Got trouble with your Starlink service? It may take a while for SpaceX to get back to you.
The company’s satellite internet service is facing some growing pains on the customer service front. This week, SpaceX sent out a message to some existing subscribers, apologizing for Starlink’s slow response time when it comes to customer support inquiries.
“As we have rapidly expanded our customer base, we’ve fallen behind in our normal response time,” the company wrote in the message, which was posted by Reddit user “sindarwin” and later noticed by Business Insider.
The message from SpaceX added: “We apologize — this is not the level of support we aim to provide and are making a number of changes to improve, including increasing the capacity of our incredible support team.”
Reddit user sindarwin said they’ve been waiting for 11 days to receive a response from the company about latency problems over the Starlink service. However, the message from SpaceX merely noted, “we appreciate your patience and assure you that someone will respond eventually,” without providing a firm timetable.
Another Reddit user, Scottlee64, also received the same message from SpaceX about the customer support delays. He’s been waiting for about 10 days now for help on fixing his Starlink dish, which no longer powers on.
“Starlink's internet service until that point had been great, and from everything I've read it seems as though the customer service will be great once they ‘eventually’ respond to me,” Scottlee64 tells PCMag. “It's just disappointing to be left completely in the dark for so long. Working from home has been especially tough because I've had to ration my mobile data, which I'm almost out of.”
Business Insider notes SpaceX’s alleged lack of customer support has been a core complaint, especially among Starlink customers who pre-ordered early, but are still waiting for their hardware to arrive. But in some positive news, the message from SpaceX indicates the company is preparing to ramp up hiring for its customer support staff.
Ever since its beta launch in 2020, the satellite internet service has seen massive demand for its ability to supply high-speed internet to areas with few broadband options. SpaceX has said it's currently serving 250,000 users across the globe through Starlink, which is up from a mere 10,000 plus subscribers back in February 2021. However, the company still has hundreds of thousands of existing pre-orders it still needs to fulfill.