit. I told them I wanted to cancel after just those few days and was told there was a cancellation fee of $400 for the first 2 years. I guess I knew that but thought I would never need to do that when I signed up.

Well, here's what I did. I knew their monthly charge would be coming up soon, so I went to my bank and changed some banking information and had them blocked. Haha on them! Soon I got past due notices, and then more threatening letters. Ultimately I got a box asking for a return for all of their equipment with the threat of another heavy fee if I didn't. They even wanted me to go up to the roof and retrieve their transmitter! Heck if I was going to do that. I even read a review where they were asking an 80 year-old man to do the same. Well, today I am going to UPS to mail their box with just what I was able to throw in it. I hope that's the end of this mess!

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Hughes Net Rating:
Star Empty star Empty star Empty star Empty star
1.1 out of 5, based on 96 ratings and
145 reviews & complaints.
Contact Information:
Hughes Net
11717 Exploration Lane
Germantown, MD 20876
1-866-347-3292 (ph)
www.hughesnet.com
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