Guilty of Harassment & Fraudulent Charges – User Submission by BJJ
September 22nd, 2011 | by Admin |We signed up for a ClearWire Internet account in July of 2011, and we were very clear with Clear that we expected the connection to support online gaming or we would be cancelling services. They told us not to worry because they had the fastest, most reliable Internet in town. Initially, the home connection worked okay—not ideal, but serviceable. However, in August 2011, we moved to a new location in a less-than-optimal coverage zone, and at that point the connection became horrible for online gaming. We were getting huge lag spikes and frequent disconnects whenever we logged into the game. We did everything that technical support told us to do and nothing worked. We began looking for a new ISP right away.
On top of this, we were signed up for their wireless roaming service. This service never worked. I tried the rover all over town, making sure I was in coverage zones first, and got nothing. Every time I called technical support, I was given a different story and it was clear that their technicians had no idea what was going on or why it was not working. In the two months that we had Clear, not once was I able to connect to the Internet with the wireless, roaming devices.
Earlier this month (September 2011), I called to cancel our service. I was told that normally they would charge $101 cancellation fees for each of our canceled services (home and roaming); however, since I was cancelling due to poor connectivity, they would waive these fees. A few days later, someone from ClearWire called me to confirm that the cancellation fees had been waived. They were so sweet and agreeable about the entire thing. Since they were being nice and we had used the home service for two months, I initially decided I wouldn’t contest the money we paid for the non-functional roaming service.
Then the phone calls started. Almost every day, I received an automated phone call from ClearWire telling me that I owed them $202 in cancellation fees and I needed to provide a credit card number so I could pay this. I spoke with a representative and told him these fees were supposed to have been waived and I wanted the phone calls to stop immediately. He said something about putting in a ticket about the fees. The phone calls continued.
These past few days, the phone calls have become more frequent. Yesterday ClearWire called me SEVEN TIMES. They are blowing up my phone and wasting my minutes. This would be harassment even if these charges were legitimate, which they are not. On the seventh phone call yesterday, I finally called ClearWire again and told them I wanted the calls to stop immediately. Their agent told me the calls would not stop until I paid the $202.
I have now filed complaints with the Better Business Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission. Tomorrow I am putting in the paperwork for a complaint with the Illinois Attorney General’s office. I spoke with a friend who is an attorney and he recommended that I send a cease-and-desist letter via certified mail, which I will be doing tomorrow. I’m debating whether or not to go ahead and contest the money that we paid for the non-functional roaming service. I will go so far as to have my bank perform chargebacks if I have to.
The sooner this horrible, horrible company goes out of business, the better.
BJJ—Chicagoland
22 Responses to “Guilty of Harassment & Fraudulent Charges – User Submission by BJJ”
By Denise DeLucia on Sep 23, 2011 | Reply
agreed. they told me today they don’t have a call center in America! as if – could it be? i keep getting over in India somewhere and no one can help me. twice they made promises they didn’t keep. twice they made unauthorized charges to me card! shame on clear!
By Jane on Sep 23, 2011 | Reply
Clearwire continues to call me 4 – 5 times EVERY day even though I canceled my services. They say I owe money (which I don’t, because I only paid in advance) and have told me I need to return my equipment (which I actually bought and own).
Calling their customer support department is extremely painful. They are completely unhelpful. I have contacted them 8 times in 3 days so far – and still keep getting their automated system calling me.
I was actually happy with the service, but just temporarily canceled as I didn’t need it for a few months. I planned to use it again in the future. No way now. This was excruciating.
By Fed Up in CT on Sep 28, 2011 | Reply
Today, Clear called 7 times. SEVEN. On a disputed $40 bill for a restocking after I cancelled due to slow speed and was told there would be no cancellation fee. These calls, now all robo calls, have been going on for weeks, normally 4-5 each day.
This would outrageous even if I owed the $40. It’s beyond outrageous that I don’t, and that it is impossible to even discuss it with anyone there. It is so totally abusive. Their technique is to sic robo calls on whomever they feel owes them money and harass them until they give up and just pay it.
Well, they may be about to get themselves sued. As it happens, Connecticut has a consumer protection statute that is similar to the Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. The federal act applies only to those who collect debts for others, like debt collection agencies. But the CT act applies to creditors, like Clear, that are seeking to collect debts allegedly owed to them. The Act prohibits a variety of abusive collection practices, including making harassing telephone calls. The test is a common sense one — whether a reasonable person would feel that the calls are harassing. Seven calls a day? Is there any doubt? The CT Act provides for compensatory damages, punitive damages and attorneys fees to a consumer who prevails in the action. It also provides enforcement powers to the CT Attorney General. I suspect that many other states have similar statutes on their books.
I intend to write Clear a letter and give it a chance to stop the calls. If they don’t, and I expect they won’t, they will leave with three choices: live with it indefinitely, pay the $40 just to stop the harassment, or sue them under the CT statute, as well as the Unfair Trade Practices Act, which prohibits unfair, deceptive and unscrupulous trade practices and also provides for awards of punitive damages and counsel fees.
I pay my bills and rarely wind up in disputes. But Clear is the worst, most offensive, most obnoxious company I have ever done business with, by far.
By Helen Harvey on Oct 1, 2011 | Reply
I am not a customer but they call my cell looking for a gil rivera and use up all my message time. I have called them and told them to stop calling me and they hang up on me. I do not know a gil rivera.
By Siobhan Lynch on Oct 2, 2011 | Reply
Same here – I am about to file a harassment complaint against them, anyone know who I do it to?
By c heeky on Oct 14, 2011 | Reply
same thing for me as with Admin. All day while I’m at work in meetings I get calls from this. I’ve wasted at least 500 minutes on trying to get them to understand me. I worry they will destroy my credit with this even though I cancelled on day 29. They harrass me so much and occassionally they say they will waive the cancellation fees. In the trial period it felt like I was on dial up modem from the 80s. It was awful. That’s why I cut it short.
I now want to sue for harrassment and the $44 initial fee + a worthless modem which I sent back + the $117 charges for cancelling the 2 year contract. Who do I contact to sue them for the charges and the harrassment? Please tell me if you have any clues. Please help if you have info that would be useful in this endeavor.
By c heeky on Oct 14, 2011 | Reply
I agree with you 100%, I put the phone on speaker phone at work the other day and usually they speak in broken english, but that day when they put their “supervisor” on he sounded like a druggie type and a couple of colleagues told me “seriously, that was no supervisor.” It’s the harrassment and threat to my good credit rating that makes me want to sue them. It’s almost like they want us to sue. I’d spend a lot to sue them just out of principal. It’s like the sleaziest company I’ve ever dealt with. Very odd.
By c heeky on Oct 14, 2011 | Reply
I get calls at 9AM, 12PM, 8:30PM and they seem to be increasing because after 3 weeks I’m upt to at least 6 calls a day sometimes it’s like 8.
By taylor on Oct 27, 2011 | Reply
i am thinking about get clear wire. my neighbor have clear and work perfect for his family. I see all of these complain. that made me think twice but i think it what area you live in. I live in the bronx. what area do you live in? I see everybody from L.A. Texas. North Greenboro. Not one person is from NYC..so if you live in NYC please tell me how it is?..B4 friday oct 26. 2011 thank you..
By Leeber on Oct 27, 2011 | Reply
Has anyone yet found a way to stop the telephone harassment from Clear? So far we’ve only received 185+ phone calls either telling us to pay our bill (service terminated and paid in full five months ago), or telling us we are lucky and can have our service restarted. We don’t bother answering any more. They simply promise to take care of things and stop there calls, but neither ever happens. How about we get together and sue? I’ll help.
By GoldBacon on Dec 2, 2011 | Reply
I cancelled my service and mailed back the equipment, and have been getting robo-called 3-6 times per day. I asked them to send me a bill, and the pushy Indian chick on the other end of the line explained in broken Engrish that they can’t do that, and that I need to “pay my debt urgently”! I tried going on to my account at clear.com to sign in and pay (to just get them to stop calling me) and it said my accoutn was cancelled (duh!) and to call customer “service”. Except when I call customer service I’m either placed on hold for 5-10 minutes, or (just now) their computer actually hung up on me because all agents were busy.
By marleeme on Dec 3, 2011 | Reply
I was a CLEAR customer and got email stating credit card expired. Added updated credit card and received email stating account updated and will be charged for service. No problem. I was overseas and left my US phone here. When I returned I had 64 phones calls and meeasges from other numbers from Clear ranging from 8am to 11pm in 5 days. I was pissed at thier harrassment and terroristic tactics that I cancelled my service. They know they were violating the law calling me 8-10 a days over a $47.00 bill.
By Dan Cullen on Dec 14, 2011 | Reply
I don’t want to file a complaint I just want to punch the fuck out of any Clearwire asshole I ever see. I want to jump on their fucking face with both feet and smash the fuck out of their fucking head! Thanks for allowing me to vent against these fucking cocksuckers.
By timothy scroggins on Dec 16, 2011 | Reply
Clear wire is a joke . We should all get a lawyer and sue the pants off of them ?
By Chris on Dec 20, 2011 | Reply
Couldn’t agree more…we need to see this shady fucking company die.
By Judy on Mar 2, 2012 | Reply
I cancelled my clear wire 7 days after receiving the modem. Never got it hooked, never used it. Called and was put on hold forever. Said I would receive shipping label and cancellation notice. never did. After 5 phone calls lasting 1 to 2 hours each time they still tell me it hasn’t been cancelled. Then the robo messages start day after day for months. True harassment. Saying I owe them money. Then after one more call it gets cancelled. and then the robo messages start saying I can get my service back. More harassment. Thought the worst experience of my life that drove me nuts was behind me in Nov of 2011 (subscribed in July 2011) Now Its Feb 2012 and I receive a letter from a collection agency saying I owe 110.50 for early termination fee. I am getting a lawyer and sueing their asses. If anyone already has a lawyer on the case please let me know, if not I will get my own and post his name so everyone else can join the suit. It is so wrong what they are doing. I totally agree with Chris on Dec 20,2011 post and Timothy on dec16,2011 post.
By phil cfo on Mar 9, 2012 | Reply
Same here! I spent two days-six hrs cell time, to get the money THEY STOLE out of my acct back. After agreeing I never got it back. No one knew about a refund.
This is important people. I learned for sure:
!. Each customer service phone IS INDEPENDENT!
2. THEY DO NO COMMUNICATE W/ CLEAR ON A REGULAR BASIS NOR DO THEY HAVE A MEANS TO COMMUNICATE DIRECTLY WITH CLEARWIRE!!!!
3. THEY DON’T RECORD WHAT IS SAID WITH CUSTOMERS.
4. THEY HAVE NO WAY TO KNOW WHO YOU COMMUNICATE WITH.
5. THEY HAVE VIRTUALLY NO COMMUNICATION BETWEEN CUSTOMER SERVICE REPS.
Seems hard to believe, but if you’ve had these problems, it makes sense. Some of this, like the communication issues, I eventually dragged out of the reps after hours of arguing etc!
3.
By clearwire sucks ass on Mar 18, 2012 | Reply
Clearwire will want to make you die in frustration even dial up is better than this shit
By P. Thomas on Mar 20, 2012 | Reply
ClearWire is the worst company I have ever dealt with!I was unable to get service through out my house, so I called and terminated my service with them. They were to send me shipping labels to which I did not get for almost 60 days later. I contacted them about not recieving the shipping label to return the equipment. After that they sent the label out and ONE (1) business day after recieving the label, they debited my account. I had to get an attorney involved to get them to refund me as well as pay for return check fees that occurred from them debiting my account. The service is lousy, the customer service is lousy and the company is a rip off! They are unprofessional liars and professional thieves. I would not recommend ClearWire to anyone not even my enemies. If you value good service and believe in using a company you can trust, DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT DOING BUSINESS WITH CLEARWIRE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
By Holly Swain on Apr 3, 2012 | Reply
I cancelled my service in August 2011 because I could not maintain a connection. I had spent hours, over several months, trying to troubleshoot with their technical service and there was still no resolution so I needed to go elsewhere to get internet service. Clear agreed to credit me for the month of August since I was not able to use the service they claimed to provide. I immediately got service with another provider with whom I have no issues with (Century Link). Three months later quest started re-billing my credit card for monthly service. Unfortunately this happened for 3 consecutive months before I caught it. I disputed the charges with my credit card company (Chase) and they reversed the charges. I called Clear to inform them and to resolve this issue. After speaking to multiple representatives (nobody seemed to have any authority to take action), I finally spoke to someone in the cancelation department and explained the situation that I cancelled service in Aug. They tried to tell me that there records show that I only “suspended service” and this is why they started billing me again in November. I told them that was false and fraudulent. They only need to look at there usage logs to see that post August 23rd there was no attempt to connect to service. This representative apologized and said that she would make sure the cancellation was updated and corrected in their system. I was told that it would be taken care of and that I owe nothing. About a week later I started getting automated phone calls from clear stating that my account was seriously overdue and that I must make a payment immediately. I ignored it at first, thinking that there system had not been updated yet. Given my past experience, this seemed like a logical explanation. And yet the calls continues, sometimes 2-3 times a day, 7 days a week. These calls did not provide an opportunity to connect with a live person. I finally called clear to stop this harassment, only to discover that they are trying to collect monthly service fees and regardless of what I was told, my account was now in collections. I was completely flabbergasted! I demanded to speak with someone (preferably the person that had last reassured me that this error was rectified. Her name was Mary Grey). They refused to put me through to that department and instead created a claim or “ticket” for this dispute. They informed me that someone from the billing department would follow up with me within 3 days. The next morning, I got a call at 6:30 AM. (It woke us up). As you can imagine, I was not happy and immediately complained about the time they were calling. This rep had the nerve to tell me that she always checks time zones before she calls and when she checked Pacific Coast that morning she verified that it was 9:30 AM. I said, “You are wrong cause I am in bed and my clock reads 6:30 and BTW the sun is rising as I speak.” She still tried to argue with me! I told her to call back at noon. She called at 11AM only to inform me that her department can’t handle this case and someone will be contacting me from collections, hence a new “ticket”. I’m done and ready to take legal action. I would like to know if anyone else has done so??? I am located in Seattle which is near to Clear’s Corp. headquarters. I know of some attorneys that specialize in consumer cases within the communications sector. They have won some judgements against AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, etc. I am going to contact them to see what they recommend. I can give you there contact information if you are also interested. Let me know what your current course of action is.
By NavyRet on Apr 8, 2012 | Reply
They can call me all they like. That’s what answering machines are for. And I can turn off my ringers at night.
They can turn me over to a bill collector. I don’t care. They can make an entry on my credit report. I don’t care.
In short, Clear can go piss up a fucking rope before they get one more penny out of me.
By Kathryn Jarrell on May 3, 2012 | Reply
Does anyone just have the service shut off for no reason? I purchase HP coins to play games with and I went through 48 for a 6 coin game restarting so many times.