Stay Clear of Clear

I'm writing this as I sit on hold with an Internet Service Provider who's done a lot of local advertising, Clear (or sometimes known as Clearwire).  This blog post is intended to help anyone who might be tempted to use this service by letting you know my experience with them.

In short:  Nightmare.

We were at the Mall of America on Friday, December 30th.  I had been looking at Clear as a way to perhaps save a few bucks, you know, a daughter in college and all.  So we visited the Kiosk and checked it out.  The speed looked pretty good there but the only way to really know was to buy and and try it at home.  The hook was set and they yanked in the fish.

The sales con told me he was selling me a refurbished unit, $30 less than the same one new.  Well, refurbished units are generally just ones where someone canceled so I figured it wasn't going to be a problem.  $50 for the modem.  I did ask for the $50/plan and not the $35 plan because it was unlimited.

When I got home and read the emailed receipt (they don't give you a paper receipt, "paperless" dontcha know) and there it was - he'd charged me for a new one and signed me up for the $35/limited plan.  I called their 800 number which began the road to nightmaredom.  After over an hour on the phone with them, after them telling me over and over it was a "new" unit, I found a way to prove to them it wasn't.  A partial refund was made.

Got it home, installed it Saturday, and it was awful.  Connection was slow (and I have an almost clear, obstruction line of sight to the tower just a couple blocks away.  Sunday morning got up and couldn't connect.  Had to spend 20 minutes fixing that.

Just so you know, my son is a network administration professional and he did the installation to make sure this was going to be a complete and fair test.

Sunday after church I called to cancel.  They told me they'd send a box out to return the device and I'd get a refund when it was returned.  We received the box on January 4th and sent it back on the 5th (having the UPSP documentation to prove it).

Ten days ago I did a chat and was told I'd been refunded for the service, $50.  Two days ago I was told it had been received back and would be refunded that night.  Today, no refund.

Chat #1 today I was told that I hadn't paid for a device and wouldn't be receiving a refund.  Now, I have that emailed receipt and bank records to prove he was wrong but he was insisting, after ten mintes of waiting for him to "review the account", I hadn't.

Phone Call #1 today I was told they hadn't yet received it and I had been misinformed all along the way.

Phone Call #2 (I'm still sitting on hold at this moment having writtten all of this during the hold waiting for supervisor - fifteen minutes).  She finally came back and said they'd be refunding my money.  I've heard that before and have my doubts.

I really wanted this to work.  The good looking website, the convincing ads.  But it wasn't to be.

I stuck with Comcast.  I don't like Comcast but at least the service has been reliable enough for Internet that I haven't had to call them in a long time.