Clear / Clearwire - worst ISP ever!

I had the unpleasant experience of canceling my clear account the other day. I went with Clear because they were cheaper than Comcast and my wife and I decided that internet was a luxury, not a necessity so slower speeds were ok.

The first 6 months were fine, but all of February I had serious speed issues, and I mean serious. I would average 5-7Mbps on speedtest.net with Clear. What I've been getting is 0.6Mbps which is almost completely unusable. While Netflix constantly "retrieves" your movie, I even had some websites time-out on me. Clear had me go through the usual on-off crap with no luck, issued a "speed ticket" to look into the matter and would get back to me. They called me a few days later with an automated message saying press 1 to talk to a representative which didn't work, the second they called it put me on hold, said it had to do with congestion during peak hours and to just deal with it.

It continued to happen all month, I took several screenshots of speedtest.net reports at different times, sometimes even around noon. I eventually gave up on them and said I'll just pay too much for internet to Comcast. Once I had Comcast's cable internet again I called to cancel Clear. Now I'm a decent person, if you don't give me grief when canceling I won't go around badmouthing you (I've canceled with Comcast, very pleasant actually). Unfortunately, Clear needs to take lessons in not being complete jerks. I was on the phone for 1:24:24 according to my phone. Here is a breakdown of all the times I was put on hold:

9 min - 1st initial hold to get to a real human being.

4 min - On hold to "check something"

11 min - To try and waive fee

2 min - Setting me up to transfer to a tech. The rep said if I issued another speed ticket, I could cancel with no fee within 7 days after.

10 min - To actually get to the tech

14 min - To get back to a different rep who says that everything the first rep said was wrong, no way to waive fee. So I asked for a manager.

10 min - Rep talked to manager and said that manager said it was ok to waive fee.

2 min - Finalizing my cancellation.

That's 62 minutes of being on hold for an 84 minute phone call. Do the math, 22 minutes of talking is all I did. Why couldn't I get that first rep and her supervisor who immediately waived my fee? Oh, which is not $40 like they tell you. I specifically remember when I signed up asking how much a cancellation fee was and they said just $40. When I called to cancel, they said that since I own my modem I have to pay the remainder of my contract. First off, what does owning my modem have to do with anything? Second, don't even try it because your internet sucks.

They tried to explain to me that my account was being "managed" whatever that means. I didn't really understand the rep but what I think she meant was that they see who uses the internet alot, then slow that person down so it doesn't create a traffic jam on their tower... right, like that's legal. Why would I pay for internet, use it, then when I do use it you see I'm using it and put a cap on me to make mine really slow? I also liked how she said all ISP's are using the managing software now and I'll have the same problem no matter where I go. Had Comcast for several days now, solid 20Mbps with no problems.

They also continuously try and get you to change your mind before canceling, even after you say no thanks. I understand trying to sell me one last time but for pete's sakes just let me cancel! WORST INTERNET SERVICE COMPANY EVER! And worst customer service. To their credit, their tech's were always nice, but other than that they are terrible, don't listen to anything you say, and blatantly lie to you about just about everything.

I told them I would tell everyone I know to NEVER use Clear EVER, and I intend to. This blog is only the beginning, on to every review site I know and feel free to tell your friends. Oh, and if you think I'm just being a stick in the mud and they only one with a problem with them, go to their website and see what the most recent forum activity is. Most posts are about slow internet, horrendous customer service, and I've even seen a few posts about how their previous forum post that was a complaint has been deleted because they are trying to hide the ugly truth about how terrible a company they are. It's all there. Don't get caught up in their lies.