SKYWAYUSA is a joke

I think you are more than likely correct, unfortunately. But I do think the technology will become the new standard in the future ( hopefully soon) for all services.
 
Skyway is a scam!!

November 2007 I came unfortunately across the Skyway USA website on my search for a wireless internet connection in my -rural- area.

I spoke to a SkyWay USA salesperson and decided to subscribe to your dial-up internet services as well as purchase a satellite dish to use for the wireless internet connection. SkyWay USA assured me of the availability of a satellite connection at my house in Iowa. I could also choose to either install it myself - which I was told was real easy to do -or- have someone in my area install it for me, which would come at an additional fee of $149. I opted to try it first myself - meaning my son who frequently successfully installs internet and various technical devices.

SkyWay USA told me to expect the satellite dish within 2 weeks. This was not so. It came after 4 weeks.

On December 24th, my son installed the SkyWay USA dish with unobstructed access to the sky. He installed and set up the software. The dial-up worked perfectly. The setup worked fine - we received a lot of perfect signals from various satellites - just not from the SkyWay USA one. The one that was supposed to give us wireless internet.
When my son could not locate the SkyWay USA satellite with the receiver, he contacted SkyWay USA technical support. The gentleman there explained to him that the data he received regarding the location of the SkyWay USA satellite was not exactly accurate, but just an approximate direction.

I opted then for a professional installer. My son called SkyWay USA in that regard, but was told by the SkyWay USA customer representative, that there aren't any trained installers in our state(!). My son informed SkyWay USA that we are located close to the border of Missouri and Illinois and if someone from there would be able to help us. No - he was told, because different states require different training.

Well, at that point the SkyWay USA representatives must have lied when they said it was easy to install - if it requires trained installers who are trained especially and according to a specific state. When I contacted other satellite companies from this area I found out that iinstallation really isn't that easy and often trained professionals are not able to locate the satellite.

The SkyWay USA representatives also lied about the availability of a professional installer.

At that point it occurred to me that SkyWay USA also might have lied about the availability in my area - this scenario would actually make sense. Why have trained installers in an area where there is no availability? My lawyer will look into this.

At that point that the SkyWay USA satellite dish was as useful to me as if I had nailed a salad bowl on my roof - just way more expensive. $249 to be exact.

I told the SkyWay USA I would send back the dish & to please refund my money. I was told I wouldn't get a ??something?? number from then and that Skyway USA would refuse to take the dish back.

I would not want any other people fall victim to the SkyWay USA scam.

Margit Trautmann


:mad: Ive had skywayusa for over 7 mths now and its worthless, fighting with it every night, customer support is terrible . to much invested in this garbage to have these problems, such as went threw 3 LNB's so far, 2 modems and have green signal. Report to better businnes bureau is not far off, if anyone else has problems with this business please let me no.

raulgod@yahoo.com
 
Skyway appears to be offering a dialup service to upload information and a typical ku-band satellite downlink. While non-dbs satellite reception may be a tad more difficult to attain than a dbs satellite would, it should not require any professional assistance. MANY MANY people do this sort of thing to get FTA television all the time. True, it does require some patience and precision during the install, but you should be able to get it done.

Do you know which satellite they have you aiming at? if so, some simple tools for aiming and such can be found (or links to them) in the FTA forums. I live in South East Iowa and would normally be happy to help if I am near enough.. however, it's really too darn cold outside for me to be offering to stand outside and aim your satellite dish right now! ;)

(btw - you aren't the same person from the Iowa City area that was asking for info on satellite internet services via Craigslist awhile back are you?)
 
An installer with a satellite meter that has an identifier on it should be able to tune in that particular satellite needed for your internet service.
 
Hello,
I've got Skyway and unlike many, I got mine up and running in one day doing the install myself. I have been on here before under a different user name but wanted to change the e-mail address and blah, blah, blah. Anyway, even if I knew you could get your Skyway working perfectly like mine, I still would not consider Skyway. I purchased the 250 kbps package and right now on Thursday night "Toast" tested me out at 52kbps. My AOL dial-up is faster than that when you figure in the satellite delay. This is a typical Internet Performance and Speed Test result. So... even if you get it working you will not get what they advertize and unless you consider 52k on Thursday night broadband than you will be like me, waiting for the contract to runout. If time is money Skyway is a _____ __ _____. It took about 5 minutes just to load this page so I could gripe and my signal is always strong. I have only had one day during a terrible thunderstorm that my signal went down but it doesn't matter They have more traffic than they can support, so every new customer only makes it worse from what I understand.
I have no plans on upgrading, because they require a contract extension to upgrade, LMAO, and I don't know about thier faster service but if mine is any indication thier best should net you about what I am supposed to be getting.
 
It's a shame that there is not a one-way satellite service out there that is reliable. I think there is a market out there for this as it would be cheaper each month and cheaper to install along with easier to install.
 
Not 100% sure but I think Spaceway may only be available to business and enterprise customers.

Just wanted to reiterate on this. I have recently found out that Spaceway will at first be released to residential customers:D. Unfortunately I cannot get into to much detail because they basically have not made their minds up about service cost and speed availability at the moment. Once I find something out firm I will let you know. I can say their will be 3 levels of service for basic residential plans and 1 business service or Elite plan. Any rumors about VPN or VOiP being better is not true. The residential side will be using bent pipe architecture while enterprise customers can use the full mesh the satellite is capable of. The new modems will be HN9000 for consumers and HN9500 for Enterprise. Don't expect to see plans that are much above the service now, basically because Hughes feels if they did this they would compete against themselves. The do not want to hype the ka service to be something so much more spectacular than the current ku service on account of customers who would not be able to receive ka services for reasons due to line of site, etc. The spot beam's do cover all of the United States "there is one very small portion of Texas and the Mexico border that is lapse", the US/Canada border is very well covered, Hawaii and the populated portion of Alaska is covered, Puerto Rico is covered.

There is a great deal of information I have but I am scared to say anything at the moment because again Hughes are still not 100% sure about yet.
 
Skyway Usa SkywayUSA is a nightmare!

:mad:I ordered this service and the package never arrived until about a month or more later! I was about to call and simply tell them to forget it!

My Dad set up the satellite. I was helping. We couldn't get a signal. The skybeeper would beep, but the light would never come on as the directions stated it should. I called tech support. My Dad spoke to the man. The tech support guy told my Dad that he didn't have time to wait for him to set up the satellite...etc etc, because he had other things to do. First of all, the SkywayUSA website clearly states that if a customer has trouble with the INSTALLATION, tech support will help. BUT, this wasn't even an INSTALLATION problem. We simply couldnt get a signal! My Dad has much experience setting up satellites for DirecTv and DishNet. He tried everything...even got a friend who worked for DirecTv to help. The light on the "skybeeper" never came on, no matter where we positioned the dish. The "skybeeper" is poorly made. In fact, the thin metal piece that held it together broke when my Dad moved it slightly to the right so we'd have a better sight of the light bulb (IF it ever lit up.) He had to get it welded back on. We spent atleast 6hrs installing and trying to get the system to work...NO LUCK!

I sent an email to customer service tonight. I wonder if I ever get a response. I have a feeling that this is going to be nothing but a headache to deal with.
 
NCSouthernBelle you are right the green light does not light up. But if you get your elevation and azmith correct you will be on AMC4 satellite.
The beeper does beep a high pitch. You probably were already getting the satellite. Once set up your computer you can see the signal level on the montior. Watch And fine tune it there. Also you should try the tech support number again, they answered all my questions. They may not be aware that the green light doesn't light up.
If you get your mount level and get your elevation and azmith correct. It will beep a high pitch.
 
BEWARE of SkywayUSA.com Skyway USA

Update:
Well, I called tech support again. A nice man helped this time. Turns out, my modem wasn't even working. On top of that, the LNBF gadget was faulty. He told me he'd send a new one and as long as I returned the bad one w/in 30 days, I wouldnt get charged. I returned it in 3 days and they got it on 1/23/08. Ok, on 2/6, I had a $19.95 charge on my credit card! I'd read about others having this same problem, so I knew it would be a pain to deal with. On 2/14, I called and spoke to a lady at SkywayUsa. She claimed there was a charge and then it was credited back. I told her there was no credit showing. She claimed there was and said she'd email me. She emailed, but now claimed the $19.95 would be credited to my next charge (which would mean it HAD NOT been credited!.) HMMM, well on 2/21, I was charged my full mthly amount. I noticed on 2/24 that my credit card was OVER THE LIMIT! I only charged the Skyway service to that card. How could this be?? HMM, well that $19.95 charged WITHOUT MY KNOWLEDGE OR CONSENT caused my balance to go over the credit limit by $2.50. Therefore, I get charged a $39 OVER THE CREDIT LIMIT fee!! I called my credit card company. They said no credit was even "in process" for that $19.95. I called SkywayUSA again. I waited and waited. Some girl claimed (for the 3rd time) that it had been credited back. I explained it had not, and it shouldn't have been up there to start with!!!! She claimed there was a "computer problem" and she wasn't sure why the $19.95 was ever charged to my credit card. I said, "Well, I simply want it taken off." She then tells me it won't be credited to my account until April, 2mths later!! So, they keep $19.95 of my money for 2mths, and that's ok?? NOT! So, I told her that I would go ahead & dispute it with my c. card company because that certainly wouldn't take 2mths. She says that if I dispute the charge, my service will be blocked. "Oh really? And why is that?", I asked. "Because we can't give you service that you arent paying for", she says. I then reminded her, "My account was just charged 2/21/08 for next month of service. I am NOT disputing that charge. I am disputing the $19.95 that was charged for NO REASON. Your company can not block service when it has been paid for in advance. You need to check the facts."
I have contacted my credit card company and explained all the nonsense that I have been told by SkywayUSA. I am also going to file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau which only takes about 5 minutes. I don't mind spending 5 minutes to help warn others about companies that have given me nothing but the run around and headaches! I appreciate everyone who takes the time to warn consumers about their bad experiences!
 
I was going to sell this service until they wanted me to make a minimum hardware purchase of their product and did not have local dialup number for my area. They acted like they really really wanted me to be a dealer at first but I told them that they must not really want the business that bad after all. I thought about it after a while and thought that maybe I could get a system here and there and start installing them then I read all these complaints. I won't even bother with it now. People will take it out on me and it will cost me money if I sell their product. I figured this would have been a nice product to make available for those I could not get wireless signals to with my wisp.
 
In response to AUDIJUNK's complaint (listed below my msg):

That is so funny, because here it is over a year later, 3/08, and the exact same tactic was used on me!! I got a piece of crap LNB that didn't work. I was sent another and it plainly said that I WOULD NOT be charged anything as long as the faulty piece of crap LNB gadget was returned within 30 days. They got it within 4 days which was 1/23/08. Well, I noticed my credit card statement had a $19.95 charge on 2/06/08! I called about this. The lady told me it was never charged when it obviously was. Then she claimed it had been credited back. Then she changed the story again and said it would be deducted from my next month charge.

2/22/08, I was charged the full amount of $29.95. So, I STILL didn't get a credit! Then, I notice that because of the $19.95 charge that was taken from my credit card WITHOUT MY KNOWLEDGE OR CONSENT caused my acct to go over the credit limit by $2.50. Therefore, I got a $39 over the limit fee! Not only that, it almost ruined my 0% for 12mth deal promotion on the credit card. I was so mad.

2/25/08, this is the day I checked my statement online and discovered the above info. So, I called my credit card company and explained what was going on. Then, I called the SkywayUSA office. I had to wait and wait and got told once again, that the $19.95 had been credited. NO, IT HAD NOT BEEN CREDITED! I got put on hold to speak to another lady. I told her that I did not appreciate Skyway taking money from me without my knowledge/consent and I wanted it credited back NOW. She insisted that there was no way to do an immediate credit, and that it would be credited to my April charge. Ok, SkywayUSA gets to keep my $19.95 until April...2 months later? I don't think so! So, I told the young lady that I would simply call my credit card company and have it put in dispute, because that certainly wouldn't take 2 mths. She says if I dispute the charge, my service will be stopped!!!!! I ask, "Oh really? How is that exactly?" She says, "...because we can't give you service when you aren't paying for it." I said, "I am not disputing the monthly service charge. I AM disputing the $19.95 taken from me for no reason. And I just got charged 2/22 for the NEXT mth of service which I haven't used yet, so you need to check your facts."

3/3/08, I look at my statement. Can you believe I had ANOTHER charge?? Yes, not only did I not have a $19.95 credit received yet, but now had a $10 charge! I called again. I explained everything and the lasy blamed it on a "new billing system" I told her that if that was the case, she needs to contact the owners and tell them to have that fixed, because the company can't just throw charges on customer accounts...basically taking money from us. What if they took $19.95 from 200 customers (if they even have that many) and kept it for 2mths?? That's almost $4,000 to invest for 2mths...nice, huh? I told her that the company is going to end up getting sued if it continues. I mean, I was really mad, although I was nice to the lady. She put in a $19.95 credit and said my account had been paid up til May!! I told her that wasnt right. Skyway dosen't have permission to charge me 2mths in advance. She offered to give me a free mth of service in June.

Has anyone else had money taken from Skyway other than the mthly service charge?

Also, at first, the connection was OK, but a mth later, it got awful. It downloads a file a bit faster than dial-up, but if you mainly surf the web, DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME/MONEY! It is slower than my Netzero dial-up most of the time. Just to give you an idea, I kept count, and here is how long it took to open up the last 5 pages which were 2 on satelliteguys.us, 2 on yahoo.com, and webmd.com: 51 seconds, 63 secs, 45 secs, 65 secs, 46 secs
Some websites will not open at all with Skyway service. I have to use Netzero dial-up to open them.
*****************************************
AUDIJUNK's msg:
Yes I have been having so much fun with these idiots!I had it for a year. Installation was a pain..try and locate the signal. Then two modems and lnb in the year. They charge you for a replacement and then try and get your money back!! Promise credit for monthly charge..then change there mind and credit on your card!! Still trying to get that for last two months!!! They know me by name every week when I call! Each time a new excuse! So out almost $300 Time to go to court for $60.00

The latency is bad with the phone connection but ok once you start downloading the speed is good. Works well in rain and snow but sometimes disappears for a day in clear skys???

And now they have been down for a month with no schedule for when they will be up and running again.

Better Business Bureau here I come!
That is so funny, because here it is
 
Last edited:
It sounds to me like some of these people are getting their download content via the phone connection. If it is not locked on the satellite signal, then it might be defaulting to using the phone connection for all downstream data.
 
Reply

No, the setting is NOT put on "dial-up only." I check it every time I am online, because I think "Why is this EXTREMELY slow??" It's the broadband connection. It's simply awful. I wish I'd never signed up for this. :(
 
what kind of signal are you getting from the satellite?

i did an install for a couple last week (my first Skyway install) , and got 8db signal, which on their meter showed as "perfect"

service was actually pretty snappy, and when i did a speedtest it came up as about 260kbps down, which is pretty good considering they had the lowest package which is 256 down
 
In response to JARED

My signal strength is about 8. I finally called yesterday about the slow speed of opening up pages. The speed test gives a bit of a false result. I've done that before. It downloads files a bit faster than dial-up. The problem is that it takes a very long time to open webpages when surfing the web. Some pages won't even open with Skyway. I have to use my Netzero dial-up for those.
Back to my phone call with a "tech support" person...I did a test on toast.net. It was not good. He told me that SkywayUSA can't send out anymore packages for new customers until the servers were upgraded. He admitted that service would be slow because the more users, the slower the service will be. I asked when to expect the server upgrade. He said 30-60 days! You don't know what to believe from this place. It appears they are still using the "new billing method" excuse when people get a strange charge on their account without permission. Apparently this has been going on for atleast a year, because someone on here had it happen FEB 2007. It happened to me in JAN 2008.

As I said, for about the 1st mth of my service, it WAS faster than dial-up. NOT ANYMORE! It's now almost as slow as dial-up, and sometimes slower. Well, I have 9mths left in my contract to deal with this BS.:mad:
 
Skywayusa Users Might Find This Interesting

ATTN: Username skywayusa
I'm continuing this discussion from the Wild Blue forum
Let me start by stating I'm not trying to argue with you or run your company down. I have a problem and have not been able to get it resolved. Also, I know that I'm not the only one having these problems. Anyway, someone at skyway has admitted to me (in an indirect way) there are problems. The following are two cut and paste from email Skywayusa sent to me.
------------------------------------------------------------
cut & paste from Skywayusa:
>I forwarded your email to everybody. Here's the usage as I see it. There is definitely something wrong. You should get a response today.
Note---This was my usage for one day with the Bronze plan
>Today: 1622.8246 MB.
Do the math for the Bronze plan and see if it's doable with the RUP.
The other c&p
>I know that the IT dept is constantly working to improve the service you receive and they are currently working on our Platinum plan right now
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You stated in the other forum that the tech department says there are no problems. Well, I consider the following as problem:.
> it is important
> that you be disconnected from the system and connect after the
> midnight period in order for the download amount not to count against
>your usage. Please wait until after midnight, reboot your modem by unplugging the
> power from it and then connect and download, then after download make sure you
>disconnect before 6am and reboot your modem by unplugging the power from it, then
> tomorrow morning I will look at your usage.
The customer having to jump through hoops to get the system working correctly, in my opinion, is a big problem.
During the past thirty-one days I have used Skywayusa less than 100 MB total. The figure is for both downloads and uploads. Your system has not reset me. Which requires me to call you and beg for a reset. I consider this a problem.
Again do search on my name and you will see more problems.
Thank you
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skywayusa
join:2008-01-10
Louisville, KY
It sounds like to me that your problem is more technical than what I am trained to do. My best suggestion for you is to deal with the tech support directly at (866) 375-9929
Thanks and I hope that we can fix your problem as soon as possible. Please let me know if you have any more questions.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

JDP13

said by skywayusa :
It sounds like to me that your problem is more technical than what I am trained to do. My best suggestion for you is to deal with the tech support directly at (866) 375-9929
Thanks and I hope that we can fix your problem as soon as possible. Please let me know if you have any more questions.
»Satellite internet service provider | broadband high speed rural web access cheap
I have talked to your IT people they say the same thing "there are no problems". But I can tell you this, if intentional or otherwise there are problems with at least the Bronze plan. Also, as mentioned above, customers having to do resets of the modem along with not being reset automatically is a problem for all plans.
I guess I'll just wait out my contract and go elsewhere.
Regards
Jim
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skywayusa
join:2008-01-10
Louisville, KY Do you know any specific customers that have the same problem? It might help us figure out the problem if we could take a look at multiple accounts.
»Satellite internet service provider | broadband high speed rural web access cheap
to forum · permalink · · hey mods · · 2008-03-14 09:17:10 · · · Print
JDP13
join:2008-01-15

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March 14th, @12:26PM
said by skywayusa :
Do you know any specific customers that have the same problem? It might help us figure out the problem if we could take a look at multiple accounts.
»Satellite internet service provider | broadband high speed rural web access cheap
Sorry, I do not have any specific customers. Only what I have read elsewhere.
Yesterday I called tech support and got a reset (which should have been automatic after I met the 30 day rolling average). This am I logged on at 12:06 am after doing the modem resets. In fact I reset my computer too. Speeds started out in the correct range for the Bronze plan. Around 250K. I downloaded 293.98 MB and uploaded 7.93 MB. Logged off at 4:30 AM. By the time I logged off my speeds were 56K. Called tech support to find out what time skywayusa shows me logging on and off. I was told because I use a third party dial up number they could not tell me times I logged on and off ??????.
The tech told me the problem could be with my third party dial up. Not so, in January your IT set me up with a temp account with your dial up number and the same problem occurred. Below is a cut and paste of email on that test. If you read it closely you'll see your IT rep thinks I'm BS ing him about the problem. In fact shortly after this he quit responding to my email. That is when I decided to just use the service all the time and let the RUP fall where it may. I did this up until the 9th or 10th of February. At that time I quit using skywayusa ( I did use skywayusa on occasion to ckeck speeds less than 100 MB), hopeful the problem would be fixed by the time 30 day rolling average brought me back up to speed. As you can see, the problem did not get fixed.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------
C&P
To: My email address removed
Subject: RE: Related to [#2470-4457#]
From: "David Begley"
Date: Mon, 14 Jan 2008 10:06:22 -0500
In looking at the times that you logged onto the system and the times that
you logged off we noticed you are logging off too late and that is causing
all the downloads to count against your usage, I will only be able to reset
your account one more time, If you need to download I would suggest that you
log off and reboot modem by 5am, please keep in mind that I will be
resetting your usage but will not be able to reset it in the future. Also
the temp account that we setup for you to dial in with will be removed and
you need to go back to your original dial up account.
Thanks,
Skyway USA Tech Support
-----Original Message-----
From: Removed
Sent: Friday, January 11, 2008 10:50 AM
To: dbegley@skywayusa.com
Subject: Re: Related to [#2470-4457#]
On Thu, 10 Jan 2008 09:41:53 -0500, you wrote:
>
>What we need to do is test the system again, what I will do is reset
>the account, do not do any browsing or downloading until after midnight
>tonight and make sure it you are off before 6am, before you get on and
>after you get off reboot the modem, then I will check your usage
>tomorrow and see what it looks like, please email me the time that you
>logged on and off and what the download size was.
>
Hi David
Followed the above. Rebooted modem after midnight. Logged off at
05:03:03 then rebooted modem.
Logged on at 12:05:01
Speeds were in the 300 K range
Logged off at 05:03:03
Speeds were at 69 K
Uploaded 11.08 MB
Downloaded 351.28 MB
Total Upload & download 362.36 MB
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----
I did ask him why I needed to log off by 5 AM instead of the advertised 6 AM. He stated that was just to make sure ??????.
That alone tells me there is a problem.
Thanks
 

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