Do not use WildBlue for an internet provider, the service is horrible, starting with the installation process. The installers were smoking on my roof, of all all places and did not ground the wires, instances that could have BURNED my house down.
Furthermore, they do not disclose during the sale of their crappy service, that you can only use the internet for a certain amount of time per month. After that, they slow your speeds down to less than that of a dial-up service, but you will still be charged the ridiculously high monthly bill for service which you are not receiving. The customer service reps are completely rude and do not even attempt to be helpful.
Furthermore, they did not disclose I would be committed to a 2 YEAR contract and that if I end the service (which I don't even have) that I will have to pay a termination fee! I am in the process of contacting my state Attorney General concerning their unfair business practices and hope to get them banned in Kentucky. It's a total scam. Beware of WILDBLUE internet service.
By Cynthia Stewart from Pikeville, KY
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Worst provider! The installers smoked on my roof, and didn't ground the wires, they could have easily burned our home down with this carelessness. WE have to pay $100 a month for internet that we can use as long as the wind isn't blowing, no rain, fog or snow. Furthermore, theydo not disclose during the sale for that $100 monthly, that you will not have unlimited service, when you reach your maximum time allowed, they slow it down to that less than dial-up, and you are still required to pay.
It is 11/20/2009. Run from WildBlue. Any other option is better, including dial-up..which has far, far better latency times than WB. Dealing with this company has been one of the worst experiences in my life. Less than 2 weeks after we got it we violated our usage limit and we were slowed to 7kbps for almost a month. At that speed most web pages won't load. Look on the Internet carefully and you'll see that there are people who have had an absolutely horrible experience with this company. They are the only established company(in Englewood, CO) that doesn't have a phone number. They have 1 telephone line and if you complain too much, their system recognizes your phone number and they won't talk to you. Read all of this on the Net, go to Ripoff Reports.
Go to the National Better Business Bureau and you'll see that they lost their accreditation, went through a major headache getting it back, and since then they're strictly monitored. In fact, the BBB is the only thing that hurts them. If you want to hurt this unfair company complain to the BBB either in Colorado or nationwide. The BBB is carefull monitoring all complaints...and you should see how a mention of the BBB strikes terror into the employees.
WB is definitely one of the worst experiences I've had in my 50 years. Don't take my word for it. The people who have bad to say about this company far, far outnumber the people who say good about it. They actually went into my bank account and withdrew 502.00 without my say at a time when all our monthly bills came due. I immediately called my brother-in-law who's an attorney. He got it back for us after about 2 weeks, but said he had to tell them it was for an invalid who was handicapped.
Also, one of their installers told me that one of their policies is to charge all kinds of hidden charges so that they can pay for the dish over time (in case you haven't bought it). There is so much more that they've done to us and others that I don't have the energy to write. Just one more thing, if you have to go with satellite, go with HughesNet instead. They've got 15 satellites in the sky compare to WB who has 2. I personally wouldn't touch satellite again after my experience with WB, but there's far worse written about WB than HugesNet. Also as of 11/20/09 my average ping with WB is 3115ms, and I've got their fastest package at 86.00 per month. Thank God, DSL just came to town!
I too got screwed by wild blue and their obnoxious customer service reps. After terminating service with them (for obvious reasons) in april, they are still sending me bills. You can imagine my anger and frustration when i called them this evening and asked for a supervisor and was told (while tiffany, if that's her real name, laughed out loud) no supervision was available.
What happened, lets see. First off the installer had no idea what he was doing. He wanted to borrow tape from me so he could tape the wires (SAT TV/internet installation) around the walls of my bed room and I had to show him how to run wire under the carpet. Next he stuck the outside wires into crevasses of my home that later fell down all over the place.
Finally he was through and things worked fine for a few months. then I got a letter saying I had exceeded the bandwidth and my speed would be slowed down because of it. Since I am the only user and wasn't on the system that often I didn't worry about it but noticed that while they turn it down quickly they don't turn it back up "ever". Now, again I receive a notice saying that I have exceeded the bandwidth. I hadn't and this time complained, received a note saying they made a mistake and not to worry about it. the following week I received another note saying that since I had exceeded the bandwidth they had cut my speed again. Since they had never increased the speed after cutting it the first time I have a hard time seeing what they have done now, can speeds become negative.
Anyway, stay away from these people. they are crooks, liars and customer abusers and from this point I will spread the word to all. These are not the people you want to entrust anything to. By the way, "if" you can get through to their support, "if" you can understand them, they will probably tell you to not hold the phone as close to your nose and then hang up on you like they did my wife. Like I said, rude, customer abusers.
Similar experience. In NY. Beware of WildBlue.
They will cheat and lie to get you money. The installation guy was so unprofessional: cursing and yelling at his wife on the phone, took the whole day. The service was as slow as dial-up except there were many outages. Getting someone on the phone to help? Almost impossible! You get put on hold for hours, then find out it's after hours so no one is available.
When I cancelled the contract, I had to pay a $150 fee to remove the equipment. He left big gaping holes on the facade of my architect designed house, cost me $1,300 to fix the damage.Now I am getting charged $300 because their service rep did not send it back (although he removed it and took it back).
One headache after the next. I, too, am reporting to the better business bureau and taking legal action. Hard to believe these crooks haven't yet been shut down!
I had Wild Blue about two years ago and at first it was fine. Then, out of the blue, pardon the pun, I exceeded my bandwidth. All work and studies online came to a screeching halt.
So, I called them up and asked them how I would go about upgrading my account to a business account. They told me to speak with one of their affiliate partners, so I did and had it all set up to continue to use them under their affiliate partner for access to a business upgrade.
The day came for the upgrade and WildBlue turned their own affiliate partner down, because I was a WildBlue AT&T customer.
What in the heck I said! I had purchased my equipment for $540 and was seven months into a two year contract when this occurred.
They informed me I would be charged this fee if I left them and I told them, that HughesNet was in my back yard installing as we spoke, their equipment had been moved to the attic and they could stick the bill where the sun don't shine.
Someone from AT&T called and asked why I left WildBlue and I repeated this very story. I have never heard from them again, they are not on my credit report and I have never received another bill.
All I wanted was a darn business upgrade and they had me do the leg work and then turned me down. I had cash in hand.
No ones perfect, but I am one of those who lives out in the rural woods and has only two choices and I have never had a problem with HughesNet so far.
Just my take on this.
I had several issues with Wildblue/Exede but after I spoke with their supervisors directly I was given back the 300 for equipment and 250 for other charges immediately.
I spoke with 3 different supervisors (Jason Webb, Immanuel Perry, and Mundy Horton) on one phone call, and the first two didn't know how to help but Mundy was able to. They were all surprised I had their direct supervisor contact, but after I persisted and let them know that I knew they were supervisors at Transcom (handle Wildblue cust svc) they helped me.
This took me 3 months to get to the bottom of this customer service smoke screen, but that's the reason Wildblue isn't very helpful when you call them...it's not Wildblue on the phone. If you had the same issues I had with bad charges call Mundy Horton @ (303)800-5912 or email mundy.horton AT transcom.com
I am not a Wild Blue subscriber or affiliated with them in any way. Actually, I am investigating alternatives to Verizon Wireless broadband. If you want to complain about something, try Verizon. 5GB per month (total) for $59.99 and $0.45 per MB overage. When I signed up you received no warning about how much you used and my 1st bill was $1600. Yes, that's right, $1600. I was able to negotiate down and complained enough about no notifications that they started sending emails at 50%, 75%, and 90% use. Since I live a good distance from the nearest tower I never get sustained download or upload speeds near their maximums. Right now I am using Carbonite and my uploads speeds are averaging <100kbps.
My neighbor has Wild Blue and has no complaints other than the cost and they have access to ComCast. I live so far off the road ComCast quoted $2000 to install the cable and the poles are already in place. Then I get to pay $42.95/mo. unless I get the triple play.
I used Wild Blue here in Clay County, Texas. The service is expensive for the speeds you get. It beats dialup but is frustrating with the outages due to rain and clouds and limited access to bandwidth. I cancelled as soon as my 12 month contract was up and went back to my wireless ISP after they installed a tower nearby. True wireless is much faster and reliable.
Absolute worst of the worst. I can't even check my e-mail most times because its so slow. I've installed their optimizer and other software they've suggested but to no avail. Can't wait till my contract is up.
I have not been happy with my Wild Blue/Hughes Net service. It is the only option we have in our rural setting. Although I pay over 80.00 per month, we are slowed to dial up speed when we reached 99% usage, that never gets us back to 65% download use. It's been 2 weeks, and we've never got below 68%. I plan to cancel and pay the price. Just not a good internet service.
I wish you luck with the attorney general's office. Their practices do sound ridiculous and predatory. If you have one in your area, I would recommend checking out Cox Communications. We have had broadband internet with them for over 6 years for $54.44 per month. It is very good service, and except for when the weather is bad, we rarely have a problem. You can also bundle other services, like home phone and cable, but we don't use either one of those.
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