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Ask HN: Starlink Signup failed, no recourse

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Re: Ask HN: Starlink Signup failed, no recourse

#61

Post by childintime »

keyme wrote: post #46
childintime wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Worse, it seems I'll have to pay him twice, at least initially, to get this solved. I'll be living and working in Africa soon, from a van. Starlink is operational in only a few countries but in 2023 it'll be about half. To me it's a life-saver, and I suppose it is for Africa. Yeah, regarding Musk, we are witnessing the birth of something the world hasn't seen before. Literally out of this world. Something people coul…

A lot of east Africa has surprisingly good LTE coverage. I assume you know this. Of course, starlink will have higher speeds. Anyway, here's an idea: livestreamed self drive safaris!

I heard about cheap LTE, in a few countries. But I thought it was mostly the city (no safari ;-). So I looked at the coverage maps in a few countries and coverage seems to be quite sparse.

I'll be working remotely, so I thought starlink would be a very worthwhile investment. Even though it's still booting up.

Btw, keep the tips coming, I'll need them :)

Africa is our future.

Re: Ask HN: Starlink Signup failed, no recourse

#62

Post by rqtwteye »

childintime wrote: post #53
NelsonMinar wrote: post #44

Starlink's customer service is terrible, your experience is common based on what I read on /r/starlink. Folks there pass around the email address starlinkresolutions@spacex.com as a possible way to get help but I'm not so sure that really works. You should definitely pursue a refund from your bank. I hope you don't have to initiate a legal proceeding.

Indeed, anything legal would be a wild escalation. Finally having an email is great!

"Indeed, anything legal would be a wild escalation."

I think a lot of the tech companies deserve a wild escalation for ignoring customer service. It can be infuriating if you have a problem with Paypal or Google and they either blatantly ignore you or have focused all their UX skills on making it as hard as possible to find a way to contact them.

Re: Ask HN: Starlink Signup failed, no recourse

#63

Post by coding123 »

Not sure if Starlink was set up this way, but teaching moment:

Before taking a payment on a SPA, everyone please make a separate database transaction that records the user - come back to display the UI for CC collection AFTER. If you try to add the user, run the CC and return in one shot, while attractive from a transactional perspective, it's NOT good if your DB rolls back but the third party CC processing did not.

Then you end up with users that pay, but no record of payment in your DB. Get it right people.

Yes you can at least confirm your own transaction is committed in one shot THEN perform the CC, but separating these two out is still the best bet.

Re: Ask HN: Starlink Signup failed, no recourse

#64

Post by natch »

Do you allow your browser to save inputs such as email addresses you put into forms? If yes, maybe you could find where the browser stores this info and check the email address.

As just one data point, I can confirm that they do send a confirmation message when they receive an order. But you probably already have heard this from others. One way to get their attention would be to get your bank to reverse the transfer, if they can possibly do that, which they might, given the circumstances. Of course that risks resetting your timeline.

Also check your deleted emails folder (since you didn't mention this). BTW three weeks is not a long time when it comes to waiting for Starlink. I waited a year.

Re: Ask HN: Starlink Signup failed, no recourse

#65

Post by childintime »

O__________O wrote: post #55
childintime wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder where you got that. Did I miss something?? Edit: note this identified itself, at least on my PC (which has PT-BR as its idiom), as Starlink Brasil. Edit: I see portuguese text was part of the link. Edit: "phone number shared through url is invalid", is the phone number correct? It seems it's missing a country code? Edit: I tried adding +55 (Brazil) and +351 (PT) to the link, didn't work. Maybe I didn't forma…

Found that by going to Starlink’s order form, using select on map feature for address field, zooming into an Brazil until a street was visible, clicking order, and Starlink Whatapp number is linked to in the intro text. 425 area code is a US area code in Washington state near a Seattle. Literally copied URL, so if there is an error it’s from Starlink’s link. Phone number in link is 14253313125, which appears to be a…

Still trying to duplicate what you did.

Re: Ask HN: Starlink Signup failed, no recourse

#66

Post by hedora »

coding123 wrote: post #63

Not sure if Starlink was set up this way, but teaching moment: Before taking a payment on a SPA, everyone please make a separate database transaction that records the user - come back to display the UI for CC collection AFTER. If you try to add the user, run the CC and return in one shot, while attractive from a transactional perspective, it's NOT good if your DB rolls back but the third party CC processing did not.…

This is an intentional dark pattern.

Starlink goes out of its way to avoid allowing non customers interact with them. For example, dishy doesn’t ship with an ethernet jack for its router or enough hardware to actually mount it in most situations. They don’t let you even view the accessories store (or prices for the mandatory extra equipment) until after they ship the dish + router.

Re: Ask HN: Starlink Signup failed, no recourse

#67

Post by FeepingCreature »

childintime wrote: post #39
mlindner wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand, one off anecdotes does not a company standard make. You can find plentiful anecdotes on the starlink subreddit of people talking about how they got responses within only a couple hours of submitting a request as well. Also it's possible this person didn't even buy the service, as they say they got it without a credit card, but the service requires you to use a credit card to buy it. Edit: It may be…

> the service requires you to use a credit card to buy it. Incorrect. This is Europe and direct payment is the norm. Edit: the downvoters never heard of Sofort, Bancontact and iDeal. Here's Starlink accepting Sofort: https://hackmd.io/So0zZS9DS9OCKOzWA7RALw

German here, can confirm, basically nobody has a credit card, and all the big online services take non-credit payment now.

Re: Ask HN: Starlink Signup failed, no recourse

#68

Post by sheep-a »

IAmGraydon wrote: post #59

You weren't scammed - at least not by anyone but Starlink/SpaceX. They're just that poorly set up. You may already know this, but the entity you made payment to is: Starlink Internet Services Limited 5th Floor, Beaux Lane House, Mercer Street Lower, Dublin 2 D02 DH60 Registered with the Company Registration Office under No. 677409 Lauren Dreyer is listed as the Director: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-d-8077b594/…

*5th Floor, Beaux Lane House, Mercer Street Lower, Dublin 2 D02 DH60, Ireland

Re: Ask HN: Starlink Signup failed, no recourse

#69

Post by noAnswer »

shafyy wrote: post #49
childintime wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the service requires you to use a credit card to buy it. Incorrect. This is Europe and direct payment is the norm. Edit: the downvoters never heard of Sofort, Bancontact and iDeal. Here's Starlink accepting Sofort: https://hackmd.io/So0zZS9DS9OCKOzWA7RALw

For buying stuff online? In which EU country is this supposed to be the norm?

DE

Re: Ask HN: Starlink Signup failed, no recourse

#70

Post by morelisp »

shafyy wrote: post #49
childintime wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the service requires you to use a credit card to buy it. Incorrect. This is Europe and direct payment is the norm. Edit: the downvoters never heard of Sofort, Bancontact and iDeal. Here's Starlink accepting Sofort: https://hackmd.io/So0zZS9DS9OCKOzWA7RALw

For buying stuff online? In which EU country is this supposed to be the norm?

Sofort is common, as the name might suggest, in DE (and I hear also AT). Weirdly a lot of people don't know it's a private company, assuming it's a service offered by their bank. I guess because the name is so generic.

I would never pay for anything with it.

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