Review by hwsgeo 
UPDATED: 297 days ago
member for 1.3 years, 12 visits, last login: 287 days ago
 Anchorage,Anchorage,AK
 $54 per month (12 month contract)
 "nice introductary rate"
 "Horrible billing practice, Referral program is scam"
 "Stay CLEAR of ClearWire"
| Pre Sales Information:
Install process:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
I have nothing but unhappy experience with Clearwire. A typical bait and switch company! Ironically they greet you with "Thank you for calling ClearWire WE MAKE IT SIMPLE!" Is it true? Read on...
I signed up for their basic service (780K download speed) package on June 3 at the price of $19.99 plus $5.00 fee for the modem lease. I was given a $30 discount for the first 3 months and a 7-day risk free trial. At the time of registration I asked the agent in the Mall here in Anchorage if I were to move someday to a location that's outside of Clearwire's service area, would I be liable for any termination/cancellation fee. I was told NO. To make sure I sent an email to ClearWire. NO RESPONSE --until one month later - by then my trial window was over and I was locked in with a 1 year contract. They finally responded saying I would be paying $175 cancellation fee and they were sorry for the late reply due to high volume of tickets received.
During my first week of service, i got a dial-up like speed even though i were able to receive 4 lighted bars. After talking to the clearwire tech i was advised to upgrade to 1.5M, which i did and paid a $10 fee. Turns out the speed improved a bit but never close to the advertised 1.5M. Called the clearwire tech again and was told i need to upgrade my PIII PC. Thanks ClearWire. You could have advised me to upgrade the PC first, but you chose to have me upgrade the service! WOW..
On July 3,- my second promotional month i discovered ClearWire started to charge me the full $54.99 premium rate. No more discount. I called to inquire and was told that because they upgraded me from basic to Premium, i now lost my entitlement to the promotional discount! I was outraged and complained to one supervisor who, after doing some research, came back to tell me that i would continue to receive the discount and he was sorry for the wrong information given by the customer service rep. Before he ended the call he promised this wouldn't happen again in the following month. true ? Read on..
A few days later i checked my account online and found that they did credit me back $30, but added a $3.02 tax, a fee that didn't exist before. I contacted the local agent who sold me the service and was told that Anchorage is exempt and i shouldn't be paying for the so-called Fed Uni Fee or tax. I immediately contacted Clearwire and spoke to a billing agent (Keitha 702-965-1399 ex 5235). She, however, insisted that Anchorage is NOT exempt and asked me to go to a local legislative office to obtain an exemption letter to prove my exemption status or i will continue to be billed $3.02 / month for the remainder of my contract!
I asked to talk to her supervisor but she refused and HUNG up on me. Hours later i received a call from one supervisor (Jene 702-951-1972), who, first tried to pull out the agreement term - applicable Tax on me. I told him Anchorage is exempt and the so-called "applicable tax" doesn't apply to this area. I told him to confirm with the agent here in Anchorage, which he did. Later on the same day he and the agent called me on a tele-conference and admitted Anchorage is indeed exempt and i would be credited back all the taxes i paid.
On August 3 - my last promotional month, I checked account online to make sure they didn't "forget" my promotion discount. Sure enough, they did! full premium rate - $54.99. Called the billing department. Again, "No discount" from customer rep, "Yes, $30 discount" from one supervisor. But i must call back on Monday because he was not authorized to credit more than $30
Monday I called and talked to the same Supervisor. This time he credited $30- Not to the credit card, but to NEXT month payment.
I can't wait for my 1-yr contract to be up so I can send back their modem along with their crappy service. I should have stuck with my ACS DSL from day one -it's not perfect but at least I don't need to worry about deceptive billing practice. For those who are considering ClearWire, don't be fooled by their sweet introductary rate. They will do anything they can to take the promotion away from you!
update 2/11/08
This is my 9th month into the 1-year contract with Clearwire. Overall I am not impressed with their products/service. Slow-down, outage and traffic shaping issues continue to occur frequently, particularly during evening peak hours. Calls to tech support are not followed up for over a week.
On a side note, their referral program is a scam. I referred a friend in October and was told i were to receive a $25 Visa web certificate in 10 to 15 business days. Since then i've inquired TWICE about the so-called certificate - not that i care about the $25, I just wanted to find out if ClearWire indeed honor its referral program. Sadly they ONLY sent me two emails (ticket #163198)saying they are working on it. Nothing Else! It's been 3 months. i feel it's safe to say they have no intention to do so!
Followup comments:  
Ak Consumer
@clearwire-dns.net
| ClearWire Anchorage We've had no problems with service BUT I strongly sympathize with the writer about what amounts to deceptive billing practices in his case. Strongly suggest he document his experience and file a complaint with the RCA, which is HQed here in Anchorage. ClearWire is applying to provide land line phone service and the RCA should be apprised of its poor customer service, unreliable discount promises, confusion over taxes, etc. These are all subject to RCA regulation as per the approved tariff and CW is liaible for its failure to follow the approved tariff. Complaining online is a start but CW will not be likely to clean up its act unless the RCA fines it or forces it to suspend service.
I never, ever approve autopay for utilities like CW unless and until I'm satisfied that they are following the contract I have with them. Nothing like withholding pay or challenging a credit card bill to make them take notice and fix their poor service. | |
| 
koolman2
Premium
join:2002-10-01
Anchorage, AK
 ·GCI.net
 ·Clearwire Wireless
| Cancel BEFORE contract expires Please be sure to cancel IN WRITING 30 days or more prior to the end of the contract term. In the ToS you signed, it states that your contract will automatically renew unless you provide, in writing (or by calling I presume), notice of cancellation. I learned this the hard way and almost had to pay $210 in early termination fees.
--
There's no place like ::1. | |
| hwsgeo
join:2007-08-08
Anchorage, AK
·Clearwire Wireless
moderated:
August 20th, @08:26PM
| My posting caught ClearWire's attention Thanks to this forum and the two Anchorage ClearWire customers above, my posting finally caught the attention of ClearWire.
On August 14, 2007, 12:10pm, i received a phone call from a lady by the name of Dianna (private number removed by mod). She said she was from ClearWire and had read my posting on dslreports.com. She was able to pull my account and verified my claims since i use the same ClearWire ID for dslreports registration. She was sorry for the grief that i went through and acknowledged there are areas for improvement on their parts (such as billing errors, tax..). She said she would do anything to make it right. The first step she took was to refund $30 to my credit card. I checked the credit card today 08/20/07 and yes, the $30 has been credited back. Secondly she pledged to work to make sure that tax be excluded from Anchorage ClearWire customer account. Finally she offered me one free month service (a value of $55) as their appreciation for my helping them notice the tax issue.
I can not say ClearWire has completely turned me around as only time can tell but i am glad that they have acknowledged there are areas to improve and they are willing to try to do the right thing. In light of that i am willing to stick around
The company perhaps spends millions of $$$$ advertising their products, in the end it only takes a small handful of unhappy customers to destroy what their $$$ try to accomplish.
| |
|
collie
@xanadoo.com | clearwire I hate clearwire. They tell me that they cannot locate my contract anywhere to prove when I did sign up. Let see.........with holding my contract, that is fraud and fraud is a crime, well, well, well.......what do we have here. | |
|
Derek
@clearwire-dns.net
| Have had the same problem I am also in Anchorage. I have had this modem for almost 2 months now. I've tried to cancel my 2 year contract with cw but they tried to charge me a $250 cancellation fee. I was upset that I am getting charged to cancel service that I wasn't even getting. From day 2 I have had severe problems playing a computer game called Counter Strike Source which operates on ports #27015-37015. I experienced severe lag, in servers from Seattle, Washington at ping ranging from 150 - 700 + . Packet Loss has been at 25%+ sense I've had the modem. I've contacted tech support over 15 times to resolve the issue, went through the same steps, flushing dns, re-provisioning my modem, speed testing, checking which tower i was on. I even mentioned that I had been reading on forums about clear wire and port blocking. I was disgusted at what I had read that cw blocks port 80 and any application they want to. The tech support and customer support both said they are not aware of this and/or stated that they did not block any ports. I still to this day am not able to download movies or games from direct2drive.com, play any internet based games. I am literally paying for server I am not getting. My grandma's 56k is faster then this, I'd like a refund. | |
|
Jo
@comcast.net
| Dont ever go for clearwire.. BAD BAD service I relocated to a place where they have no coverage.
When I signed up, the sales person assured me, if I move to a place where they have not service, I dont have to pay an early termination. I repeatedly confirmed this at that time.
I asked the company to make my account dormant till I go back to an area where I get the service.
Clearwire didnt allow that and so they charged me $200, and I had to terminate the serivice. They dont honor the customers, who are not able to use it, because their lack of service.
I feel really really bad about my decision to use Clearwire.
It is a BIG loss for me | |
|
FROTOMAN
@ca.us
| Cleawire dropping emails I have been a Clearwire customer for two years. Generally I have been satisfied although I have not really needed to use Clearwire's customer service. Recently, I have found that I have not been receiving all of my emails from other web sites. These are from multiple domains which if I redirect to my online Yahoo email - all are received properly. I directly use the Clearwire's email website and so it had nothing to do with my local machine. Yet, after explaining to a level of exhaution, their multiple customer service people constantly redirects blame the user and makes the user responsible for their clear defect. There is something wrong with this ISP provider lately. The have issues and are keeping them to themselves. Horrible service response and they don't listen, particularly when customers are losing important data/emails. They may be tweaking protocols and ports to maintain a facade of performance at subscriber's data expense.
Looking for other ISP options. | |
| | | |
| Forums » comments on review of Clearwire Wireless |
|
(11)
(14)
(12)