Experience with Wildblue Internet

We signed up for Wildblue and immediatly had problems. The installer didn't even bother to show up on the agreed day of installation. Then for 6 weeks our system was down more than it was up, prompting at least 5 calls that Wildblue has on record. Many times we didn't even bother to call, we would reset the modem on our own and just wait. We were given many excuses, our installation was never done properly, we have trees, it rained, and my favorite, despite that I'm in Texas, it might be windy in Duluth. On 9/11/07 it went down for good. I was given a ticket number by an extremely inpatient person through Wildblue. We were told that a repair tech from the local installation/repair company would call us to set up a date to repair it within 24-48 hours. She also told me that we could call them directly and maybe they could come out that same day. So I call, my husband calls, just voicemail. No call back after 48 hours. We call Wildblue. They give us another ticket number and the same 24-48 hour story, same company for repairs will call. No call, no answer, nothing. Its been 9 days. When we attempt to cancel service, they put us on hold for 32 minutes trying to connect us with the Retention Dept. Nobody ever picks up so they tell us to call Saturday after 10:30. We call at 11 and the company isn't even open on Saturdays. On Monday we attempt to contact management. Management with Wildblue won't answer and in fact put my husband on hold for 51 minutes. Finally on day 8, we get in touch with a manager who informs us that if we cancel our service it will have to pay the remainder of the years service (10 1/2 months) plus the cancellation fee. Plus, we will not be reimbursed for our poor installation. This all comes to just about $1000. For the most unreliable poor service I have ever experienced. This manager, who constantly spoke over my husband and interrupted, informed us that only calling 5 times in 30 days isn't bad. Told us that they closed out the last ticket because when they called us to set up a repair appointment they got voicemail. They didn't leave a message, just cancelled the ticket. Had no record of my first phone call on 9/11 because they didn't actually enter the ticket until 9/14. AND that we would have to wait 30 days (what happened to 24-48 hours?) before we can cancel our service.

I really hope nobody else makes this same mistake. We are going to fight these charges through our credit card company and it may end up a big black mark on my credit but this is unacceptable. $1000 to cancel a non-service?