Is HughesNet a Good Internet Service?

HughesNet is one of only two Internet satellite companies available to many people in rural areas. This limits their consumers if they want to connect to the Internet, which is almost a necessity these days. Let’s break down exactly what they offer and see how their current customers feel about their treatment.

HughesNet Breakdown

HughesNet provides all of its Internet via satellite instead of by cable. This makes them a great choice if you live in a relatively rural area or if you otherwise can’t be connected to fiber-optic Internet providers. They’ve improved a lot in recent years in terms of their download speeds.

For instance, you can get a $59.99 per month plan with a download speed of about 25 MB per second. This also comes with a relatively low data cap of 10 GB, however. Other plans go up in price and in what they allow for this data cap, going up to 50 GB for a $150 per month plan.

The downside is that your download speed never really goes above 25 megabytes per second. So you are stuck at this relatively slow download speed no matter what thanks to the limitations that still affect satellite Internet providers. However, it could still be a good choice if you don’t use the Internet for much more than general surfing a few times a day and aren’t interested in heavy streaming or gaming. They’re also a decent choice because they don’t hike up the price of your contract in the middle of the term.

HughesNet Ratings

There are several ways we can find out whether HughesNet has overall good ratings and a generally good reputation with its customers. The Better Business Bureau is a website that collects customer reviews and complaints. Out of 592 reviews, HughesNet has only 1 star out of 5. This doesn’t look very good, as it indicates general customer dissatisfaction or a high volume of complaints in a relatively short period of time.

Consumeraffairs.com is another review collection website. Out of 3139 ratings, HughesNet only fares a little better on this site, earning a 2.3-star rating out of 5. This still shows that most people are either generally dissatisfied or are otherwise inspired to post their complaints more often than they are motivated to post about their good experiences with the company.

One last ratings resource to check out is the review from the aptly named reviews.org, which provides a detailed review into HughesNet and all that it offers. They give the Internet service provider 3 stars out of 5. This isn’t terrible, but it’s certainly not the best, either. They focus on the relatively budget-friendly options but aren’t very impressed with the lack of high data speeds and low data caps.

HughesNet Complaints

HughesNet may be one of the few satellite ISP companies around, but they have plenty of customer complaints to make folks think about their competitor. Many customers have already detailed poor experiences with their customer service representatives, some of which even claim that the reps outright lied to their faces.

Others have had poor experiences when they try to cancel their service or change their contract. Taking a leaf out of Comcast’s book, it seems that some HughesNet agents try to wriggle their way out of canceling the contract fully or will add additional fees in order to make canceling seem like a difficult or costly endeavor. On the other hand, other customers have reported poor experiences where they were put on hold for very long stretches of time.

Still more customers report that the coverage they were supposed to receive from HughesNet is spotty at best and sometimes even goes out in the portion of the day when the satellite is ostensibly overhead. All in all, there are complaints about almost every aspect of HughesNet’s services and its employees.

HughesNet Lawsuits

Ever since its inception, HughesNet has had some legal difficulties from time to time. One of the most famous cases occurred in 2011 with a class-action lawsuit on behalf of the company’s broadband subscribers. HughesNet is now required to permanently disclose their connection speeds and always say that they won’t be as fast as advertised, in addition to charging different termination fees for early contract closers instead of a flat, $400 fee. 

Ultimately, this is all part of a broader trend where HughesNet sometimes disregards the needs of its customers because of greed. If you’ve ever had a grievance against HughesNet, there are options; we’d recommend pursuing independent arbitration through Fairshake.

Our legal experts can help you get the resolution you need and, best of all, don’t require payment until after you win your case. Getting started is just as easy as getting our help; just fill out the contact form below and we’ll be in touch!