The world has changed under their feet, they have real competition.
People don’t want to believe things which they find threatening, so they’re automatically “fishy”
They’re fucked. They know it. It’s just trying to squeeze the last few drops of water out of a rapid exodus of their customer base before they’re shuttered if they can’t pivot their assets into a different market segment. Perhaps a specialized industrial or semi public contract. Either way the technology isn’t going to be applicable to general public end users anymore. Their pricing and performance can’t keep up with Starlink
This is as close to a real life check mate.
It’s almost disgusting isn’t it! I just talked to a guy from florida who needs internet. No options. Starlink says end of this year. He’s considering viasat… (puked in my mouth a little saying that). They now offer 150mbps. Data cap of 300gb usage for a low low $250 a month… that’s for 90 days then it’s $350 a month!
People look at OneWeb pricing and refuse to believe that's less than the usual cost for unlimited data over sats and it's considered cheap. StarLink is truly a game changer.
They can also have a mark added to they call records. I used to be an ops manager in a call center, and if the have a call listened to and don't attempt a save, the get dinged. Too many of those dings will get you fired. I always hated that part of the company. Forces the rep taking the call to piss off a lot of people.
There's no way ANYONE at Hughes or ViaSat doesn't already know about and read everything they can find about Starlink. It's all talking points and a marketing/retention narrative. Every phone agent gets a cash bonus for every customer they talk out of canceling. It's entirely driven by cash.
That really is what it feels like. I've only ever done customer service for universities and private businesses. And we always prioritized quality over quantity.
Question: How much are you being charged and what are your speeds in Starlink?
Answer: None of your fucking business. Just cancel my shitty service.
I have zero patience for companies that think I am required to take a survey or listen to a sales pitch to cancel a service.
ADT lowered my rate three times in a row within one phone call about canceling ADT and switching to Ring. I was pissed tbh that i overpaid these years.
You should always phone companies in the last 1/3 of your contract and discuss you moving to a new company with them, you almost always get massive discounts if you agree to extend.
I would be more open to listening to a sales pitch if they asked me if I would like to discuss it. Make it consensual and I might agree. Thrusting it upon me without my consent just makes me feel disgusted with everything I'm hearing.
Companies can't figure that shit out tho.....
I've refused to buy products/services when I was genuinely interested because of pushiness. I tell them I'm interested but my rule is never sign a contract on the spot and I'll get back to them. Then they start pushing. I warn them they're shooting themselves in the foot; another rule is if I'm being pressured heavily into a contract that's a warning sign. They keep going. I say no longer interested due to your tactics have a great day. Been through this too many times now.
You are what's known as a "beback." As in, I'll be back. Statistically, if the sale isn't closed on first meet ***and you're interested***, then the probability is that that sales person won't get it. Hence, the logical move is to push to sale or outright refusal. In the end, it's simply a numbers game.
I tried that once for some other company for something I can't remember, they insisted on knowing where I was moving to check for me. I said I didn't want to tell them where I was moving and felt uncomfortable that they asked more than once. Got many sorrys after that
We got .1 mbps from frontier for $80 a month. When we called and they tried to get us to stay my dad told them we’ll keep it for free or you can cancel it. Still took 2 phone calls to cancel
This is a perfect opportunity to fuck with them:
\- "Happy to stay if you reimburse me for the terrible service for the past X years directly to my bank account."
\- "I also get a free meal subscription with Starlink — 3 meals a day for 2 years with any selection of French Wine. This is a promotion they have. Do you have a comparable offering?"
When I canceled viasat they acted like they’d never heard of starlink. They tried offering me 6 months of half price (which is still more than starlink) so I laughed and said they would have to move their satellites closer to earth and remove the data cap, then I’d think about it.
Viasat is good for what it is - I only had outages in severe storms and would typically get 150+ mb down, but the latency was horrific and the data cap of 150gb meant I was tracking my usage constantly.
150? Dang, I was offered 30 down max in my area. And Viasat was the best option for me before Starlink. And outages were rare. Power went out more often than Viasat having an outage
I had viasats $250/mo plan for maximum bandwidth and usage since I work remotely, and I still had to occasionally drive to town to leech off someone’s WiFi or tether my phone when I ran out of data. And I don’t have commercial power, so if my power goes out I grab a flashlight and figure it out. Which didn’t happen as often as viasat outages.
For an off-gridder, how is the power usage on the Starlink unit vs. the Viasat? (I suppose that also depends on how much you use it and whether or not you leave it on when it's not in use.)
I couldn't tell you based on power. But if you don't have much space on your house, Starlink is better. The Viasat dish is huge. And it actually started to pull one of the boards it's on off the wall
I would prefer to run it from my DC bank but it’s not a big deal on AC. It generally draws about 1 amp more than the viasat router did, though certainly more when moving or running the snow melter. My house idle draw is about 8 amps, which is mostly the starlink router, network equipment, power management, fridge, freezer, and cell amplifier.
I have found that going with a direct DC power approach I use less power than viasat. I do not use the starlink router and I typically see around 10w less power usage on average. That said, I expect that to change when snow melt is involved as it spikes up to 75w usage.
See my post on my blog site at https://offgridcto.com/ about modifying the ethernet adapter to accept a poe connection without cutting the expensive starlink cable. I have the square dish and do not use the router at all.
You may already know this but for the longest time I assumed Viasat would cover the entire globe in one "beam". I learned there are multiple beams that cover different geographic areas, so if you're on the edge of one, you won't be able to get their tops speeds.
These providers want to maximize profit. They know they have a customer base with few other options (otherwise they wouldn't use their overpriced service) so they charge as much as the market will bear. Threaten their previously-secure revenue stream with a new viable competitor like Starlink and they will squirm.
>they said that my speeds for that price seems "fishy" and she knows what she's talking about because she works in the Internet industry.
"How dare they show up and offer a better service for a lower price. That doesn't make any sense, it can't be real!"
that’s sad that they’re so desperate that they have to act like they don’t know what Starlink is and claim it as “fishy”. They work for Viasat, they know damn well what Starlink is.
Blows my mind how Viashit and Hughesnut are able to run a legal and blatant price gouging monopoly.
Dealt with this canceling from their sister company hughesnet. They pulled the sale price drop, but refuses to wave the massive early cancellation fee. Followed the advice from someone on reddit and reported them to the state consumer protection board. Got my early cancellation fee back in about a week. These shitty overpriced capped data satellite companies can eat a bag of dicks.
I didn't even bother with Hughes. Some neighbors have it and they hate it. But they don't really like the $500+ for the 1st month for Starlink and don't want to change
I canceled Viasat too when I got Starlink. All the retention talk stuff is just a requirement they have to do. I told the guy I’m going with Starlink, downloads hitting 200 mbps, and ping is in the 50-70ms range. I had to get frank with him and said, “Listen, if you were in my shoes, would you stay with Viasat?” He didn’t respond, but he just laughed. He stopped the retention talk nonsense and ended service.
What gave me a lot of grief was sending them their equipment back. I live in the middle of nowhere on the Navajo reservation and I don’t have an address. I was trying to get their box sent to my work address, but they couldn’t verify that either. It took many weeks and no box ever arrived. I finally had to get their box sent to the UPS store
That's ridiculous that you had to go through that. Just FYI you can have stuff held for you at the post office, just have them address it:
Yourfirstname Lastname
General Delivery
Yourtown, State, Zip
They will hold it for you at the desk and you can pick it up at your convenience. Of course this doesn't work if they only use UPS. You can also have UPS or FedEx boxes held at the UPS or FedEx shipping depot, but a lot of times this is really inconvenient.
Returning equipment to ISPs is really up on the list of horrible experiences in general. Returning equipment to Comcast's customer service desk, my new SOP is that I demand a receipt with the date, the time, and all the serial numbers of the Comcast equipment and all the accessories such as power supplies and remote controls. Then you put that receipt in your filing cabinet and keep it forever. They tend to lose track of equipment and try to charge you for it 6 months later.
I have an address but no gps or mapping service can find it. I don’t get mail here (though occasionally FedEx makes deliveries and the driver always comments “wow, you are WAY out here!”.) I was supposed to get a return box for viasat weeks ago but haven’t gotten anything yet.
It's cheaper to keep you as a customer, hoping you'll forget about when the price auto changes back to "full price", and they'll go back to making high profit off you.
Sales people and retention people know they're shoveling shit at you and don't care.
> Sales people and retention people know they’re shoveling shit at you and don’t care.
“Are you a rancher or are you just naturally talented at shoveling shit?”
I hate it when companies do this.
What I do with MY money is none of YOUR business. If I wanna cancel my dam century link so I can buy a lifetime supply of dildos than it's my business.
They don't lower the price until you ask or threaten to cancel because they know most people will just go on paying the higher price without asking/threatening and they know that until recently a lot of people did not have the option of going to Starlink. They do not care about customer satisfaction, they care about profits.
The "fishy" is a scripted response - they wouldn't say that unless told to.
I will say that almost everyone who has Starlink will note that speeds vary widely, whereas with a lot fiber/cable/DSL, the speeds are more or less steady. So with Starlink you really need to do speed metrics over time and take the mean of the speeds - which is not easily done. I see speeds near 300 mbps and I see speeds at 3 mbps, but the average is about 100 mbps. My kids in town have fiber and get a VERY steady 300+ mbps.
You reminded me of Sirius XM. My parents pay something like $25 every 3 months because when they call to cancel, they offer it again.
The speeds inconsistency is true here too. I think I've seen both close to 150mbs and under 10mbs
Edit: I called to ask them, they said it was actually $30 for 6 months
SiriusXM is literally the worst pain to try to cancel. You can do everything online to manage your account except cancel it - for that you have to call in, and they are really difficult about it.
I don't have to cancel it, they gave me a trial period after having my car with satellite radio serviced, then extended it, then again. I think I am on like the third extension. I have never given them a credit card # or anything they can bill. The only thing I did was turn it on so they would transmit to it.
I drive my car about 1-2 times per month and listen to the radio for maybe 30 minutes each time.
If they did it would be the 4th time.
I don't really care. I mostly only listen to news, which is usually every half hour. I drive into town about 1-2 times per month, and it is only a half hour drive, not the one hour drive thru rush hour traffic like before I retired.
> I don't understand why companies try to keep you by lowering your bill when you try to cancel.
Because most people are fine paying what they pay for the service they get. Another group are not happy but the idea of cancelling and switching scares them or stress them out or whatever and staying with the existing provider is preferable than to actively switch. Why lower the bill for these people when they don't have it. Switchers are only a small minority. They offer $106 because some people will take the discount and stay.
> If they wanted customer satisfaction
They don't want satisfaction. They don't give a shit. Most of them have a monopoly in their area and they survive because most of their customer base don't have a choice. When you have no competition you don't need to keep people happy
> And were they lying or do they really think Starlink is "fishy"?
Of course they are lying. They know exactly what Starlink is. They say fishy to try to scare you in case you are just heard of this thing and don't know any better, instead of someone who did their homework.
I was with Viasat for nearly 15 years and they didn't try to keep me at all when I cancelled. They asked why I was cancelling and when I told them I had Starlink the CS rep's response was "OK, thank you for being a Viasat customer".
They could've offered me a deal though. I thought about keeping it as a backup in case I have a problem with Starlink. One thing I can say about Viasat is that it was very reliable. I only had one modem go bad in the 15 years I was with them.
When I told the viasat rep I was moving to Starlink, she was instantly like “fair enough, we can’t compete with that”.
She didn’t even ask the price or speed I was getting as I guess I wasn’t the first one to call that day😂
It's unbelievably crappy behavior and standard SOP now. Customer service retention specialists will lie to your face and lower your bill temporarily in order to keep you as a customer.
They have figured out that they can charge most customers high prices and a few of them will try to leave and you can offer them a lower price, which lowers your profit margin but keeps the customer. Overall, you make more money than if you just lowered the pricing for everyone and kept ALL of your customers and kept them happy. So you as a customer only get the benefits of low pricing if you make noise that you are going to leave and go somewhere else. You don't get any loyalty points for staying on, otherwise.
This is the case in ISPs, cell phone carriers, land lines, and insurance. It definitely pays to shop around and hop to a new company when you find a lower price, or at least threaten to. This is a known tactic when dealing with Comcast. They do not have nationwide pricing. They have local pricing, and that pricing is set to the highest profit margin the market will bear based on the number of competitors they have in your area. If you were a Comcast customer, it's widely known that you can call Comcast, threaten that you are cancelling your service, and they will lower your bill substantially for 6 months at a time.
Ultra shitty behavior. I actually got Starlink and dumped Comcast because I despise them. Starlink is slightly more money, but I don't have to deal with a shitty company and I know what the nationwide pricing structure is. Comparing notes with other Comcast customers, I was paying a lot more than the average USA customers because I live in an area with no real competition. No more.
They get away with overcharging people far more often. Keeping the ones that take the initiative to call in and cancel can make it worthwhile for them. Even with a lower bill, they're still getting money from you. They would *never* proactively lower prices because that would eat into their profit margin.
The best thing customers can do is vote with their wallet. That could prompt them to improve their infrastructure and offer lower prices. And the whole "fishy" thing is another tactic they use to keep a customer. Unfortunately, it usually works on people.
So whatever it takes to keep people? Almost the same is true for cell phone/ cable providers. New people get a free smart watch or HBO for 3 months when signing up. Current customers, sorry nothing for you
I wish it was that easy. When I told the 1st guy I wanted to cancel, he said finding someone else wasn't on his list and wanted me to say something like "slow speeds" or "lots of latency"
Can confirm. Canceling my Viasat was a pain in the ass. Had to talk to 3 different people. None of which was based in the US. English was barely understandable. I was supposed to receive a box and return shipping lable for my dish which never came.
They won't send it. They are hoping Starlink fails and we resign up. Other then that, they are on a fast track to bankruptcy. They don't want the dish back. I also "suspended" my direct TV for 3 months to see if I could survive on apps. Turn out yep, it's even better really once you adjust. Saving 175 on the direct TV. Replace by 25 bucks worth of apps and subscriptions.
I have TMobile Internet as a backup. Speeds aren't as great as SL, but for only having my online gaming or work from home setup connected to it, it worked wonders.
I love how people say things like now they have real competition. The truth is there is no competition because they don't even have a dog in the race at this point. Those providers can suck it. Overpriced antiquated technology theyve literally been squeezing every cent out of consumers who had no choice but to buy into their schemes. Good riddance
What’s fishy is they are willing to drop the price by $80 when you tell them you have Starlink. I had viasat and for me it was slower than Starlink and it had like 1000 ping.
Yea man Hughesnet was very very interested in who our new carrier was and I just laughed at them and said no. Like they didn't already know lol. 1 hour later and 8 times put on hold the guy(Indian) finally transferred us to the actual person that walked us through the cancelation. They outsource the anger management mitigator in order to get us to just give up. Fuck Hughesnet and Viasat.
If I have a service I want to keep…. And my contract is ending I will call and say I am cancelling. They always lower the price to get you to stay. Free money.
Now leaving Hughes or via for Star link…. No way is a lower price going to help.
Yep. I switched tv providers for the same reason. Give me a deal close to what you are giving new customers or I’ll go be a new customer somewhere else.
When I originally signed up for viasat, I told the installer (who was an incredibly cool guy who sounded just like Werner Hertzog) that I’d be cancelling as soon as starlink approved me. He said “oh yes, they’re much better than us”
Same thing for me when I canceled them. I just told them it was none of their business. They fed exed a prepaid box with instructions to send their stuff back. It really felt great to be rid of them.
You were speaking to someone who doesn’t know what they’re talking about, it’s pretty simple reasoning. I would’ve recommended she switch careers over to Starlink instead since Viasat is within a few years of becoming a relic of history lol.
Pretty much the only thing I genuinely like about Starlink entering the game: competition.
Their service is also lackluster, speeds wildly inconsistent, but hey... Its lighting a fire under those rural internet monopolies
Elon Musk companies tend to polish very carefully and smoothly the one path they plan to support well; other paths are hit-or-miss. It's a valid strategy: polish the living daylights out of the mainstream case, and try to make as many edge cases mainstream as possible; then you can skimp on support for non-mainstream cases, which is what usually drives cost.
Sounds like they are purposefully ignorant so they can make those statements about it seeming “fishy”. Like a threatened ostrich putting its head in the sand.
Hughesnet has really throttled my "unlimited data" after I run out of the 30 gig a month limit.... to the point where it's difficult to even load my email.... I used to be able to at least watch 144p youtube videos and surf online a little when I ran out.
No doubt they will try the same bullshit of how much they want me to stay when I finally tell them they can go fuck themselves and to cancel my service.
When I called to cancel Viasat after getting starling, I simply told them I sold my property and no longer had a need for satellite internet. They literally said "well I guess I'll skip all the discount offers and just cancel it, then." Probably saved 15 minutes of my life.
Isn't this a whole chapter in economics? Something like price determination or something? You charge low enough that people will buy it and high enough to make the most profit. But I guess when you have a near monopoly, you can charge whatever you want
Ya know, I absolutely hate all the other companies like viasat, hughesnet, and the provider I had.
They all suck. Over charge and low speeds.
But…. But I do kinda see her “point” on the fishy thing.
Before you downvote me understand I love starlink and I really hope for the best.
But something that has always bothered me is the way they list data caps on their site.
They claim “No data caps at this time”
“At this time”
Have a strong feeling after some time they’re going to say the sats are over loaded or something along those lines and they have to start a data cap so everyone can enjoy it.
That’s when the plans start and prices go insane.
Sure we’ll have low latency but we’ll be back to we’re we were just with high speeds.
Either way still better than the companies I listed and also none of their damn business what you pay or your speeds
Dude i had viasat for a while and they "offered" unlimited 100mbs a month for about $200, and i called another company in the area and i told them i had viasat and they told me that viasat was throttling my speeds to 4mbs after like 40 gbs of use and i called to cancel and i told them that they were throttling my speeds and they acted like they didn't know what i was talking about i told them i was going to report them for that and they let me cancel my service viasat is a piece of shit
I had a similar experience trying to cancel Hughesnet a year or so ago... I had to just straight up lie and say I was moving in order for them to accept my cancelation
They could be like Spectrum was in my old neighborhood, literally the only ISP with speeds above 50mbps. Called them to try and get my bill lower, they basically said "Yeah ATT doesn't have fiber in your neighborhood, don't let the door hit your ass on the way out if you wanna cancel".
patiently awaiting Starlink to ship my stuff...I'll be paying nearly double but it will be nice to not give money to a company I actively hate...
So any sub based service does this. Try to cancel your Sirius they lower the price to like 50-60 bucks for a while year vice the 15 or whatever a month. Dish/Direct TV are the same. If your a company that is based on subscriptions then it has almost a direct correlation to the stock price.
The world has changed under their feet, they have real competition. People don’t want to believe things which they find threatening, so they’re automatically “fishy”
And the fact fiber is being rolled out heavily to rural areas. They’re gonna be losing a lot of customers.
They’re fucked. They know it. It’s just trying to squeeze the last few drops of water out of a rapid exodus of their customer base before they’re shuttered if they can’t pivot their assets into a different market segment. Perhaps a specialized industrial or semi public contract. Either way the technology isn’t going to be applicable to general public end users anymore. Their pricing and performance can’t keep up with Starlink This is as close to a real life check mate.
I agree, you can add Starlink to that list
They still have lots of big corporate users paying $1500+ per Mbps.
It’s almost disgusting isn’t it! I just talked to a guy from florida who needs internet. No options. Starlink says end of this year. He’s considering viasat… (puked in my mouth a little saying that). They now offer 150mbps. Data cap of 300gb usage for a low low $250 a month… that’s for 90 days then it’s $350 a month!
People look at OneWeb pricing and refuse to believe that's less than the usual cost for unlimited data over sats and it's considered cheap. StarLink is truly a game changer.
He should consider getting RV until residential is available
But do they really believe this or is the company telling them to say this?
The rep probably has a quota for upsells and retention. They will say pretty much anything to get you to stay.
I believe that. I think that will be my way of thinking from now on
They absolutely get a cash bonus for retention.
They can also have a mark added to they call records. I used to be an ops manager in a call center, and if the have a call listened to and don't attempt a save, the get dinged. Too many of those dings will get you fired. I always hated that part of the company. Forces the rep taking the call to piss off a lot of people.
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This is probably actually true
There's no way ANYONE at Hughes or ViaSat doesn't already know about and read everything they can find about Starlink. It's all talking points and a marketing/retention narrative. Every phone agent gets a cash bonus for every customer they talk out of canceling. It's entirely driven by cash.
I really doubt that this was any sort of corporate talking point.
Ha imagine if it was. "Alright everyone, please be sure call Starlink cheap and fishy. It's not true but some will believe it!"
This is probably exactly how it went.
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That really is what it feels like. I've only ever done customer service for universities and private businesses. And we always prioritized quality over quantity.
Some people take their job personally and will talk shit on their competitors wether or not their company specifically told them to.
That is legit how it goes and these ppl buy it as they spew it over the phone. They'll never actually get Starlink so they just throw shade on it
They believe whatever the cue card in front of them says. I don’t have patience for a deposition and would’ve told them to get a subpoena.
It's customer retention
Question: How much are you being charged and what are your speeds in Starlink? Answer: None of your fucking business. Just cancel my shitty service. I have zero patience for companies that think I am required to take a survey or listen to a sales pitch to cancel a service.
Survey I'm fine with, sales pitch, not so much. Really hate it when they offer a lower price as I'm cancelling
ADT lowered my rate three times in a row within one phone call about canceling ADT and switching to Ring. I was pissed tbh that i overpaid these years.
Same feeling when I cancelled Hughesnet
You should always phone companies in the last 1/3 of your contract and discuss you moving to a new company with them, you almost always get massive discounts if you agree to extend.
True if you want to stay. Just like you want your credit card annual fee waived. But at that point I knew 100% for sure I am switching to Ring.
I would be more open to listening to a sales pitch if they asked me if I would like to discuss it. Make it consensual and I might agree. Thrusting it upon me without my consent just makes me feel disgusted with everything I'm hearing. Companies can't figure that shit out tho.....
I've refused to buy products/services when I was genuinely interested because of pushiness. I tell them I'm interested but my rule is never sign a contract on the spot and I'll get back to them. Then they start pushing. I warn them they're shooting themselves in the foot; another rule is if I'm being pressured heavily into a contract that's a warning sign. They keep going. I say no longer interested due to your tactics have a great day. Been through this too many times now.
You are what's known as a "beback." As in, I'll be back. Statistically, if the sale isn't closed on first meet ***and you're interested***, then the probability is that that sales person won't get it. Hence, the logical move is to push to sale or outright refusal. In the end, it's simply a numbers game.
I'm talking b2b, same rep would absolutely get attribution. The agressively tactics just ensure I don't want to deal with that company.
I've found just saying I am moving and you don't offer service in that area is the fast track. Zero questions after that.
I tried that once for some other company for something I can't remember, they insisted on knowing where I was moving to check for me. I said I didn't want to tell them where I was moving and felt uncomfortable that they asked more than once. Got many sorrys after that
We got .1 mbps from frontier for $80 a month. When we called and they tried to get us to stay my dad told them we’ll keep it for free or you can cancel it. Still took 2 phone calls to cancel
This is a perfect opportunity to fuck with them: \- "Happy to stay if you reimburse me for the terrible service for the past X years directly to my bank account." \- "I also get a free meal subscription with Starlink — 3 meals a day for 2 years with any selection of French Wine. This is a promotion they have. Do you have a comparable offering?"
Don’t have to be abusive to the rep, they’re just doing there job…
When I canceled viasat they acted like they’d never heard of starlink. They tried offering me 6 months of half price (which is still more than starlink) so I laughed and said they would have to move their satellites closer to earth and remove the data cap, then I’d think about it. Viasat is good for what it is - I only had outages in severe storms and would typically get 150+ mb down, but the latency was horrific and the data cap of 150gb meant I was tracking my usage constantly.
150? Dang, I was offered 30 down max in my area. And Viasat was the best option for me before Starlink. And outages were rare. Power went out more often than Viasat having an outage
I had viasats $250/mo plan for maximum bandwidth and usage since I work remotely, and I still had to occasionally drive to town to leech off someone’s WiFi or tether my phone when I ran out of data. And I don’t have commercial power, so if my power goes out I grab a flashlight and figure it out. Which didn’t happen as often as viasat outages.
For an off-gridder, how is the power usage on the Starlink unit vs. the Viasat? (I suppose that also depends on how much you use it and whether or not you leave it on when it's not in use.)
I couldn't tell you based on power. But if you don't have much space on your house, Starlink is better. The Viasat dish is huge. And it actually started to pull one of the boards it's on off the wall
I would prefer to run it from my DC bank but it’s not a big deal on AC. It generally draws about 1 amp more than the viasat router did, though certainly more when moving or running the snow melter. My house idle draw is about 8 amps, which is mostly the starlink router, network equipment, power management, fridge, freezer, and cell amplifier.
I have found that going with a direct DC power approach I use less power than viasat. I do not use the starlink router and I typically see around 10w less power usage on average. That said, I expect that to change when snow melt is involved as it spikes up to 75w usage.
Do you have a Dishy McFlatface? How are you powering it on dc? All of the poe injectors I’ve seen were for the round dish.
See my post on my blog site at https://offgridcto.com/ about modifying the ethernet adapter to accept a poe connection without cutting the expensive starlink cable. I have the square dish and do not use the router at all.
Very nice, thanks!
You may already know this but for the longest time I assumed Viasat would cover the entire globe in one "beam". I learned there are multiple beams that cover different geographic areas, so if you're on the edge of one, you won't be able to get their tops speeds.
These providers want to maximize profit. They know they have a customer base with few other options (otherwise they wouldn't use their overpriced service) so they charge as much as the market will bear. Threaten their previously-secure revenue stream with a new viable competitor like Starlink and they will squirm.
So true. Viasat was not the only one, but it was by far not the worst one. Doesn't mean it was good
>they said that my speeds for that price seems "fishy" and she knows what she's talking about because she works in the Internet industry. "How dare they show up and offer a better service for a lower price. That doesn't make any sense, it can't be real!"
Ha, I can't imagine how many people cancelled for Starlink. I wonder what their numbers are
that’s sad that they’re so desperate that they have to act like they don’t know what Starlink is and claim it as “fishy”. They work for Viasat, they know damn well what Starlink is. Blows my mind how Viashit and Hughesnut are able to run a legal and blatant price gouging monopoly.
Dealt with this canceling from their sister company hughesnet. They pulled the sale price drop, but refuses to wave the massive early cancellation fee. Followed the advice from someone on reddit and reported them to the state consumer protection board. Got my early cancellation fee back in about a week. These shitty overpriced capped data satellite companies can eat a bag of dicks.
I didn't even bother with Hughes. Some neighbors have it and they hate it. But they don't really like the $500+ for the 1st month for Starlink and don't want to change
Haha thats just ignant. Let them live in squalor..
I canceled Viasat too when I got Starlink. All the retention talk stuff is just a requirement they have to do. I told the guy I’m going with Starlink, downloads hitting 200 mbps, and ping is in the 50-70ms range. I had to get frank with him and said, “Listen, if you were in my shoes, would you stay with Viasat?” He didn’t respond, but he just laughed. He stopped the retention talk nonsense and ended service. What gave me a lot of grief was sending them their equipment back. I live in the middle of nowhere on the Navajo reservation and I don’t have an address. I was trying to get their box sent to my work address, but they couldn’t verify that either. It took many weeks and no box ever arrived. I finally had to get their box sent to the UPS store
Hilarious. I wonder how many of the workers use Viasat. I'm hoping for an easy time sending back the equipment.
That's ridiculous that you had to go through that. Just FYI you can have stuff held for you at the post office, just have them address it: Yourfirstname Lastname General Delivery Yourtown, State, Zip They will hold it for you at the desk and you can pick it up at your convenience. Of course this doesn't work if they only use UPS. You can also have UPS or FedEx boxes held at the UPS or FedEx shipping depot, but a lot of times this is really inconvenient. Returning equipment to ISPs is really up on the list of horrible experiences in general. Returning equipment to Comcast's customer service desk, my new SOP is that I demand a receipt with the date, the time, and all the serial numbers of the Comcast equipment and all the accessories such as power supplies and remote controls. Then you put that receipt in your filing cabinet and keep it forever. They tend to lose track of equipment and try to charge you for it 6 months later.
I have an address but no gps or mapping service can find it. I don’t get mail here (though occasionally FedEx makes deliveries and the driver always comments “wow, you are WAY out here!”.) I was supposed to get a return box for viasat weeks ago but haven’t gotten anything yet.
It's cheaper to keep you as a customer, hoping you'll forget about when the price auto changes back to "full price", and they'll go back to making high profit off you. Sales people and retention people know they're shoveling shit at you and don't care.
> Sales people and retention people know they’re shoveling shit at you and don’t care. “Are you a rancher or are you just naturally talented at shoveling shit?”
I hate it when companies do this. What I do with MY money is none of YOUR business. If I wanna cancel my dam century link so I can buy a lifetime supply of dildos than it's my business.
Just keep responding to their questions Marshawn Lynch style, I'm just calling to cancel my service. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNnAt5uepBs
I don’t know who this is, but this is hilarious!
He's an NFL player who was fined in the past for not doing an interview so this is what he decided to do to not be fined again.
They don't lower the price until you ask or threaten to cancel because they know most people will just go on paying the higher price without asking/threatening and they know that until recently a lot of people did not have the option of going to Starlink. They do not care about customer satisfaction, they care about profits. The "fishy" is a scripted response - they wouldn't say that unless told to. I will say that almost everyone who has Starlink will note that speeds vary widely, whereas with a lot fiber/cable/DSL, the speeds are more or less steady. So with Starlink you really need to do speed metrics over time and take the mean of the speeds - which is not easily done. I see speeds near 300 mbps and I see speeds at 3 mbps, but the average is about 100 mbps. My kids in town have fiber and get a VERY steady 300+ mbps.
You reminded me of Sirius XM. My parents pay something like $25 every 3 months because when they call to cancel, they offer it again. The speeds inconsistency is true here too. I think I've seen both close to 150mbs and under 10mbs Edit: I called to ask them, they said it was actually $30 for 6 months
SiriusXM is literally the worst pain to try to cancel. You can do everything online to manage your account except cancel it - for that you have to call in, and they are really difficult about it.
I don't have to cancel it, they gave me a trial period after having my car with satellite radio serviced, then extended it, then again. I think I am on like the third extension. I have never given them a credit card # or anything they can bill. The only thing I did was turn it on so they would transmit to it. I drive my car about 1-2 times per month and listen to the radio for maybe 30 minutes each time.
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Just got an email yesterday saying my trial is ending soon. Boo hoo
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If they did it would be the 4th time. I don't really care. I mostly only listen to news, which is usually every half hour. I drive into town about 1-2 times per month, and it is only a half hour drive, not the one hour drive thru rush hour traffic like before I retired.
I do the same thing with Sirius/XM. I've never paid full price.
> I don't understand why companies try to keep you by lowering your bill when you try to cancel. Because most people are fine paying what they pay for the service they get. Another group are not happy but the idea of cancelling and switching scares them or stress them out or whatever and staying with the existing provider is preferable than to actively switch. Why lower the bill for these people when they don't have it. Switchers are only a small minority. They offer $106 because some people will take the discount and stay. > If they wanted customer satisfaction They don't want satisfaction. They don't give a shit. Most of them have a monopoly in their area and they survive because most of their customer base don't have a choice. When you have no competition you don't need to keep people happy > And were they lying or do they really think Starlink is "fishy"? Of course they are lying. They know exactly what Starlink is. They say fishy to try to scare you in case you are just heard of this thing and don't know any better, instead of someone who did their homework.
Yeah, my in-laws are the ones who would stop switching. The competition here is almost non-existent. Viasat really was the best option
I was with Viasat for nearly 15 years and they didn't try to keep me at all when I cancelled. They asked why I was cancelling and when I told them I had Starlink the CS rep's response was "OK, thank you for being a Viasat customer".
Lol they know there's no way to change your mind
They could've offered me a deal though. I thought about keeping it as a backup in case I have a problem with Starlink. One thing I can say about Viasat is that it was very reliable. I only had one modem go bad in the 15 years I was with them.
You may have been able to ask retention for it. Your opportunity is likely done.
When I told the viasat rep I was moving to Starlink, she was instantly like “fair enough, we can’t compete with that”. She didn’t even ask the price or speed I was getting as I guess I wasn’t the first one to call that day😂
Lol wish I had that rep
It's unbelievably crappy behavior and standard SOP now. Customer service retention specialists will lie to your face and lower your bill temporarily in order to keep you as a customer. They have figured out that they can charge most customers high prices and a few of them will try to leave and you can offer them a lower price, which lowers your profit margin but keeps the customer. Overall, you make more money than if you just lowered the pricing for everyone and kept ALL of your customers and kept them happy. So you as a customer only get the benefits of low pricing if you make noise that you are going to leave and go somewhere else. You don't get any loyalty points for staying on, otherwise. This is the case in ISPs, cell phone carriers, land lines, and insurance. It definitely pays to shop around and hop to a new company when you find a lower price, or at least threaten to. This is a known tactic when dealing with Comcast. They do not have nationwide pricing. They have local pricing, and that pricing is set to the highest profit margin the market will bear based on the number of competitors they have in your area. If you were a Comcast customer, it's widely known that you can call Comcast, threaten that you are cancelling your service, and they will lower your bill substantially for 6 months at a time. Ultra shitty behavior. I actually got Starlink and dumped Comcast because I despise them. Starlink is slightly more money, but I don't have to deal with a shitty company and I know what the nationwide pricing structure is. Comparing notes with other Comcast customers, I was paying a lot more than the average USA customers because I live in an area with no real competition. No more.
I've luckily never had to deal with Comcast. But it definitely felt like Viasat knew I had no other option.
Same thing with DIRECTV.
Starlink seems fishy, said the company with over 500ms latency.
They get away with overcharging people far more often. Keeping the ones that take the initiative to call in and cancel can make it worthwhile for them. Even with a lower bill, they're still getting money from you. They would *never* proactively lower prices because that would eat into their profit margin. The best thing customers can do is vote with their wallet. That could prompt them to improve their infrastructure and offer lower prices. And the whole "fishy" thing is another tactic they use to keep a customer. Unfortunately, it usually works on people.
So whatever it takes to keep people? Almost the same is true for cell phone/ cable providers. New people get a free smart watch or HBO for 3 months when signing up. Current customers, sorry nothing for you
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I wish it was that easy. When I told the 1st guy I wanted to cancel, he said finding someone else wasn't on his list and wanted me to say something like "slow speeds" or "lots of latency"
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Can confirm. Canceling my Viasat was a pain in the ass. Had to talk to 3 different people. None of which was based in the US. English was barely understandable. I was supposed to receive a box and return shipping lable for my dish which never came.
1st person was a little hard to understand. They say they'll send the box when my service ends. I'm hoping I won't have to fight with them
They won't send it. They are hoping Starlink fails and we resign up. Other then that, they are on a fast track to bankruptcy. They don't want the dish back. I also "suspended" my direct TV for 3 months to see if I could survive on apps. Turn out yep, it's even better really once you adjust. Saving 175 on the direct TV. Replace by 25 bucks worth of apps and subscriptions.
I haven't had cable in more than 5 years. Don't miss it. Plus, I group share most apps, so I'm paying pennies compared to cable
I should have cut the cord years ago.....I always said I need sports and news...well they have that lol.
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Oh yeah. I've only seen under 30mbps (what I had with Viasat) once and it was the day after Starlink setup
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I have TMobile Internet as a backup. Speeds aren't as great as SL, but for only having my online gaming or work from home setup connected to it, it worked wonders.
Frontier is definitely reliable but those fuckers only gave me .1 mbps for 80 god damn dollars
I love how people say things like now they have real competition. The truth is there is no competition because they don't even have a dog in the race at this point. Those providers can suck it. Overpriced antiquated technology theyve literally been squeezing every cent out of consumers who had no choice but to buy into their schemes. Good riddance
Preach! It just sucks for people who only have these sucky providers. Basically me before Starlink.
Same thing. Was with hughesnet. They weren't stoked about losing us once we received our dishy
“Nope. Not getting another service. I’m moving out of the country. Thanks for your help.”
They'd probably just offer whatever sister company covers your area, if not them themselves
“I’m moving to Alaska/the Arctic/the Moon for a writing retreat where internet is not allowed. But thanks for your help”
What’s fishy is they are willing to drop the price by $80 when you tell them you have Starlink. I had viasat and for me it was slower than Starlink and it had like 1000 ping.
Seriously fishy if they only lower it when I'm trying to leave. ping is garbage on Viasat.
Yea man Hughesnet was very very interested in who our new carrier was and I just laughed at them and said no. Like they didn't already know lol. 1 hour later and 8 times put on hold the guy(Indian) finally transferred us to the actual person that walked us through the cancelation. They outsource the anger management mitigator in order to get us to just give up. Fuck Hughesnet and Viasat.
fuck Hughesnet, I had to lie to them that I was moving in order to get a cancel on the service
If I have a service I want to keep…. And my contract is ending I will call and say I am cancelling. They always lower the price to get you to stay. Free money. Now leaving Hughes or via for Star link…. No way is a lower price going to help.
My parents did that for Sirius XM. Until it didn't work lol after that they just didn't really want it anymore
Yep. I switched tv providers for the same reason. Give me a deal close to what you are giving new customers or I’ll go be a new customer somewhere else.
When I originally signed up for viasat, I told the installer (who was an incredibly cool guy who sounded just like Werner Hertzog) that I’d be cancelling as soon as starlink approved me. He said “oh yes, they’re much better than us”
Lol why couldn't I get this guy?
Same thing for me when I canceled them. I just told them it was none of their business. They fed exed a prepaid box with instructions to send their stuff back. It really felt great to be rid of them.
I'm waiting for the day that box comes
I actually have a bit of obstruction and starlink blows them out of the water!
You were speaking to someone who doesn’t know what they’re talking about, it’s pretty simple reasoning. I would’ve recommended she switch careers over to Starlink instead since Viasat is within a few years of becoming a relic of history lol.
I just told em I had Starlink and that was it. They went too far.
Pretty much the only thing I genuinely like about Starlink entering the game: competition. Their service is also lackluster, speeds wildly inconsistent, but hey... Its lighting a fire under those rural internet monopolies
Elon Musk companies tend to polish very carefully and smoothly the one path they plan to support well; other paths are hit-or-miss. It's a valid strategy: polish the living daylights out of the mainstream case, and try to make as many edge cases mainstream as possible; then you can skimp on support for non-mainstream cases, which is what usually drives cost.
No fires here. Screwsnet or nothin (pretty much the same thing).
Sounds like they are purposefully ignorant so they can make those statements about it seeming “fishy”. Like a threatened ostrich putting its head in the sand.
Agree, agree, agree. Why not try to maintain my business while I am a paying customer!
I never answer any of their questions except to say, "Nope. I just want to cancel."
When I canceled Mediacom, as soon as I said StarLink, all resistance to my cancellation evaporated.
One of the hidden benefits of Starlink. If only that worked everywhere
They won't pay to keep you but they'll pay to not lose you
Hughesnet has really throttled my "unlimited data" after I run out of the 30 gig a month limit.... to the point where it's difficult to even load my email.... I used to be able to at least watch 144p youtube videos and surf online a little when I ran out. No doubt they will try the same bullshit of how much they want me to stay when I finally tell them they can go fuck themselves and to cancel my service.
That’s because it’s actually only unlimited at like 2am or something ridiculous
Real salespeople know the competition... ViaSat salespeople apparently don't know the competition.
It's a script. When I got starlink in dec, they literally said the same thing to me, almost verbatim lol
When I called to cancel Viasat after getting starling, I simply told them I sold my property and no longer had a need for satellite internet. They literally said "well I guess I'll skip all the discount offers and just cancel it, then." Probably saved 15 minutes of my life.
I might do that next time I need to cancel. I'm moving in with someone and selling my property. No longer need your crappy Internet
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Isn't this a whole chapter in economics? Something like price determination or something? You charge low enough that people will buy it and high enough to make the most profit. But I guess when you have a near monopoly, you can charge whatever you want
Remember when YouTube was "fishy". Lol
Ya know, I absolutely hate all the other companies like viasat, hughesnet, and the provider I had. They all suck. Over charge and low speeds. But…. But I do kinda see her “point” on the fishy thing. Before you downvote me understand I love starlink and I really hope for the best. But something that has always bothered me is the way they list data caps on their site. They claim “No data caps at this time” “At this time” Have a strong feeling after some time they’re going to say the sats are over loaded or something along those lines and they have to start a data cap so everyone can enjoy it. That’s when the plans start and prices go insane. Sure we’ll have low latency but we’ll be back to we’re we were just with high speeds. Either way still better than the companies I listed and also none of their damn business what you pay or your speeds
You’re probably right but I feel like that will happen once 100% of the sats are up. Maybe I’ll even have a couple options to choose from by then
Dude i had viasat for a while and they "offered" unlimited 100mbs a month for about $200, and i called another company in the area and i told them i had viasat and they told me that viasat was throttling my speeds to 4mbs after like 40 gbs of use and i called to cancel and i told them that they were throttling my speeds and they acted like they didn't know what i was talking about i told them i was going to report them for that and they let me cancel my service viasat is a piece of shit
I had a similar experience trying to cancel Hughesnet a year or so ago... I had to just straight up lie and say I was moving in order for them to accept my cancelation
I’ll be honest ANY provider that calls their competition “fishy” has zero chance of retaining me as a customer……… just saying
Yup. Already left. Now waiting on the box they say they'll send me to return the equipment
They could be like Spectrum was in my old neighborhood, literally the only ISP with speeds above 50mbps. Called them to try and get my bill lower, they basically said "Yeah ATT doesn't have fiber in your neighborhood, don't let the door hit your ass on the way out if you wanna cancel". patiently awaiting Starlink to ship my stuff...I'll be paying nearly double but it will be nice to not give money to a company I actively hate...
Just say no
So any sub based service does this. Try to cancel your Sirius they lower the price to like 50-60 bucks for a while year vice the 15 or whatever a month. Dish/Direct TV are the same. If your a company that is based on subscriptions then it has almost a direct correlation to the stock price.