I have two stories. My boss has WildBlue and hates it. However, he bought his equipment several years ago, about 3, and so because he bought his equipment, he has to pay every time they come out to do anything with the system which is at least once a year and it usually costs him several hundred dollars at a time. He goes through a phone company locally for the service, which, the company is bad to say the least.
Now the other side of that is my neighbor just got WildBlue a few months ago and hers is great. She went through a different person for service and her equipment is leased, which doesnt cost any extra a month. So if anything is wrong, they fix it, no charge.
I called the guy who put hers in and talked to him at length about my bosses problems and what I have heard.
He told me this, the first systems they put in a few years ago, had a lot slower and weaker system running it, some place out of Canada was the main point. Since then, since the demand for the service, they have installed a much better system to run it, and so the system and signal is a lot stronger. I do not recall exactly the terms he used, but I am guessing it is kinda like computers, the systems we had a few years ago, were good then, but compared to what we have now, it is terrible. So same here withe the Wild Blue.
Anyway, he also said that sometimes when your service goes through a third party, like my bosses, thecustomer service and help, isn't great because, they do not know a heck of a lot about it. The man who put in my neighbors, that is all he does, WildBlue. He said he has put in hundreds and he can count on one had how many he has had problems with. For me, all the equipment would cost $199. Anything goes wrong and it doesnt cost me a dime and your signal is Guaranteed to work. If on a cloudy day, the signal will amplify itself to get past the storm to continue the signal. She never has less than 100%.
I currently have a local company that until this year, never had a problem with but now, nothing but issues. Right now, my signal is ranging between good, and non existant. I hope this post goes through because often times, just because it shows a signal, I do not have a thing. Mine goes through a dish to a TOWER, and not a satellite in space. Not a good set up.
I am just having to wait till I cannot take it anymore before I switch to Wild Blue. I just had my internet people down here a few weeks ago again and I was going to tell them I quit again but then we found out the problem was ours and not theirs LOL. We accidently unplugged something that needed plugged in. Ooops. But if things do not improve, hubby will get tired of it enough to get me the WildBlue.
So I think that it matters a lot on who does the installation and what company it runs through (like a third party).
