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Review by (hidden by request)
Posted: 5 days ago
(review was emailed from domain hotmail.com)
 College Grove,Williamson,TN
 Contract price not specified.
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I was not properly informed of the total cost up front. Told that the installation would be free.Was hit with a $125.00 charge on the day of installation. Never told additional charges could occur!! Installation was to be in the morning; he ended up arrively very late in the evening hours on a Sunday. Customer Service inputted my contact phone in wrong; took (4) phone calls for them to FINALLY get it straight. Now I get billed (1) month in advance. Another surprise!! So far I AM VERY DISAPPOINTED WITH WILD BLUE!!
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Review by DECJ 
Posted: 5 days ago
Fair warning: reviewer joined this week
La Sal,San Juan,UT
 Business customer
Contract price not specified.
 "Sometimes better than dial-up"
 "Glacially slow and huge latency"
 "There is no way this service can be called broadband or high-speed"
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I previously had StarBand satellite for 4 years, and it was pretty much a joke with very spotty performance, huge latency, very poor customer & tech support, and a pretty high cost. I then switched to Wild Blue's Pro Pak satellite service (which I have had for the better part of 3 years now). Initially, Wild Blue had better performance than Starband and for a lower monthly cost as well. However, over time, the speed came down and the latency went up to the point that I no longer think it is any better than Starband was. Customer service and tech support are pretty pitiful, and the typical approach is to blame the customer and their equipment for most issues. I don't feel that Wild Blue delivers on what they claim to provide or charges their customers for. It is looking like DSL is finally coming to our very rural location, so I can't wait to dump Wild Blue.
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Review by cebjr_2007
UPDATED: 7 days ago
member for 337 days, 53 visits, last login: 5 days ago
Bluford,Jefferson,IL
Contract price not specified.
"Beats Dial up some times."
"Not good for any body."
"They were good @ first then they went down hill after about 3 months."
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When I first got the service back in late 2007 I was happy with it, speeds were always good, & never had any problems with it untill Dec. 13th last year then every thing went down hill from there. Now I don't even get what I'm suppose to on the speeds & every time I call they always say it's my computer, I didn't run a virus scan, or a spyware scan, or cleared out my cookies. I do all 3 things every week, so I don't know where they are comming from, they also said that my router was slowing my speeds down so I did a test when my touter is hoocked up & then after my router is not hoocked up & come to find out that my speed was better with the router. The only thing I know is that it sucks that I have to be with them for a couple more months & thats it. I can eithor keep the service or cancel it. Havent' decided on what to do yet.
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Review by delta_queen
UPDATED: 11 days ago
member for 173 days, 14 visits, last login: 11 days ago
Searcy,White,AR
Contract price not specified.
"good download speeds considering my rural options"
"upload speeds are not as advertised"
"it's my second and final option"
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I had 3 good months with cellular bb and 4 bad months. see
(»Review of Alltel Axess by delta_queen)
I defected to satellite, my last remaining option. The installers did a fine job and even followed through on a special install location for me. I have not had to deal with tech support and I don't use wb email so I can't comment on those areas yet. My speedtest results during the day are :
1567 down
121 up
I paid for the pro pack.
peak hours test coming soon.
b/c this service is 'always on' tech at my company will be happier and I am able to use our wireless router which was not an option with celluar bb (unless pay $$$ for special equipment). I should have gone this route to begin with.
6/25/2008 >Update 17 days after install
Have not had to call tech support yet
speeds and connectivity are consistant
(5pm test)
1512 down
87 up (yucky)
half way through my first 30 day bandwidth monitoring I have used 9% of DL and 6% of UL. So this is something of a big relief.
I am on the internet and emails for 12 hours a day sending PPTs, watching videos here and there and hosting webinars with no probs. No gaming and no movies for me....
Happy Camper to date. I'll keep providing updates.
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Review by bobevans
UPDATED: 12 days ago
Fair warning: reviewer joined this month
Manchester,Mendocino,CA
Contract price not specified.
"Faster than dial up"
"Bandwidth less than advertised, punative overuse policy"
"If you don't have other options, it is OK"
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About 6 months ago, when my ISP stopped supporting ISDN, living in a very rural area, my options were either go back to dialup or to satellite. DSL and web cable are not available out here in the Mendocino coastal boondocks
I looked at reviews and it appeared that Wild Blue was slightly better than other satellite internet connection providers. Having used it for a while, based on conversations with other users, it seems to be on a par with other providers, like HugesNet, now.
I purchased the premium package (Pro Pack), with an advertised upload speed of 256 kbs and a download speed of 1.5 mbs. In reality, my uploads are usually in the 50 - 100 kbs range and the downloads are .5 - 1.0 mbs. range, although occasionally larger downloads will get close to 1.5 mbs.
The installer did an OK job, but had a little trouble installing the WildBlue optimizer om my PC, and wasn't really able to tell me what it does.
The biggest problem I had was when I exceeded my download limit. I can understand WB's desire to throttle use when their resources are constrained, but their policy strikes me as bit draconian and a questionable practice from business/customer service perspective. When the threshold is exceeded, the bandwidth is cut back to a sub-dialup level, theoretically for 30 days, but I think that my service was restored after 20 days, but it was royal pain in the tuchis.
4 days before the cutoff they apparently sent a warning to my WildBlue email, but since I had retained my email accounts and web servers with my previous local ISP, I never saw the warning, even though WildBlue had my primary email address.
I figured out what had happened after I called WB Customer Service, who transferred me to WB tech support, both were offshore, in India I suspect.. All the TS rep could do was read the policy and tell me that there was nothing she could do. It would seem to be a better customer service policy to allow customers to pay a fee to have their connectivity restored, particularly after the first occurrence.
Now I monitor my WildBlue email account and usage daily, which is an annoyance, but better then having my hand slapped again.
I have occasionally had to reboot the satellite adapter, but only a few times. It seems to be relatively stable.
There is some deterioration in bandwidth when there is a lot of moisture in the air, but it is bearable.
I would say that WildBlue is OK, in most respects, but not exactly stellar. It is better than dialup, but if I have the chance to get DSL or web cable, I would jump at the chance.
Followup comments:  equivocal
join:2008-01-23
USA
| Manchester Kinda ironic that Manchester is where at least two trans-Pacific fiber optic cables go into the ocean. All that bandwidth underfoot and the peasants aren't allowed to touch it.
My speeds have been off ever since a lengthy maintenance window a couple weeks ago. Never really seen an outage attributable to weather, not even smoke. | |
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Review by KEW
UPDATED: 15 days ago
member for 15 days, 0 visits, last login: 15 days ago
Rockport,Aransas,TX
Contract price not specified.
"NONE except that it's available in our area"
"EVERYTHING about it!"
"The WORSE service I have EVER had!"
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We have had Wild Blue for about 6 months ONLY because they (and Hughs Net) were our ONLY options. Fortunately, the home in which we have this junk service is only a week end 'get away' place so we don't have to live with it on a daily basis.....THANK GOODNESS!!! Our computers operate slower than dial up! I called Customer Service yesterday (what a joke!) to ask them why we are running so slowly! They had me go to testmy.net and speakeasy.net. The first test on testmy gave one star and said the download time was WAY bad as well as the upload time. It rated the service ONE star in download and upload speeds....the worse you could get. Not liking that result, the customer service dude hurriedly had me go to speakeasy and retest....he tried to just play like that one had never taken place....."This (speakeasy) will give us a better reading." Yeah....right. I got a tiny bit better reading there....VERY tiny. He then, naturally (and big surprise!), started blaming MY computer, MY firewalls, MY everything, etc....just ANY BS he could think of BESIDES Wild Blue as the cause of the problem. WHAT a crock! We, very UNfortunately (!!!), have an 18 month contract so hopefully we can get something better when our time in computer hell is up. I would not recommend Wild Blue to my worse enemy! It sucks....majorly!
Followup comments: T4K
join:2002-03-13
Roach, MO | EVDO You should check if you have EVDO coverage in your area. Even 1xrt is better than wildblue. I'd rather deal with a 5GB cap then just straight out BS. | |
| | KEW
join:2008-06-21 | Re: EVDO Thanks...we'll check and see if it's available here.  | |
| KEW
join:2008-06-21
 ·WildBlue
| Looking for a different ISP right now! We are so disgusted with Wildblue that my husband just left to go check at some other ISPs....he's going to go into their offices and find out what he can. We just can't take this crap anymore! We'll just have to find a way to get out of this BS contract IF we find a better service. There HAS to be something better than this! It's BAD beyond words! | |
| 
Country Prof
@wildblue.net
| Poor speed and customer service - WildBlue Our experience with WildBlue on both speed, and customer service is: Poor speed, Terrible customer service. Unfortunately, when we first moved here, satellite was the only option, as we live "out in the boon-docks". Since our contract term will soon be up, I will be dropping them. We now have other options, which I will utilize;(not Hughs Net, which I am told is no big improvement on speed). | |
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Review by Superfly3
UPDATED: 18 days ago
member for 1 year, 7 visits, last login: 4 days ago
Caro,Tuscola,MI
Contract price not specified.
"Better than dial-up- most time."
"Little costly, high latency."
"OK option if you live in the country. EVDO better!!"
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I live in the country and have no other options other than dial-up. I have the 512k plan and so far I am happy with it. The download speeds have been as advertised, even with heavy cloud cover.
At times it could be better, but when your used to dial-up Wildblue rocks. I paid 199.99 for the initial equipment, and the install was free through Dish Network and 39.99 monthly for the first 10 months. Ordering process was less than 5 minutes through local installer and installation was a breeze. There was a small glitch in the network settings that installer forgot about in obtaining IP automatically.
I am overall satisfied in the entire experience this far and would recommend this service if it's one of your last options. I don't say that because it's bad, just more costly and less convenient than other options.
UPDATE 06/18/2008
In the last 3-4 months I have experienced horrible connections and poor reliability. The speeds go up and down and I can never rely on it, so I have cancelled service. I thank Wildblue for the good service I got for a while, but they seem to let service go down hill IMO. At this point I might recommend Wildblue if the person was desperate. If you have another option save the expense of Wildblue and go with something else. Thank you Thumb Cellular for EVDO in my area, I love it!! Best service I have ever had in the area. Maybe if enough Wildblue customers drop off the grid- the ones that have the service will get better.
Followup comments: Brigrat
join:2003-09-01
Lovington, NM | agreed I went from Wildblue to Alltel EVDO, and couldn't be happier! | |
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Review by krowton
UPDATED: 23 days ago
member for 6.5 years, 8 visits, last login: 23 days ago
Newberg,Yamhill,OR
Contract price not specified.
"It works"
"Weather as a huge impact on speeds. Rolling FAP sucks...."
"When an eye in the sky is your only option Wildblue is the best choice"
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Wildblue order taking and installation coordination was flawless....The installer went the extra mile placing the dish and getting things set up....The hole through the wall was poorly done but rest of installation was a breeze.
I hate the Rolling FAP. It is based on the last 30 days. You never get a clean slate. I work from home every third week and I simply can't afford to have the speed any lower than it is....
The FAP looming over my head has really modified my use of the internet. I miss my broadband connection. Living in the country is worth it though :-0
I live in the Willamette Vally in Oregon....6 or 7 months a year it is overcast to some degree. Cloud cover impacts download speeds significantly. When I have the option to get dsl cable, fios or any other land based network connection I will switch in a heartbeat!
When you have no choice but to use a satellite ISP Wildblue is the one to use....
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Review by gwwcpa
UPDATED: 28 days ago
member for 1.1 years, 23 visits, last login: 3 days ago
Chestertown,Kent,MD
Contract price not specified.
"Might be your only choice"
"Customer service, tech support,"
"Terrible service. Worse customer service. Avoid them at all costs."
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We chose this ISP for our client as the client's only option in this particular location is Sat, and the reviews of the other Sat providers was not good. After a couple of failed attempts the service was installed. It has been not reliable since day one. We could just as easily write about the ISP service they provide, but our expectations were never high. We had mistakenly let the account lapse due to a credit card that had expired, but Wildblue seemed to resolve this quickly. Except that payment was taken and the account not restored. 4 calls afterwords to customer service, billing, tech support and it is not resolved. No one seems to know how to fix the issue. No one in the company seems to be able to talk with other operating units in the company. Tried to talk with a manager the last time I called but was told none was available as they were all busy. I can find no person that one can talk to, that seems to know how to resolve problems in this company. I am posting this, have filed a complaint with the FCC, and will file complaints with the AG of the state they are located and with the BBB of the state they are located. We deal with a number of ISP's for ourselves and our clients, and this is by far the worst I have ever dealt with. There is no reason in the world why one should subject themselves to this kind of agony!
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Review by (hidden by request)
Posted: 29 days ago
(review was emailed from domain eshorelinebank.com)
Gainesville,Ozark,MO
Contract price not specified.
"Can't think of one"
"Slow, unreliable, poor service"
"Don't do it!"
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I live in rural southern Missouri and have tried to use Wildblue for two years. Today was the last straw. The speed is poor at best and if it rains, snows, or is cloudy, forget it. Recently, it just quit working. After consultation (ha!) I spent $250 trimming some trees and guess what? It still didn’t work. I proceeded to get back in the queue for a service tech and went through the lengthy process of pushing buttons on the phone about what light was flashing and what light wasn’t, then talking to tech that I could barely understand. After 20 minutes, he concluded that it didn’t work! He told me a service call would cost $95. Okay, send them out, I said. But wait! He needed a secret password. Not having the secret password, I was given the customer ticket # and told to call back with the secret password. I went to my wife, the keeper of all things secret, and found out that all I really needed was the last four digits of the credit card that pays the monthly bill. Okay, back to the phone, the pushing of buttons and finally to a new tech. She is pleasant, but starts through the same script, of which light is flashing and instructing me to close all applications. Whoa! I tell her I have just been through all that and I have the magic customer ticket number and the secret code to get a service call going. Not so, she informs me. I have to go through the whole thing again (another 20 or so minutes) or she can’t order the service call. It’s their procedure and she can’t do anything about it. I ask for a supervisor, who is just as unyielding. I find out from the supervisor (Kristee) that the original tech (C-10082) was in Denver, she is in Mississippi and the guy in Denver didn’t fill out the ticket correctly, so I’m screwed. At this point I have spent several hours and all of my patience and a lot of money to try and get some help and get my service working. Guess what? No one at Wildblue gives a damn. So I am going back to dial-up. At least it works when it’s cloudy and I don’t have to contend with people who are trying every way that they possibly can to make life difficult. Who needs it?!?
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