Clearwire Sucks – User Submission by Raul A.
December 29th, 2008 | by Admin |I am frustrated with Clearwire and its scamming ways. I wish I had known that their internet bandwidth and speed sucked. I wanted to use Clearwire because I wanted to astray away from the big corporate internet service provider powerhouse (i.e. Comcast, qwest, etc), but going to the Clearwire route is probably the worst decision.
I went to one of their dealers (a small, postoffice shop that also sells bags, luggages, among other things) back in Dec. 2007. When I signed up for Clearwire, I was simply asked where my physical address was. The dealer punched my address in and he says I have coverage. I was informed about the $225 termination fee in the contract and I was promised that I should be getting great internet quality because I lived in the city.
A year later and about 10-15 calls later (since October 2008), my connection still sucks. They advise me to “move” my modem around so that it can pick other towers surrounding my area. I was told to go to speedtest.net to check my internet speed. My ping is always high (at around 800 m/s) and my download and upload speed averaged about 300-500 kbps (not the 1.5 mbps that they usually advertise). Some “tech” personnel blame it on my computer, while some blame my modem.
I feel that I shouldn’t have to be stuck on a $225 termination fee because their service suck. I don’t want to have to pay $45 a month (including taxes) to be stressed out with my internet connection, to “move” my modem around to pick up the right connection and speed, and I certainly don’t want to pay them an extra $225 out of my pocket because I signed up for crappy Clearwire service.
I still have a year left and I’m debating whether or not I should just pay the $225 termination fee. I really don’t want to pay this out of pocket. I want to be able to get out of it soon, but I just don’t know how. Calling them is just soooo stressful and such an inconvenience. Is there any other way I can get out of the contract without paying the fee?
I’ve done my share by telling my friends and colleagues to not sign up with them.
4 Responses to “Clearwire Sucks – User Submission by Raul A.”
By Steve on Jan 4, 2009 | Reply
Hey tim. I have had clearwire for awhile now. My dad got us free clearwire because he was offered by a clearwire rep to give us free service if my dad let the clearwire people setup a kiosk in his shop. Let me just say this, even though we were getting it for free it is still awful internet.
The internet speed is dreadfully slow. I also found that the modem can never go where you want it to go. Our clearwire modem had to be in my room to get the best signal and it still rarely gets full bars. Very few time does it even reach the full five bars. I would have to say it stays around three. Also, the modem is by the window and not in the middle of the house otherwise the connection would be even worse. Add all of this up and the internet hardly ever reaches 100 kilobytes a second. This means that watching videos or downloading anything of any kind is dreadfully slow. Sometimes even just doing basic tasks like checking emails and surfing the net is beyond frustrating. The modem itself also loses connection and has trouble with my router and sometimes both have to be reset.
Now that my dad dosn’t have his shop anymore we don’t have free clearwire anymore. However, my dad decided to keep clearwire anyway. Now were paying around 30-something a month for this crap. The cable internet at college is way better than clearwire which I instantly noticed when I came back home this Christmas.
Although I don’t pay for the internet bill, I feel frustrated for those who do after reading other peoples stories on here because I know how bad it is. The cancellation fee is crap because 60% of the time clearwire fails every time. Its actually probably more like 100% of the time it sucks. Other internet providers are a tad more expensive. When I move out, I’ll find someway to get a more steady internet provider like cable. I think its better to pay more for something that will actually work instead of paying less for something that insists on being endless frustration.
By Steve on Jan 6, 2009 | Reply
Send them a letter explaining (send it to their corporate headquarters) their service isn’t fulfilling the promises made by their sales people and marketing literature and numerous phone calls to tech hasn’t solved the problem and that you want to cancel and the people in customer service are forcing you to pay a cancel fee, etc. Put a “cc” on the letter to the FCC, your state public service commission (regulators of phone service, etc.) and I bet you they take care of it in a hurry.
By keith jackson on Jan 7, 2009 | Reply
i have had clearwire close to 8 months and the service is lousy,1st my modem was broke so i had to send it back and pay for shipping and handling ,2nd time i could not get on the internet for about 2 weeks with no avail from customer service they told me it was my computer which i had checked and nothing was wrong with my computer,3rd it was my phoneline and the internet which i could not use my phone for 5 days,again they told me it was my modem and they would send me another modem and i had to pay for shipping and handling i am fed up with clearwire and need to know who to go to about this situation i do not want to pay for a cancelation fee
By susan nunn on Jan 20, 2009 | Reply
Argggh!
I have been periodically reading this site for awhile now but have only JUST had bad service ie the slowwwww internet to complain about…
But TODAY I am really torqued about Clearwire since I have just received a message from them telling me I owe $440+ dollars for my second year of so-called service!
They decided to bill me a whole year’s worth of bills in advance! Just because the nimrod who signed me up a year ago mistakenly put that in my contract even though I never saw that nor agreed to it. I have of course contacted them over and over before this when I saw that annual payment in my billing accounts. The customer service people ASSURED me it was corrected.
NEVER ASSUME you are communicating with honest “customer service” people when you are dealing with Clearwire!
I will never do business with any company that does not provide you with a contract on paper signed by a human again. Clearwire is its own best enemy. I don’t care if they have palled up with Sprint. Everyone of us that has been screwed by them will continue to WARN our friends and neighbors for YEARS about their rotten service and lies.
Bad press will haunt them into bankruptcy! Good riddance!
Wish me luck dealing with this BS tomorrow!