Today I am going on a more personal rant.
I am sick to death of incompetence and un-professional behavior for services that I pay for. We have come to expect such from all levels of government lately. This is even more true if we are not among the wealthy class of American society. Call me old fashioned, or reactionary or whatever else you wish, I will NOT tolerate this in things that I pay for directly.
The case of this rant is the "service", though that is being overly generous to use that abused term in this matter. I have Hughes net satellite internet. This used to be Direcway service. Now, when I had the old 4000 system and then upgraded to the 6000, the service was very good. Yes, every thunderstorm caused an outage. Thing is, the service returned as soon as the storm had passed.
With this new 7000, even on a crystal clear day, if a squirrel farts in the woods along the fence line, we lose the signal. This is NOT the fault of Hughes, they have been most polite and helpful, as much as they can be. However, when the signal strength is, at BEST 35, there is little or nothing tech support can do to help.
The last time I called tech support, the third level in fact, and told them my signal strength, the tech was totally surprised that I had an internet connection. EVERY tech has told me the ABSOLUTE minimum is 45!
The "installer"(?) has told me more than once that signal strength does not matter! Hmmm, 37 weeks of electronics and radio repair school in the Marines, three plus years of installing and maintaining microwave radio equipment, 5 years of building and testing microwave antennas and waveguides, 10 years of building, testing, and maintaining radar equipment, and NOW, suddenly, signal strength doesn't matter? As I asked more than one tech support person on the phone in the last weeks, when did they change the laws of physics? When did they change how electro-magnetic signals are sent and received? No technician has ever told me those things had changed! Interesting.
The "installer"/ "repair guy" just keeps giving poor, bullshit excuses.
My point here, if you get Hughes net satellite internet, do NOT let Vision Quest 2000 do the install. All you will get for your troubles, and there will be many, is excuses and bullshit. You will be told how you are "aligned" (LOL) to a low power satellite. Yes, the maximum signal will be about 80, with the NORM at about 60 or better. This is direct from tech support. The good folks at every level of tech support have told me many, many times that the ABSOLUTE minimum is 45. Not if Vision Quest does your install.
An example, on a crystal clear day, not a cloud as far as the eye can see, our signal was 34! No storms that day, nor for days before. As I said, when a squirrel farts, our signal goes to hell. Immediately.
Calls to tech support have been done professionally, and I get very good information from them. Thank you Hughes! Calls to the distributor, Perfect 10 have been handled with professional attitude as well.
Why pick on Vision Quest? First, they did the original install. They came back more than once to fix the problem. Our internet connection is still hit or miss, mostly miss. Never had this with either the old 4000 or the 6000. Another reason I am picking on them, they were to be here last Friday afternoon, we stayed home all day waiting on them. They did NOT show up. They did NOT even have the professional courtesy to call us to give any sort of excuse for not coming out. Got a call Monday morning, saying they would try to be out this afternoon. By rights, they should have been here yesterday morning with an apology for not showing up last week. No such deal from them. Highly un-professional behavior.
Bottom line, if you get Hughes net internet, which is very good when it does work, please don't let Vision Quest 2000 do ANY work on your system. Incompetent and un-professional is my experience with them. Oh, and if you do deal with them, don't say "crap" or you will be told to stop cussing at them. Not asked, mind you, TOLD. In your own house, with a system YOU paid for that needs work.
America, what a shit house we have today. It used to be that the customer was always right. Today, the customer is just the damned fool who bought the product or service. And our "leaders" still say we are the strongest, best country in the world? HOW?
Just my nickel's' worth today.
