Pending Fraud Investigation of Clearwire Employee suspended my service – User Submission

I realize this is quite long but it is most definitely a story worth reading if EVEN THINKING ABOUT GETTING SERVICE WITH CLEARWIRE!

I am a recent Clearwire customer (signed up end of January of 2008) noticing that it was considerably cheaper with their featured promotion than other competitors in the area. I signed up for the premium service with the first 3 months being free, after that it was to continue on a two year contract at the regular price of 36.99 per month plus the lease charge for the modem. The associate at the retail store in my area on a sleepy Sunday afternoon was really helpful, made the process really simple, but there would later be a serious problem (see below.) When completing the computer application at the store, the credit check was showing I had no credit, funny since I’ve had multiple utilities in this specific area in my name in just the recent year with perfect payment history! The associate told me it was a common problem and that he would use his manager’s name and info to start my account, that I would just need to call him the following day to have it changed back to my name. This seemed legit, I would trust in a “professional” retail setting that if a sales representative were to use his manager’s info in opening an account he would certainly know what he was doing, for fear of losing his job! He used all of my billing information and I received my modem and happily went home to get ‘online’. I was so surprised how simple the whole process was that I thanked myself for not deciding to get local cable service –BIG MISTAKE.

I repeatedly called the rep’s number in the following weeks, and since he never answered, ended up leaving him multiple voicemails about changing the name on the account. I figured this is something he would be eager to do – apparently not. After a month or so I decided maybe it wasn’t a big deal since all the payments were drafting fine out of my account, but it still seemed fishy to me. A week or so ago I went back to the store to reconcile the problem and found a big surprise. The rep who signed me up had been terminated for apparently setting up multiple accounts with “his manager’s name and info” which actually turned out to belong to some other individual, someone who didn’t even work for Clearwire and was being investigated for fraudulent actions. The sales rep on this day told me he really could not get into specifics but took all of my info and said he would pass it on to his manager. The next day I received a call from someone in my “local market” as they called it who was looking over my account.

Let me first of all say that not once did anyone from the Clearwire sympathize or apologize for any of this inconvenient mix-up on behalf of their terminated employee or actively try do anything, especially one employee in the fraud investigation department, Tony whom I spoke with today(I’ll get into this later) who accused me of not wanting to cooperate with the process! This “local market” guy asked me to confirm my information (SS# etc that I had given at the store the day before) to double check the validity. He said he would have to pass it on to the fraud investigation department located in Las Vegas and they would be dealing with it from here out.

Guess what?!! I go to get on the internet last night around 10:15 ET and instead of my Google homepage I get a Clearwire page asking me to click to continue where it prompts me that my account is suspended. HAH! So I dig out my sign up info and call the 1-888-Clearwire line where I find that the 24 hour technical support promised in my document is actually only available from 9 am to 10 pm what a crock! This is bogus and made me really angry. Not even a warning that my account would be shut off or “suspended.” Well I decide to be persistent and choose different departments in the menu until I receive someone in the cancellation department (His name is Alphonso and as far as I can tell he is the only helpful employee I have encountered at Clearwire.)

After holding multiple times and him talking to his supervisor he gets me connected for a temporary 24 hour period asking me to please call the fraud dept the next day when they OPEN. He said that because it was under investigation my modem had been deactivated, again he could not be specific about anything and was afraid he might even be fired until he got his supervisors permission to connect me! Thanks Alphonso you renewed my faith in this company for about three hours.

Then I’m at work this morning, I was planning on calling tonight, when I get a call from Tony in the Fraud investigation department from Clearwire, it is from an out of area phone number but I had no way of knowing who I was actually talking to! He wants me to give him my social security number and birthday. I DON’T THINK SO BUDDY. I asked him to let me call him back through the Clearwire 888 number so I could verify who I was actually giving my identity away to. He got a little upset and asked why I didn’t want to cooperate AHHHHH! What is wrong with these people? He reluctantly gives me his extension and hangs up. I try repeatedly to call him back in the next half hour no luck. I try to get different reps in sales to connect me with him, but it seems that he’s not picking up.

He finally calls me back apologizing for missing all of my calls, saying his phone “messed up” and proceeds to get my info. After asking me questions about how I knew the person whose name the account had been in I kept explaining that it was supposed to be a Clearwire manager and he tells me that its actually not. I told him repeatedly that I wanted some sort of info as to what was going to be done with my account, after some prodding, he chose to put it back in service while the investigation continues( it’s not like I’m paying for it or anything right!?!?). He tried repeatedly to ask me why I knowingly used another person’s name to start the account ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?! I didn’t do squat, the rep typed everything he needed to into the computer that Sunday afternoon and I thought he was just doing his job to make me a satisfied customer. When asked how they planned on reconciling the problem or smoothing things over on my end for the hours spent on the phone for something one of their EMPLOYEES did, he said nothing would most likely be done. Lets not even mention that I may have to potentially be involved in this serious fraud investigation!

He also stated that if he were to give me his personal opinion of my end result, which of course he wouldn’t, it would not be a positive one. So here I sit waiting to see if this atrocious monger of a company will help me or leave me in the dark I FEEL SORRY FOR ANYONE THINKING ABOUT STARTING SERVICE WITH CLEARWIRE don’t do it! And don’t even get me started with their billing SKETCH to say the least.