In my latest fiasco, I recently upgraded to the Silver 25MB/150GB plan. I called and asked about what I should expect if I upgraded. I was willing to pay the extra to get a service that I need in our family. I was told that indeed, I would get the service I was paying for. So, I agreed. 4 weeks later I recieved the high speed modem. Before installing it, I tested my connection (at 6PM Thursday). My internet speed was about 10MB down using the 16GB Plan. Not bad, but I needed the extra speed and capacity. I hooked up the new, High-Speed Modem, followed the instructions and Voiloa! I'm connected. When I tested the speed to compare, I coldnt get Speedtest.net to run? Tried a couple times before using the google interface.. To my dismay, i was getting less than 4MG down - consitenly.
I spent the following days trying to get though to someone who could fix my modem, until yesterday I finally got someone who leveld with me. He said. "it is what it is". He said I will NOT be getting speeds anywhere close to 25MB. It's because at Primetime, the circuit has a lot of people on it. There is nothing more he can do. My signal is aligned perfectly, the modem is working correctly and unfortuately there is nothig more that he can do. He defaulted to the fine print of "up to..." but not guaranteed... Not only that, but I can't go back to my old service.
The net of it is, I'm paying more - a lot more and getting less - a lot less. In fact, I'm paying 44%MORE and getting 85% LESS. How's that for truth in advertising. I've been told about their service and mislead on many levels, but this really makes me angry - and it should you too.
I wish there were a way to escalate my issue, but there isn't. I just wanted to post this to the forum so that others who have been lied to, mislead and are not getting what they believe they should be for the money, please post your story here. Maybe Exede/Viasat will take note give us all an official reponse.
...and yea, yea, yea, I know all about this "Viasat2" business, but I dont belive it, nor to I belive it when they say that they're moving people to it. I just can't accept that it "is what it is" and I dont belive "there is nothing more that they can do".
An official reponse to all of us would be appreciated. Just tell the truth.
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- lied to, robbed and angry.
Posted 2 years ago
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ViaSat has my trust. They do not have my full respect. The company bills for and delivers to contract specifications. No more and no less. There was a time a few years back that service speeds exceeded plan speeds. Now it’s quite the opposite for me. Very usable internet most days that fulfills my needs.
That said, it does not fulfill my wants. Customer experience has suffered with oversold beams. Customer call center service is sub par, and some installers are terrible.
I’m writing this while streaming a movie along with two people surfing wirelessly. The service works for me. The movies are in 480p and the movies and web videos occasionally buffer. I’ve been on satellite for over a decade, so I’m both accustomed to how it works and thrilled to no longer being bound to 10-12GB.
I also live half my time with cable internet and the ability to truly do whatever I want without fear or second thoughts of will it work. I know satellite can be frustrating when accustomed to that kind of service.
Why people don’t do more research is beyond me. Unlimited plans, and therefore unlimited problems have been written about since October. Nothing has changed. It will next month or it simply never will. ViaSat openly admits congestion is a big issue. Not a respectable business practice to continue selling plans, but no different than any other company either.
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And Viasat has not lost my trust. Best internet we have ever had.
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Where was Netflix and Hulu when Viasat-1 was launched? How much time did the average Internet user spend watching video from any source on the Internet when Viasat-1 was launched? Where was the video demand 7 years ago when Viasat-1 was launched? It almost didn't exist.
Viasat didn't plan on seeing a four-fold increase in demand from streaming every year. Viasat has been stranded in space waiting for the assistance of Viasat-2.
Viasat is going through some growing pains right now, and they won't last forever. For now, for the many experiencing poor speeds, it is a pain for them also and maybe they'll realize their pain is not forever either. People who are dedicated to the improvement of country living accept growing pains and are satisfied with simply the efforts Viasat is putting forth to make things better. We can have a great day knowing our Viasat charges are going to make an improvement. We can be satisfied knowing our money didn't go toward the deforestation of the Amazon Jungle just to get a cheap burger.
The thread heading ask if Viasat has lost my trust. No. I have more confidence now in Viasat than ever before. My outlook on them as a company is that of admiration.
I don't mind paying for speed I rarely get because I see it as a worthy contribution to the cause of improving the lives of millions of people. The speed I'm paying for on a continuous basis is at the door. Viasat will treat their customers right as they have the resources to do so. So yes, I trust Viasat.
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...and deforestation.. dont get me started. That’s funny.
If anyone here wants to see what is sold, go shop a plan and tell me if you don’t think they’re lying.
By the way, recall my problem:
I was getting 10 to 12MB downloads
I wanted faster.
I upgraded under the promise of 25MB Down (I figured 20 was acceptable)
My reality is 3 to 4MB down
I lost 88% of my internet speed
My bill went up 44%
Now you tell me that this VIASaT is a victim. I see you spend an awful lot of time on these forums, you should know better.
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Yea Mike... Like Viasat has this crystal ball that tells them the future at least 7 years out. Shame on them for not keeping it clean and polished so they could have seen all this coming.
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Yea Mike... Like Viasat has this crystal ball that tells them the future at least 7 years out. Shame on them for not keeping it clean and polished so they could have seen all this coming.
VeteranSatUser, Champion
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VeteranSatUser, Champion
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The mods mentioned that settings were being tweaked a couple of times.
VeteranSatUser, Champion
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Stephen Rice, Champion
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Stephen Rice, Champion
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Stephen Rice, Champion
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The whole video game thing doesn't make sense to me. When I was a kid, you could fit a game on a 720k floppy disk.
I guess kids these days don't use media anymore and download everything. Someone posted that some of these games are over 50 GB.
Sounds like we need some non net neutrality to kick in and start charging these kids extra for using all the bandwidth.
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Stephen Rice, Champion
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BAZINGA! :)
Stephen Rice, Champion
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I can not understand why anyone would be okay with being told and sold one thing, but given another and is okay with it. NOBODY should be okay with it, you shouldn’t Accept it if it were you, you shouldn’t be okay with it for anyone else- as it COULD be you.
If these liars and thieves were honest with me to begin with, I would have realistic expectations. But an 85% degradation in speed and a 45% increase in cost - all predicated on TRUST and what I was TOLD AND SOLD is UNACCEPTABLE.
If you do not agree, then move on. If you agree and have a story, post it here and let Viasat know.
**One other thing.. I know that they do read this community. I recently had a comment deleted. If that doesn’t betray trust, I don’t know what does. I can imagine there are and were many posts being deleted because of something that they didn’t want you to know. So, doing research here is likely only going to lead you to the information they are going to allow you to see.
For your reading pleasure: https://www.truthinadvertising.org/de...
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it’s not a sympathy anyone is looking for, nobody who feels lied to is wanting it or is asking. This is a question of ethics. I have the right to be angry as does anyone else. If you’re satisfied, I’m happy for you.
Go back and re-read my original post. I started it to see if anyone else had the same experience that I have had. I wanted to hear how their issue was resolved or not. I shared enough of a background so that they can understand.
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"Going from 10mbs and 16gigs to 4mbs and 150 gigs sounds like a major upgrade"
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Steve Frederick-VS1/Beam314, Champion
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VeteranSatUser, Champion
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VeteranSatUser, Champion
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Stephen Rice, Champion
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Stephen Rice, Champion
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If caching video would solve my problem then I would have been doing it years ago. But Netflix usage isn't my issue.
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Stephen Rice, Champion
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I've never tried but I bet I could download a terabyte of data on my Liberty 12 plan if I wanted to. I have no desire to try and would feel guilty of abusing the network, but I bet it is possible.
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Stephen Rice, Champion
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I had a bucket of priority data, something like 10 gb, and a late night free zone from midnight to 5am. The terms were that I could use priority data any time, and that after using my data, the speeds would come to a crawl.
The nice trade off was the late night free zone. Downloads during those hours did not count against data and I would still get awesome speeds during the free zone, even after using my priority data.
I was happy with the service, but AT&T suckered me into coming back for $33 a month. I paid the termination fee with Exede/Viasat, went back to AT&T and over the course of 5 years, AT&T eventually raised the price to $69 a month.
I looked a Exede/Viasat again and was surprised to see it would be cheaper than AT&T and that I would have speeds up to 5 mbps with the Liberty Pass.
I knew the speeds of up to 5 mbps on the Liberty Pass were a gamble and I didn't know about this forum. I understood the terms of what I was agreeing to and took a chance. I couldn't be any happier with Viasat than I am now.
Honestly, I was a bit shocked at the speeds after using my priority data. I was on a hard throttled Exede plan about five years ago and the speeds I am getting now, after using priority data, are amazing compared to how it used to be.
End of rant. Something smells like smoke in the house. I'm not sure if it is real smoke or if the dog just farted. Gotta go check it out.
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Stephen Rice, Champion
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Can't return the modem/router - the modem funtionality is still required, but the wireless speed issues can be mitigated by extending the Viasat device with a more reputable third party wireless router and disabling the Viasat wireless functions - general consensus around here is Asus or Netgear but model choice often depends on other features you may desire and desired price point.
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And for the guy who says he has 1.2TB of streamed video cashed. Downloading in off peak hrs and cacheing the video during the unmetered time frame doesn't mean you don't use a ton of data just because your metered usage is under 12GB. If you cached 1.2TB then you downloaded 1.2TB electrons don't just get bigger and multiply once they are on your side. The thing you don't seem to get about data usage is the 150 plan doesn't have an unmetered time frame. Data at all hours is counted. If the 12GB plan would work for during the day usage when VPN into work that would be different and I would have no issues with caching data in off hours. But it doesn't because VPN and other things will need more data amounts.
I also grew up playing the games on 720k disks you probably forgot about the 6 and 8in floppy which held 360k and less. Data is used differently now that it was 25yrs ago. 25yrs ago the entire amount of data that existed on the then concept of internet known as DARPA would have fit on a 256MB flash drive. Those were the days when a 10 MB hard drive was a crazy amount of space. Now if you take this site for the forum that this conversation alone is on. Your probably close to that amount of data sitting on the backend server for just this thread alone. A couple of photos can be that amount without proper compression which most users don't know anything about.
So again it's not about the data it's about what was sold vs what was delivered. Had they told me the truth then I would expect what they deliver but I also wouldn't have gone with the plan that costs this much. Also I went from the 12GB liberty plan to my current plan because the service wasn't enough. And doubled my Bill for 150GB of priority data and between 1-5MB when that cap has been reached. 1MB is slightly slower than a DSL connection which is about 1.4MB. 1MB would allow me to do what I need to however it is dropped low enough that the modem has a connection but there is no connection past that point. That is FAR from 1MB.
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I have the 150 freedom plan. Because your right there is no 150 liberty.
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"Regarding my own router? Is this possible?"
This happens all the time. Someone comes to this forum and vents about Viasat and says nothing can be done. I can't emphasize enough that this forum can and does help customers with problems. And it is also monitored by Corporate who have on many occasions stepped in and fixed the problem. Too many people post that they hate Viasat and then never ask for help. That is probably one of the biggest mistakes that a customer with problems can do.
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Exede 5 plans were limited to 5 Mpbs on augmented beams on Wildblue-1/Anik F2 - they're still in use in the mountain/western states - I don't know which modem was used for those but last I knew they were limited to the old Exede Classic Plans and Freedom/Liberty/etc. were never options.
But my memory is fading fast and don;t ever recall 6 inch floppies either... 5-1/4 yes.
So don;t let my memory get in the way of a good debate - what was the question again?
Stephen Rice, Champion
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Downloads can be cached yes but live rdp sessions over vpn cannot be.
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Stephen Rice, Champion
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VeteranSatUser, Champion
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Stephen Rice, Champion
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Stephen Rice, Champion
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viasat,_Inc.
2005-present
WildBlue launched its internet service in October 2004 after gaining Ka-band transponder capacity on the Telesat Anik F2 satellite.
Steve Frederick-VS1/Beam314, Champion
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VeteranSatUser, Champion
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Games? Yep most of the high quality games now are 50GB+. And patches and downloads are often online only too.
I am single and use 70 - 80GB per month. I can easily see how a family of four would burn through 150GB pretty fast.
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VeteranSatUser, Champion
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Stephen Rice, Champion
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A broken person,
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Stephen Rice, Champion
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Stephen Rice, Champion
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I just ran a test and am getting 3.6mbs and can do anything I want on the internet, even stream with zero buffering. I wouldn't have even noticed or cared what my speed is if it wasn't for this post.

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Old Labs (VS1-329-L12FZ)
Most of those have such a thin profile that a standard Ethernet jack is impossible and Viasat really can't anticipate your requirements (with the emphasis on your).
Sorry to say that it appears that all that was required was a trip to a bog box local retailer with everyday low prices and mastery of the fine art of plugging it in. Be glad you didn't call Geek Squad - at last check, they charge $149 for the home visit/diagnosis plus parts.
But yes... a knowledgeable call support center representative might/should have been able to figure that out without escalation to level 2 or 3 support (or worse still scheduling a service call). Just the mention that the cable wouldn't fit into your laptop should have required the purchase of no more clues - so your criticism of phone support would appear valid from that perspective and being charged for an unneeded service call scheduled by a non-tech script reader.
A simple question here in this community may have saved you some aggravation.
As to the original poster's guestion, it's more of a trust but verify relationship for me, and yes this drop in speed noted by others when installing the new modem has me concerned should I ever switch plans... I just wish someone would do the install and back to back tests on each during non-peak hours - when speeds are not subject to greater fluctuation due to then current network conditions.
I've seen back to back speed tests during primetime using even the same modem fluctuate as much as you've noted (heck I've even seen speeds fluctuate within the same speed test by that much - a very jagged graph presented by testmy is often a good indicator of current peak congestion and often signifies excessive packet loss due to that congestion).
Knowing how your chosen speed test works is just as important as the final single statistical result - quality is more relevant than raw speed for most activities - hare meets tortoise. For my activities, smooth and steady usually wins the race but I have greater flexibility in scheduling when those activities occur.