I signed up for HughesNet simply because there were no other options in my area. I was on the automatic payment plan and had no problems.

A few months ago, my credit card company issued me a new card, and the old card expired. HughesNet began sending me paper invoices through the mail. I would then make a one time credit card payment online. I liked this method of payment better, as I don't really trust automatic billing.

I received a bill in the mail, stating that my current balance plus a previous balance was due on August 4th, 2009. The previous balance had been due July 5th, and I had simply made the mistake of thinking I had already paid.

On July 20th, a pop-up page began appearing, stating that my account was past due. I discovered my error, and promptly made payment of the past due amount online, also opting to set my credit card back up for automatic payments to keep this from happening again. The current balance would then be due August 4th (or so I thought).

After making the payment, I still continued to receive the pop-up page stating my account was past due. I thought maybe their system needed some time to process the payment, so I thought nothing of it.

This morning, I was still receiving the notice of non-payment. I called customer service to explain the situation to them. I was informed that my payment due date was 7/20. I explained that I had a paper invoice that stated otherwise. Not only that, but the automated account information over the telephone stated that my current balance would be automatically drafted from my credit card account on 8/7.

I argued and argued with these people. Apparently, when I made the payment online on 7/20...the system changed my payment due date for the CURRENT balance to 7/20. No one made any apology, they simply stated that if I didn't pay the current balance I would be cut off within 3 days.

So now I've paid them TWICE. I am interested to know whether or not they intend to charge my credit card again on August 7th.

I had hoped to resolve the issue with customer service...but the lady I spoke with was apparently an automaton, as she could only repeat what was on her computer screen over and over again. I spoke with her supervisor and explained that companies cannot arbitrarily change due dates on bills without some sort of notification to the customer. His reply was "consider this your notification". I asked if there was anyone that was in the United States that I could speak with and he told me "no".

I wouldn't recommend HughesNet to ANYONE. I will NEVER recommend them. Period. If I had any choice other than HughesNet or an even worse satellite internet provider in my area, I would gladly switch. HughesNet customer service is horrible...their packages are overpriced...and they are completely worthless, in my opinion.

Todays date is Septmeber 10, 2008

Approximately 2 1/2 months ago Hughesnet had what they called an anomaly with one of their satellites designated 93west, we were completely without internet service for about 4 full days, then when we finally got the service going again is was severely crippled and nothing like it was before the incident occured.

I was assured by their impotent India customer service that Hughesnet was diligently working on resolving the problem and the service will be completely restored, after about 3 weeks of this promise not coming to light, I went back into the case # India support farce, to see if the issue could be resolved.

I tried to explain to the service rep, that sometimes our download speeds were just barely above a 56K dialup connection, and thats not what we are paying for, he assured me we would have the problem solved before the phone conversation was over, after an hour on the phone he came to the conclusion he wasn't going to resolve the issue, and I quoted back to him his statement assuring me he was going to resolve the issue before the call was over.

They then informed me I had to run speed tests for 3 days to give them a reference to decide whether to refer me to a higher source to resolve the problem, and after the 3 days of running the speed tests, they used those speed tests to tell me there was nothing they could do because some times in the entire 3 days of testing my download speed was acceptable and blamed the entire problem on the internet being busy at prime usage times, and that hughesnet gave no guarantee as to solid internet download speeds, which by the way is not disclosed on their TV commercials.

We had descent download speeds before the problem with the satellite occured, thus the reason for this complaint is we're flat being ripped off, we're not getting what we're paying for, and others that use this service need to know this before you jump into something believing the television advertisements that are just not true, and I have printed pages of their speed tests to prove it.

I want my download speeds restored, or disclose this on your new TV advertisements, not in superfine print if its there but bold print so possible new customers can evaluate that for themselves, it surely wasn't disclosed to my wife and I.

Also hughesnet customer support in India is a joke, its basically scripted support, and when they run out of scripted guidelines your support is over, whether your problem is resolved or not, and why are we calling India for support for people in the USA???

Heres some of my worst download speeds in kbs, 94, 87, 94, 92, 79, 83, 87, 88, now is that 25 times dialup as advertised, thats not even twice 56k, so think hard about this before going hughesnet!

Very angry, David Campbell