Greetings from a former Clearwire Employee (anonymous submission)
June 13th, 2007 | by Tim |Hello there,
I used to work for Clearwire and I know a lot of information about how they do business. I left because I had another job opportunity but also because where I was selling Clearwire at, no one was signing up anymore. So, my commission checks were becoming less and less. Anyways, these are the problems with Clearwire I have seen. They are overpriced for what they offer and their contracts are ridiculous. Not only do they charge too much for their mediocre service, they try to rip you off if you try to cancel.
One bit of interesting information is this. Let’s say you sign a one year contract with Clearwire. Your year of service is up and you obviously assume that you are on month to month status. This is not true. If you attempt to call in 18 months after you signed a 1 year contract, Clearwire will tell you that you have to pay an early termination fee because your initial one year contract automatically renewed for a whole year without you really knowing about it. Their defense if you pin them down is that this information is readily available on their website under their very long terms of service and that it is your responsibility to be aware of this. The only way to go on month to month status is to call Clearwire during the month that your contract expires and they will reluctantly put you on month to month if you threaten to cancel.
I know this because I dealt with countless customers that had this issue with the company and there was very little I could do about it. What’s interesting is that Clearwire is the ONLY internet service in town that even has a contract. None of the competitors have one to begin with. They are also much more competitively priced for the amount of bandwidth you get. DSL is $36.00 - $40.00 a month for 3 mbps grand total. This is for a $7 a month measured line, $25.00 for the internet service, and then of course taxes and fees. The first 2 months are free, you own the equipment and get a rebate for it. If you already have phone service, then it’s really only $25.00 for 3 mbps, $20.00 for 1.5 and $15.00 for 768kbps.
Clearwire is $41.21 per month for their 1.5mbps plan, and $30.39 for their 768kbps plan. This includes the modem lease unless you want to buy the modem for $99.99. They are also seriously talking about raising the base rate of the 768kbps plan from 24.99 to 29.99 to encourage everyone to just sign up for the premium instead. There, of course, is also their ridiculous contract. $220.00 to cancel, and it’s slightly prorated. $5.00 less every month if you’re on a 2 year, or $10.00 less every month if you’re on a one year. Clearwire arrogantly prices their mediocre service too high and they are the only provider in town with a contract, a ridiculous one at that.
There is another company in town called Xanadoo that sells the same service but does business differently. You buy the modem for $100.00. You get a $50.00 mail-in rebate and they sometimes have other promotions like a $50.00 modem that becomes free after the rebate, or a $50.00 Visa gift card. Their rates are basically the same as Clearwire but their is NO contract. They also have had a laptop card for quite some time which Clearwire is still promising to come out with, but we have seen nothing yet.
Then of course there is cable. your bill is $43.00 a month if you subscribe to cable or $54.00 if you don’t. That includes taxes. You have to buy the modem for $25.00 but pay no rental fee. And you get 4mbps which is very fast and very reliable. and of course there is NO contract.
With these other three options in town, why would ANYONE want to subscribe to Clearwire. I can give you an answer. The ONLY reason would be if you cannot get good service from any of the other three providers, starting with DSL and Cable. There are some customers that really can’t, but Clearwire is trying to take on all of these competitors head on. Their service is not terrible, but it is not good enough to charge the same or higher prices than Cable and DSL and have a ridiculous contract. Some people buy into the trap that it is a wireless product. These are the people that don’t realize they can simply go over to Best Buy and simply buy a wireless router for $50.00 that will do this for them. The modem is wireless and portable but it requires that you be near an electrical outlet. This of course completely defeats the purpose of the product being wireless. The reality is that most modems sit in people’s homes and never go anywhere. They would be much better off if a Cable or DSL modem was sitting there and at least if they went with Xanadoo which is essentially the same thing, they wouldn’t have to pay $200 to cancel it. Oh, and Clearwire charges a $50.00 activation fee on a one year contract, encouraging you to sign a 2 year with no activation fee.
The company also likes to point the finger of why the product is not selling at their employees instead of at themselves. In the past few months since I left Clearwire, we had 7 full time sales people. 4 directs and 3 retails. Since the past few months, 6 of them have either left or been fired. Clearwire feels that they need to make some changes to stop the problems they’ve been having in our area. But they are thinking more along the lines of raising the price of the value service to $29.99 a month, and being even more aggressive on selling the product. They cannot get it in their head that people don’t want to sign up for a mediocre product that is overpriced, and has a cell phone like contract. But at least my cell phone company doesn’t automatically renew my contract behind my back. Clearwire has been around for 2 1/2 years in my area. When it first came out, it was huge, but now that word of mouth is spreading around and many people have been burnt by Clearwire and their ridiculous contracts, the people of my town are steering clear of their service.
I have seen a lot of things go on at this place that I have worked there and have many other bad stories, but you basically get the idea. Clearwire is BAD business and I, just like you, hope that they will eventually dry up or be bought out by someone that does business in an ethically sound manner.
Regards,
A Former Clearwire Employee
27 Responses to “Greetings from a former Clearwire Employee (anonymous submission)”
By Mike on Jun 14, 2007 | Reply
Of COURSE clearwire rips you off! It was afterall founded by a cellular telephone pioneer! He INVENTED the rip-off wireless gig!
By Merilee on Jun 19, 2007 | Reply
OH i know they are the BIGGEST RIPOFF!
Every month they over charge me and sometimes take double payments. I am so done! I have reported them to everything I can think of and also will be telling the radioshack that I got it from what they are doing and show the reports and screw ups they do…MAYBE they will wise up and drop them or lose customers themselves GRRRR
By Owned By Clearwire on Jun 26, 2007 | Reply
Yeah….just another sad consumer getting pwned by Clearwire. I cancelled mainly because we were getting intermittent to no service at all (as of a month ago.) When I chatted with a Level 2 tech guy, he looked up my house on Google Earth and said I had a bunch of trees between my house and the tower (WTF!?) I tried explaining to him that those images can be up to 30+ years old, but he wasn’t interested in hearing any of that.
As if it couldn’t get any better, I just tried talking with another USELESS customer support “agent” and he said the Level 2 tech’s documentation stated that I had double-paned windows and suspected it was the main reason I wasn’t getting any signal. When I told the support guy that I have ALWAYS had double-paned windows, he reverted to an even more lame response “Uh….looks like you have a router too.” Yeah, so what.
I have already cancelled my service, but am trying to get the early termination fee waived. The last support person I spoke with basically tried to tell me that it was a lost cause. What a bunch of f*cking crooks….
By izlude on Jun 27, 2007 | Reply
your prices are way off. they wouldn’t rip you off if you people actually took the time to RESEARCH WHAT YOU BUY BEFORE YOU BUY IT. you are all victims of your own stupidity.
By Jae Peterson on Jun 27, 2007 | Reply
Clearwire’s underhanded business practice, BEWARE:
Buried in their Clearwire “Terms of Service” in section 31 on page 20 of a 27 page “agreement” is a provision that if you need to terminate your internet access service for any reason, including moving to a locale where they don’t even provde service(!) you will be charged an early termination of fee of anywhere between $180-$220!!!
This was never made “clear” to me when I was sold their service by an overly-eager young salesman and was not made “clear” until I needed to cancel our service due to a move to a new area. In all of my years as a customer of utlitity type services including ISPs, I have never been subject to a fee for needing to cancel a utility service due to a move. This is outrageous! I plan to dispute this policy.
By Jae Peterson on Jun 27, 2007 | Reply
Izlude: Please inform me as to the last time that you read and fully understood every piece of information in a 27 page “Terms of Service” agreement for an online or ISP service. Yes, we all need to heed the consumer beware maxim, but Clearwire’s practice is exploitative. I forgive you for your negative comment.
Ethics applies to both business and personal transactions. Clearwire borders on unethical business practices for failing to fully inform potential customers of their unique cancellation clause for an ISP. Consider again that they do not even offer service to where I’m moving, yet they want to hold me accountable to their cancellation clause.
By DUH! on Jun 30, 2007 | Reply
Hey There Jae…when you set up your internet did you set it up for where you live presently, or where you were moving to? It was at your sole discretion that you moved, how can you feasibly hold Clearwire accountable for YOUR actions???
By scott key on Jul 2, 2007 | Reply
I complained, they credited my credit card, and then rebilled me the entire amount. Clerical error…I think not.
By Yo Daddy !!!! on Jul 6, 2007 | Reply
It does not matter what type of service you have, someone it gonna cry about it. First, READ before you SIGN !!! If ya gonna cry later, than take the time to read what you are signing, PERIOD !!!!!
Y’all wanna cry about Clearwire while the company is looking to bring technology to the market that none of the cable/dsl companines are looking at. True, there may be some issues, but many are brought on by YOU!!!!! Why complain about a TOS (Terms of Service) or AUP (Acceptable Use Policy) after you sign? If you are tooooo lame to read in the beginning, then don’t complain later.
Why blame Clearwire, or any other business, for you being a slack ass idiot? The TOS and AUP are right there for your reading. If you don’t like the price, then don’t sign up !!!! I also know for a fact that Clearwire will not charge the ETF if they are not able to get you adequate signal to the wireless modem!!!!
I would also bet that many of you crybabies are upset because you can’t get your Bit Torrents and P2P programs to download illegal music and software!!!!
And for ports, if you have a LEGIMATE port opening need, it can be done. But remember it has to be LEGIT, like a Vonage phone!
So y’all just keep being dumb and cry on….I would bet the Clearwire is not the first time y’all have been crying cause you did not do what you should have in the beginning !!!!!
Outta here….ya cry babbies !!!!!
By Jae Peterson on Jul 13, 2007 | Reply
“Yo Daddy!!!”I find it curious that you, and others who also resort to name-calling, are so emotionally invested in a public discussion regarding Clearwire’s slippery consumer practices. You do not know the specifics of the sales offer that was pitched to me over the phone by a Clearwire representative, nor do you know the specifics of my contract. I have expressed my discontent with Clearwire’s customer service so that others will be more mindful of the fact that they do not follow commonly accepted and standard business practices as an ISP. I have never encountered any ISP that allowed a clause such as “terminating for any reason” to also include moving to a location where that ISP does not provide service. If Clearwire presented their terms more clearly and also defined them upfront (i.e. “this includes moving to an address where we do not provide service”) perhaps former customers wouldn’t have contracted with them as an ISP. If Clearwire can stand by their terms of service, then they should more clearly present them. Let’s see, mid-way through section 31 of the terms of service that aren’t presented until one registers their Clearwire email is upfront, right? Huh? I’m investing my time in sharing my thoughts on this particular web site so that other potential customers will, indeed, know what they’re getting into. And you? What’s your motive?
By TL on Jul 13, 2007 | Reply
[URL=http://www.speedtest.net][IMG]http://www.speedtest.net/result/154331865.png[/IMG][/URL]
Thanks clearwire for crappy speeds
By Jae Peterson on Jul 16, 2007 | Reply
An enlightening article appears in today’s NY Times online that speaks to the issue of pseudonyms and anonymity in online discussion boards. Written by Brad Stone and Matt Richtel, “The Hand That Controls the Sock Puppet Could Get Slapped,” reveals the common practice of companies or others defending themselves online from criticism under the guise of being your everyday Joe internet user. I take this into account when replying to critics who don’t use their true identity. What’s in it for you?
The New York Times
July 16, 2007
The Hand That Controls the Sock Puppet Could Get Slapped
By BRAD STONE and MATT RICHTEL
SAN FRANCISCO, July 15 — On the Internet nobody knows you’re a dog — or the chief executive of a Fortune 500 company.
Or so thought John Mackey, the chief executive of Whole Foods Market, who used a fictional identity on the Yahoo message boards for nearly eight years to assail competition and promote his supermarket chain’s stock, according to documents released last week by the Federal Trade Commission.
Mr. Mackey used the online handle “Rahodeb†(an anagram of his wife’s name, Deborah). In one Internet posting sure to enter the annals of chief-executive vanity, Mr. Mackey wrote as Rahodeb, “I like Mackey’s haircut. I think he looks cute!â€
READ MORE: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/16/technology/16blog.html?th&emc=th
By Former CW emp on Jul 18, 2007 | Reply
Well, where do I begin. First, the idea behind Clearwire is brilliant! Internet with no phone lines and no cable connections! Awesome! Perhaps devoping WiMax first would have been a better approach. The technology that everyone here is complaining about is called Expedience. Think or i in terms of the early cellular phone networks. So what everone is bitching about is a first generation product. Once WiMAx is launched, (Salt Lake is on pce for an early Fall launch) try the service again. I will not go into the details of WiMax, you found this site so Google it and see for yourself.
Yes, Clearwire does oversell it’s network. It is not done intentionally. There is such a high pressure put on the Account executives to sell that often “BAD” sales are made. These are sales 5 miles outside the coverage area or places that the service is known not to work. This is where many of the seasoned markets find themselves now. They have hit a high penetration level and now truly find themelves in direct competition with cable or DSL. And it the market is oversold and speeds start to suffer cable and DSL have the upper hand.
It is to the point in this market where more people air the complaints to the AE’s then want to sin up for service. The bigger problem is that management could care less. The company used to have a different attitude! When Clark Peterson was the VP of Sales for the company thefocus was on the customer and making quality sales. In fact the compan even cared about the sales reps. The majority of issues began when Jim Ryder was named the VP of sales. The company went from a customer freindly attitude to a make the sale at any cost atmosphere.
There used to be some market flexibility in waiving the ETF, post Jim. Now forget it, even if you are serving our country and have been deployed, nope, pay up. It also created a used car sales approach within the orgaization. I could not take it, I like to be honest and hated lying to customers about how great the service was. I am 500 ft away from an oversold tower, I get 5 lights and have a top speed of 400k to give you an idea! Mangemnt saw the tower issue ver a year ago and still has done nothing about it.
I could go on and on, but I can not. My new customer focused job is calling so I must go.
If there are typos I appoligize, my keyboard doesn’t work half the time.
By Steelbed45 on Jul 19, 2007 | Reply
Yo Daddy States “I also know for a fact that Clearwire will not charge the ETF if they are not able to get you adequate signal to the wireless modem!!!!
That’s the thing…what is “adequate” signal? I was getting five lights, but my download speed was 8Kb/second. Clearwire responded that my contract said they would provide UP to 1.5 mb. After two weeks of this, I had to get another ISP. (I work at home.) I was charged $200 ETF as well as another month after I had cancelled and returned the modem.
So, according to Clearwire, providing speeds slower than a phone line modem is no excuse for cancellation. Lesson learned.
By PETE STROUP on Jul 21, 2007 | Reply
Be very careful when subscribing to Clearwire. Be sure to read all the fine print in the contract. I am trying to cancel my service and they are telling me that I will be charged a $189.00 early termination fee. Supposedly, in the fine print somewhere, it states that your contract automatically renews every year, and you will be hit with an early termination fee if you cancel mid-term. I was also told I would receive an email containing a UPS shipping label for returning the modem. After 2 attempts still have not received it. Service is only considered “terminated” when they receive the modem. If you can’t send it back, you can’t terminate the service. Be very, very careful. If the service was worth anything they wouldn’t make termination such a difficult and expensive process.
By New Clearwire Customer on Aug 10, 2007 | Reply
A response to “Yo Daddy!!!”
Uhm, I have a legitimate reason for wanting some ports opened. I want to be able to host games on Starcraft, and for some reason, I am unable to. I don’t even know hot to configure my Clearwire modem. And before you point fingers and flame me or others some more, I am NOT using a router. it’s plugged directly into my computer.
A response to “Steelbed45″
My connectivity with Clearwire is very random and unstable… at times I can be getting a decent speed, at other times, my speed is lower than that of a 28.8K dial up modem. And yet, I’m smack dab in the middle of Clearwire’s service area, right in Downtown Seattle. 5 lights are ALWAYS displaying, so what the hell’s the deal with this slow connectivity? Doesn’t make any sense to me.
Does anyone know how to configure Clearwire modems so that I may open up some ports?
By Corin on Sep 8, 2007 | Reply
I agree with Jae. We were specifically told by our Sales Rep that if we moved to an area that Clearwire did not cover, the Early Termination Fee would be waived. Now, the sales rep is denying that and we are getting charged the fee any way. My question is… why would we have signed up for a two year contract with a company that might not have coverage in an area we were moving to if we knew we were going to have to cancel the service…and in turn they would have to charge us the Early Termination Fee? This makes no sense. It makes just as much sense as us shooting a hole in our own feet.
I’ve listed a complaint with the BBB, but who knows what will happen. Good luck to the rest of you out there.
By working at clearwire now on Sep 26, 2007 | Reply
dont ever work for clearwire you will never move up and everyon is a snake in sales every man for himself
By Rob on Nov 8, 2007 | Reply
I am a employee of a major retailer that sells clearwire. Its a big deal at our store. I had cable at my apartment but found I could get clearwire at a discount so it was a better deal.
I signed up and had my manager sign a employee VOE doc. This was then given to the clearwire rep for her to fax into the billing dept.
My rate was about was $25.31 and I assumed this was my discounted employee rate but later found it was the introductory rate. After 3 months my rate went to $42.31.
My employee discount was never added and my documentation needed to be faxed in again. We did this a second time but the rate was never changed and the over billed amount wasnt refunded. Myself and my fellow employees hear about this great discount we can get if we sign up but havent seen it on our bills.
I have done everything clearwire has asked to validate my employment and nothing has happend over 8 weeks. They continue to ask me to fax in another employee VOE but my manager, fellow employees and myself feel this is enough.
Other than the clearwire rep I am the only employee in the store that knows how to sign customers up to clearwire. I didnt realize until now that ive been signing all these customers up and she is getting the commision.
I used to sign up about 3-4 a week (apparently this is high turnover). Now anyone who askes about clearwire I quickly tell them not to sign up as do 3 others in my department who have similar situations.
I still have clearwire and am in the process to cancel. I wouldnt have a problem with clearwire and would recomend to customers if they simply update my account.
By current cw employee...soon to be former! on Nov 24, 2007 | Reply
I am currently an employee for CW…after reading this entire thread, I have to say, I have witnessed ALL of these scenarios in the short time I have been with the company. I hate selling this product now, because the way the company and my management does business is very disappointing. I feel embarrassed to be selling the product…and find it difficult to lie directly to a customer’s face. Which, by the way, is exactly what I’m told to do by my manager. I believe I read somewhere on this page, that CW likes to point the finger at its employees for poor sales and tons of cancellations…they most certainly do! It is absolutely ridiculous. I cannot wait to get away from this company!
By Been There...by former employee...central texas on Jul 9, 2008 | Reply
I am a former employee of Clearwire. And just about everything that I’ve read on this post has been true. There were several of us that worked in the Central Texas Area. Really top notch people were hired….at first. We had a really good boss and we were very customer focused. The team was #1 in the country. We all felt we were servicing the client and provinding a good service.
Then things “shifted”. And everything changed. And yes, lot’s of pointing the finger instead of just taking care of business. Alot of promises were made and mostly broken. There’s still a few snakes in the pit there now. Only the snakes are disguised. Be careful. And don’t think that snake won’t bite. It has fangs and venom.
By Sandra on Jul 11, 2008 | Reply
I am a former employee of Clearwire and they can not keep employees due to retention trying to save the customer from cancelling their service. I had to try and save the customer offering them free months, asking if they knew someone to take over the service or going over the eary termination fee. If we could save the customer we would get a bonus. I did not want to lie to the customer anymore so I walked out. There is no structure and balance with this company and the service sucks. If you are under a contract no matter if you move outside the coverage area you still have to pay the early termination fee or get someone to take over the service and no one wants to put this contract on anyone else. The company will never get better until they get professional people to run it. They come in wearing flip flops and shorts. Karaoka singing all day long and you can not hear what the customer is saying and they think you really do not care about them and their problems. For that many people calling in to cancel their service something is wrong somewhere and they need to fix it or get out of business. I think Sprint and other companies investing their money in this company really needs to investigate to what is really going on. I will never work for this company again out of Milton, Florida
By leek on Jul 21, 2008 | Reply
I had hope in Clearwire, and signed up for them last Friday. Then I discovered reception was too spotty (2 LEDs max), and speed was unreliable (32 KB/s common, especially after the first few seconds of a 10 MB download — apparently they’re intentional throttling it).
I chatted with 24-hour support over the weekend, inquiring about cancellation of service and explaining that I already tried to move the modem around. I asked whether the early termination fee would be applied. They said I could call Monday to cancel service, that there would be no early termination charge within the 7 day period, and that a UPS label would be emailed me to mail back the modem.
Today I called the customer care number mentioned by the chat support person, and entered the touch tone codes for cancellation of service in their automatic phone menu system.
About 6 minutes later, someone finally answered, but despite my indicating through the touch-tone menu that I wanted cancellation of service, he acted like a “first tier” support person who wanted to make sure I followed all the steps toward improving reception. According to him, 2 LEDs is considered “good reception”
After I convinced him that I was serious about canceling, he said that he would transfer me to the account services department, which is where I wanted to go all along.
After waiting on hold another 5 minutes, a woman answered and tried to convince me to let them troubleshoot it with me. I told her that I was not near the modem (I was at work), and that I had already packed it up to be shipped back. I explained that I lived on the first floor of an apartment and that there were trees nearby. She said she searched Google maps and saw the trees. She suggested that by doing something on their end, and then recycling power on my end, that we could establish a better connection. I told her no thanks — I had already decided to cancel.
Desperately, she asked, “You’re not going to give us a chance to fix your technical problem?”. At that point, I told her that I already chose a different provider. She then asked whether it was because of the price or because of the reception problems, and I told her it was because of the reception problems (as if that wasn’t already obvious). She did some things on her end while I was put on hold, and she finally said that she would email me a UPS label to mail back the modem. She sounded sad that I did not stay with Clearwire.
The pressure they’re under to keep customers, must take its toll on them.
By Ron on Aug 12, 2008 | Reply
I am canceling my service in 18 days when my year is up to avoid the early termination fee, and couldn’t be happier. For two weeks straight my reception shows four bars, yet my connection speed is so terrible that if I try loading two pages at once I will get timed out of both of them. My ping has always been an unacceptable 150 ms with frequent spikes up to several seconds. I’m embarrassed to admit they are my provider. I wouldn’t be surprised when clearwiresucks.com is “blacklisted” and they take the liberty of throttling more of my traffic. Liberate tuttume ex Clearwire!
By Ron on Aug 12, 2008 | Reply
Oh and I forgot, Jae, that is a pretty name.
By also been there on Oct 1, 2008 | Reply
I am a former employee too. I reported not only that I was being cheated out of my commission but the GM was committing fraud (reporting sales that were earned at one store to another store and inflating numbers) to the DSM. Two weeks later, I was fired by the GM on my day off. He harassed me by phone before I picked up (like 7 times he called in a 3 hour period). I was told that I wasn’t needed anymore. I told him that I needed to pick up my stuff from the store the next day and he seemed nervous over that. I went there and found out that the store had switched management. It was reported to unemployment that I “had been uncoachable and unable to preform my duties”. I was below their minimums but had a high close rate since hardly anyone came to the store that I had worked at by myself.
By Stephanie on Oct 4, 2008 | Reply
I signed up for Clearwire in July of 2007. The service was fine and then out of nowhere we atarted having outages. We have telephone and internet so we lost everything. I called technical support and the first person we got said there was definitely a problem. Our modem was just bouncing and that was why we were having problems. Another tech got on the phone and said that we just needed to move the modem around. Why do I have to move the modem around? I have never had to move a modem around the house to get service. I am ready to put it on the roof!! I am going to cancel my credit card so they can’t get another dime out of me and report this to the BBB & Virginia Attorney General. I have been paying for a service for months that I have not had. I work from home and the connection is so slow that I can’t connect to my company’s server. I have to go to someplace with free wifi to work. Tired of the headache.