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Review by (hidden by request)

  • Location: Nikiski, Kenai Peninsula, AK, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
It worked at first and was slightly reliable in the beginning
Customer service, relibility after the frist couple of months, speed was NO WHERE near what was promised
This company treats their customers like crap and couln't care less. Im not gonna pay $90pr/mnt for internet as slow as dial up.
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At our current location in Alaska we were not able to get what everyone
else had which was ACS DSL. Needing internet badly for college classes we
took the only route possible and subscribed to Starband through our local
internet provider. We opted for the Nova 1500 since we wanted fast internet
with multiple devices using it at once. In the beginning it worked great
for about the first month, then after that it worked alright but we just
kept telling ourselves something is better than nothing.

A year after getting it, in May 2012 we started noticing that it was very
slow. As the days went on it was not strong enough for our mobile devices
to even use. As we neared June the internet was so slow, dial up seemed to
be faster. Taking an internet speed test shocked our socks off, we were
promised up to 1.5 mbps of download speed, and on the speed test dated
6-15-12 we were getting 0.07 mbps download speed and upload speed 0.01. We
contacted our ISP furious and they told us we would have to directly talk
to Starband. After contacting Starbands Tech Support for 2 weeks straight,
being on hold waiting for a representative to help us after waiting a hour
each day at multiple times of the day we said screw it.

We did another
internet speed test to see if things had gotten any better and our results
as of 7-1-12 were 51kbps of download speed and 12 kbps of upload speed.
Seeing as Starband was NO help and never had a tech available we decided we
did not want to be part of a company that had such poor customer support as
well as a terrible product. We made the switch to a different company at
the beginning of July and couldn't be happier. When our ISP came out and
installed our internet he said that I was not the only unhappy Alaskan
customer and that there were many of us, who too dropped Starband when they
failed to try and help. We were lucky, Starband had been requiring people sign a 2 year contract but we never signed this contract for 2 years so we were able to get out with no fees.

Later that month while I was looking at my credit card statement, I found
that Starband had charged us for that month. This time I called, I was
determined to get a hold of someone, speaking to a customer service
representative finally, I told them I wanted a refund for July seeing as we
didn't use the internet as well as not getting it. The rep said he couldn't
help me since there was no recorded problem and going round after round
with him, I asked to speak to his manager. Where he told me much of the
same thing, since there was no recorded problem (even though calling every
day trying to reach them and never getting through) he couldn't refund me
the money. I told him to look at the recorded history which he did and I
said cant you see that we were getting crap for internet? He said that he
wasn't a tech and couldn't properly analyze that for me.

I was fed up with
this company so I told him to have a nice day knowing he treats his
customers like crap and I happily told him that we canceled our service
with them seeing as their product failed in every aspect. This company must
not realize that by treating their customers like crap and not trying to
work with them or even be available to speak with, they ultimately shot
themselves in the foot.

Thank you for your time! And I hope this helps other people from wasting
their time, money and energy on a company that wont give them the time of
day.

(review was emailed from domain gmail.com)
lodged 11.6 years ago


Review by (hidden by request)

  • Location: S0L1E
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
DO NOT SIGN A CONTRACT WITH STARBAND
THEY DON'T KEEP THEIR END OF THE BARGAIN
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Starband never came close to meeting its advertised download speeds.
When I complained I was told the were "working on it." After 6 months
with no improvement I gave up and cancelled my account. They still
charged me a $200 cancelation fee. I asked for it to be waived as they
didn't keep their end of the deal, and was denied. DO NOT DEAL WITH THIS
COMPANY!

(review was emailed from domain sasktel.net)
lodged 12.2 years ago







Review by (hidden by request)

  • Location: Semmes, Mobile, AL, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
THAT WAS ALL I HAD FOR INTERNET
THEY DISCONNECT YOUR EMAIL SERVICE AFTER 15 DAYS LATE ON BILL. I HAD BEEN WITH THEM FOR OVER 8 YEARS
NO DEDICATION TO CUSTOMERS
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I HAVE BEEN WITH STARBAND FOR OVER 8 YEARS. THEY WILL CUT OFF YOUR EMAIL
SERVICE IF YOU ARE 15 DAYS LATE ON YOUR BILL.I AM VERY UNHAPPY WITH THEIR SERVICE. I HUNG IN THERE WITH THEM WHEN SERVICE
WAS DOWN ON THEIR END FOR OVER 2 WEEKS. AND THAT IS THE WAY THEY TREAT YOU.

(review was emailed from domain starband.net)
lodged 12.7 years ago


iLive4Fusion
Premium Member
join:2006-07-13

iLive4Fusion

Premium Member

Pay on time?

All companies do this. It's called the corporate industry.

Most provider's don't even give you 15 days to pay before shutting your service off. Companies like AT&T and Verizon give you around 7-10 days and then when you want you service back after you pay they charge you a reconnection fee!

If you truly can't pay your bill then you need to call the company and ask for payment arrangements.

But if every single customer did not pay their bill on time, then they wouldn't survive as a company, no company would except for collection agencies.






Review by oakieslopes See Profile

  • Location: Kelseyville, Lake, CA, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
The only game around
Long ping...slow speeds
No other options. Cant wait for cell phone data service
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Still the best thing going I can find...and a pain in the butt.

AS soon a cell phone comes around I'll go that way probably. In one
location I tether Metro PCS 24/7 and get 105K

member for 22.2 years, 6 visits, last login: 22.1 years ago
updated 12.8 years ago







Review by slucre See Profile

  • Location: Maunaloa, Maui, HI, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
May be the only game in town
They cheat on bandwidth monitoring
Bad deal overall
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The actual service is expensive for what they offer but in a rural area, they can get away with it. The real hooker is that they cheat on bandwidth monitoring to cap your usage below the advertised limit. Their tech support just blows you off if you complain and never follows through on a complaint. It may not be a deliberate effort to steal, rather a faulty monitoring system or misuse of that system by their personnel. I did get a tech support person to disclose that they sometimes play "catch-up", ie. fail to monitor sometimes and catch up on subsequent days. That tells me that they are messing around with the system in ways that it wasn't designed to work. I suspect that this is a dirty little secret that they just don't have any incentive to deal with.

member for 12.8 years, driveby review (so far)
lodged 12.8 years ago


Review by (hidden by request)

  • Location: Eldorado, Saline, IL, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
A little faster than dial-up
Everything else
Avoid at all costs
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The Good:

- A little faster than dial-up

The Bad:

- Tech Support is awful and unhelpful. They suggested I cancel my service because I was unhappy that they suddenly started blocking my Tivos from connecting for updates.

- They also block the Wii, Playstation, and Xbox as well as Tivo so if you want to get online to play or even get service updates, you won't be able to.

- MUCH SLOWER than promised. Expect to get 30-40% of the speed they say you can get. The fine print says you will get "up to" the promised speed so they never have to give you what you pay for. I pay $70 a month for speeds similar to a $20 DSL connection.

- You are strictly limited to how much you can download and upload each week. Each level of service has a different download limit and if you go ove they will drop your connection to dial-up speed for several days.

- Their email stinks and is blacklisted by many other email systems - hotmail for one blocks anything from Starband email so you will never be able to communicate with anyone with a hotmail account.

- Lots of service outages. Heavy cloud cover will kill your signal. They also do checks or updates on your modem and will reboot it on you at any time without warning.

- Lack of installers and dealers. Chances are slim you live anywhere near a dealer or service installer so any time something goes wrong you have to pay an installer to come from a long distance away. This is not only expensive, but time consuming so expect to be down for many days until someone can show up. Phone support refuses to help you until you have a dealer look at your system and can prove the problem is not on your side.

- Expensive and a poor value. The service costs a LOT for what you get.

I could go on, but the bottom line is: search around for ANY other option before you settle for Starband.

--hallmike



(review was emailed from domain juno.com)
lodged 14.1 years ago

hottboiinnc4
ME
join:2003-10-15
Cleveland, OH

hottboiinnc4

Member

Fine Print. LMAO

Everything is "UPTO" Including the DSL service you talk about.

Get over it.

hallmike
@starband.net

hallmike

Anon

Re: Fine Print. LMAO

You're missing the point. Sure, all services are "up to", but for the same price other services have a MUCH higher "up to" top end. With Starband you pay 3 times the price for one third the speed.
hottboiinnc4
ME
join:2003-10-15
Cleveland, OH

hottboiinnc4

Member

Re: Fine Print. LMAO

No i'm not missing the point. You agreed to that when you signed up. "up to" means just that. EVERYTHING is UP TO on the Internet.

Review by DECJ See Profile

  • Location: La Sal, San Juan, UT, USA
  • Business customer Business customer
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
A bit better than dial up
Slow, huge latency, equipment problems, poor customer service, too high priced
Not worth the frustration
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I had this service for approximately 4 years, first starting out with the residential service and later the business package. Latency was a big problem (especially for business applications) and numerous service interruptions were the rule rather than the exception. Modems and connectivity to a small home office LAN were problematic. The local installer was a good guy, but customer service from StarBand itself was typically pitiful.

member for 15.7 years, 57 visits, last login: 12.4 years ago
updated 14.1 years ago


Review by Ole1 See Profile

  • Location: Calumet, Houghton, MI, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
DL Speed always above 50% of maximum. UL speed ok. Few interruptions of service.
Pricey. Actual latency approaching 4-5 seconds.
Probably the best satellite service available.
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I have used the Starband service for about one month. With the exception of extremely severe weather locally and at the upload location, the service has been consistent and well within the speed estimates quoted by Starband.

Connection resets during sessions are extremely rare. I appreciate the static IP address as well.

Company service is courteous and competent. We have a local representative in our very rural area. His service has been nothing short of excellent, both in terms of initial installation and willingness to respond to questions.

I researched all the satellite services available. Starband stood out positively. I am very satisfied with the actual service.

member for 14.8 years, 2 visits, last login: 14.8 years ago
lodged 14.8 years ago


Review by bogometer See Profile

  • Location: Graford, Palo Pinto, TX, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
Accessibility in remote locations, download speed, supports VPN, remote desktop
Latency, upload speed, cost. Not for gaming.
If you want to telecommute from the boonies and no DSL or CABLE, this is the way to go.
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I use dialup here for years, but remote desktop and vpn are not very usable at 41kbps (what i get from modem). There is no DSL or CABLE here and ISDN would cost more than satellite when you add the cost of the ISP.

The installer was prompt, courteous and knowledgeable and helped workout a tricky installation (the house is in a valley).

I bought the Nova 1500 package (which comes with a huge dish and a SkyEdge modem).

I usually get 1.4 mbps down and 40 - 60 mpbs up (higher at nights on clear days). Rain does slow it down and heavy rain loses connectivity. Its slower during peak hours.

A neighbor of mine uses direcway (Hughes) and based on our tests my service blows his away.

Overall, WAY WAY WAY better than dialup. I recommend it.

member for 15.5 years, driveby review (so far)
updated 15.5 years ago


Review by Pakapab See Profile

  • Location: Cap Haitien
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
Overall very stable satellite internet system with very few problems.
It's satellite, not reall broadband...
This is very good if dialup is your only other opption
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I use HughesNet at my home on the proplus plan, and Starband Nova1500 at the office. The Nova is much more reliable than the hughesnet system. Speeds, latency are about the same for both systems. The Nova 1500 has a Higher Fap, than the Hughes ProPlus plan with a price difference of just around $15 between them. I prefer the Starband Nova 1500 over the HughesNet HN7000s ProPlus any day.

member for 22 years, 1503 visits, last login: 10.1 years ago
lodged 15.6 years ago