Rytech Systems out of Maynardville, TN installed our Dish Network TV service and our Wildblue Satellite Internet service when we first moved to Tennessee in April, 2006.
From the first, the internet service was flaky. We had constant outages ranging from minutes to hours in length. I complained to Rytech, who told me I had to initiate a service call with Wildblue. Wildblue would always say either "well, it seems to be working now" or "call us back if it doesn’t clear up in a few hours." Anyway, there at least should have been a record of an ongoing problem.
On June 28, 2007, A Thursday, it died completely. I called Wildblue on Friday morning when it still hadn’t come back up. They told me they would call the local service company, Rytech, and that Rytech would call me back on Monday to "schedule a service call." Great, now we’re dead for four days and can’t even get a call scheduled.
Wildblue also said I would have to pay $75 for the service call and for the new parts. I pointed out that there has been an ongoing problem with it for well over a year. The response was, basically: 'Sorry, that doesn’t count.'
I called Rytech right after talking to Wildblue. Voice mail. I left a message. No returned call. Monday morning I called them again, and left another message. After 5 PM, I called Wildblue and reported that the repair company had never called. They said I could call any other authorized Wildblue service company, give them the service order number, and then that company could fix it.
Tuesday morning I called another company. They said that they could not handle the call without authorization from Wildblue, and that the service order number I was given was not in their computer system.
I reached Rytech and was told that the service technician was on vacation "all this week." No explanation for why they never called me. She did say that Wildblue was supposed to assign another service company and would call me. They had not.
I called Wildblue back. Now they said that, since Rytech installed my system, Rytech had to service it. No other installation or service dealer could do so. I pointed out that I was told differently on Monday, and apparently so was Rytech. "Well, that was wrong." I pointed out that Rytech had no available service, and that I was going to be out for a minimum of 7 days more, at least 11 total. They said too bad, can’t help you. I asked why another company couldn’t do the service, and they said it was because "your contract is with Rytech, not Wildblue." I asked if I could get a contract with Wildblue.
I was passed to another person, who said I could cancel my contract with Rytech and sign up with another service company. However when I asked if that would allow me to have any authorized dealer repair the system, they said no, "only the dealer you have a contract with." So, basically, Wildblue does not provide ANY repair service. However, they require you to contract with one, and only one, "authorized" repair company. They also told me that the "parts that are needed to repair your system have already been sent to Rytech, and so you still have to use that company." Nice trick, since no tech had yet looked at the system to see what part might be needed.
It is obvious that Wildblue, throughout, told me lies. I would strongly advise, if you absolutely have to have satellite internet service, that you look into any other competing company. Or at least use an "authorized" service dealer who has more than one technician. What happens here if Rytech’s technician gets hospitalized for an extended time, or quits? Do we just wait for Rytech to hire and train a new tech, while Wildblue continues to bill us monthly for non-functioning internet service?
The Rytech technician did show up on Saturday, July 7th, and repaired the system. Now to try to get credit for the days we were out.... On August 3, about a month later, Wildblue agreed to issue credit for the nine and a half days I had no service. At least they did one thing right, although it took one email and three phone calls to get them to do it. One example: on July 17th they told me they could not issue a credit because "the service call is still open." It had been fixed 10 days before that. As I said, find a competing satellite internet provider....
My trouble log for January 2009, so far. This is a typical log.
8:17 PM 01/01/09 - Upload of large file went at 40kbps, but only in short bursts alternated with 0kbps pauses. 7:58 AM 01/02/09 - Timeout on email -- while disconnecting! 1:03 PM 01/02/09 - Pauses and timeouts on web pages. 3:43 PM 01/03/09 - Average web page display speed 8kbps! Slower than dialup. 10:51 AM 01/04/09 - Internet access stopped. About a minute later, no satellite signal. Cloudy, no rain. Satellite and access returned after another 2 minutes. 10:54 AM 01/04/09 - Satellite out again. 11:06 AM 01/04/09 - Back up again. Local radar shows nothing for hundreds of miles. 8:46 PM 01/06/09 - Major delays, timeouts on web pages. 11:32 AM 01/11/09 - Pauses and timeouts on web pages. 11:45 AM 01/11/09 - SSS-----LLL-----OOO---WWW---!!! 2:31 PM 01/11/09 - Total halts to web page loads, lasting for up to 90 seconds. Many reloads necessary. 3:30 PM 01/11/09 - Web unuseable - occassional bursts of data at about 13kbps, otherwise ZERO. 3:59 PM 01/11/09 - Back to normal for Wildblue - pauses, slow, timeouts.... 2:55 PM 01/12/09 - Actually running at full speed right now. VERY unusual! 7:56 PM 01/12/09 - Bursts of data, at 16kbps, between pauses of several seconds. 4:52 PM 01/14/09 - Major pauses, them timeouts on web pages. 5:01 PM 01/15/09 - Major pauses, them timeouts on web pages. 11:22 AM 01/16/09 - Major delays, timeouts on web pages. 9:04 AM 01/18/09 - Major delays, timeouts on web pages. 2:57 PM 01/18/09 - Major delays, timeouts on web pages, especially images. 3:11 PM 01/18/09 - Web unuseable - continual timeouts. 11:20 AM 01/19/09 - Major pauses, them timeouts on web pages. 11:21 AM 01/19/09 - You know those ads for HughesNet on TV that show a graphics image loading under dialup? Wildblue is SLOWER. 11:29 AM 01/19/09 - Yet again, timeouts make web unuseable. 2:07 PM 01/19/09 - Several minutes to display a simple web page with a few images on it. Timed out before finishing four of the images. Did a reload, and received NONE of the images. 2:15 PM 01/19/09 - Gave up using internet again. Glad WildBlue is so useful!
This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification
Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:
xxxxxxx@wildblue.net.s6a1.psmtp.com
Technical details of permanent failure:
PERM_FAILURE: SMTP Error (state 13): 550
Sender address rejected: User unknown in local recipient table
THANKS, WILDBLUE!
