A Former Employee knows ALL TO WELL how badly Clearwire/Clear sucks!!!!! – User Submission by Lily H.
July 1st, 2009 | by Tim |Clearwire/Clear Wireless LLC is not only ripping off their customers, but they are also taking advantage of their employees as well. As a sales rep they encouraged me to work from 8:30am-10pm Monday thru Saturday. This equates to more than 80 hours a week. However, salaried employees are only paid for 80 hours a pay period. Pay periods are bi-monthly. Some managers would argue that commissions would make up for the other pay that was lacking in our salary, however, ask anyone who works on commission from Clearwire/Clear whether or not the 160+ hours put in during a two week period of time was compensated to them in their pay. I guarantee that not one employee making a commission from Clearwire/Clear will say they are happy with their comp plans. Not only that, but in the seven months that I worked for the company they changed the pay structure ONCE A MONTH!! And never in the favor of the employees. It was only in the favor of the fat cats sitting in the comfy leather chairs at their giant oak desks up in corporate. I was even a Senior Level Sales Rep but was on track to make only $41K in my first year. A far cry from the $75+K salary that I was enticed with when I was hired. Not only that, but I was also told that I would receive 6 paid holidays off a year. New Year’s, Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas. The only days that I did receive off was Thanksgiving and Christmas, and we were still encouraged to close deals on those days. We were told for all the other holidays that “Sales doesn’t get those types of holidays off.” However, that was NOT told to me when I was hired. I found out the day before New Year’s Day that I was expected to work.
WARNING: Don’t believe the hype that Clear WiMAX is better than the Clearwire Expedience network!! This is simply not true! While speeds are slightly better, it is only better for those who live within a 1/2 mile of the tower (not the 1.5 mile radius that they claim). The Clear Home Phone service is TERRIBLE no matter where you live. The call quality to absolutely horrible! I was given the service free of charge as an employee and the only thing that it was good for was to have it forward to my cell phone. I tried to call E911 when my son had knocked over out BBQ in the backyard, and the operator could barely understand what was going on. When the fire department did show up they thought my kitchen was on fire not my backyard. That is how terrible the call quality was. And I lived 0.64 miles from a tower.
Ask yourself this one question: Are you 100% sure that you were told that you would be signing up for a 2-year agreement??? That is the problem that so many customers are faced with. My biggest issue with Clear was I would observe my fellow co-workers completely avoiding letting the customer know that they signed up for a two-year CONTRACT! They use friendly words like “agreement” to mask the truth that they were locking you in for 2 years. If you moved out of the coverage area there was no break for you, unless you had decided to sign up for the military.
They hire people just to fill positions, not caring if they are reputable people with good moral character. They burn on their employees, and have the highest turn around rate of any job I have ever had. Even when I was a server in college I didn’t see this much turn around. After 7 months I had the most seniority of anyone in my department, EVEN MY MANAGERS!!
I erge everyone from the bottom of my heart; TELL EVERYONE YOU KNOW THAT CLEARWIRE/CLEAR IS ABSOLUTELY THE WORST SERVICE TO SIGN UP FOR! Clear does not care about you, does not care about me, and is only concerned with turning a profit!!
I now extend my deepest regret to anyone that I signed up for service!! I would never have begun my first day at Clear if I would have known that they were so horrible to people!! Please forgive me if I was the one who signed you up. Just know that if you did sign up for Clear from me that I was as up front and honest about how I conducted business as I could have been.
Lily H
31 Responses to “A Former Employee knows ALL TO WELL how badly Clearwire/Clear sucks!!!!! – User Submission by Lily H.”
By gns100 on Jul 7, 2009 | Reply
Interesting, $41K annual salary divided by 52 weeks is $788 a week. Based upon 80 hours per week, the hourly rate (including OT premium of 1.5 for the 40 OT hours) would be $7.88. Although above the federal minimum wage of $6.55 ($7.25 after Jul 24, 2009), it is below certain state minimum wages (for instance WA state minimum wage of $8.55). If your state minimum wage is higher than the $7.88 you may have a case through the labor department, which should be faster than any class action court case…
By Lily H on Jul 9, 2009 | Reply
I live in Oregon, where the minimum wage is $8.40. I have not considered contacting the labor department, but that is probably the best move that I could make at this point.
By david r on Aug 5, 2009 | Reply
i signed up to the mobile service and was less than 1 mile from tower and could’nt get service unless i went outside and elevated the front of my laptop. still only could get 1 maybe 2 bars.i was never told about the 7 day trial. then when i did’nt continue service [ month to month contract ] they still wanted cash. they can go f— themselfs. i would use them again if they were free. f— y– clearwire !!!!!!
By Tech on Sep 7, 2009 | Reply
ive been having clear since 8/01/09 it was perfect fast as hell i was like hell yea then on 8/05/09 started slowing downs i use to get 5 to 7 mps then went to 3 to 4 mps then i was getting under 1mps all day all night now i get under 200 kb only at night i get the 5 to 7 mps but in day 200 kb i been reporting this issue since the 5 and they say there wrking on it and nope they send a technition to my home and didnt do crap at all then today i called techsupport and ask if they were gonna fix it and they say they dont have an eta at all teh weird part i bought a sprint 3g4g card almost 2weeks ago and that modem since i bought it it goes over 10 mps never gone under at all the most i get is 12 to 16 mps every where i go and my clear i get 200kbs and i have full five bars on clear and on my sprint version i get 2 bars and i still get mps
By Charles on Sep 10, 2009 | Reply
I can attest to what Lily has to say about working for Clear. I too was employed, albeit for only a month, by Clearwire in Portland. The organization is incredibly shady and encourages many underhanded tactics. Within the first month, upwards of 50% of their initial sales staff had quit due to a bait and switch by the recruiters. When hired, I was told I would be a business to business account representative. Upon my starting, they had me going door-to-door to sell service to residential customers. Not only was this not what I signed up for, but they expected me to do it during one of the worst blizzards in the history of Portland where we got close to 18 inches of snow in just over 24 hours.
When I went to my grandparents’ house to see if service worked for them, they only had one bar of service. I called my manager, and he told me to sell it to them anyway!!! They legitimately expected me to sell a service that did not work to my own grandparents.
Long story short, Clearwire as a corporation sucks. Their service is inferior and will soon be dominated by LTE from Verizon. I can’t wait to see them fall flat on their faces!
By Patrick on Sep 25, 2009 | Reply
I worked for Clear in Atlanta. They treat their employees worse than they do their customers. The only reason Clear has contracts is because they know the service degrades to the point is unusable. While working, we were heavily pressured to make sales. My manager would encourage us get “sympathy” sales by door knocking in the rain. It was awful. They lie about the pay and the lie about the product.
By Brian on Oct 15, 2009 | Reply
I have had clear for about 8-9 months. At this point I would rather have dial up, atleast than I could connect. It started with great service and good speeds. I had no complaints. I was told that I could use unlimited amounts of bandwidth and quickly found out that was not encouraged. I got a phone call from a service tech that told me I needed to use half of what I was using or I would be cancelled and still be stuck with the bill. Since that time I have reduced my useage but now am encountering severe service issues. My connectivity is limited at best. On a 24 hour period I will have 45 minutes of network useage. When I call they tell me weather issues have caused outages and it will resolve soon. It is never resolved. Unfortunatly I signed a contract and have to wait another year before I can cancel or pay the money to be rid of the worst internet provider currently available.
By JimO on Oct 15, 2009 | Reply
Same experience. Got the service in spring of 2009. Bandwidth consistently in the 4.5-my speeds have dropped to anywhere between 0.3-2.5Mbps – mostly stuck below 1.0Mbps. VOIP is often barely usable. Something changed . .. I sure would like to know what.
By estrella on Oct 20, 2009 | Reply
Hi Patrick, I am estrella i just recently saw your comments on clearwiresucks.com. I recently haven’t paid my clearwire service and they keep calling me. What should i do just ignored them or call them back and pay them the cancelation fee. Does it affect your credit really bad or maybe? I hope you are able to answer my questions. Thank you
By atl on Nov 11, 2009 | Reply
I’m also in atlanta. After seeing many advertisements and commercials about Clear now providing service, I called them several times. I say “several” because each call was met with so much ignorance about their advertised price “specials” that I would hang up in frustration, usually after being told I was “wrong” about the prices advertised.
Additional calls were equally met more ignorance about advertised specials, or outright conflicting information. Also they continually tried extorting personal information by actually stating that they have no ability to even give me general publicly advertised rate information unless I give them my full name, addresss, phone number, and preferences about which service I’d “like to sign up for”. At several points their representative actually told me that she could not give me any general rate information until a credit check was run!! Previous calls had a representative confirm that a credit check was not even required for service! (could be month to month) When I confronted the rep on this, she began giving me excuses, lots of info that conflicted with what other reps had said, and eventually began to interrupt whatever I said and finally told me to stop interrupting her interruptions!! A request to a supervisor didn’t go any better, as he dismissed my concerns as “wrong”. He then continued to refuse to simply give me an answer to my original question about how much the general rate was, and then began blaming me “I gave you an opportunity for me to help you”. He then continued to blab excuse after excuse about how corporately fragmented the advertising company is from the national company from each local city company, etc, etc. as why my experience in getting information was “confusing” (as he admitted). I was left feeling misled, disrespected, and insulted. I hung up as he continued to rant about one excuse to another, never even answering my question about how much a mobile rate would cost. They seem more like they are just trolling for personally identifying information than being an actual internet provider.
By james abel on Nov 18, 2009 | Reply
estrella…….I suggest you do what i did. The switched me to a 2 year contract without even letting me know. I kept callin them and calling them and tellin them it was total bs what they was doing and that i was not gonna pay the deactivation fee. I told them go back an listen to the taped convo i never asked to be in a two year contract. an finally i told them i would contact the better business bureau and then file a law suit and finally they droped the fee
By Jeff V on Dec 16, 2009 | Reply
FUCK Clear! I helped Clear launch in Chicago. Clear fired me after 37 days. I am Black and I was ranked 5th in the middle of 10 Sales People. They fired me and kept 3 other people that happened to be white that had less sales than I had for the only 1 month that they had to judge us on. Furthermore, I concur with the unethical practices mentioned in other blogs, here are some of the things we were encouraged to do in Chicago by management and Upper Management: 1. Go into Toys r us on Black Friday at 12 AM and 4 AM and sell Clear Services to the people in lines. 2. Pitch Clear tables and attempt to sell places before recieving a permit ( we were never told who would pay these fines if we were ticketed or arrested. 3. Pay 50 cents to open newspaper boxes, then put our flyers in the newspapers.4. Work from 8:30 AM-10:00 PM without extra pay (this coming from an employee that worked there after I was fired.
After 2 weeks into our first month of selling the product, we were asked to sign a probation or Action Plan stating that we would have to generate a certain amount of sales by a certain date or theres a chance we could be fired. Me and 1 other person were fired 2 weeks before the aforementioned date was reached. And Generally speaking the service itself is slow, the prices are not that great compared to cable. And if a person does any miniscule amount of reasearch on the clear services versus other services, clear is not better than anything else available in any aspect. Home internet? comcast, wow are faster. and who buys internet and phone alone without cable? well if you do, you just missed out on getting phone net and cable with comcast for cheaper. Fuck Clear
By jeloroc on Jan 4, 2010 | Reply
I find it interesting that a lot of people’s service was great until right about the time the trial period was up. I had the same experience…speeds were great for the first week. But has been sh*t after that. As a matter of fact I’m posting this from my phone because my Clear internet is out again.
By margo on Jan 6, 2010 | Reply
I think the word has finally gotten around. I got a sales call, at my WORKPLACE, today, from a very desperate sounding sales dude. He tried to tell me that there was a “special thank you promotion” going on for residents of Portland. When I told him I was going to disconnect, despite the nearly $200 early termination fee, he told me that I should buy the more expensive modem (or whatever its called) because the smaller mobile receiver wasn’t good enough. I was SPECIFICALLY told at purchase that I would have no connection troubles, and didn’t need to buy the larger home unit.
So, by insisting that I need to buy more equipment, they’re basically admitting that they lied about their promised service. The way I see it, they owe me FREE equipment.
I’m not getting what I’m promised, and I’m mad as hell.
By John on Jan 7, 2010 | Reply
i’m here in seattle on capitol hill where most residents have clearwire/clear since there is no comcast. I upgraded to Clear WiMax a few weeks ago and it was amazing…then after a few weeks, it disconnects constantly and went from 5 solid bars to anywhere between 1 and 3. I’ve called numerous times they say I am in excellent position with regards to 3 towers. Still waiting for it to work.
By Jonathan on Jan 13, 2010 | Reply
I am working for Clear right now, they just started here in dallas. They was looking for sell raps so they hired me on. But i have only been here for 3 days and already everything doesnt seem right. Like right now i am in the middle of Tom Thumb trying to sell internet to people… I dont understand there pay. And everything i have been reading seems like clear is crap. Should I stay with this job and see how it works out? or should i go ahead and quite and find a real job? Please keep in mind i have rent/bills to pay…
By Desaray Johnson on Jan 14, 2010 | Reply
If anyone is interested in filing a class action lawsuit against clear please reply to this post!!
By Elizabeth on Jan 19, 2010 | Reply
Since they already have my credit information, I guess I have to close the account, fax them my cancellation later so I have proof of having done so, and turn in my modem in person to one of their stores- WOW! What a hassle for such crappy service! And they are still going to hit me with a $200 cancellation fee?
By Ronnie on Jan 21, 2010 | Reply
so tell me why my ping is 1610.. d/l speed is 0.02mb and my upload is 0.01mb. what the fuck is this shit? and im still required to pay for this.. way i see it clear is not keeping up their end of the contract and i am not paying the cancelation fee.
It worked fine for about a week or two and then died.
By Larry on Jan 25, 2010 | Reply
Ping 1610? I have that one beat. Somehow I maintained a connection to the internet with a 4500ms ping.
That’s right. 4 and one half seconds.
Crazy thing about it was that I was in a “high coverage” area. But the one place it worked extremely well was in an area that supposedly had no coverage.
But that was Clearwire. I think it has since been taken over by Clear in the Seattle area. Clear seems to be better. I.E. my modem stays connected without having aluminium foil wrapped around it (don’t laugh, it worked for some reason). That boosted speeds up to 1.2-1.8Mbs. which was up from dead-250Kbs. Got tired of pirating my neighbours unsecured WI-FI. Which was Cox for the record. Did a speed test on that and if I ever get tired of Clear that is what I am getting.
Clear speeds generally range from 1.6-9.5Mbs depending on the hour. Obviously the 9.5 figure comes from late at night and because of the one good thing to come from my Clearwire contract. My plan was grandfathered into Clear as unlimited for life.
Other than that. You have my best wishes. I thought it was just me. Comforting to know that others felt similar pain. Maybe I should get a piece of this lawsuit lol.
By Cody on Feb 4, 2010 | Reply
I’ve had Clear for a little over a year, and the service has done nothing but gone downhill. I stupidly signed a 2yr contract and didn’t think about canceling it because the service was pretty decent through my 1 week “trial” period. NOW, I’m consistently getting less than 2mbs download speed, over 120ms ping, and less than 1mbs upload speed. Ironically, the service reps always seem in shock when I bitch…evidently I live “so close to a Clear tower that I should be seeing it from my window”. Online gaming is terrible with Clear…but my current studio apartment doesn’t have a cable and/or phone jack. Clear was my only option for internet. Thank god that I”m moving next week and I’ll be able to get REAL internet service. FYI, I’m on Clear’s “fastest” plan with the home modem.
By darplen on Feb 5, 2010 | Reply
Ok, I have had Clear for a few weeks. Basic is basic. You get what you pay for. I have the home modem service. And the service during peak times, when everybody and their Mother is on the internet, is shitty and very slow. You get a decent signal, but you have to up at 4 or 5 o’clock in the morning, when very few people are on their computers. It’s freak’s me out how the other companies such as Verizon, Comcast Or Sprint, just I mean absolutely fucking refuse to cut you any type of dea. Hell, I have been a Sprint Cell customer for almost 10 years and those SOB’s will not cut me any kind of break. Everybody is 60 and 70 dollars a month, that is over 700 to over 800 hundreds bucks a year. Hell fuck no, I am not paying that type of Money for no Internet access. They must be out of their fucking minds…………..
By chico on Feb 9, 2010 | Reply
i have to keep my modem outside my window , use googles DNS , and power cycle every day for 1.30 MBPS , i paid for up to 2.0 , battlefield has a HUGE lag & its annoying , my friend has played battlefield with at&t internet , he gets .50 MBPS , and no lag ever , i want to switch to comcast and get 20.0 MBPS.
By Stacy on Feb 18, 2010 | Reply
I have clear in Dallas. It is terrible. It is hard to get connected most of the time. And once you do, you get disconnected. I cannot use my internet phone. Doing anything on the internet is hard due to the disconnections. The rare time it worked was about 4am. The chat system to contact cust serv is a joke. I got disconnected 10x and had to start over with someone new each time. I started copying the chat and pasting it, and still got nowhere. Tried calling, but got hung up on and did not want to waste remaining cell minutes. I agree the tech or cust service seems shocked that you are having problems. I cannot believe it. I keep asking can’t you see how many times I’ve tried to connect? Now they said I need to contact the higher level tech support, but they are not in now. But I don’t think it will be any help. Just more of the same. I thought this would be such a good thing, should have checked this site first. But at least I don’t feel crazy or that it is only happening to me. Thanks everyone and good luck.
By Elizabeth on Feb 20, 2010 | Reply
OMG Clear has been such a scam! I signed up for phone service in order to bump my home and USB speed up, and my connection at home is even SLOWER! on top of that, I have called three times to straighten out my bill— the service was supposed to only be $5 more— Of course, there is no record of that and everytime I call to fix it, they appease me, saying it is fixed and then a few days later, NOTHING!!! I will NEVER recommend Clear to anyone!! CLEAR SUCKS!
By Ian on Feb 28, 2010 | Reply
I live in seattle capital hill, too. my mordern signal never goes above 3, mostly remain at 2, Dl speed its 1.xx, and Ul speed is around 0.0x, absoulty it doesn’t run that fast as CLEAR said, and the problem never get fixed. Sometimes i feel like i almost smash my modern, can any CLEAR employer tell me how much it is for a modern, i want to know if it is worthy to break it.
By J on Mar 6, 2010 | Reply
I think clear sucks
they suck at internet rare to connect and when i do it feels like dial up
they suck at support
they suck at service
they suck my time
they can suck my balls.
Sorry but they have wasted my time (about 128 hours now) my money ( $320)
And they have a shitty attitude
Im posting this everywhere so that hopefully i can pay them back by helping people avoid the headache it aint worth it.
Ill wait for LTE or google.
Location is chicago though
By J on Mar 7, 2010 | Reply
http://www.speedtest.net/result/740442515.png
unusually good result. but still shite
By BRENDA on Mar 8, 2010 | Reply
CLEAR SUKS….I NEED HELP GETTING MY MONEY BACK…
By Termo on Mar 8, 2010 | Reply
I propose a petition against Clear. I fucking wince when I see the word ‘clear’ right now, even though it applies to me in certain ways. Whoever made Clear Wimax is a dumbass. It has shitty service no matter what improvement you make. If you don’t already have it, don’t use it if you value your internet.
By Termo on Mar 8, 2010 | Reply
Thank goodness I don’t have it anymore.