Clearwire Consumer Reviews - Page 2

I placed an order for new internet service via chat yesterday. At the time, the website indicated that if I were to purchase service within the next hour, I will receive service in 24 hours. It was also confirmed by the representative on chat that I will receive the equipment today via FedEx overnight. Upon receiving the FedEx tracking number and checking the status of the shipment, I just realized I will not be receiving the equipment until Monday the 14th. This is my first experience with CLEAR and much to my disappointment, CLEAR has fallen short in the following ways:

1) Its website was misleading with its countdown clock... indicating that if I sign up for service within the next hour, I would be up and running in 24 hours. FALSE - especially when I will not be receiving the equipment until Monday (4 days after activation of my service) 2) Upon confirming my order, the representative on chat confirmed the same timeline that I will be receiving my equipment today, Feb 11. In reality, he reaffirmed a claim that CLEAR could not deliver on and more importantly, misrepresented its offering online and via its representative.

3) When I called customer service today to voice my complaint and dissatisfaction, I was told that unfortunately the order was not processed until 10 pm last evening and that CLEAR has no control over FedEx's processing of its shipment. The message to me was "now that I'm a customer, customer service will not be able to assist me with my concerns and I have no grounds for complaint until I physically receive the equipment, at that point, I will have to call account services for assistance." Very disappointing that CLEAR's customer service motto is to make its customers jump through hoops with its complaints, even in light of its own misleading promotions.

KIRKLAND, WASHINGTON -- This summer, I took over a Clearwire contract from another unhappy customer (my old roommate). At the start, I was quoted a price of $40.00 a month (without a pre-scheduled increase) for 4G Wireless Internet Service by Clear.com. The original Clearwire equipment that I purchased didn't work properly, so Clear sent to me several different versions of the equipment - but none worked. Their 4G equipment could not get and hold a signal - continuous disconnects. I worked with Techs for hours.

So after many calls, they finally sent me a (much slower) 3G/4G piece of equipment - And, I was told that my monthly service charge would go down to $25.00 per month since the 3G service would be much slower (and for all the trouble that I'd been through). A few days later, I find that my monthly service charge had been more than doubled to $55.00 per month. So I called CS and complained - and Clear.com (specifically a helpless supervisor named Sharon) begrudgingly lowered it to $40.00 temporarily, but said that it would rise again to $55.00 monthly in six months. And, if I didn't like it, too bad. I was welcome to take my business elsewhere. (!)

I am still in shock. I did NOT agree to this contract! Clear.com did not provide the 4G Service OR the Price that they promised. ALL LIES! Before switching to Clear.com, I was paying much less per month with TimeWarner, and now I regret that I ever left. The deal I had with TimeWarner is no longer available.I feel that I have personally been victimized by a Bait-and-Switch SCAM by Clear.com. I also firmly believe that Clearwire has violated my rights as a consumer with Deceptive Trade Practices. And obviously, I am not alone in my complaints. PLEASE SEE: http://www.tzlegal.com/news-cases/clearwire/

DID YOU KNOW... About the national CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT that was filed against Clearwire? I didn't. I guess I found out the hard way. If you are considering Clear.com/Clearwire - DON'T! PUBLIC SERVICE NOTICE: BEWARE of CLEAR.com!

Unlike some that I have read, I was able to wrangle a six month contract from their services representative (at least that's what we agreed to having). I've now had the service for 3 months and each week I'm more and more dissatisfied with the speeds. I do a lot of late night online gaming, downloading and watching shows and talking via IM's to friends. The service started out fine, but month by month the signal speed seems to be dropping.

The onscreen bars show full, but no internet signal is actually found and of this date rest assured that my signal cuts out or is dropped on average 10 times the first hour so that I now have to 'warm-up' the signal before I actually do anything to avoid the risk of being dropped during a crucial part of a game. Many non-gamers out there could easily deride my issues with need for a fast signal, but when the items you are 'playing' with have taken you weeks to months to attain and are destroyed or dropped during a few seconds of signal loss yet, well to say it nicely - I'm livid and feeling more than a bit angry that this service has lied about its actual abilities.

I bought this service mainly for the sheer intent of gaming, but it's far too unreliable. My roommate also considered purchasing it as well, but now he's not touching it and going with another provider. I'm writing this now seething as my latest game effort was for the 4th time ruined by a disconnect from CLEAR. I lost a lot of gear and it will take me weeks to restore what was lost as the computer image locked then registered a login screen with a subwindow telling me - 'connection unplugged' yet again. My signal worsens now linearly and I thought it was just me looking at an errant pattern, but I've read of many other cases having the same experience - what gives??!!

My daughter was in college at the University of Hawaii and in February, 2009 she needed internet service. She called Clearwire over the phone and asked me to call them also to check it out. (I live in Oklahoma.) I did call and I talked to them about their service, etc. At that time, they needed my credit card number to start the service. I agreed for them to charge my credit card monthly for this service for my daughter while she finished the semester. Once my daughter had the service for about three months she got a new roommate that had service with another carrier and she did not need Clearwire anymore.

She called Clearwire to inform them she needed to cancel. At that time, they told her it would be a fee of $250 to stop the service because she had a TWO-YEAR CONTRACT! That was the first time we had ever heard such a thing from them and WE BOTH TALKED to Clearwire customer service before signing up with them. NEVER did they say anything about a contract and I have NEVER heard of an internet service having contracts, let alone not telling you about it! Even after she returned the modem and moved back to Oklahoma (Clearwire is not in Okla) they kept billing my credit card.

I was paying for service we did not even have and it was a nightmare because you are at their mercy once they get your credit card number! I talked to customer service time and time again and they finally said they would not charge my credit card anymore. Then I got my last bill last week and they had charged my account with a $185 cancellation fee even though they said they did not charge anything more! So it cost me $488.45 for three months of internet service for my daughter.

This company takes advantage of young college students and parents by not revealing all of their policies at the time you sign up. They are crooks and their name should be called "HIGHWAY ROBBERY CLEARWIRE INTERNET SERVICE". Consumers please beware of this internet provider and I would never sign up with them... I am just praying that next month they won't have more charges on my account. I have also contacted the Better Business Bureau and have a complaint filed with them on this scammer business.

I saw the commercial many times saying "fast High Speed internet" and I thought to check them out and go to the mall where that have a little stand and inquire about It. From how the lady described It It was as though This was the #1 Internet In the world So I signed up. As soon as I got home I plugged It In and I had the Crappiest connection possible. I had 5,276 lat ms and I had five bars. Called up the Hotline and It's as though they know nothing. All they say Is "move the modem" and that doesn't do anything. Their online support Is just as bad If not worse. So far I've had Clearwire For almost 6 months and It's the biggest Lie in the World.

I play an Online Role Playing Game and Half the time I can't log on. I get Disconnected Or My connection is so badly it takes Twice the time for me to cast a spell or do a certain ability. And With It being an Online game It's not fun getting killed because your connection is so bad you can't do anything back. With regular Surfing of the web It's the same to watch a 20-second vid on youtube - It needs to buffer a ton of times and it takes more than a minute Just to watch a short thing like that.

Clearwire says that they never have "down" times and that's all I get. Most of the time it's offline for 2-3 hours at a time. And the connection speed is always changing, even If you have the modem in the same area It will change from good to bad. And Talk on the phone with their support Is #1 I need to wait forever, and #2 when I finally get a hold of someone they give me an attitude like it's not working because of me and I did something to it. They will say in a sarcastic tone "oh well did you touch it to make it that way?" or "Don't raise your voice, while talking to me sir" when I'm talking normally.

Plus they have hung up on me numerous times for no reason. They'll say "well sir that's your problem you did something to it and we can't help you" and they'll hang up. Overall Do not get this service. I don't want anyone to go through what this service puts me and many other people to. What I say is when paying for it it should be a good connection all the time not only when the modem or whatever feels like it. We're paying for the internet to be up only 5% of the time and all the rest is a crappy connection. So please don't get this service they are a lie. And they should be sued for ripping of everyone what their false statements on Their "fast and Reliable" internet.

To us, Clearwire ISP is a duplicitous company. Last year, Clearwire assured us of excellent high-speed Internet service and lured us into a 2-year contract by promising a free companion airline ticket within the U.S.A (a Clearwire promotion running out in June 2006).

Initially, Internet connections were fairly good, but began to degrade notably soon after. Performance went continually downhill; there are frequent interruptions; several days a month, the Internet does not work at all. Meanwhile, the connection speed has degraded down to mere dial-up modem speed. We cannot do phone calls over the Internet anymore nor upload pictures to websites and the like.

Whenever we call the Clearwire hotline, IF we manage to get hold of a person - we are told the same old stories: "The weather is bad – something is wrong with your PC – check your network cable.", and the like. No assistance is given. Written complaints to their web support form are NEVER answered at all.

For months now, they promise for someone to come by for troubleshooting – nobody ever comes. And yet, we pay $44 every month, for something we absolutely do not have: High-speed Internet. We simply feel cheated. By doing research in the Internet, we found out that we are not the only ones; others report similar problems and that Clearwire systematically turns down the throttle for existing customers in order to accommodate new ones.

Meanwhile, we discovered on Clearwire's own coverage maps, that we actually live outside their coverage areas. However, we were not told this. We were assured everything would work fine. This now proves to be false. When telling Clearwire about this and that we were given wrong information and, on the basis of this, feel justified to get out of the contract, they immediately threatened us by saying we would be "penalized" by having to pay a $300 "modem fee" and another $180 quitting fee. That it is them who lured us into the contract by giving us false promises and wrong information does not bother them at all.

Adding insult to injury, our attempts to claim our promised airline ticket proved unsuccessful: Clearwire referred us to an external company where evidently no one seems to know about this deal. We have tried unsuccessfully, over several months and many times, to obtain this promised ticket (for which we signed the 2-year contract with Clearwire). The whole thing turns out to be bogus. When asking Clearwire about it, they told us in a very arrogant way: "We are an ISP, we do not owe you an airline ticket".

We cannot but warn everybody against Clearwire. We are looking forward to when the contract expires, although here too, they seem to use some nasty tricks with a 60 day/30 day notice period rule (one for the modem, another for the service) which nobody knows about.

ORMOND BEACH, FLORIDA -- In Jan. 2006, we spoke with a Clearwire representative about installing their service. For slightly less than Bright House cable high speed internet, Clearwire was advertising a wireless internet. It broadcasts a signal from a cellphone tower so your computer can hook up anywhere. Great! We gave our address and received a date for the technician to come out.

When he arrived, we were just moving in. He hooked up the "wireless box" that must connect from the wall to the computer, and a receiver, which also needs to be plugged in. Remember this, it's important later. Everything seems in order and the technician is pleased. So, he leaves. And the problems start. Everyday Clearwire drops it's signal. It seems to vary from only a few seconds, to hours. When it's hours, I call Clearwire.

They always say it's me. I need to reboot and drop my current I.P. info and renew it. And this usually fixes it. Finally, three months into this, the gaps are coming way too often, so I request another technician to come out. The next guy comes right in the door with, "You don't have a southeastern window in your apartment. No wonder you're not keeping a signal". He fiddles with the devices. Everything has been fine all along, except NOT having an unobstructed path to the tower! The first technician never mentioned the problem, and the only solution the new technician could think of was to put the receiver on the porch facing west.

We tried this too, but there's no plug out there so the door would always be open a crack to allow for the extension cord. As well, it only helped but did not cure the dropped signals. In conclusion, DO NOT GET CLEARWIRE, unless you are within 15 miles of the tower and have a direct, unobstructed path to the tower. Needless to say, we now have Bright House and are very pleased.

I have had service with Clearwire for over 4 years with very few problems. At the beginning of March I lost service completely for 4 days. Made numerous calls into tech support. All they could tell me was that they were having issues with a tower and that my account would be credited for my time loss. I work from home so for 4 days I was unable to work. On April 1st when they debited the payment out of my account they took the whole amount, no credit had been issued for the 4 days in March that I was without service.

In the first part of April I lost service for 5 days after numerous calls into tech support with no help.At that time they told me my account would be credited for my time lost and my time lost in March. A whole $10 credit for 9 days of lost service!! I decided it was time for me to look for another internet provider. After going with another company I called to cancel my service on the 16th of April only to be informed that they couldn't cancel my service until the end of the month because it was a prepaid and all the money that was supposed to be credited to me and my partial month of service wouldn't be refunded to me because I was canceling my service with them.

I am on the phone now with account services going back and forth with a lady that won't disclose her name to me about refunding my money. After telling her 5 times that I want to speak to a supervisor she has me on hold once again. So far the calls been 45 mins long and I'm no better off than what I was before I called. Take my advice YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR. IF PAYING A LITTLE MORE MEANS BETTER SERVICE DO SO!! Don't waste your time with this company!!

KIRKLAND, WASHINGTON -- I would not recommend Clear (or Clearwire?) to ANYone. Terrible customer service - the employee and manager in the store when we signed up lied to our face several times about the rates and plans available. Looked up rates and plans myself IN the store as they lied to us, then they reluctantly admitted that they did have these other plans and rates available. Oh and the store manager spent most of the time we were there outside working on his vehicle! Seriously!? Bandwidth was terrible - we had to reset the modem and router just about every night.

At one point during our two months of service it randomly shut down, and it was not resolved until we called to inquire on the problem. When the internet DID work, it was not the promised high speed. We could not stream videos, which in most/all urban areas this should not be an issue. It's 2011 for crying out loud. We called in July to cancel, and moved out of state. They did not send any emails or any sort of confirmation. So guess what - we check our credit card statement at the end of November and discover that they have been charging us every month!

So we call to inquire and ask for the money refunded for the services we had not used, and after being passed around and unhelped for almost an hour, we suddenly get an email... you guessed it, a confirmation email for the next monthly charge we are about to have withdrawn from our credit card. You have to be kidding me! Not only are they refusing to refund our money, but they do not deliver on ANYthing they promised. The manager was supposed to call us within 10 minutes - took him 15 (sure, he can have some grace there, but nevertheless, a promise unmet).

Next he said he would pass on our request to Elevated Escalations and that we would receive a phone call from them WITHIN 24 hours. 24 hours came and went - oh and it has now been 15 days and they have still not called back. We called again today and they still refuse to refund our money - actually, they have very "sweetly" offered to credit us the $200+ that they have taken from us IF we open another account!! (yeah... right.)

All that to say I have read countless other reviews from others who have had very similar experiences. This company is full of lies and deceit and undelivered promises. Tread with caution - take your business elsewhere!!! (Word is that this company is going under anyway... I hope so.)

HOLY COW. Worst experience I have ever had with a company this big. My first couple months with Clear Home Internet were great. I was getting anywhere between 8 and 14 mbps down and 1 mbps up. About three weeks ago, I started getting intermittent connectivity issues --web pages would not load. They timed out and I had to refresh several times to get them to load successfully. I gave Clear the benefit of the doubt and spent 6 phone calls and over 2 hours on the phone with them. This is where the true nightmare began.

First of all, it is almost impossible to understand ANY of the customer service or account reps. It is as though they took all the customer service rejects from other companies, put them shoulder to shoulder in a room, gave them crappy microphones, fed them spoon fulls of sticky peanut butter, and forced them to interact with customers while listening to a recording of cats having sex, turn on full blast.

I was told all kinds of stories. They told me my internet connection simply needed to be reset on their end. They told me the towers in my area required repairs. They told me they dispatched a repairman. They told me the towers in my area were almost done being repaired. They told me the repairs were taking longer than normal. They told me their network was being upgraded. They told me there was too many people in my area using YouTube at the same time (no joke). It was a different story every single time I called.

When I asked one of them to credit me for the 3 weeks I was hardly able to use my Internet, he refused. That was the last straw. I called to cancel my service and was transferred to an account rep, who offered to cut my bill in half. When I declined the offer, she OUTRIGHT REFUSED TO CANCEL MY HOME INTERNET SERVICE. She gave me some BS excuse about not being able to "future-date" cancellations, which was an absolute lie. She also became snippy and rude when she realized I was not going to budge from my position.

I called back a second time and got a different representative. He gave me the same sales pitch -- offered me a 50% off discount, offered to "hibernate" my account, and offered to upgrade the speed on my account. He would not take no for an answer. He kept repeating over and over again that too many people in my neighborhood were on YouTube - as if that was enough justification for my crappy connection to keep me as a customer. After 20 minutes on the phone with him, I finally got him to cancel my service. I will NEVER, NEVER do business with Clear again. You shouldn't either. Consider yourself warned.