More FAP comments from another sad customer

[Michaeljkoster]

Hi,

I've had the pro pack for a few years now and while I've not always been impressed with the service slowing down during peak hours it has been adequate for my home business for which I depend on high speed internet access.

I dumped Hughes in about 2008 because they kept loading up the satellite with more and more customers until the service became unreliable. Then they rolled out a new service on a new bird and used that to attract more new customers while ignoring their badly served existing customers i.e. no upgrade discount even... So I went to Wildblue.

I got a new laptop about a month ago and have loaded all my usual software (most of my free and licensed software is disributed through download; packages are about 300MB on average)

Then I bought my fiance' a Kindle Fire with a month of free stuff from Amazon. When she visits on weekends she streams a few TV shows on it and downloads games.

My internet usage is nowhere near what my friends in town do on DSL and cable.

Then I got FAPed on Christmas day with a house full of internet using guests! How embarrassing! At least some of my guests have had metered service in the past and understood. The kids especially were not impressed with my broadband...

Now it looks like I'm going to need to wait the better part of a month to get my speed restored. In the meantime I can't operate my business and will need to install another service so I can operate my business. I think I can get the Hughes system next week through the same installer and even though it's going to be costly I will lose thousands if I can't keep my business going.

Anyway here is my $0.02 on FAP and the thresholds:

1. The 30 day policy seems like a punishment; like a form of detention. I think it would in fact be better to have a 24 hour limit that resets sooner.

2. If a 30 day limit is going to be the deal forever, then we need a GOOD tool to track daily usage with at least a 30 day history chart so we can look back at any time. This should not be the customers responsibility. It's WB policy, they need to spend a little money on a real tool. Please! Asking a non-technical customer to use DD-WRT???

3. There needs to be a way to buy out of FAP. I would gladly pay an overage fee once in a while to keep the service going instead of having it effectively disabled.

4. The GB download limits are not sufficient to provide the broadband experience customers expect. The WB take on this is simply wrong-headed. People on this board are telling the truth and WB had created a scarcity culture that no one buys into anymore. To say on one hand that your bandwidth is fixed and finite while at the same time attracting hordes of new customers is a bit duplicitous, don't you think?

5. You must provide a way for your existing customers to have access to the new technology and higher thresholds or we will be gone and we will carry our sad story everywhere we go ( I did with Hughes, believe me). The internet is evolving and you must evolve with it. Broadband service without big games or streaming video? Right...

Please don't tell me about the "contract" I signed. I'm not interested in legal chicanery, just good internet service. Period. Thanks.

Michael J Koster

Oh, and after reading some on this board, I suggest some of the moderators develop their people skills a bit. You folks are expected to be the adult supervision around here

[wm4bama]

Michael, excellent expressions of frustrations many customers experience.

While not happy with the "New" packages to be rolled out for existing customers because of the low Data Allowance Policy (DAP), you will be a little pleased with some of the changes WB is making if you switch to the 5mbs (WB-1) or 12mbs (ViaSat-1) plans.

1) The faster speeds, 2) usage resets to zero each month at the beginning of your billing period, and 3) you can buy extra gigabytes if you exceed your DAP.

Complaints about this new service are basically two fold:

1. Low DAP's on the 3 levels of offered packages and,

2. The cost of buying additional gigabytes (seems to be about $8.00 per extra gb).

For you, a business using this service to survive, the new services might please you...for many, it has its pluses and minuses...

For me, I'll switch because I can live with the DAP and get 12mbs...

[Doug Huffman]

2. If a 30 day limit is going to be the deal forever, then we need a GOOD tool to track daily usage with at least a 30 day history chart so we can look back at any time. This should not be the customers responsibility. It's WB policy, they need to spend a little money on a real tool. Please! Asking a non-technical customer to use DD-WRT???

http://realityripple.com/Software/Ap...width_Monitor/
Provides charting and graphical indications.

[Michaeljkoster]

http://realityripple.com/Software/Ap...width_Monitor/
Provides charting and graphical indications.

Thanks, but not quite. That tool provides history and charting of the 30 day average. What's needed is a tool provided and supported by Wildblue which not only provides the cumulative 30 day usage but also the daily usage for the past 30 days, on a day by day or finer basis. It should not require that I monitor the daily differences in remaining available bandwidth every day for 30 days in order to obtain this information. This is a small but important difference.

here's the deal:
With the information currently available, I can not go back over my last month's daily usage and thus can not predict when my bandwidth will be restored.

Thanks again,

Michael

PS
I find that switching to Hughesnet is actually pretty quick and easy. They have a no up front fee for leased equipment special deal, and a purchase rebate on owned equipment. The bandwidth allocation is less but they have both a bank and token system that allows 2X or more daily usage occasionally, plus an emergency buy-out if I do get throttled. More importantly, there is a 24 hour rolling period that will allow me to resume business on the next day if I get throttled. Since neither service truly supports streaming video at this time, the differences are essentially moot. I can get going again in a few days with minimal additional cost.

[Doug Huffman]

I believe that RR WBBW does just what you are asking.

I suggest that you not tout HN on their competitors forum site.

[Michaeljkoster]

I believe that RR WBBW does just what you are asking.

I suggest that you not tout HN on their competitors forum site.

Actually the tool only gives you history from the time installed. And it only reports the running 30 day total. I just installed it and whatever history period I select starts with the time I first ran the tool. It will be marginally useful in the sense I am asking for only 30 days from today. And then it only reports the 30 day total, not the actual daily usage. Please prove me wrong on this...

I'm simply offering examples of how a competitor is doing a better job in my own opinion at FAP management. Something that could possibly work better for me. In reality neither service can claim much more than "better than dialup" at this time. I think it could work for me also to switch providers every few years. I may be back with WB in 2015, or I may somehow get satisfaction and stay with WB. It all is depending on how this goes. Someday we will have enough alternative technology e.g. terrestrial beam plus TVWS infrastructure that satellite internet will be pushed further into a corner. Unless and until it can provide broadband data volume on a routine basis.

Thanks again and no harm intended,

Michael

[kamala]

Michael, you are without a doubt the most articulate and civil person I have EVER seen on the Internet. You have covered WB's customer's concerns very succinctly in one post. WB would be wise to read your comments!

p.s. We are thinking of HN or possibly Verizon. My husband gets cell service in our area and (with a grain of salt) they offer no start up cost $80month 20gb, only one plug in "modem" would cover all computers. Thank you for taking the time to post here, hope you can get back to business soon.

[Thunderbear]

Internet Data Usage Calculator

Distributed by Pacnet

[Doug Huffman]

728 MB Thanks.

An old political dot.sig of mine referred to grasping the nettle of error manfully to not be stung. "Grasping another opportunity to be wrong." I'd rather a nettlesome correspondent, literate with insight and passion than one consumed with prescriptive statements.

Normative and prescriptive statements, characterized by would, should and could, have no truth value, inherent or essential.

[coopperdog]

Just give me a clean slate every 30days and i will be happy with 17gig.