Unethical bozos of the month: Clear / Clearwire WiMAX

In January of this year I was shopping around for a new broadband internet solution.  I’ve been using DSL at the time and I felt like I was paying too much for the level of service I was getting ($65/month for 3Mbps).

I saw numerous adds for Clearwire’s new WiMAX service called Clear.  They were launching their Portland service at the time so I decided to go check it out. I could get 6Mbps for $45/month. This looked like a decent alternative to my DSL setup.

I spoke with a Clear sales rep at BestBuy who told me that for that week only they were running a special deal that will waive the one-time sign-up fees without the need to sign a 2-year contract. This sounded pretty good. Usually, service providers will either waive the sign-up fee or the need for a multi-year contract, but not both.

Skeptically, I asked the sales rep to please confirm that I can get a month-to-month deal without the need of paying a sign-up fee. “Yes, definitely! This is a special introductory deal we’re running this week since we’re launching our service here in Portland and we’re trying to ramp up subscriptions”, I was informed. Just to be sure, I asked her a second and a third time to confirm this seemingly too-good-to-be-true deal.

Given these assurances I signed up to give the service a try. The whole process was done online and I was told a confirmation email will be send to me within 24 hours. When I got home that afternoon, the email was waiting in my inbox.

Great was my surprise when I read the fine print in the email stating that I have apparently, contrary to what was promised to me, signed up for a 2-year contract. Just great!

I immediately phoned Clear’s customer service department to get this sorted out. The customer service rep told me that they’ve been having a number of similar calls from other new customers that day and that there was some problem with their system. I was told hat the detail contained in the confirmation email was erroneous and that the situation will be corrected immediately. I was reassured that I do indeed have a month-to-month service contract.

Forward 3 months. Present time.

Comcast has been advertising a number of really good looking deals for cable internet. I decide it might be worth looking into and since I’m on a month-to-month plan with Clear, I can switch if needed.

Before I call Comcast, I decide to first find out from Clear what the procedure is to cancel my service and return the WiMAX modem.

“Err, sir, if you cancel now there will a substantial penalty fee levied since you’re on a 2-year contract!”, I’m told by the Clear rep. WTF!!? Didn’t I sort this all out months ago?

So I’ve been lied to at numerous instances by Clear representatives just in order to get my business. Nice ethics guys!

Long story short. After much time wasted on the phone and escalating the issue up a number of levels in the service department, I finally got them to honor (to some degree) the agreement I was sold. I was told they will remove the 2-year contractual agreement, but I will need to retroactively pay the $40 sign-up fee (which was waived by the original sales rep). Just great. Whatever.

“Oh, sir, you will also need to pay a $20 restocking fee for the modem”. Even better.

So, $60 later I’m finally done dealing with these clowns.

Up until recently I was recommending Clear to friends. I don’t think I’ll be doing that anymore.

Stay away from these unethical scammers at all cost.

UPDATE : It seems like MANY others are dealing with similar issues with Clear / Clearwire. Do I smell a class action lawsuit in the making?