Podcast delayed, StarBand Sucks.
March 20th, 2006
Hello, while Tnt-014 has been done and ready to go for the past 24 hours, but we can’t get it up. Tomorrow we will drive through the foot of snow on the road to go to a wi-fi cafe.
What’s up, you might wonder. Don’t we have BroadBand? Haven’t we talked up our back of the woods BroadBand via satellite?
Why, yes, we have. However StarBand (assholes) have decided to “change the contract” and introduce obscene bandwidth limits without even notifying us. I sure do wish I could change my contracts with people without even telling them… now can I only want to pay them $15 a month instead of $150!!!??? There was no listed bandwidth restricitions when we signed up for our three-year contract last fall. Their top vendor described the product, their highest end service, as being suitable for VoIP, which it never has been. Now if we use more than 480meg a day for a week - SMACKED DOWN! This is on a system sold as suitable for an entire office.
The service is SO PATHETICALLY POOR at the moment, that we can not even upload a 100k email attachment most of the time. I tried for 8 hours to upload 512kb .rar files of Tnt-014 to the server, and not one made it with a correct checksum.
Our crime? Were we pirating mp3’s? Nope. DDos’ing people? Nope again. We simply download our raw server logs, and I downloaded some windows updates, having just had a harddrive crash. After 45 minutes on hold, 15 more minutes on hold and 30 minutes talking to what may as well have been a brick wall… still can’t upload a bloody thing.
One would think that, at $150 a month, an internet account that was sold to us as unlimited, and without Direct Way’s FAP, we would at least be able to download Windows updates and upload a 30 meg podcast.
If you want to call StarBand to thank them for screwing over their customers, you may do so at 1-800-4STARBAND.
Or feel free to write them and let them know what you think about big companies pushing around legitimate users, and crying ABUSE, just for a measly 480meg a day on a system sold as USABLE BY 20 SEPERATE COMPUTERS!
StarBand Corporate Headquarters
1750 Old Meadow Road, Suite 700, McLean, VA 2210
Entry Filed under: News
6 Comments Add your own
1. John | April 20th, 2006 at 11:56 am
OMG you are completly correct in every comment.I just got off the phone with them 72 mins really Im being totally truthful 72 mins!I am so aggrivated! It would be nice if for the ammount of funds I poured into this system,I would be able to use whatever bandwidth I need.My girlfriend has gone to a site called Second Life.This seems to be the downfall.Its a virtual world kind of thing not really my cup of tea,but whatever.After my 68 min conversation with there topnotch support,he had figured out I was restricted!The remaining 4 mins was me getting crapped on.I would like to find a sat isp that will NOT do this kind of crap to me.Please feel free to write me back,I dont mind I feel your pain!
2. Twilight | April 22nd, 2006 at 9:15 pm
John,
That sucks. Yes, 72 mins is standad for them now. Whenever I have to call I literally have something to read for the wait.
I was told they were going to implement something so a user could monitor their bandwidth usage. Has that happened? Nope!
What can we do? Let’s try to gather other dissatisfied users. They can email us, we’ll read the horror stories on a podcast and then send Starband a copy of the show.
3. Jack | January 4th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
The bandwidth restrictions are STILL in effect. I have starband and am now limited to 976 MB per 7 day period. Not only that, but I have to wait for an ‘exit’ limit of 680 MB before they will lift my 100k restriction. Sorry I’m late on this one, but I’m frustrated now and am basically afraid to do anything online anymore for fear of going over my bandwidth limit. It’s such crap. I pay MORE for this service than I have ever paid for any Internet service and only get more restrictions to show for it.
Their AUP and ICE program wasn’t even available online until I complained and then magically it appeared on their website.
Feel free to get back to me if you’d like..
4. Administrator | February 3rd, 2007 at 11:21 am
Jack-Yup, that sounds like classic Starband bs. We’re thinking of starting a Starband Sucks page on our blog. Email us if you want us to put your story up on it.
Twilight
5. lance49726 | March 1st, 2007 at 8:08 pm
Hello All I am a former employee of starband and I am here to tell you that they SUCK… And they SUCK BAD….. I quit working for starband because I was tired of working for a company that forces there employees to lie to the customers because they advertise a service that they cannot provide… there is no way the they can provide the speeds that they advertise and when you the people that have spents upward of 500 and 600 dollars to get the service you get lied to by the Tech support team… They Lie because they are told too I will not lie that is another thing that ticked me off is that 90% of the techs are stupid and cant speak plain english but they still see it fit to put these people of the Phones… The service is one that is a little ahead of its time it works but it still has MANY bugs that need to be worked out…. when you call the TECH support and they cant help you its not that THEY dont know that answers its that THE ENGINEERS DONT KNOW EITHER…. I spoke to a fried there just yesterday and he said that the hold times are not at 2 hours… He said that they are working to traing people to bring that down but it will still be around and hour even after all of the new people get trained…Have you aver called and was told that they are running a CW test and they will be back to you in a second and it turns into a 45 min test…
there are TWO people sitting in a little room in the next building that run these test for EVERYONE…. So if the tech says that he is going to run a CW you better be prepaired for a wait… well I hope this was at least a little informative and feel free to leave a reply with any questions that you have….
UPDATE: Now THEY have put on a download cap LIMIT go over that limit in a 7 day rolling period and you get your SPEEDS cut back to 100 kbps for 7 days. And the joke about this company is that they rip you off cause either THEIR usage page does not work or when it does there figures are always HIGHER then yours even if you have a usage meter to keep track of your downloads. Then to make it worst they dont for the most of the time update THEIR WEBSITE USAGE on you for 8-12 HOURS or more, Direcway or Hughesnet updates your usage in about a HOUR alot of difference.
HOW ARE YOU SUPPOSE TO KEEP TRACK OF YOUR DOWNLOAD USAGE SO YOU DONT GET YOUR SPEED CUT BACK ?
I guess they look at it that you can download some but then you cant use your computer ( that your paying $ 140.00 a month for there service ) anymore for 8-12 HOURS OR MORE cause when they get the time to update your download usage your most likely are going to be over your limit then back to 100 kbps for 7 days.
HER IS THERE OWN WORDS OFF THE ICE PROGRAM.
” How can customers view their bandwidth usage and limits?
StarBand has created an automated process that enables members TO SEE REAL-TIME BANDWIDTH utilization reports. Customers can see how much bandwidth they have used and how close they are to their limits simply by logging into the StarBand customer portal (starband.net) and clicking on My Account. Customers can also call StarBand technical support with any questions.
I guess for starband REAL TIME is 8-12 hours.
And NO WHERE is it in WRITING of how MUCH you are able to DOWNLOAD. The same reason that Direcway had a class action law suit and lost.
If they cant update your download usage in a reasonable amout of time then they should not HAVE IT till they fix it but no they just keep RIPPING YOU OFF. No wonder they were going BANKRUPT again and probaly will again soon.
HAPPY GETTING SCR**ED by SH*TBAND
6. Administrator | March 5th, 2007 at 10:43 am
Lance-Wow, thanks for the scoop! That’s such a juicy comment we’re going to read it out on the show. -Twilight
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