Thoughts of a former tech support representative – User Submission

Let me first start by saying that I have never personally used any Clearwire/Clear services and I will never use any of them, nor will I endorse the products for any member of my family. I have however worked providing technical support from the Clearwire call center located in Florida and did so for two years. The first year was one of expectations for a growing company and many of the complaints I read on the internet I brushed off as growing pains. This last year has been something completely different though.

Before I begin, let me first say that in my experience, Clearwire does indeed employ some of the most tech savvy employees I have met……at least in the technical support department and at least up until recently. The billing department (which is outsourced) in NY leaves a ton to be desired, as does anyone in the “Account Services” department. When I began my employment, training class lasted for 3 weeks before you took a single call from a customer and was very in-depth. Now, most new employees receive 4 days to 2 weeks depending on call volume. New employees are coming into tech support and providing customers with inaccurate answers and misdirection when it comes to resolving problems. Also, the level of “technical” expertise of the reps is falling fast. It seems that the local tech pool is dwindling and it shows in some of the new hires that have no clue about computers.

A lot of changes have been occurring within Clearwire and as new markets are added and new towers are turned on the problems continue to grow. I feel sorry for anyone in the state of Texas. After the recent market upgrade from Clearwire to Clear most customers have been without service or have suffered “degraded” service for months. In some areas of Texas there is only a single tower and with it being down there is no solution for customers other then to accept an apology from reps and assume it will someday be resolved. As a tech rep our hands were tied most of the time. We are only able to give a max $25 credit to any customer, and with service on most accounts running $40-60 a month it was pitiful to say the least.

Most of us cared about our service and our customers and would bend over backwards to help. I have spent 2-3 hours on the phone with a customer or two on many occasions assisting with the setup of security software of routers, items that did not fall anywhere within the realm of what Clearwire is supposed to support. Why? Because I like people and want to help. This is the mentallity of most of the old timers with Clearwire, don’t ask a new employee to help you setup your router though.

In the last year I have been weighing heavily my options and decided long ago that this company has a poor product (Clear/Wimax), is moving it too quickly to the public, and only cares about the bottom line. I have watched as customer that had great connectivity with the Expedience service were switched to Clear and were no longer able to get a quality connection. I have had to tell too many customers that they are no longer going to be able to use the service, but deep in my heart I knew it was best for them to part ways because the service would not get better. These customers should count their blessings as some are getting poor service and are locked into service agreements and have to pay ETF (Early Termination Fee) to cancel. If you are one of the lucky few that gets a “Truck Roll” and poor service is confirmed (Speed/RF) then you can cancel without the ETF, but most are screwed.

One of the biggest problem areas with Clearwire/Clear is the use of “Indirect Dealers”, reps that are not Clearwire/Clear employees and just sell the service for them. The issue is that they are not trained in the service and are solely looking to make a profit so they sell it to anyone in any way they can. This on many occasions means they resort to lies and deception to complete the sale. Most sales persons (both direct and indirect) will falsify the customers service address so it qualifies the sale. The problem is that the customer then gets home and is unable to use the service or gets mediocre service at best. They are also lied to about trial periods, it is 7 days not 30 like some will tell the customer. Because of these false tales customers are screwed and the Account Services department will do nothing to help. Customers are being locked into contracts with no recourse other then to pay the ETF of wait out the contract, either way it costs money.

Bottom line is this……take it from someone that has been knee deep in the trenches supporting customers, if you want quality internet service you need to go with the tried and true cable or DSL service in your area. Avoid any type of wireless service until this country can unify some type of common network and bridge the services of all providers. I hope that someday Clearwire can reach it’s goals and provide nationwide wireless internet that is reliable and cost effective, but in the mean time your money is better spent elsewhere.