Think you’re a victim of HughesNet false advertising? You may have legal options.
False advertising or misleading advertising is when a company prompts a product or part of their business with misleading or false information. This is typically done in an attempt to get customers to make a purchase or buy a service.
Courts will take into consideration the literal meaning and the general impression the ads conveyed.
The legal rules regulating misleading marketing or false advertising can be found in a collection of state and federal consumer protection laws. Most of these laws, however, are governed by The Federal Trade Commission Act, which established the FTC in 1914. The rules fall under a section that has become known as “truth in advertising” rules. These rules give the FTC jurisdiction to respond to complaints about false advertising from individuals or businesses. Some examples of the rules outlined in that section are:
Sourced from the FTC with creative input from FairShake.
There are different categories of false advertising as defined by the FTC. The most common is mislabeling followed by a bait and switch. Customers report a lot of situations where there are hidden fees, because those are what impact people economically the strongest, but equally detrimental can be unscientific claims or false testimonies on a website.
In one scandal, Hughesnet was accused by consumers in California for allegedly providing internet speeds at lower than advertised speeds. This was, according to a U.S. District Court Judge, Samuel Conti, “puffery”. In this case, the judge allowed the class action lawsuit against Hughesnet explaining that the deception was mere puffery because Hughesnet claimed measurable quantities that just weren’t a reality. The plaintiffs note that Hughesnet “consistently advertised Internet speeds that are not provided, leaving customers no alternative but to either continue paying for services they do not receive, upgrade their service plans and hardware components at a substantial cost in an attempt to improve service, or cancel their service plans and incur a unilaterally imposed $400 termination fee.”
This behavior is not new, or old, for that matter. There are many consumers on the Hughesnet community discussion board commenting about the same issue. One customer noted:
“I upgraded from Gen4 to Gen5 on 9/16/17. Immediately after the tech left I tried my new internet out to see all this speed, unfortunately Gen5 was way slower than Gen4 I had. After several days of speed testing it was discovered I was getting less than a megabyte download speed most of the time with small glimmers of speed in the 7megabyte range briefly. My internet is so slow that I can’t even load pictures on Facebook let alone stream a small video. After 4.5 hours on the phone with customer service on 9/20 they escalated my case to the engineering department and promised within 48 hours that they would get back to me with a solution. I didn’t receive a call today, rather I called them and they advised it would possibly be another 24-48 hours. They refuse to send a tech out unless I pay $125.00 even though I have the repair plan. They refuse to admit the tech that installed my Gen5 most likely installed something incorrectly but will fix it if I PAY for HUGHESNET’s MISTAKE. This is the poorest customer service I have ever seen. I would never recommend this service to anyone because it’s cheaper to go get dial up for the speeds you’ll receive.”
In some cases, Hughestnet doesn’t do it on purpose and the FTC can issue a letter telling them to stop, or issue a fine. If they did it knowingly or recklessly, then it can escalate to the Competition Bureau. The Competition Bureau conducts its investigations in private, sometimes in court, if an issue reported to the FTC is bad enough. Usually they get involved when someone has knowingly or recklessly misled customers. In these cases, the person or Hughesnet might have to testify in court and face things like jail time and/or fines.
Firstly, remember that if you witness false advertising, you don’t actually have to be hurt by it nor does anyone actually have to be affected by the false advertising in order to convict a company of doing it.
That means you can report it when you see it by submitting a consumer complaint to the FTC. The FTC wants to know about the situation so that they can investigate and take action against the company. You can also submit a complaint to TruthinAdvertising.org where it will go public.
However, that doesn’t really help you if you have been wronged by false advertising. The recourse available to you will depend on your state’s laws related to Unfair and Deceptive Acts and Practices.
What can you do if you have lost money because of Hughesnet false advertising, other than reporting them? You can try customer service but they likely won’t be able to help you. Instead you can use consumer arbitration.
Consumer arbitration is usually faster and less expensive than trying to go to court. However, there are still deadlines and paperwork, it is a legal process after all. That said, FairShake helps you navigate the consumer arbitration process, from filing your claim to getting the resolution you deserve.
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