Wildblue’s satellite technology limitations, the “bent pipe” as it is called coupled with Wildblue’s desire to make sure that the bottom line is maximized.

The “bent pipe” if you can imagine the USA as one large rolled piece of cookie dough with one little round cookie cutter knocking out pieces as close together as possible so as to not waist any dough. That’s the “bent pipe” this technology limits the number of users per circle. Now, to overcome the limitations they “Wildblue” have perpetrated a fraud upon paying subscribers with the so called FAP policy “pure spin”. This policy has been instituted only to cover up the out right theft of paid for bandwidth. Yes that’s what I said theft; you are punished for efficient uses of you’re paid for subscription package by “Throttling” your connection. What is “throttling” you say. The bandwidth that you are supposed to get is stolen from you so they can squeeze in a few more paying subscribers all under the guise of FAP “Fair Access Policy”. This “throttling” of your connection is basically choking it to less than 1/3 of what you pay for. Their supposed 512 kbps down and 128 kbps up package rate is cut to 125 kbps down and an unbelievable 23 to 25 kbps UP! Hell, you can’t even upload a small text file to your favorite website, I’ve tried. Hardly better than dialup because of the severely choked UP rate. Their technicians refer to this as “a FAP condition”. If you pay for a 512 kb pipe then that is your limitation, neither DSL nor Cable choke their connections this way. By downloading or uploading only a few files, to much surfing, and deleting the files stored in your browsers cache requiring the re-loading of a web page or web sites that you visit. All these things can cause you to easily exceed these ridiculous limitations. Your bandwidth is taken from you for 30 days or more. All the while you get to pay for bandwidth you can’t use. They ignore your requests to cancel service and try to sell you more expensive packages instead. Half of their helpdesk people can’t answer a technical question and their favorite response is to have you call into their main number so you can be put on hold for 30 minutes or so. Don’t even think about WildBlue as a high speed access choice.

WildBlue wants you to use “ www.toast.com and www.testmy.com “ test sites for determining your connection speed however, these test sites use small packets, these small packets will falsely indicate your connection speed. A better test would be www.speakeasy.com/speedtest there large packets are used to test your true connection speed. Why large packets; the internet is a high bandwidth “pipe” using large amounts of data “large packets” so only test at sites witch transfer large packets. Sending a mouse down a small pipe may work try sending a rabbit, your connection gets choked. Once again Wildblue puts “SPIN” on their explanations to trick you into thinking wow they are looking out for me. Nothing could be further from the truth they are out to deceive their customers so they can increase their bottom line by crowding their “pipes” with more users than their “bent pipe” technology is designed to handle. By the use of “throttling” WildBlue can re-distribute unused bandwidth to even more paying customers.

I had Wildblue Internet installed at my home 7 months ago. The service has never functioned properly. I have problems getting any internet service on a regular basis, and am constantly finding I cannot send or receive emails. After 7 months of constant complaining and troubleshooting with Wildblue, the company is still unable to fix the problem. I want out of my contract and they refuse, indicating I am responsible for paying for the last 5 months of the contract. The company has far from lived up to its promises in its contract. Most recently, I called the company about 3 weeks ago and said I wanted to cancel and it is no longer authorized to take money from my account. Guess what? They took money again two days ago without authorization to do so. I recently loaded dial up on my computer. It's faster than Wildblue's supposedly fastest package. I have filed complaints with the Federal Trade Commission and the BBB, and this company simply does not care!!!

DO NOT GET INVOLVED WITH THIS COMPANY. IF YOU HAVE PROBLEMS WITH THE SERVICE, YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN!!!

10/31/06 ORIGINAL COMPLAINT:

I've waited a few months to write this because I wanted to be certain my rage and hostility had settled down. My WildBlue experience is one that lawsuits are made of. If I dared to want to waste my time filing complaints about them, I would. Aside from lodging one complaint with the state of GA, I'm done with WildBlue. Instead, I'm telling everyone I know to stay away from this company.

My installer no-showed for the first, second and third scheduled appointments. WildBlue subs out installation through DSI who subs out through somebody in the local area. In my case, this was American Communications. They, in turn, sub out to somebody even more local. I had to go through this chain-of-command to track down who it was that stood me up. The whole process is ridiculous. Eventually, the installer phoned me and managed to show up. I'll skip all the small talk he made and get to the point: when he couldn't get "all green lights" on my service, the guy left! He told me that I had to call WildBlue and tell them to send me a new part. That was that. I was left with no service, out $60 for the pole, staring at $299 worth of equipment and wondering WTF I had just paid for.

It took TWO weeks to get another installer scheduled to replace the defective part. When he arrived, he told me the part was recalled 3 months ago and that the initial installer would have known that. He then realized that my cable was not approved by WildBlue and would have to be replaced. Afterwards, he was still unable to setup email or other online WildBlue services (such as viewing my bill). I gave WB one more week and then called up to cancel under the 30-day money back guarantee.

Three weeks and two phone calls later, I get credited for my equipment. That still leaves the $80+ for service that I never had. WB says they credited my bank account $20 and $40 (still not $80) back in September. My bank says that isn't true and WB says now that I have to send them my bank statements to prove they didn't refund my monthly service fee.

None of that compares to the final blow, however. Just last week, I got an email from WildBlue stating that they had billed my credit card (debit, actually) for $791. I phoned WB and got the biggest attitude and run-around you can imagine. Eventually, the rep told me that WB did "attempt" to get the money but "since we didn't get it, you don't need to worry". I lost my cool for the first time in a long time but nobody there cared.

A trip to my bank, a talk with the bank manager and one fraud warning later, WildBlue is locked out of my accounts and finds themselves at the top of my list. Crappy service is one matter. Attempted bank fraud is another.

Even if slow dial-up is your only option, avoid this company. Unless, of course, you can afford to miss 3 or 4 days of work (without pay) waiting for an installer that never shows, want to pay for equipment you can't use and can afford to have a random $791 sucked from your bank account.

11/08/06 UPDATE

Well it has come down to me deciding over a BBB complaint, a state of GA complaint and/or legal action. The staff tells me that this matter is "over their head" and they can't seem to fix the problem. If they need help with that, I'll step up. More updates to follow. As of now, I have filed a BBB complaint and asked for my $87.92 back for the monthly fees, 1/2 of my lost pay, 1/2 of a monthly cell bill and a letter stating I do not owe WB anything.

Today, I received this email:

Dear: NICOLE

Our records indicate that payment on your account is overdue in the amount of $791.43. If the amount has already been paid, please disregard this notice. If you have not yet made a payment, please contact WildBlue at 1-888-278-6858 (option #2) to make a payment while this reminder has your full attention.

Failure to make full payment within 10 days will result in suspension or termination of your service. In addition, we will take other actions to enforce our rights under the Customer Agreement, including reporting your account to a collections agency.

Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.

WILDBLUE COMMUNICATIONS, INC.
P.O. Box 4427 Englewood, CO 80155.