The problems continued when the installers arrived. I asked them to put the dish on the cement fence as the owner of the complex did not want it on the home. When I checked outside they had pushed all the rocks in the rock garden out of the way and erected an 8 foot pole and this huge dish was smack in the middle of my tiny yard. The workers ( I can not call them technicians) threaded the power cord through the back window to the plug in the home and left the modem on the back porch. They left all of their trash, wire trimmings. boxes and all of the rocks they threw out of the way.

I live in a area with plenty of dirt and 110 degree temperatures in the summer and sub zero temps in the winter. Is that how they are trained? I managed to get the modem inside the window after the first sandstorm. The installers did not work with me what I wanted to me use as a sign on, user name and password. They put in my entire name and address and the local street as a password. What kind of security is that?

I made several calls to wild blue to ask about the speed and the manner in which the way the gentlemen installed the equipment. while waiting of course I was instructed to reset the modem. That has nothing to do with an outdoor Modem. The lady taking the call did not even blink when I told her that they installed the modem on the patio filled with desert sand. She did not offer to have it checked or to apologize. Half of the South Eastern Desert could blow into the modem. So what, right.

Several times I tried to use my dial up instead and for some reason the it kept going back to the other program. I wanted to discontinue the service for their poor service and to this they also did not make any concessions or try to provide any customer service. They just told me that i needed to discontinue the service, remove some tria and send them modem back. ( They said they would send the boxes several weeks after I disconnect the sevice) I said I was only 4′ 10″ and could not reach what ever they were talking about. They told me to use a ladder and I explained my yard was river stones and there is no way that a ladder could balance on river stones. She told me to ask my neighbor or someone from church to remove the equipment. Why don’t they tell you that they do not provide any help or at least show you what should be removed when the time comes.

They said it was 125.00 for a service call. Lets see if they hold to that. It is less expensive to set up a service call to remove the tria then it is to try to climb a ladder handicapped, fall and end up in the Emergency room and break their precious equipment and whatever part of me hits the ground. Still she insisted I should try. They do not want to help. Then comes the early disconnect fee. If it worked like they said it should then it would not be a problem. They have false advertisement, lie and are not helpful, some of the persons on the phone are pleasant, but just the kind of pleasant to get you off of the phone quickly. If there is a speck of sand in the modem it is from being installed ON the ground on the patio. Talk to the installers. Make sure you know what you are getting into before you sign on with these folks. I pray that the disconnect goes OK and that they will send someone out to take off their parts. I pray that they stop charging me when I stop the service. Wild blue admin please help.

There are two laptops (one VPN, one not) for work and the entire network comprises of at least 5 wireless or cable connected machines. The hub is set to prioritize the work machines over the others and that solves traffic congestion. Frankly, it works pretty good. Thank God that I don’t have to often deal with their reps. And I’m not a techy magician, just a lowly sales guy.

Sorry that there are so many problems expressed here. In my humble opinion, I’d bet there are some simple solutions that have been overlooked.

WildBlue’s “customer service” is a horrible joke. The kind that isn’t even worth a smile. EVERY SINGLE TIME we call them about the horrible connect they tell us to “reset the modem”. That does NOT fix the problem!!

By the way, I’m looking forward to getting a law suit together with other unsatisfied customers under the basis of FALSE ADVERTISING and bogus, made up charges. The only satisfied “customers” of WildBlue, work for them in some way and are probably paid to sit on their ass, writing wonderful, glowing reviews for WildBlue.

We moved out to the sticks about two years ago. We absolutely love it, but one drawback was giving up DSL. We could do no better than dial-up. As if dial-up weren’t lousy enough based solely on speed, the fact that almost everyone has a high speed connection means that very few web pages, let alone email with photos or attachments, will even load through dial-up. It just sucks.

So we get an ad in the mail from AT&T, offering satellite internet through Wild Blue. The cost was high, but the speeds they promised were comparable to the DSL we had when we lived in the city. So we take the plunge and spend the $300 or so to get it installed, and sign up for the $70 a month deal, the mid-range price. From the moment it was installed, it became clear that this would be a complete waste of money.

First, the knuckleheads sent to install the thing asked me where I wanted the dish. I told them to put it on the back of the house, next to the TV dish, so it didn’t show at the front of the house. After they banged around on the roof for a while, I went outside to find the dish on the front of the house. Already attached to the roof. A total eyesore. Morons. So they monkey around with the computer, tell me they are done, and show me how to use it. The smarter of the two idiots tells me that the web page he went to as a test only took a minute or two to load. Sounds like dial-up to me. Then he tells me that his brother has Wild Blue and doesn’t really like it and that, honestly, he doesn’t think it’s any good either. Of course, my credit card has already been charged and the papers have already been signed long before all of this.

So dumb and dumber leave my house and I go back to the room where the computer is and see that, where they drilled a hole in the wall to run the wires, they left a huge pile of drywall dust on floor. This was a big pile, as they took a hammer drill to the wall to make two holes all the way to the outside. Then I take my dogs out back and notice a strange stain on the roof. I realized it was a huge wet spot at the top of the roof, with stains from where the liquid trickled down to the gutter. Now, it didn’t rain that day, and idiot #2 wasn’t carrying a cup of coffee or bottle of coke when he climbed the ladder, so I’m pretty sure he took a leak on my roof. Unbelievable. The thing I regret is that I took pictures of the mess in the house and the apparent urine stain on my roof (which didn’t go away until it rained 3 or 4 times), intending to complain about it. But as we often do, I decided it wasn’t worth the hassle and never got around to it.

The first few weeks were hit or miss, but we were mostly okay with what we had, at least compared to dial-up. Still, it was nowhere near our expectations. After that first few weeks, it became almost impossible to connect. Nothing would load. I called tech support and always got a recording that there were high call volumes and I should expect long waits, so I should really just call back another time. I gave up on tech support. At least with dial up we could get a connection. On the clearest day imaginable, we were lucky to even connect, let alone get a decent speed. This service just completely sucks.

Of course, they know it sucks. That’s why you can only buy it by signing a one year contract before you even get to see how well it works. But if you’re resorting to Wild Blue, at their price, that means you have no other choice but dial-up. So people buy it. And it totally sucks.

Eventually, we down-graded to the cheapest package to try to control the bleeding. When I told the lady on the phone that I wanted to change my service, she asked why. I told her that the thing sucks. She was not concerned, just changed my service and told me to have a nice day.

Finally, we upgraded to a laptop and got a mobile broadband card through AT&T. It rocks. We basically have DSL speeds anywhere we can get a cell signal. So I check my Wild Blue contract and confirm that, after the initial year, I am off the hook. But it will automatically renew on a month-to-month basis if I don’t cancel. So two weeks before it is up, I call and talk to a girl in customer service. I tell her I don’t want it to automatically renew. She says, no problem, you don’t have to do anything. Your contract expires at the end of the month (June 29) and it won’t renew. I tell her that I have the contract in front of me, and it says “automatically renew,” so I want to make sure that won’t happen. She says, definitely, that won’t happen.

Fast forward two weeks (this July 3rd), and WildBlue has charged me for another month of service. I call and tell them I am not happy, that I called before and was assured that this would not happen. And I want the damn thing cancelled now. The first moron cancels the service and asks me why I don’t want it anymore. That was fun to answer. After I was done with that, she tells me that the charge for this month, which has already posted to my bank account, will be pro-rated and refunded. She also tells me that there is no “ticket number” for my call two weeks ago, so that’s why the month was renewed. I told her that this is crap, I did what they told me, and I want the whole thing refunded, not a pro-rated amount. I know it’s only a few days, but I wasted enough money on this worthless service.

So she transfers me to another department. The idiot there tells me that there is no “ticket number” for my last call, so they won’t refund the whole amount. I ask her if she’s calling me a liar, if she believes that I never called. She says, of course not, and even apologized for someone giving me bad information, but says that since there is no ticket number, so she can’t do anything. So I ask for a supervisor. After holding for a long time, while they no doubt hoped I would just hang up, the supervisor comes on and tells me the same thing. No ticky, no laundry. It was like talking to a robot. “I’m sorry the person gave you the wrong information.” “But you won’t refund my money?” “Well, no, because there is no ticket number showing that you made the call.” “Well, she did a lousy job once by giving me bad information, and then twice when she failed to make a ‘ticket number’ out of it, but you won’t fix that?” “No, because there is no ticket number.” Amazing.

Wild Blue sucks. Don’t even think about buying it. Go get a mobile broadband card instead. And if this ever turns into a class action, sign up.