Thinking about getting Clearwire ISP, read this!!!

[HD-DVD_4_Me]

This is very long, but if you want a short version you can read the cliffnotes at the bottom as well as the link I posted at the bottom as well.

I decided to switch to Clearwire Wireless Broadband about a month ago. I had wanted to switch to save some money as well as get away from Comcast (I don't like how Comcast has a monopoly in my area). I can't even tell you how much I regret getting Clearwire now...

The first 2 weeks I had Clearwire, it seemed to do OK. Speeds were OK, but many times they would be inconsistant, sometimes I would be hitting peak speeds (2MB) for an hour or two only to come back and see my speed bobbing around 60KBps. The 3rd week I didn't use my internet much. Last week, my fourth week with Clearwire, I noticed my speed was seriously crawling, web pages were taking forever to load and it would even sometimes time out before it could load my email. I called Clearwire and told them I was not happy with this service, it's inconsistant and I'm not going to settle for it.

The phone rep I talked to didn't want me to cancel my account at all. She pleaded for me to at least try to work it out with them and try a few things to help my speed. Fine, I decided I'd give them a chance to rectify theirselves although I'm a very experienced person when it comes to networking and PCs (I build PCs for a living). First they bother asking how many bars I have on my modem, and it's 5 which is the max. After an hour on the phone with her and jumping through hoops to do everything they suggest, we are no closer than we started. She said there was nothing else we could do, so I said fine, how about me cancelling as I asked earlier. She said I could cancel, but I'd get charged the 2 year contract agreement, which would be $215 I told her I'd think on it for a bit since I was getting royaly screwed by them.

The rep calls me back about 15 minutes later and tells me that there was a note on my account that she didn't see and it should clear things up. She even said "I think you'll be happy to hear why" and puts me through to a higher level CSR. The next CSR tells me that I've been flagged as a high bandwidth user and they have capped my internet usage. I argue with the guy about the fairness of that and that they don't advertise their internet as limited and also advertise their 2MB download speed. He tells me that my usage is unfair to other users, and I tell him "that's not my problem, I'm not using more than what you advertise that I can use". We come to the conclusion that neither of us are happy with each other, so I ask about having my cancellation fee waived and he says he can't be the one to tell me whether it can or can't be waived.

So, onto the next CSR in the billing department. I explain the situation to her and she says I'm getting charged the fee if I want to cancel. I then argue with her about how they are essentially charging me the same price and are giving me 56k f00king speeds. She tells me the best she can do is knock it down to a 1 year contract. I then ask her AGAIN if she even gets WTF I'm telling her, "your dicking me on the service I'm paying for and your still charging me full price, GET IT? I don't want your service anymore". She still tells me that that's the best she can do.

So now I'm essentially paying $50 a month for 56k speeds and there is NOTHING I can do about it. If I decide to cancel, it will cost me $215.

And BTW I use my internet for several things, 90% of my usage for the time I was with Clearwire was used for online gaming and downloading movies from Xbox Live! rental service, the rest was for surfing and I uploaded a few photos to Photobucket once.

Last night I also found out that I'm not the only person to have a horrible experience with Clearwire. This is a common practice of theirs to cap "high bandwidth users" and still charge them full price and lock them into their contract. Basically once you signup for Clearwire, your stuck after your 7 day trail period. Also beware, several users have been conned by Clearwire because they didn't know they only had 7 days to cancel. I read a few stories of users that were not satisfied with the speeds and service and called to cancel within the first few days only to have a Clearwire CSR convince them to try it a few more days/another week, only for them to call back after their 7 day trail and say they are still not satisfied and find out they are now locked into a contract that Clearwire WILL NOT let you out of, no matter what.

Cliffnotes: I had Clearwire for a month and they have decided to cap my internet to 56k speeds while still charging me full ($50) price for it. I'm stuck in a 2 year contract and if I decide to cancel, it's $215 to do so. Clearwire does not care about consumers, only your money.

www.clearwiresucks.com has plenty of horror stories, I recommend anyone that is thinking about switching to Clearwire to read some of the stories and seriously reconsider.

[Gators300]

Wow, that is crazy! I was considering Clearwire for a while, but I am very glad I didn't go with them after hearing your story.

If I were you I would go through all of your legal contract paperwork and see if the "high bandwith user restrictions" are in the fine print. If not, threaten legal action. That should at least get you out of your 2 year contract. If the fine print is in there, well, then I would take that one year deal and I guess pay $107 cancellation fee? I am assuming that they will cut the fee in half since you'd be subscribed for half the time.

I know what I would do though. If the legal action threat doesn't work, I would pay the money and get out of the contract. Let them know when you cancel, (and do it with a manager) that you are going to go to every single online forum and blog you can find and spread the word about the rip-off that is Clearwire. Then, cancel, pay the money, and go back to Comcast.

You are already spreading the word, and it has worked on me, one potential customer, and will be losing them $1200 over a two year period all because of your story.

Sorry to hear about your troubles. Let us know what you decide to do!

Chris