I woke up this morning ready to begin my job as a stay-at-home tech support person for a large company. As luck woudl have it, I was unable to get on the internet for the 2nd time in less than a week. Consequently I was unable to work.<br />
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This was the 3rd time this has happened since I was forced to purchase HughesNet satellite internet service since moving to a rural location that does not provide any other internet options.<br />
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I dreadfully called HughesNet Technical Support knowing full-well beforehand that I was gonna hear the "it's not our fault call your computer's tech support people" spiel (as I had heard the previous two times this had happened).<br />
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As luck would have it on the previous two incidents I was able to eventually solve the problem myself but not today. Nope, I had to call HughesNet and speak with 'Max', who did indeed give me the "it's not our fault" speech.<br />
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I called Dell Technical support and spent $130 and 1 1/2 hours re-installing Windows XP to no avail. I still couldn't get on the internet.<br />
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I called HughesNet again and talked to a guy named 'Andrew' who, after some diagnostics and conversation, determined that my problem was due to the fact that I had downloaded a service pack for some software that 'exceeded my allotted download quota' and therefore HughesNet had cut me off until midnight of the following day.<br />
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Only then did I learn that I had a 'download quota' and I would, in fact, be 'punished' if I exceeded it.<br />
(I suppose if I look hard enough at the crap I signed when I signed up somewhere in a .5 font it talks about it).<br />
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I then realized that this is precisely what had happened to me the previous two times I had been unable to connect to the internet.<br />
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And only after 5 calls to HughesNet ("it's not our fault") and wasting $130 with Dell Support was I able to get a HughesNet tech support person competant enough to know about and explain the 'download quota'.<br />
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Man, I hate these jerks. If there was ANY other internet alternative other than dial-up modem these morons would be history.<br />
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My advise to you all is to NEVER subscribe to HughesNet internet services unless, like me, you need the internet for your livlihood and you have absolutely no other alternative. And be prepared for total incompetance if you ever need technical support.