Oops - All Your Email is Gone, Says Clearwire - User Submission by Jackie S.

Clearwire claims it inadvertently wiped out the e-mail accounts for numerous customers this weekend.

They claim it was limited to “80 customers” but that all of the customers’ emails going back years, which were stored on the server, were wiped out. I know, because I’m one of those customers.

The company repeatedly lied to customers, telling them their data would be recovered in a few hours. Then it was a few days. They just kept lying and lying.

They don’t want to explain what happened. They just say the loss is “irrecoverable” and the technical details don’t matter. They hinted they don’t have backup tapes that go beyond three days, and they
somehow overwrote the backup tapes they do have.

If this is true, it is incredible how a company can be so screwed up (who doesn’t have backup tapes beyond three days), or so absolutely callous regarding its customers lives.

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Clearwire - The Most Evil Corporation in History - User Submission by Josh P.

I have clearwire but don’t use it because they suck. We signed up for them in June 07. Used them for 29 days and they were great. the split second it turned midnight on the 30th day, the quality of service went to crap. it went from 1.5meg down to maybe 500k. my latency went from around 100 to about 10,000+. i would call their tech support and magically it would work great when I talked to their tech support. the second i got off the phone, it sucked again. at this point since it was the 30th day, we were locked into the 2 year contract. they would not let us out of it. I continued to call tech support about my issue and each time it worked great when I was on the phone with them and then went back to crap when I got off the phone. It’s obvious they throttle the connection. i got comcast ’cause i needed something I could use.

all this time, we’ve been paying $25 for clearwire. suddenly this month, it goes up to $37 a month. wtf, we are in a contract, how can they raise the price? isn’t that the point of the contract is that it locks you both in? they say they can do whatever they want. I hate clearwire. they may be the most evil corporation of all time. What can I do? I can’t afford their crazy high early termination fees.

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Clearwire Screwed my email account - User Submission by A. Hammer

I had been a happy customer of Clearwire. I haven’t moved out of their service area. I live within site of their transmission tower here in Emmett. God-forgive-me, I had been telling my friends they were a good IP.

Then, out of the blue, without my knowledge or consent, they transferred all my incoming e-mail to a Clearwire mailbox powered by Google G-mail. They didn’t even notifiy me they were doing it. The only way I knew which direction to search for my missing e-mail was that the same thing had happened to my husband’s account about 3 weeks before.

Accessing the damn Clearwire mailbox was a nightmare because it involved a long forgotten user name and password which I hadn’t used in years (if ever). My husband has a seperate computer and e-mail account so he was able to help me. Otherwise, all my e-mail friends would still think I’m dead or ignoring them.

I’ve been trying with the help of all the settings on my husband’s now functional Outlook Express to restore my mail service to that mailbox. However, I’m right now writing to you from my Hotmail account because Outlook won’t let me ’send’.

What kind of lousy company $ELLS its customers to another company w/o their consent?

A. Hammer
Emmett, Idaho

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Clearwire Sucks - User Submission by David in Lewiston Idaho

This is my experience with the corporate greedmongering of Clearwire.

Last year, in may or June, I signed a one year contract with Clearwire to provide internet service. I was told by the local clearwire rep that as a bonus, I would receive a $50.00 VISA online credit card by signing the contract. This was, in fact, false, as I later found out. The $50.00 VISA card was only for two year contracts, and I made it clear I was only signing a one year contract. This usually wouldn’t be a major concern, other than the fact that I’d borrowed the money to pay the sign-up fee, and in exchange I was going to give the card to whom I’d borrowed the money from. So I was lied to right out of the gate by the “licensed clearwire rep.”

Well, one year comes about and expires, even though I hadn’t even been using their service for the last two months of it, and I was in the process of moving, so the modem was packed away. I come to find out after a time, that they’re still charging me. So I call and request a cancellation, they say sure and we’ll send you your handy-dandy shipping label to your email and you just send us the modem back and we’re done.

Well, after several days of checking my email, no shipping label came. I was very busy around this time, and the existence of the modem in the trunk of my car fell from my mind. Two months or so passed, and I was going over my finances and discovered I was about $100.00 short. I determined Clearwire was still charging me, so I called them up and demanded an explanation. They checked into it, and said that I hadn’t sent their equipment (modem) back. I explained that they hadn’t sent me the shipping label, which would thereby allow me to send their modem back in the first place. Multiple clearwire reps verifiied this over the phone. So, I demanded my money back for the two months they kept charging me, and after multiple phone calls and jumping through multiple flaming corporate hoops, I finally got one nice rep who credited back the *next* month they had charged me. By now, I had disabled my debit card anyway, so Clearwire was not going to see another penny from me, and I explained this to him. He then said he would write a request for my $96+ some odd cents to be reimbursed on the return of their equipment. So, I explained to him that my doubts that I would be reimbursed if they got their modem back, to which he replied it was pretty much the only chance of getting it back. Without really any other option, I retrieved the shipping label that they had *finally* sent me from my email, and sent their modem to them. After which, of course, they refused to refund me.

So, I called Clearwire, and spoke to a lovely individual whose name was, I believe, Joe. Joe, if any of you have spoken with him before, is quite the condescending little fellow who has no customer service skills to speak of, and probably thinks he is the Keystone of Clearwire. After I explained everything to him, he had the audacity to tell me that a refund was “not warranted” and I’d already been graciously credited the $48+ some odd they’d wanted to charge me afterward. So, I say, even though you people stole $96 from me (by all definitions, stole is the correct word), I was not at fault for this, AND I took all the steps i needed to in order to get my money back and they determined my refund was not WARRANTED? After listening to about one full minute of dead silence on his end other than furious, angry typing, he yells into the phone “IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE I CAN HELP YOU WITH TODAY SIR?” I told Joe where to stick it and hung up.

Today I am going to call Clearwire and attempt to get a manager or something, and explain if my money is not refunded I will file a complaint with the better business bureau.

Thanks,
David in Lewiston, Idaho.

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Clearwire Beware! - User Submission by Daniel

Stay as clear away as you can. They will promise you that should you move out of their service area you may cancel the contract but what they fail to tell you the cost of doing this: YOU sell the contract yourself, YOU pay a cancellation fee or you continue to pay for services they are unable to provide until the contract is over. One might think good customer service would look like PROVIDING the service and since they are unable due to you moving to an area where the service is not available this would be an acceptable and just plain good customer service to let one out of this contract? Reasonable thinking? Hum well obviously this company does not have the interest of its clientele and maybe this is one company we in the USA can do without.

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Clearwire is a NIGHTMARE- incompetent and GREEDY - User Submission by Martin B.

I was an enthusiastic early adopter of Clearwire here in Seattle. At that time I lived on Queen Anne, and the reception was great- 5 bars everyday. Last April I bought a new condo in Burien and called before moving to be sure that the service would work there: NO PROBLEM I was told. They are eagerly signing up new folks in Burien I was told, and the service works great there. They were even in the process of upgrading the service in that area. (I should have realized that was a red flag, but didn’t).

SO, I moved.. and it has been a nightmare ever since. One hour the wireless modem has 3 bars sitting on my desk, then none. So I have drape an extension cord and put the modem on top of the (top!) cabinets in my kitchen to get a signal.. for a half hour, until the signal moves.. then I have to use suction cups to mount the modem to the window pointing sw.. for an hour, until I have to move it to the back bedroom… I have started dreading turning the computer on because I can’t handle having to search for a decent signal. I’ve worked with their tech depts several times, and I finally have just had enough. I called to cancel my contract, and dear God… what a nightmare.

Let me tell you right now- there is nothing they won’t put you through to prevent you from canceling. I had to speak to 5 different people as they “escalated” me through different “levels” of .. escalation?? Every person kept telling me that they felt horrible for my nightmare, but they couldn’t help me… they would have to escalate me to the next level. Why waste my time and theirs with someone who CAN’T HELP ME? Corporate bullshit to the max. Every game played by every nasty corporation out there. A horrible experience. There was no way to simply cancel.. I just finally had to say send me the damned UPS return label for the modem and charge me the fee and hung up. I’ll take my fight to the Washington State Attorney General’s office, the Better Business Bureau, and here… to the internet. I will do all in my power to prevent anyone else from signing up for their horrible DIS-service.

If you have to deal with them, ask to be sent directly to “escalations” in the Acct. Services Dept. I got this guy named Matthew, who kept telling me that my request was unreasonable and if I would listen to him and allow him to get what he wanted from the conversation that things would just be dandy. After over an hour on the phone, I hung up. I don’t WANT to reach what Clearwire feels is a fair solution- I won’t my darned service canceled. Period. NOW. No more talk.

I am making a sign to put on my car that says:

DON’T USE CLEARWIRE- EVIL CORPORATE GREED!

~Martin B.
Seattle metro

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I HATE CLEARWIRE SO PASSIONATELY - User Submission by Carly B.

STUPID CLEAWIRE
Taking money out of my account AGAIN when I canceled the service more than a week ago.
Not only did they say they would NOT bill me but the lady promised a refund of last months charges. I tried in vain to return their stupid modem and she kept asking me to help the military and post my account on cragislist. And if I did that she would refund last months.
She said all I had to do was created a password for craigslist when I received the email.
I did as she asked. She promised I would not be charged any future bills.

Clearwire has now changed my bank account for Sept. There are no refund charges.
And clearwire wont send me the stupid return label for the modem.
I am so sick I could cry. They make it so difficult you are stuck with them.
LET ME OUT OF CLEARWIRE

Posted in Customer Service, User Submissions | 6 Comments »

Finally Vistory - User Submission by Matthew N.

So I read a lot of material on your website after I had a blowout with Clearwire’s customer service. Extremely frustrated, I filed a complaint with the better business bureau and after a week got a response that they would cancel my two year contract if I would pay the activation fee they waived, $50. This is much more acceptable than the almost $200 they wanted. Pass this on if you want, clearwire is running scared, they are realizing how terrible service and customer care is going to sink them… And I hope it does.

Posted in Customer Service, User Submissions | 4 Comments »

User Submission

Just found your site! I am experiencing the same as everyone else……..but I have been with them for four years I think! No problems until a few months ago. Thought my issues were with my PC. NOT! I finally got their technician to admit that the towers were overloaded and that’s why I am slower than dial up! He said to wait until October because they are making HUGH improvements! I will believe it when I see it!

Need to switch to something else. Any suggestions on someone more reputable? I’m in Boise Idaho, and really hate Cable One, and Qwest…………but I’m thinking anything is better than Clearwire!

I am telling my Clearwire friends about your site.

Thanks so much

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Crappy Customer Support As Well - User Submission by Ian Q.

I’ve been ‘clearwired’ again! It’s a new phrase I’ve coined.

I sent a submission back on May 22nd, you can look it up, it was about their inferior isp and the difficulties I had quitting. Well, I’ve had to deal with them again, you ask, but Ian didn’t you quit their service? Yes I did, but I never received their shipping label in my email box and became extremely busy and figured they would contact me about the modem I still had in possession. I’ve finally moved and got settled in to my new place and I was looking at my bank statements. I noticed they were still charging me $50 a month!!!! Had I received a phone call? No. Had I received an email? No. Had I received any mail regarding the unreturned modem? NO! And I can see why, they were happy to just take money from my account even though I had called and canceled.

With that said I gave them the benefit of the doubt when I called their billing department. Here we go… ready?

The first representative.

He/She was very nice and said they would transfer me to someone in billing (I will explain the why I said he and she in the next statement).

The second representative.

This lady didn’t give me her name and proceeded to tell me straight up that they would not refund my money! I gave them the benefit of the doubt, because I understood that I had the modem and companies such as Time Warner will charge you for the hardware and then credit you on return of the equipment. I asked the lady if she was going to help me get my money back and with no explanation was told no. I asked to speak to a manager and show told me to please hold.

As I was waiting I could hear this woman repeatedly pick up the call as I was waiting and curse while I was on the line. Then finally she hung up on me! Incredible! It was all to familiar from my last experience with them and I was so upset, trying not to make things worse by yelling, because they had my money!!! So I calmed down, called them back and a nice lady helped me out and transferred me again (of course). I got transferred back to the same rude woman who had cursed at me just earlier. She told me she would transfer me to a manager! If you are counting along, I’ve been transferred 4 times now and hung up on 1 time.

The third representative.

Gave me his name Tim White. He was nice and tried to help me, but would only credit me 2 months of charges even though I had 4 charges. So that is $100 I gave to clear wire for no good reason. I said, but I’m returning the equipment as soon as I can get this shipping label, don’t I deserve all my money back, it’s not like I’ve been using their service(you won’t want to use it either, that’s why I quit back in May). He hid behind their return policy or something arguing that he was doing me a favor and that they usually don’t refund your money.

I’ve got to say. I would report this kind of treatment to the better business bureau if I thought it would make a difference. I don’t feel comfortable that they have my credit account numbers in their system either. I think I’m going to apply for a new card.

The fact is, I was charged for 4 months of service that I didn’t use and I clearly said I wanted to quit back in May. They would have been happy to keep charging my account forever I’m sure, without giving me a phone call or mail or anything! Really?!?!

I know one of their VP’s reads these because I was contacted a while back. He was a nice guy and tried to understand what had happened and listened to my horrible experience. He gave me his name and number which I lost or didn’t plan to keep, because I thought I was done with Clearwire. If you are reading this one, give me a call again. I’ve spent probably a good 3 hours of my life on hold with Clearwire, if a call from you sir will get me my remaining $100 Clearwire owes me I would be happy to spend another hour on the phone with you discussing how I’ve been walked on by your company.

I hope anyone reading this finds comfort in knowing there are others in the same boat you are in.

Ian Quattlebaum

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