HughesNet - satellite internet.... sometimes

If you're thinking of ordering HughesNet satellite internet, take a look at this photo and ask yourself if this is something you're going to want to see often:

I receive this error a lot with HughesNet.  Most of the time, it'll happen when I'm trying to access some websites but not others, and the situation usually gets resolved within a couple of hours.

This morning, I was unable to access any websites, and received the above error regardless of which site's URL I tried to access.

I will try contacting HughesNet customer service to ask about this, but after my last experience with them, I don't expect much.

Dial HughesNet's sales line, and your call will be answered immediately.  Try calling their customer service, and you'll get a recording that you may have to wait for twenty or thirty minutes before you're assisted.

How to Solve Any Customer Service Challenge

It's been my experience that the best way is to avoid any expression of anger.  Play the frustrated victim appealing to the Customer Service Rep for help.  Always document your calls (names, dates, verbal agreements, etc.).  When you talk to them later, if you're able to show a history, they're more likely to see things your way.  For most companies, they really want you to go away happy (there are still some that just want you to go away).

From US News:


Jon Yates wants to help you. As the official problem solver at the Chicago Tribune, he specializes in getting companies—and government bureaucracies—to do what customers want. Whether you’ve been over-charged by a credit card company or are still missing a tax refund from last year, Yates can probably help.
[50 Ways to Improve Your Finances in 2012]
Not surprisingly, Yates is inundated by requests and can’t solve all consumer crises on his own. That’s why he wrote his new book, What’s Your Problem? Cut Through Red Tape, Challenge the System, and Get Your Money Back, which is designed to help frustrated consumers fix their own problems. With dozens of strategies to overcome even the most stubborn customer service representatives, Yates argues that we can often win the fights we have with companies, as long as we’re persistent—and willing to take our business elsewhere, if necessary. U.S. News asked Yates about his top tips and how he applies them to his own life. Excerpts:
How have you applied your problem solving techniques to your own life?
People ask me all the time if I can simply call a company that has wronged me and tell them who I am— the Problem Solver for the Chicago Tribune. I wish I could. It would make my life a lot easier. But the newspaper's ethics policy strictly prohibits me from using my position for personal gain, so when a company or corporation treats me badly, I use the techniques I've outlined in my book without mentioning my job. And make no mistake, they work.
Recently, my AT&T modem broke, and the telecommunications company wanted to charge me $83 for a replacement. I told the customer service agent that unless they removed the charge, I would take my business to a competitor. When they realized I was willing to cancel service on the spot, they caved, and gave me a credit for $100 to buy a replacement modem of my choice.
It's my cardinal rule of problem solving: always threaten to take your business elsewhere, and follow through if the company doesn't respond. As consumers, we should never reward bad customer service or uncaring corporations. In the book, I relate several other personal consumer triumphs, including one with a local plumber and another with my former health insurance company, which unfairly tried to bill me $14,000 after my daughter was born. It took months to win that battle, but I didn't have to pay a dime.
Have you ever utterly failed at getting the response you want from a company, even after trying your hardest?
Unfortunately, I have failed from time to time. My success rate as the Problem Solver is well over 90 percent, but there are times when a company or contractor simply is not persuaded by the threat of bad publicity. The most frequent example is with companies that have gone out of business. Sometimes, they simply don't have the money to refund customers, or they're knee-deep in litigation that prevents them from issuing a refund.
[How to Complain to Companies (and Get Results)]
What are your top tips or strategies for someone who feels like they are really not making progress with a customer service rep?
If you're not making progress, I always suggest hanging up and calling back. Almost always, you will get another customer service rep, hopefully one who is more understanding and willing to help. I've spent time in a customer call center, and the reality is not all customer service representatives are created equally. Some are really good at what they do, others simply aren't. If you call enough times, you'll eventually get a good one.
If you don't, my advice is to skip the customer call center altogether and go straight to the top. Find a number online for the company's corporate headquarters and call there directly. Ask to speak to the chief executive. If you can't get through, write the chief executive a letter. It works way more often than you'd think. Often, a company's leaders have no idea that customers are being treated poorly, and are so appalled by a disgruntled consumer's letter that they help almost immediately.
What are some common mistakes people make when dealing with companies?
The most common mistake people make is giving up too soon. Often, I talk to people who get frustrated after one or two fruitless calls. Persistence pays off—and so does being a pain the rear. You have to make it clear that you won't stop fighting for yourself, and that not helping you will cost the company more in the long run. I think people often get intimidated and think they can't fight a big corporation, or city hall, or whatever entity they're fighting. It's simply not true. If you have the truth on your side and a willingness to battle, you can almost always win.
Do companies respond quickly to you because you are a reporter, or could the average person without a platform also get those results by applying your strategies?
I definitely have an advantage when I call as a reporter. Companies absolutely hate bad publicity. But you don't have to be a reporter for a major newspaper to get results. The average person who applies good consumer strategies can and will win their battles, if they're prepared, persistent, and willing to do the required work. Besides, you don't need to be a reporter to wield the power of the press. Often, all you have to do is threaten to go to the media, and a company will do the right thing. I get letters all the time from people who say they dropped my name and an erroneous bill was immediately fixed. The power of the press works, even for non-journalists.
[Why Customer Service Has Gotten So Bad]
What's your favorite problem solver story?
My favorite story was one I worked on several years ago, about two individuals—one from India, the other from Poland—who had written me separately saying their applications to become U.S. citizens had become gummed up in the federal immigration office. They had both passed their naturalization tests, and had been told they would be sworn in as citizens within months.
Instead, they had waited years to clear the final hurdle, which was a seemingly innocuous FBI name check. Both were extremely hard-working and patriotic. They wanted nothing more than to become Americans. I called the federal immigration office, and within weeks, the logjam was cleared. Turns out, both has simply become "stuck" in the system, a spokeswoman for the federal government told me. Both were scheduled to become naturalized on the same day, and I attended the ceremony.
It was truly inspiring and humbling. It's the type of problem I like tackling the most—the problems that have deep impacts in people's lives, and also shed light on needless corporate or governmental bureaucracy that needs to be corrected.
You write that you only help people who first tried to help themselves. What do you do differently than they did on their own that makes that difference?
People sometimes become frustrated too quickly and give up before the battle is truly over. As a consumer advocate, once I take on a "problem," I'm like a pit bull. It's not in my nature, but I've learned that such an attitude is often what it takes. I think we could all use a little more pit bull in us.

DirecTV treats new customers much better than than they do their long-time loyal ones

If you watch television, by now you've seen the DirecTV ads featuring Deion Sanders that say you can get their NFL Sunday Ticket free if you sign up for their satellite television service.  I've been a DirecTV customer for over nine years, and estimate I've paid them over $5,500 in that time.  Do I get the NFL Sunday Ticket for free?  Nope.  Only someone who hasn't paid them anything yet.  That new customer also gets a much lower rate than I do. 

When I signed up for DirecTV in 2002, I was paying about $40 per month.  Over time that's increased to $60 per month for the same basic level of service.  New subscribers not only get the above-mentioned freebie, but they get a rate that's lower than I was paying nine years ago!

I e-mailed DirecTV about this.  Here's their response:
"Thanks for taking the time to write us.

As one of our loyal customers, your satisfaction is one of our primary concerns.

I completely understand your request to get the best programming offer for NFL SUNDAY TICKET. I appreciate being given the chance to respond to your concern and would be glad to provide you with the information that you need to continue receiving the best television experience from DIRECTV.

Please understand that the present free offer for NFL SUNDAY TICKET is only for qualifying new customers.

Though we are unable to give you this subscription for free, I've confirmed that you qualified for regular season price which is a great value at five payments of $66.99.

We also offer existing customers discounts and programming throughout the year, but will need to signup for email alerts. By signing up for alerts, you can be notified via email for any specials the account might be eligible for. Just visit directv.com and make sure you do not miss out on any specials that we are offering.

In addition, I have forwarded your request to DIRECTV management.While DIRECTV Management can not follow up with each customer individually, rest assured every suggestion and inquiry from our most important customers is reviewed to determine what changes should be considered.

NFL SUNDAY TICKET is now available at the regular season price of $334.95 (billed in five payments of $66.99). The NFL SUNDAY TICKET is an amazing service at a great value. Customers not only see the best plays, last second drives and season defining moments but they can get up to 14 games each week from outside their local area. The NFL SUNDAY TICKET has some innovative features that provide great additional value. This includes HD Games, Red Zone Channel, Game Mix channel and a Short Cuts channel. This gives the biggest selection of NFL games anywhere."

Why you can't get good customer service at Office Depot

Many big box stores are known for delivering poor customer service.  In fact, service is the key way that small businesses can compete with the big boxes.  Last week I learned one reason that customer service in Office Depot is so bad.  In short, it's their hiring process.

The local Office Depot advertises almost every other month for departmental managers.  Either they're rapidly promoting people up the chain, or they've got astronomical turnover.  The same is true for several other large chains in the area.  Family Dollar is always looking for an assistant manager (more on that later).  Because I'm underemployed during the summer months, I applied for the Office Depot position.  I got a phone call inviting me to come in and take a computer-based personality test.  It had over a hundred questions, most of which were statements to which I had to indicate if I agreed or disagreed with them.  Many questions were rephrased and repeated often, either because they're deemed important or to gauge consistency in answers. 

There were several questions that left me rather puzzled.  I answered them honestly, because I'm just the most honest person you'll ever meet, and because I wasn't interested in "gaming the system."  Either they're going to hire me for being me or they're not.  One strange statement was "I like to take naps in the afternoon."  Hell yes, I like to take naps in the afternoon.  Not at work, of course, but the statement didn't differentiate between workdays and weekends.  So what does it mean that I clicked "agree" to this statement?  That I'm lazy?  Or that I'm honest?

Another question said something like "I've done something in my life of which I'm ashamed."  Again, I clicked "agree."  I can't think of a specific instance, however I'm pretty sure that sometime (or several times) in the last fifty years I've done something of which I'm ashamed.  Hasn't everyone?  Again, what does it mean that I answered the question the way I did?  That I'm honest or that I'm ashamed of my behavior?

Yet another statement was "I've broken some traffic laws."  I'm pretty sure I was speeding (at least a little) on my way to the store to take the test.  I probably didn't use my turn signal every time I was supposed to.  In fact, I would bet there's hardly a day that I don't commit a minor infraction of one sort or another.  Given that most people don't even know most traffic laws, it's safe to say that there's hardly a driver on the road who doesn't break traffic laws.  So, what does it mean if you click "agree" to this statement?  More importantly, what does it mean if you click "disagree?"  That you're a liar?

I suspect Office Depot uses this test because their store managers don't know how to screen applicants or conduct job interviews.  The fact that they've got such high turnover and that customers receive poor service in their stores underscores this fact.  They probably hired an expensive consultant to create this test.  The consultant probably has no knowledge of psychology other than a book or two he might have read.  He then sold them this test and convinced them it would help the hiring process.

As bad as the test was, it still was better than the one offered by Family Dollar.  They sent me a link to a similar test, but instead of agreeing or disagreeing to one statement at a time, their test presented you with pairs of statements, and you were required to choose the one you agreed with.  Uh, what if I don't agree with either?  Or what if I agree with both?  What if you were presented with these two statements: 1. I'm a bank robber.  2. I'm a child molester.  Which one would you choose?  Now, those weren't actual questions from the exam (or maybe they were; I quit the exam before finishing it).  They're the type of things with which I was presented.  Two statements that were equally negative in my mind.  I e-mailed their HR department and told them that I was positive if they asked their CEO to take this exam, he would tell them to stop using it.

In every job I've had, customer service is one of my top priorities.  I treat others as I would like to be treated.  And I define "customer" as each and every person with whom I deal.  It doesn't have to be a customer of my business, it could be a coworker.  I treated the guy in the mail room with the same respect I showed the CEO (he appreciated it, she did not).  If Office Depot had hired me, they would have seen an enormous jump in customer satisfaction at that store.  Just as with each and every other business in which I've worked, I would have made sure that every customer who walked through the door was taken care of and left pleased with their purchase.  Oh well, it's their loss (and yours, if you're an Office Depot customer).

Nobody says you have to change prices every week!

My local City Market (Kroger) is the only supermarket in town.  Having a monopoly, they don't really try.

Not only are their prices 50% higher than the very same items at Target (about twelve miles away), but they seem overly challenged by the most basic tasks, such as stocking shelves, rotating stock, ordering condiments (they usually wait until they've completely run out before thinking about ordering more), and training of employees.  There's a handful of older employees who have lots of seniority and great benefits, the new ones rarely last long.

Today, however, I want to talk about their sale prices.  Except for those things I buy every week, I usually wait until something like rice, olive oil, tea, coffee, or paper goods go on sale before buying them.  Even among the meat and produce I buy every week, I'll allow sales to influence my buying decisions.

So it's very frustrating when I see a sale price, load up the cart, and then don't get the posted price at checkout.  There are two main reasons for this.  Either the item's sale price wasn't entered in their computers properly, or the sale ended, but nobody bothered to take down the sign.  It's the latter that really bothers me.  Because I either have to tell the cashier (or U-scan supervisor) to correct the price, or I need to go wait in line at customer service after my purchase to get a refund.  Either way takes up time.  You would think that all they need to do is walk back to the place the item was, look at the sign, and return.  Yet for some reason, they walk away and you wait so long, you wonder if they're ever coming back.

It is Kroger's policy that if you don't get the posted price, you get the first item free, and the rest at the posted price.  That's if the employee knows the policy.  I had one young lady tell me that the sale expired and refused to do anything about it.  I insisted she contact her supervisor, who told her to give me the difference between the posted price and that which I paid, and I had to e-mail Kroger customer service to get the rest of my refund.

Now you might take the side of the store, and say "but they change prices on thousands of items every week, how can you expect them to avoid mistakes?"  My answer is that nobody asked them to change prices every week.  It's their decision.  And if that's what they want to do, they ought to do it right.  Also, given that nearly every week (and sometimes two or three times a week), I buy something and do not get the sale price, how many items are they goofing up?  My purchased items reflect a small percentage of the items they carry.  If I encounter problems every week, that means that hundreds, if not thousands of items are incorrectly priced at any given time.

Now lately I've been making my fruit purchases based on sales.  Why pay $2/pound for apples when you can get them for $1/pound?  But when the sale is over, they rarely take down the sign.  Yesterday I saw that the apples I bought last week still had the sale price, even though the "end date" was three days earlier.  I pulled the sign out of the holder and handed to an employee, saying "this sale is over."  Later, when I was checking out, she told me the sale was still effective.  I didn't want to argue with her about proper labeling of signs, but then she went further and told me not to remove the signs but to point them out.  I asked her if it was inconvenient for her to have to replace them, and asked her if she thought it was equally inconvenient for me to have to wait in line at customer service every week because they can't keep their signs current.

Interestingly enough, this morning they had a sale sign next to their fish sandwiches.  They make a good breakfast, so I grabbed a couple and didn't get the sale price at checkout.  The same employee who made a fuss the day before was working the U-scan, so it was with great pleasure (and some annoyance) that I told her I wasn't getting the posted price.  I had to wait several minutes for her to walk back to the deli, then come back up front, then push a bunch of buttons, but I finally got the right price.  I thanked her and she said nothing.  I hope she appreciated that my point was proven.

Qwest doesn't "get it"

Is there a worse company, when it comes to customer service, than Qwest?

I have dozens (yes, dozens) of negative personal experiences with this company, and could devote an entire web site to describing just how bad they are.  In every business at which I've worked, there have been Qwest horror stories.  As a residential customer, things are no better.

I'm going to tell just one today, however.  Last fall my neighbor requested a new line for his fax machine.  The Qwest technician connected his phone to my line.  I discovered this when I picked up the phone one evening and had a party line with my neighbor (who was making a long distance call on my line).  I called and e-mailed Qwest, asking them to correct the problem, and several days later they sent someone out who disconnected my phone line.

The next day, I called Qwest from work and told them how their technician's error only made the error of the other technician even worse.  They said it would be fixed that day, but it wasn't.  I called them again the next day, and said they really needed to correct the mistakes their employees kept making.  They told me someone would be there between 11am and 3pm.  That's quite a wide window, but I managed to get home for it, so I could talk to their repair guy and make sure he did it right. 

When nobody showed after four hours of waiting, I drove to the General Store to call them.  The person who answered the phone wasn't the least bit sympathetic, more than a little curt, and told me that the four hour window was "an estimate."  What?  Are you kidding me?  Telling me "he'll be there at 2 pm" is an estimate.  Giving me a four hour window during which I have to put my life on hold to wait for their nincompoop isn't an estimate! 

At 6:30, over seven hours after their four hour window began, two of their techs drove up and fixed the problem in about thirty seconds.  So, six days after one of their people attached my neighbor's phone to my line; five days after I reported the problem; and three days after they disconnected my phone, it was finally working again!

I e-mailed Qwest to complain about all the problems - problems they caused and made worse - and was told that "due to the high volume of service calls," not everything can be fixed right away.  Well, forgive me for pointing out the obvious, but if you didn't screw things up in the first place, and make them worse by sending incompetent technicians out to fix them, you wouldn't have such a high volume of service calls!

Stop shrinking my food!

If you're the slightest bit observant, you've noticed how the product sizes in your grocery cart are getting smaller.  Is this a move by the food industry to combat your expanding waistline?  No, it's their way of sneaking in price increases without actually raising the posted price of an item. 

So your can of tuna, which was 6 oz. about a year ago is now 5 oz.  The price looks the same, but since there's 17% less product in the can, you're paying 20% more per ounce than before.

From orange juice to kielbasa, soup to nuts, and everything in between, look at the sizes of the products you're buying.  The odds are good that they've all gotten smaller.

I recently wrote to Classico about their Pesto Sauce.  It was pretty obvious the jar was smaller, and my suspicion was confirmed when I compared it to the older one in my food cabinet.  I was dismayed by the response I received. Either they're using the same spin doctors that politicians use to craft their double speak, or they've been duped themselves into believe the bogus claims they spew out.

Someone from the "Heinz Consumer Resource Center" wrote that "the cost of our ingredients and the materials used to make our jars and lids have risen considerably."  Odd they should say that, given that the Producer Price Index (PPI) hasn't increased much.  In fact, the PPI for the "Fruit and Vegetable Canning" industry was lower in October 2010 than it was in October 2008!

Then this corporate hack proceeded to claim that "'the smaller jar size' also had a positive impact on the environment because it reduced Classico's carbon footprint, since less glass means less fuel used in transportation."  Huh?  The smaller size means more glass and metal per ounce of product.  On an ounce-by-ounce basis, they've actually increased their carbon footprint!

Classico's blatant price increase means I just have to buy more jars to get the same amount of product.  But what about Hillshire Farms kielbasa?  They cut their size from 16 oz. to 14 oz.  But when you buy a jambalaya mix or open your cookbook for a kielbasa recipe, it calls for one pound (16 oz.) of meat.  So now you can't even make your favorite dishes the same way.  And you're paying more per ounce for your food.

I don't think any of these companies gave this move enough thought.  First of all, why do they need to raise prices in a tough economic situation when their costs aren't going up?  Secondly, how often can they do this before we're buying miniature sizes of everything?

I know what's going to happen.  Maybe they'll slash the sizes again to sneak through another price increase.  But eventually they'll have to return to the original size.  And I guarantee you they'll splash a big banner on the label that says "new, larger size!"