Wildblue internet question....

mldollins · #1 03/29/10, 01:08 PM

I just terminated my service after about 4 years. When I called, they said they wanted their equipment back, no big deal. But honestly thought I purchased it back then. The person told me it was "leased". However, I did not pay a lease fee. They said they would send boxes with postage attached for me to send it back.

Has anyone had wildblue for at least 4 years?

arabian knight · #2 03/29/10, 02:07 PM

Well you still maybe leasing it, even though you don't "pay" a lease fee.
Case in point:
Now this is not Wildblue, but Direct TV. They do not "charge" a "lease" for the first receiver, But it is still leased, and they will want it back if at some point in time I stop using their service.
Mostly the only way you really "Buy" a unit For Keeps, is like if you go to a store and Buy It Outright, then have it set up.
I did that years ago when I had Dish for a Satellite service. Unless spelled out in the "agreement" Lease To Own".

beowoulf90 · #3 03/29/10, 02:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mldollins

I just terminated my service after about 4 years. When I called, they said they wanted their equipment back, no big deal. But honestly thought I purchased it back then. The person told me it was "leased". However, I did not pay a lease fee. They said they would send boxes with postage attached for me to send it back.

Has anyone had wildblue for at least 4 years?

Yes we have had it about that amount of time or more.. Thanks for the heads up though, since we plan on getting rid of it some time this spring. I'm tired of the download and up load limits, of the latency, of the interruptions because of a sparrow flying past.

Unfortunately at the moment it is our only option unless we use dial up, but even that isn't a good option since we don't have a land line anymore..

But some time here I will be putting up a antenna tower and going with radio signal internet, something similar to DSL.. It is a line of sight thing and I need to get up about 40 ft to see over the hill. I took down a 60 ft tower the other weekend with a ham radio antenna on it. The owner wanted it gone and so we took it down and got to keep the tower and the antenna.. So we are half way there..

mldollins · #4 03/29/10, 02:29 PM

I found out that for 10 bucks more per month I could get an alltel card. It is much faster. It is also unlimited. I was paying 50 for the lowest on wildblue.

Still, I remember paying 200 bucks 4 or 5 years ago and I remember them telling me the installation would be free but I had too pay for the equipment.

Again...oh well...

Still, look into alltel if you have that service in your area.....

Old Vet · #5 03/29/10, 04:47 PM

All they really want is the modem. I canceled mine last week and they said they would want the modem back and are sending a box for that. I am now on dial up it is slow but not as slow as wild blue.

plowjockey · #6 03/29/10, 05:39 PM

We paid for our's up front and sold all of it, including dish, on eBay, when we stopped service.

Any chance you still have the original paperwork, when you signed up? Cancelled checks?

Wildblue stinks.

Jenn · #7 03/29/10, 09:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mldollins

I found out that for 10 bucks more per month I could get an alltel card. It is much faster. It is also unlimited. I was paying 50 for the lowest on wildblue.

Still, I remember paying 200 bucks 4 or 5 years ago and I remember them telling me the installation would be free but I had too pay for the equipment.

Again...oh well...

Still, look into alltel if you have that service in your area.....

That party's over for me. Alltel is going away here and the other carriers have a 5G / mo limit which is too little for us. I am plannign to return to Hughesnet (like Wildblue)

texican · #8 03/29/10, 11:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mldollins

I found out that for 10 bucks more per month I could get an alltel card. It is much faster. It is also unlimited. I was paying 50 for the lowest on wildblue.

Still, I remember paying 200 bucks 4 or 5 years ago and I remember them telling me the installation would be free but I had too pay for the equipment.

Again...oh well...

Still, look into alltel if you have that service in your area.....

Have you read the superfine print?

Some folks 'unlimited' is a day in the park for others. My sisters both have the alltel usb card wireless... they think it's unlimited, but they have no concept of what a gb or even a mb is.

I'm on hughesnet... it blows, but it is fast.... most of the time... about the time people get home from work, it crawls.

They do have an unlimited download period between 1 and 6 am, central time. Even with my bad wireless network, I can get 1.5 gig overnight.

Try and download a movie or two from netflix... you'll find out quickly if you really have unlimited or not.

I'd love to have one of the cards... I could use it for home, and my notebooks... but we have lousy reception here at home, and the superfine print I've read sounds draconian for a bandwidth hog, like moi.

I'm holding my breath that we're going to get a fat pipe down here in the woods.....

Joshie · #9 03/30/10, 01:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mldollins

I found out that for 10 bucks more per month I could get an alltel card. It is much faster. It is also unlimited. I was paying 50 for the lowest on wildblue.

Still, I remember paying 200 bucks 4 or 5 years ago and I remember them telling me the installation would be free but I had too pay for the equipment.

Again...oh well...

Still, look into alltel if you have that service in your area.....

We have millenicom (~70+/month). We can put a sprint plug in thigie into the computer or use a modem so that we have wireless in the house. It's VERY slow. I think that if you were closer to the center of their service it would be speedy. We're at the edge of their service area. We're having difficulty dealing with this as we just came from super fast DSL.

mldollins · #10 03/30/10, 07:52 AM

it was. The first month was great. But, it seemed that after that first month it really slowed down. For the past 4 years, it has had nothing but problems. I sometimes wonder if it is a teaser for the first little bit then screw you the rest of the time.....just my observations....

blooba · #11 03/30/10, 07:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by texican

Have you read the superfine print?

Some folks 'unlimited' is a day in the park for others. My sisters both have the alltel usb card wireless... they think it's unlimited, but they have no concept of what a gb or even a mb is.

I'm on hughesnet... it blows, but it is fast.... most of the time... about the time people get home from work, it crawls.

They do have an unlimited download period between 1 and 6 am, central time. Even with my bad wireless network, I can get 1.5 gig overnight.

Try and download a movie or two from netflix... you'll find out quickly if you really have unlimited or not.

I'd love to have one of the cards... I could use it for home, and my notebooks... but we have lousy reception here at home, and the superfine print I've read sounds draconian for a bandwidth hog, like moi.

I'm holding my breath that we're going to get a fat pipe down here in the woods.....

Yep Alltel is about the only unlimited cell internet provider left. If you can get an Alltel contract and get it transfered to Verizon it will stay unlimited too. Not sure if you can do that anymore but I am going to try someday.

They do disconnect you after 12 hrs but I can live with that. You can reconnect right away.

If the signal isn't the greatest you can get an antenna I would recommend http://www.maximumsignal.net/ and www.wirelessnwifi.com/ They are very knowledgeable and I am a satisfied customer.

backachersfarm · #12 03/30/10, 01:16 PM

I have wildblue also. I have had it for 2-3 yrs. it has been getting slowerand slower. When I go the web page that will measure the download speed...it was never atthe 500 I was paying for. I called numerous times to complain about this. They would tell me it was peak user time. I told them I didn't give a crap what time it was..I was paying for 500 and that is what I expected to receive. They finally told me the only way to get more speed was to upgrade my service. My responce to this was...Why should I pay you more to give me the speed I'm paying for now..if you can give it to me with $10 more a month you chould be able to give it to me for the price I'm paying now. Your compay is commiting fraud by giving me much less than our contract calls for and less service then I am paying for. You are not going to get more money from me...you are just going to lose a customer. You shouldn't contract more then your service can handle. He said he understood what I was saying. So far mine has worked better even at peak times.

calliemoonbeam · #13 03/30/10, 07:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jenn

That party's over for me. Alltel is going away here and the other carriers have a 5G / mo limit which is too little for us. I am plannign to return to Hughesnet (like Wildblue)

Jenn, I don't know about any other companies, but I just got Cricket a few months ago. They only advertise a 5G limit option, but if you ask for it they have a 10G limit option available for only $20 more a month ($60 a month). They don't advertise it anywhere, but if you know to ask for it, it's there and available. They just want more people to take the 5G so people will go over, and they'll make more money, lol. Maybe some of the others have this too, or maybe you can get Cricket in your area.

I work 12 hours a day 6-7 days a week on the internet, plus I watch Netflix, movies, videos, music, play games, and download, and I haven't gone over the 10G limit yet. I usually run about 7-8G a month. Hope this helps!

Sorry I can't help with the WildBlue situation!

dezingg · #14 04/03/10, 02:19 AM

I have Wildblue also. I couldn't find any other reasonable option.

I blew the download/upload limits the first month and they have never raised the transfer rate back up. I had believed that they would reset the transfer rates when the next month came around, but I wasn't ever told that it worked that way.

I don't believe that I paid for the equipment, but I did pay for the galvanized pole that they put the dish on.

Now that you mention it, I am leasing the equipment, because they said that there was a discount if I paid the lease part of the two-year agreement at the beginning of the contract rather than month by month. I am still paying month by month for the service fee, currently $46/month for the lowest download/upload limits.

GoldenCityMuse · #15 04/03/10, 11:42 AM

Had wildblue. Better than dial up. But they kept instituting limits, it was never as good as when it first came out. Finally got DSL, and so long.

I paid for all my equipment. Need to take it down and sell it now.

Meadowwood · #16 04/03/10, 08:14 PM

We had wildblue for a while. I don't know if it was 4 years, but when we got something better, they didn't want the equipment back. We had to take the dish down ourselves and I think everything is still in the garage. I personally think they are giving you a line. Do you have your old receipt to say if you bought or are leasing the equipement?

mldollins · #17 04/03/10, 09:29 PM

I paid 199 bucks around 4 years ago. I was sure that I was paying for the equipment....but then again...oh well.

My wife and I were discussing this and we loved wild blue the first month or two, but it seemed that it drastically slowed after that. In essence, we have been quite frustrated for 4 years now.....

deb · #18 04/04/10, 12:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mldollins

it was. The first month was great. But, it seemed that after that first month it really slowed down. For the past 4 years, it has had nothing but problems. I sometimes wonder if it is a teaser for the first little bit then screw you the rest of the time.....just my observations....

We paid for our WildBlue Equipment and could dig up a receipt if necessary.

As more people sign up for Satellite Internet, the speed slows down. That is why WildBlue periodically stops signing up new service accounts in some of the "beams" because the satellite can't support more service to/from that area.

We had a nice experience with WildBlue a couple of years ago. Our section of the state had a bad storm and I think the winds moved a lot of satellite dishes. WildBlue called us because they could tell our antenna wasn't pointed correctly. WildBlue was sending a technician to our area and he would reset our antenna free of charge. The tech was here on time and worked 10 minutes on the dish. It was FREE! Speed was much better after that.

deb
in wi

Mel- · #19 04/05/10, 01:00 PM

tmobile is offering an even more plus service now that for $79 a month is unlimited talk and text and advertised as unlimited web but in actuality is limited to 10 gb a month. what I've read is they don't really enforce it unless you really take advantage of them.

beowoulf90 · #20 04/05/10, 02:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mel-

tmobile is offering an even more plus service now that for $79 a month is unlimited talk and text and advertised as unlimited web but in actuality is limited to 10 gb a month. what I've read is they don't really enforce it unless you really take advantage of them.

That wouldn't work for us, since we are already paying Wildblue for their top package which is 17 gb a month.. I hate these limits, but at the moment it is all we can get, although we are working on another way to get internet connections..