Any Freepers Highly Place at Direcway?

self ^ | 02/13/2005 | self

[farmer18th]

Please pardon this vanity, freepers, but we live in a part of the country that is unlikely to get DSL anytime soon. Eight days ago I had a dish installed and it has just barely functioned 25% of the time. I'm beginning to think that unless you know someone in upper level management at Hughes, you can't expect to get competent technical or on site service. On the first level of service, you get very cordial East Indians who generally can't solve the problem. At "advanced" service, you get generally conflicting advice, and after you've exhausted them, and literally begged to speak with a supervisor, you get someone who can only give you the mailing address of the company for written complaints. To reposition a satellite, you have to wait in line behind all the other new installs.

I had what I thought was a reasonable request for their billing department. I said, "look, I'll wait until someone can actually fix this thing, but why don't you credit the cost of my dish ($600) until it actually works?" The response: "we aren't allowed to do that."

Well, of course.

[Boundless]

In the event that you end up sending it back ...

Had you considered Starband or Wildblue, and
if so, why had you ruled them out?

SB and WB, as far as I know, use Echostar/Dish
hardware, so your need to change hardware and
satTV provider if you already have DirectTV.

[Husker24]

Im in pretty much the same boat, I live in the middle of nowhere and as of right now I have dialup witch runs at about 28k. I looked into Direcway, but the price is outragous at $500 down and $100 a month for service.

[PeaceBeWithYou]

Adjust it yourself, all you need is a compass and a universal(cresent) wrench. Also, IIRC direcway internet is no more.

[HAL9000]

A competing broadband satellite service is about to start service, and their technology looks better. See www.wildblue.com.

They successfully launched their satellite last year and have spent the last few months testing it.

[farmer18th]

I hadn't considered either. We actually don't want any television reception here (we have six kids), but I will check out SB and WB if I have to send this back.

I actually think there might be a chance of getting Direcway to work if they had compentent installers, but that's a big if. They work only through dealers.

On a broader level, some of the big corporations are really short-changing themselves on customer service these days, because they don't give these phone-answers any ability to really solve a problem. Dell advertised a $299 desktop in the mail to us last week, but when I called the sales department--12 TIMES--no one could actually find the offer. I had to call senior Dell Manager, who is a relation of mine, to get them to honor the offer.

[Melinda in TN]

I've had it for about three years and it works great for me. My only problem happens if it rains really hard or if the weather is bad at the NOC. If your installer didn't put the receiver right on the satellite, you won't have good service. The dish must also be grounded properly.

Try this link. This place has worked wonders for me. They can answer all your questions and there are FAQS with speed tweaks and tips. There is a lot you can do on your end to speed things up and make it better.

DSL Reports/Direcway Satellite Forum

[farmer18th]

Adjust it yourself, all you need is a compass and a universal(cresent) wrench. Also, IIRC direcway internet is no more.

What is IIRC direcway internet?

[The Magical Mischief Tour]

I really feel for you, I just spent the last two days on with tech support with my SAT connection thru Earthlink.net

I was just surfing the net fine then blam it died, tech support runs in three tiers with Sat support.

Tier III is just the average tech guys who generally can only tell you to shut down the puter, flip the cables spin in a circle and toss some salt over your shoulder.

Tier II is the senior tech guys they tend to be more helpful but at times it can get frustrating as they do give conflicting advice and when they exhaust all the tricks in their bag they will lie to you.

Tier I is the network guys, they know their stuff but have no people skills.

I finally called Earthlink and just canceled my SAT stuff as I was told by Tier I that they had no idea what “I” had done to my connection and it would take an Engineer reviewing my trouble ticket which could take anywhere from 24 hours to 7 days.

I am on my 20 hours of free dialup a month while I await my DSL connection which I just ordered about an hour ago.

If I knew then what I know now about SAT I would have never gave up the $700 and just waited for DSL.

It’s a joke you are paying good money to become a beta tester for very finiky and at times completely unstable equipment.

http://www.dslreports.com

[MarineBrat]

I used to have direcway and found the folks at dslreports.com to be imeasurably helpful!

[PeaceBeWithYou]

IIRC=If I Recall Correctly. They dropped it during the merger attempt, have they resumed the satellite internet?

[Melinda in TN]

Wow, it must have gone up since I got mine. When I got mine, if you paid the $500-$600 equipment fee up front, you only pay $59.99 a month for the service. I bought my equipment so my bill is $59.99 but if I had combined the cost of the equipment with the service it would have been $99 a month until the equipment was paid for and then it would go down to the regular $59.99. Are you sure that's now how it works now?

[HAL9000]

Also, IIRC direcway internet is no more.

They shut down their DSL service, but the broadband satellite service continues.

[Nita Nupress]

Not to add to your misery, but have you seen that commercial where the guy is standing on his roof bashing his dish with a hockey stick screaming, "I want my dish TV!"?

I always thought they were exaggerating, but maybe not. I know I had to wait several years for DSL to reach me, so I do feel your pain.

If you start getting frustrated enough to look for your hockey stick or golf club, come here first and maybe we can talk you down. ;-)

[HAL9000]

If long-range WiFi or WiMax (terrestrial wireless) service are available in your area, it could be much better than satellite. I'm using a wireless connection to an access point 2.5 miles away. It usually runs at T1 speed.

The FCC is also auctioning off spectrum for 3G wireless service, which could provide good access for you in the future. That service will probably be offered by the cellular phone companies.

[Balding_Eagle]

I have Direcway. I spent more than 6 hours on the phone, on TWO different occassions with the nin-compoops at tech-service, just to get a new modem, which had been PROMISSED to me on one of my 20 documented previous calls for the same problem.

I yelled screeamed pleaded and cojoled for a total of 10 to 14 HOURS before I finally got what was promised me weeks earlier.

It now works.

Pleased excuse the spelling, I so pissed at the bastards at Directway, months later, I can hardly see starirght.

[farmer18th]

Not to add to your misery, but have you seen that commercial where the guy is standing on his roof bashing his dish with a hockey stick screaming, "I want my dish TV!"?

Billing Department conversation with Direcway:

Me: "You sound like a nice person, but see if you understand this: you bill my credit card $600 and your system doesn't work. Isn't there something wrong there?"
Direcway: "I am sorry for your troubles. Is there anything else I can do for you?"
Me: "Perhaps you could ask your supervisor to reverse the charge on my credit card until the system actually works?"
Direcway: "Our procedures do not allow that."
Me: "Yes, that is becoming more and more clear, but perhaps--consider this--you could change your procedures? You could show some initiatve and propose this to your supervisors, "heah, why don't we not charge until we get the system to work?" Wouldn't that be a great idea?"
Direcway: "We don't charge for things that don't work."
Me: "Actually that's exactly what you do."
Direcway: "No, sir, we don't charge for service if you don't get service."
Me: "Perhaps I am an exception to the rule then, because I don't have service and you are charging me for it."
Direcway: "I'm sorry you feel that way, sir."
Me: "Yes, I'm sorry I feel that way too."

[Publius6961]

Do you mean "Highly Placed"?

[farmer18th]

Perhaps Direcway is actually giving us a glimpse of what command economy socialism produces in the way of customer service--just to keep the memory alive.

[Publius6961]

what is a "dish"?

Unless you're more specific...

Echostar? DirectTV? Other?