My old email address was able to come in (jetstreamwireless) and so my email is receiving over 5,000 spam emails. Please stop them.

Every time I have an issue with Hughes (formerly Direcway) it takes hours upon hours to resolve it. The latest debacle came when I chose to upgrade to their new, faster modem. It arrived on May 1st and after following the installation directions and achieving failure, I called customer service. Well, after spending 10 minutes in voice mail hell, I finally got to the right person to help me install my new modem - or so I thought. After an hour and a half, "Abby" (not his real name - unfortunately, a person located in India) said he had to transfer me to advanced support (which is usually what happens when I have a problem - which I find to be a Godsend as the advanced support people are typically located in the US). Well guess what, I got disconnected and had to start all over again. After another trip through voice mail hell, I got "Neal". After repeating most everything I had discussed with Abby, I received another case number and he was able to transfer me to "Frappel" in advanced customer service. Well, after another hour with Frappel, it was decided that the modem that was shipped to me wasn't functioning, so he would arrange for a new modem to be shipped to my home.

Well, it arrived today. I read the paperwork and Hughes was actually going to charge me to send the non-functioning modem back! I blew my wig. After an hour of trying to get this situation resolved, while on the phone with "Rachel" (not her real name - a strong Indian accent), it was discovered that Hughes sent me a DW 7000 model (the version I currently own) not the HS 7000 model so now I have two modems to ship back. It took Rachel a few minutes to understand what I was saying and another ten to get another $20 credit to ship the second modem (which I have no use for) back. She said she would connect me to the department that would send me the correct HS 7000 model modem.

Well, I spoke with Brandy. I had to explain my entire situation again, another ten minutes and then she said she couldn't help me - wrong department. She then transferred me to someone who seemed miffed that I wanted to know his name. I explained what I needed and he said he would get the HN 7000 to me.

I am so sick and tired of dealing with the ineptitude of Hughes. If I wasn't in a situation to have satellite, I'd definitely dump them. They have no customer service. I've spent 5 hours this week trying to upgrade and am still in the same place I was when I started. If I could bill them my hourly rate, I'd be way ahead of the game. And they don't care how much time you need to spend on resolving their problems.

I can't wait to see what happens next week when I get my HS 7000 (hopefully). And now I have to make a trip to mail both of these modems back.

Several years back we set up with 'Direcway', which is now 'Hughes.net' and they sent out a local company to install the exterior hardware (and interior hardware which is fine), the dish and parts... and... yesterday it fell from the very bottom of the pole!!! This is galvanized metal but they installed it improperly by NOT using cement at the base! Now when i called to get this replaced they told me it would be at my expense! What kind of an operation is this that they do not stand behind the subcontractors they send out who do inferior work?

Needless to say... What can we do about this?

Thank you!
Jack & Donna Cornell
580 759-5338(Jack)
580 759-5339(Donna)
We are located in the Stratford, Oklahoma area

http://customercare.myhughesnet.com/phone.html indicates 1-866-347-3292 as technical support help line.

This is the only number given to customers both residential and commercial.

1-866-347-3292 option 3 gets a customer in contact with an outsourced call center where all "technicians" have heavy Hindu accent that "check their resources if you have any technical questions"

The chat routine at http://customercare.myhughesnet.com/frm_chat_support.cfm gets customers in contact with the same outsourced call center support team with chats that look like this:

[Dec 1 2006 8:35:45 PM] Welcome to our chat customer support .
[Dec 1 2006 8:35:48 PM] William, you have been connected to Kate William (Dec 1 2006 8:36:02 PM): hi Kate (Dec 1 2006 8:36:00 PM): William, thank you for contacting HughesNet Technical Support. My name is Kate and I appreciate the opportunity to assist you. Before we go ahead with this conversation, I would like to inform you in case we get disconnected, please connect to the chat session again immediately through http://customercare.myhughesnet.com
Kate (Dec 1 2006 8:36:17 PM): Hi William, how are you doing today?
William (Dec 1 2006 8:36:44 PM): great just got a new domain name and need to have a PTR record setup on your DNS servers Kate(Dec 1 2006 8:38:14 PM): Please give me a moment.
Kate (Dec 1 2006 8:40:41 PM): Is it ok if I keep this chat session on hold for two minutes so that I can check resources?
William (Dec 1 2006 8:41:32 PM): sure i understand that this is for residential tier1 support... but i was never given a business support telephone #
William (Dec 1 2006 8:46:09 PM): oh and here is a link to how my domain is pointing from the registrar http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/lookup.ch?name=hollygarth.net&type=ALL
Kate (Dec 1 2006 8:47:53 PM): William, may I know which plan you are in?
Kate (Dec 1 2006 8:50:08 PM): I am waiting for your reply.
William (Dec 1 2006 8:50:23 PM): pro plus
William (Dec 1 2006 8:50:43 PM): with static ip Kate(Dec 1 2006 8:51:44 PM): Could you elaborate your issue so that I can give you perfect resolution.
William (Dec 1 2006 8:52:18 PM): a new domain name and need to have a PTR record setup on your DNS servers.
Kate (Dec 1 2006 8:58:10 PM): I would request you to call as they will be in a better position to assist you.
Kate (Dec 1 2006 8:58:19 PM): I apologize for the inconvenience this issue may have caused.
William (Dec 1 2006 8:59:07 PM): is there a direct line to the business support group i do not want to have to go thru tier 1 again Kate (Dec 1 2006 9:00:00 PM): You need to call Phone support : 1-866-347-3292.
William (Dec 1 2006 9:00:37 PM): bye

Email support also apparently connects customers to the same outsource group and refers customer to the call number. Example in point...

From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Saturday, December 02, 2006 9:43 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Hughesnet Resolution

Dear William,

Thank you for contacting HughesNet Technical Support. We appreciate the opportunity to assist you. William, please accept my apologies for the difficulties you are experiencing.

William, I would suggest you to give us a call on 1-866-347-3292 so that we can update you about this issue.

William, we have escalated this issue to our engineers and we are looking forward for their response. However, I would suggest you to give us a call, if we feel that there is a need then we will transfer your call to our Advanced Technical Support (Tier 3).

Your case ID for this issue is 10803330

Kind Regards,
Natalie.
HughesNet Technical Support
For further assistance, we are available 24/7 and you can contact us through the following:
Phone support: 1-866-347-3292 (Technical Support).
Chat support and Email support: www.myhughesnet.com/customercare
For future Web service and support assistance, as well as finding the latest drivers and updates, please visit our support website at http://customercare.myhughesnet.com/
The HughesNet Technical Support team is pleased to provide you with technical support. We look forward to serving you in the future.
Once again thank you for contacting HughesNet Technical Support.

----------- Original Message ---------------

From : william garrison
Email ID : [email protected]
CC :
Billing Phone No : 502-845-6658
Case Status : Voice Support
Product : DW7000
Inquiry Reg : Web Setup
SiteID : 38fa2c02
Previous CaseID : 10799720
Current CaseID : 10803330
Problem Statement : COMMENTS=upon calling 1-866-347-3292 and talking to supervisor carrey? He informed me that it is impossible for the company Hughes.net to setup a PTR record for me. If this is the case then having any type of business with your company is useless. Since all i have talked to in this matter are tier 1 support specialist and supervisors I am requesting this be escalated to engineering and request a reply within 5 business days. I would like a detailed explanation as to WHY your company cannot enter a reverse DNS entry that points 72.168.183.70 to hollygarth.net C:Documents and Settings
oganlors>nslookup Default Server: 24-240-141-241.charter.com Address: 24.240.141.241 > hollygarth.net Server: 24-240-141-241.charter.com Address: 24.240.141.241 Name: hollygarth.net Address: 72.168.183.70 > 72.168.183.70 Server: 24-240-141-241.charter.com Address: 24.240.141.241 Name: host7216870183.hns-noc-rev-lu.com Address: 72!
.168.183.70 http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/lookup.ch?name=hollygarth.net

For any hughes.net employees this is case# 10799720, 10801081, and 10803330

Getting in contact with anyone at Hughes.net to perform any high level technical support is virtually impossible and requires the tenacity of a pit bull at the that of it's prey. When one does get in contact with this higher level technical support the only support that they can give you is with the hardware that you purchased for $600-$1000 US.

The "Level 3" technician I finally got in contact with informed me that the network topology used by satellites was a static "image" of current DNS entries and changing the DNS entries for static ip addresses was impossible and could not be performed.