July 13th, 2010
The following was submitted to the BBB of Las Vegas, NV
I wish to file a complaint against the company “CLEAR”.
Clear is an internet provider service that uses broadband signals to provide so-called high speed connectivity.
I want the BBB to know that they have essentially perpetrated a hoax or a fraud upon me.
When I originally signed up for their services, I was told that the slow speeds and connectivity difficulties would be resolved over time. Essentially they told me that the signal from my modem to their antennas would be coming from a part of the city that was probably not populated at that time, and that the presence of my signal would cause them to amp up my area’s signal. I understood that they were a growing business, and that such growth problems might occur. But I also understood that my services would improve. They said that they were continuously building and adjusting microwave systems throughout the city, and that this slow or low signal area would be resolved quickly. However, such speeds never really happened. I repeatedly reported outages and slowness to them. During this same period of time I also complained numerous times about “errors” in billing in which they charged me too much money.
At one time, on a remarkable situation, the signal strength was briefly turned up to an acceptable level. However, as I said, this was extremely brief, and it went back to the slow and painful levels of before. The technical reasons for this can be explained by them, if they wish to do so. I have my own theories. I maintain that they made the choice to keep my signal strength low, and hence abrogate our agreement.
At one point, I was charged enough money so that the result was that I was inadvertently “paid ahead” for months. This “mistake” created the situation that I was essentially obliged to hang on and hope for improved service for months longer than I otherwise might have done.
Essentially, in total, this was the fraud, but unfortunately it did not stop there.
When I finally gave up and told them I was canceling my services with them, and I was expecting them to return the extra money that was still on their books that had been paid ahead, I was told “okay.” When I was told that there might be a restocking fee I said that I would not be paying for that, as I was an unsatisfied customer, and as such did not see any reason to pay to discontinue services that never met with expectations or to return a rented modem that also did not perform as expected. The person handling this matter said that this was okay. To use their jargon, I was told that they would put in the request for that, but I understood that this was the end of it.
I also offered to mitigate the costs of “restocking” this rented modem. I told them that I could just as easily take the modem back to their local Henderson store as to the UPS location where they wanted me to take it. After all, it was going to end up in the same place. They refused. I understood their refusal, since I would have been a disgruntled ex-customer taking back a modem possibly to the same place where the company wanted to sell such services to unsuspecting buyers, and they did not want our paths to cross. I understood when this was explained to me that they would be willing to pay for this convenience to them, and so, at their insistence, I used UPS to deliver a package a couple of miles away, for which I have the receipt.
They billed me for the restocking fee anyway. Over $43.
It’s like I was in a bad movie, and they wanted me to pay to get out.
I called and reminded them that the original contact had told me that this was removed. This customer service rep told me that it was a mistake, and they would remove it. Furthermore, I wanted to know where was the refund of the extra money that was in the account that had been paid ahead. This about $5 amount eventually was returned, but weeks after being originally promised, and weeks after the so-called restocking fee was levied.
After some more time, when the charges has still not been removed, I again called them and asked when the charges would be removed. Again I was told that this would be handled immediately, and I got the tracking number of the “request.” I seriously did not know that this was merely a “request”, I thought it was an order.
Finally, when the bogus charge was never removed, I called and asked to speak to someone who could do more than issue a fake “request.” This is when I got the information that they considered all of these charges “valid”, and that I would never be getting any kind of refund on them.
So, I have sought to get my money back from the VISA card company that represented me in this transaction.
I want the BBB to know that CLEAR will say whatever it takes to get business, even when they know that they won’t be providing adequate services.
And I want the BBB to know that they even make broken promises about their numerous “mistakes” in billing, presumably because they hope the customer won’t notice it, or until the customer gives up in disgust.
They are not okay as a BBB business.
Thank you.
Michael
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