Avoid this company at all cost
I don’t usually post about consumer products on the Chicago Weekend Fun Blog but this is something I think really needs to be mentioned. The company known as “Clear” sells 4G wi-max wireless internet products. I see their ads on just about every surface online and offline everywhere I go. I also see their popup stores in every strip mall in Chicago and Naperville that I pass. Clear even have a marketing arm of the company dedicated to going to events and industry groups to talk about their products and make sales.
I saw their people exhibiting at the Naperville TedX conference this spring. (They were also slated to speak at a Girls in Tech group meeting, but the guy never showed up)
I was curious about wireless internet for my parent’s house since AT&T declined to sell any more DSL lines in their area due to all the bandwidth being already full/sold and they had no plans to expand coverage for new customers in Downers Grove/Darien anytime soon.
Since Clear was wireless I was hopeful that this would be a good solution to get my parents off of dial up internet access and the super sluggish slow speeds they experienced through AT&T.
I was assured by the Clear sales rep that the signal would be strong since they had a cell tower transmitter located on the Darien water tower (shown with a map program he had on his laptop) which was about 4 blocks from the house.
We took a few weeks to sign up since my parents aren’t that tech savvy and needed some time to learn about the process. When my dad signed up he opted to do phone service also and this is where the problems began.
The Clear service people did spend some time on the phone and at the house trying to get things set up but the phone service has never worked properly. The internet has been fine, although I do not recommend them for that service either because of how this has been bungled since the beginning.
This is a list of what we have been through:
1. The Phone service did not get turned on for a week after the service was promised.
2. The configuration was confusing and did not work until they assisted with setup. When they did the call quality was horrible. The sound cuts out every other word and is very scratchy and not at all clear.
3. Then the service went out again for no reason and has quit about once a week ever since. It comes back in a day or two without any reason or notification from the company.
4. They told us that the AT&T service was interfering so it was shut off and the land line was cut to the house so we couldn’t change back per Clear’s Internet/Phone’s request.
5. Every time my dad calls to cancel the service they string it out longer by trying more strategies to improve the service first and they have never worked or made any difference. the call quality is still horrible and the cell tower is only 4 blocks away.
6. At this point the Clear Internet & Phone people should refund the entire 3 months of fees that my parents have paid. They don’t have phone service about 2 days a week, 2 of the 3 phones in the house don’t work because of how the setup works and the quality has been worse than a bad cell phone connection the whole time. Clear should stop offering phone service through VOIP until they get a more reliable network and can handle this on a level consistent with what people need.
I don’t recommend the Clear service and their handling of the situation would make me avoid them for any internet services also. They have been difficult to deal with, more salesy than is necessary and not very honest about selling something that does not work.
If you have had a similar situation I recommend reporting them to the Better Business Bureau like I plan to. It is something that businesses should not do, and we as consumers need to be vigilant about reporting things like this so more consumers don’t get taken advantage of.
I had Clear and while my customer service has been nothing but polite, my internet connection never got more than 2 bar despite my being 3 blocks from one tower and 5 from yet another. Basically, my internet speed was akin to 90k dial up. Nothing would load.
I canceled my service and they agreed to refund me my fees once I return my modem to them. The problem? They still haven’t sent me the promised postage paid shipping label I need to return it. Great! Best of luck to you and your parents.
Thanks for the warning! I had considered converting to Clear; now, I will steer clear.
Clear Internet sucks too! I live in the city in Andersonville near Clark and Ridge. I tried the Clear home series M Wimax modem and got 2-3 bars out of 5. The speed was like dial-up. I waited 6 minutes for a Netflix movie to load and it still hadn’t finished, so I gave up. I tried MLB.TV and got a frozen picture. I downloaded a small, 10-second mpeg: it took 4 minutes! SPEED NO GOOD!! Don’t be duped. Customer service was fine, though. I cancelled immediately and they emailed me the prepaid UPS return label. I mailed it today and should be refunded in full once Clear receives it.
I’ve signup clear on Augues 10, 2010 at one the clear agent store of Chicago Illinois.
The agent told me to I have 2 week to try it out period, and buy the modem are much cheaper instead leasing it.
So I select the home and mobile package which is $55 a/mon.
I’ve paid $164.98 plus tax $14.85 for both home and mobile with a mon of charge of $55, so I paid $234.83 for the first bill with my credit card.
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The connection sucks..
The connection are sucks, the modem only show 2 LED on instead of 5 most of the time, maybe sometime 3, not reliable at all. And the mobile one with no connection at all at my house, and really slow at my work place.
Most of the time, I open the browser, it show with no connection, so the browser leave as blank page.
Even I able to connect, the connection slow as hell, even slow than the dial up modem.
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I call clear on the 6 days of activation, but the line is busy, I unable to hold it for long, so I hang it up.
I call them a again on the 13 days, and I talk with a representitive for a hour just for cancellation, she keep giving me an excuses, something like, why don’t give us a chance to work it out or send out a tech to check it out, so wasted me a hour to just call for cancellation.
After cancell it, they send me 2 email for return shipping lable for the modem, both the link are not working, so I have to call again.
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It took about 2 weeks, I got 2 refund amount showing on my credit card statement, but both the amount can’t be acceptable.
The send me 2 amount which is $31.94 and $87.79, total $119.73, which not even cover what I’ve paid for both the modems.
I though that is only part of the refund, so I wait for few more days let see is there any other refund, but nothing.
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What a nice excuse?
I call them again today Auguest 09, 2010, guess what they told me, they said my account usage too much, that is the only amount can be issue? After that, I go to clear.com with the live chat, they said that is the full refund? What the hell?
How could my account usage too much? Should I plug it on when I use it and unplug it when I don’t use it? What a bullshit?
When I sign up it said unlimited usage, and now told me usage too much? Just for 13 days?
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I’ve paid $234.83 and now only got $119.73 refund? So I have to paid $115.10 just for 13 days sucks service, even with the offer trying period?
After you have read this, don’t ever think about it to sign up with clear, first of it, the coverage and the connection sucks, not reliable at all, just wasted your time and money, and they totally are SCAM!
When you read this, please copy and post it otherwhere, so let other won’t get SCAM by clear.
I tried two plans – home modem and usb modem. Then I cancelled usb plan and now I am using just home one. The plan speed is 1MB, but most of the time it is below 100k. It is in Palatine. Also 3 months down the road I found that I was still charged on my usb plan, I called and asked for reimbursement but they refused. I was charged for 3 months of service I have not used. When I cancelled service, rep told me that it was cancelled. He lied. Clear sucks.
Same thing in Portland, Or. Clear is a total scam. It’s funny, everyone who inquires about Clear service at one of their stores is shown a map on the computer that conveniently shows a Clear tower within blocks of their home. And they are told that they will get an excellent signal. I have not met one person yet who is happy with the service that does anything more than email or just browse simple webpages (limited flash, no video or audio). The service is similar to dial up and like others I have never topped more than 3 lights out of 5 on the modem. The average is only 1 or 2 lights. I’m trying to download a movie on iTunes right now that should only take 2 hours max on a high speed connection – the time remaining indicator shows 10 hours.
When I signed up with Clear they gave me a probation period where I could cancel the service without being charged a termination fee. The service was actually pretty good during this period but as soon as the probation period was up the speed dropped dramatically and even just staying connected became a problem. Maybe that was just coincidence but I do know they arbitrarily put caps on bandwidth usage. (Ha! The connection dropped JUST NOW!) The only reason I’ve remained with them this long is because of the price…at this time I can’t afford anything better. If I need a reliable connection at a decent speed for working online I just go to the cafe next door and use their wifi.
I haven’t tried it yet but the MiFi through Virgin Mobile looks like it might be a good alternative for people who are stuck with Clear because they’re on a slim budget. I plan on giving it a spin as soon as I can afford the modem (about $150) but the monthly service is cheap (about $40 for unlimited) and it’s prepay so you can skip a month if you don’t have enough money. (This is ridiculous – I’m trying to check the Virgin Mobile site to double-check the info and it’s taking forever to load – more proof that Clear sucks!)
I HATE CLEAR! I’m in hawaii and it takes around 2 hours for the house modem to connect, and the games are much slower then my last IP
I live in a north Chicago subrub. My speed averages 0.1 Mb. When I called technical support, they told me my account was trottled.
Glad I saw this Blog i was interested in getting this for my aunt now I’m not.
thank you
I was on Clear for about 6 months, fyi they don’t cap your line until the 30 day trial ends. Promised 6 meg and got 1.5 Now I’m on Comcast.
Ive had clear-wire internet for about 4 years had some problems it never really work correctly, but thats all we can get out here in the country. But now that it changed to Clear Internet it sucks even more it takes about 2-3 hours to down load a song and thats on a good day. Tower is pretty close to us but its really gone down hill, Ive tried to resolve the issue and all they said if I’m not happy to cancel. Thinking of switching over to Cricket Internet.
Its now (-4G)
I live in woodridge il and the internet is terrible with clear! I switched to comcast and I pay about 20 bucks more but the service is 10x better
horible service
I lived in a small town called Fairview, just on the eastern border of Portland, OR, until we bought a home two months ago in Portland. Our new home is not more than a 15 minute drive from Fairview. For the past two years, while in Fairview, we have had CLEAR internet and phone service and was reasonably happy with them, No problems!! Since moving to Portland we have had nothing but trouble!!!!!!! Most of the time only two bars on our internet modem. Once in a while three. Phone service has been a nightmare. Dropped calls, every other word spoken bleeps out, feed back so loud in our ears we fear we will go deaf, we can hear other conversations on the line during our calls, and to top in all off customer service changed our phone number four times in a two hour period because they felt that the numbers were messing our service up. When I called 911, I needed medical attention, it showed on the EMT’s computer that my call was coming from Fairview and Portland. The customer service people have never been rude to us but they are a bunch of dummies. They haven’t a clue about how to fix anything. Last night I called my friend in New Jersey and my sister in southern Oregon and they both said not to call again until I had a new phone service as trying to have a decent conversation was to exhausting. I am now phone and internet shopping and becoming very discouraged. All of the large companies have sold out or have been taken over. We had Verizon for years but here in Oregon Frontier bought them out and Frontier was horrible, that was why we went to Clear. We are thinking of going to Vontage for phone service and who knows where for our internet service.