Date: 2/28/08

Hughes Satellite has promised a level of service which they consistently can not meet. Continual efforts (c case #'s 13443966 and 13445657) to get the services advertised that I pay for have been fruitless. Hughes Satellite advertises the following for the Pro service: With the HughesNet Pro plan, connect to the Internet with maximum download speeds of up to 1.0 Mbps, with typical speeds about 650 Kbps to 750 Kbps during peak times. Upload speeds, which are capable of reaching 200 Kbps, are typically 100 Kbps to 125 Kbps during peak hours.

The majority of time, even when not utilizing the service during peak times, my results have been far below that. Hughes has admitted to a problem that has been unresolved for almost two months. This problem is with their satellite operations. They have not notified customers that this service is impaired and have not offered any type of remuneration unless you are lucky enough to find the telephone number for customer relations in Germantown, Maryland.

The service department is made up predominantly of employees who reside in the country of India and are difficult to understand when attempting to troubleshoot a problem. After repeatedly going through the same troubleshooting procedure and finding nothing wrong on the consumer's end, the customer is switched to the next level of service. This results in a better chance of getting an English speaking representative.

After reviewing the case history(ies), the customer is told that Hughes is aware of the problem and are working on it but that they currently can do nothing about it. No effort is made to offer the customer downtime credit or even apologies for the sorry state of affairs. The customer is left with nowhere to go and a malfunctioning system which cost them $74.00 per month.

Contacting HughesNet customer relations in Germantown, MD and speaking with someone named Camile only confirmed that the problem existed and an offer to pick up the equipment and rebate the hardware costs. Camile indicated that I should be the one to request credit. My feeling is that Hughes should be making the offer without me having to ask. Unfortunately, that's not the only costs that one occurs with setting up HughesNet satellite system.

It may involve cutting down trees, digging ditches to bury the coaxial cable, having an unsightly satellite dish installed (and if it's further than 40 feet from the hook-up site, more unreasonable charges are piled on.

I just committed to extending the service for 24 months based on a "free" upgrade to a more functional modem. At that time, nothing was mentioned about the satellite problem.

This company has a long way to go to correct their many misrepresentations and withholding of information that a consumer should have access to.

I will also be filing a report with the FTC and the FCC along with a letter to my State agencies.

John Isensee