Case Study of Business Practices of ClearWire

On Monday 11/2/2009 my business was approached by a ClearWire sales representative who asked me to try the new Clear wireless products (wireless modem, voice adapter, Air-card) . I was informed that I could return the equipment within 7 days if I was not satisfied.

Subsequently, over the next four days, I conducted extensive tests using four separate computers, but was not satisfied with the results .

After four days of testing I returned the equipment on Friday 11/6/2009, but in view of the negative results the salesperson insisted that I conduct further testing, and he would extend the 7-day return period. I conducted additional testing and then returned the equipment on Wednesday, 11/18/2009.

At that timeClearWire informed me that the salesperson no longer worked for ClearWire, and I would be required to pay an early return fee of $351 because the equipment had not been returned within 7 days, disregarding the promise by the salesperson to extend the trial period.

Obviously, I was not pleased by this broken promise, so I placed an appeal with ClearWire’s customer service department. After 90 minutes on the phone, ClearWire waived the early return fee, but assessed a re-stocking fee of $110. After further discussion this fee was reduced to $55.

Later examination of my credit card statement revealed that I had also been charged $150 for monthly usage.

In one respect I feel relieved that I was not charged over $600 for my “free trial” because of ClearWire’s broken promise, but I still resent having to pay over $200 because of incompetence and deception by ClearWire.

I attempted to send an email to ClearWire, only to find that they have no public-facing email address for customer support, although they do have an email for technical support. Strangely, for a high tech company, their recommended mode of correspondence is postal mail to their headquarters in Florida..

My exboyfriend got internet service through Clearwire last year. A man came to set up the service and said that our location might not get a good connection and if it wasn't working to call Clearwire and we could cancel right away. We were also told that Clearwire worked in Oregon, so that when we moved to Salem in a few months we could just take the Clearwire box with us and have uninterrupted internet service. After a couple months we got tired of the internet always cutting out and we called up to cancel and they said we had to pay an early termination fee of $200, even though we weren't receiving their service reliably. We kept the service because we did not have an extra $200. My exboyfriend moved to Salem and found that Clearwire did not work there, only in Portland and Eugene. He tried to cancel again because he wasn't receiving their service at all and they said he still had to pay the early termination fee. He asked for documentation that we had signed up for a service we weren't getting and they couldn't show us Anything with our signature on it. They said we automatically agreed when we had it put in. I am no longer with my exboyfriend and the Clearwire was set up for autopay temporarily on my bank card because my boyfriend ran out of money for a couple months. He will not put his own card down because he doesn't get the service in Salem and they will not let me cancel the service or remove my card because my name is not on the clearwire account. They told me to close my bank account if I didn't want it automatically withdrawn anymore. This has to be in some way illegal, to be charging someone for a service they are not receiving and that they never signed up for. And on top of that not let them remove autopay for an account that isn't in their name. I don't think I should have to close my entire bank account to stop autopay for a service that isn't being delivered, that isn't in my name and I haven't signed anywhere on with my consent.

Please pass this on. Clearwire must suffer the consequences of their nasty, dirty and disgusting actions. Please pass this on to as many people as you can - don't let anyone ever fall into their trap again!

We were Clearwire customers for 4-5 months when suddenly due to my husband's job we had to move out of state. The state we moved to did not offer Clearwire service so we wanted to cancel. We indicated that we'll pay the 200-something discontinuation fee.

Well it was not good for 'em. First, they grilled us for over an hour over the phone, trying to talk us into keeping the service. It was no use trying to explain that we are moving out of their service range. (I might here add that we've never had problems with their service so we were indeed sad -at that point- that we no longer are going to be able to surf the net through them.)
They tried to talk us into selling the account to someone we know. We asked friends and family but nobody wanted it. So we went on calling them again letting them know that we will just have to discontinue.
Then they tried to force us to put the account up on Craiglist for the new state we moved into, since one city here offers Clearwire services. (not the one we moved to.)
We told them we absolutely have no time to deal with this and selling the service is NOT our job. All we want is to discontinue the service.
Well - they simply refused. This above back and forth game about selling the account to friends/selling it on Craiglist went on for weeks. In the meantime we've had to move and FINALLY, just a day before our relocation they agreed to send the mail-in sticker (that's required for sending the modem back to them.) They knew our new address too, by the way.

Well, nothing happened. We tried to contact them to no avail. The sticker would not arrive for weeks/months.

FINALLY it arrived. Immediately, a day after the sticker arrived we've got a VERY nasty phone call from a Clearwire agent stating that since we are withholding the modem and refusing to send it back, they'll have to charge us extra.
I then explained to him that we've been begging for this darn sticker for MONTHS now and it just arrived a day or two before at most WHILE I was in the hospital having an unexpected, emergency surgery, hence forth why we haven't gotten it done immediately.

We mailed the modem out after this right away, and we were waiting for our bill to show up to pay the discontinuation fees.

Well that never came...instead of that what came was massive amounts of automated phone calls from 888-870-7281.
It was Clearwire's collections stating that we don't only owe the discontinuation fees but ALSO the monthly fees for the past several months. (which they couldn't collect through our bank account since we shut down our old bank account and created a new one - the old bank is not operating here in this state where we moved.)
We tried -several times!!!- to explain to them that we are more than happy to pay the discontinuation fees if they send a bill about that but we are NOT going to pay for the past few months when we clearly wanted to discontinue our service and they blatantly refused to do so.
They wanted to sweettalk us into paying the discontinuation fees over the phone. Nop...I don't think so. We've seen other complaints since then online talking about overcharging people over the phone.

The phone call's won't stop. Day or night, ten times a day if needed. We begged, asked, yelled, talked to supervisors to no avail. We just want to pay our discontinuation fees BUT WE REFUSE to pay monthly charges since they refused to discontinue our service AND we mailed back the modem as well. They always say that they will be galiant and "forgive" the monthly charges to us if we pay the discontinuation fees over the phone. DON'T anyone ever do that. They'll overcharge you and break their word.
They BLATANTLY refuse to send a paper bill.

Now they handed over our case to another collection company which is now calling us several times a day as well.

If anyone -or their neighbor- considers getting Clearwire PLEASE tell them the true story. The part of the true story is that the net service was indeed GOOD. HOWEVER NEVER EVER EVER in a million years sign up just for that. This is one of the biggest scums of recent times. I also think that us, people who got hurt by them (and being harrassed privately in our homes for money we don't owe or for bad things we have not done) should join and DO SOMETHING to tear this horrible company down. Anyone???????????

Thanks for reading and don't forget to pass it on.

In August of 2008 I had enough of paying clearwire for "High-Speed" internet that was not high-speed, so I started using anopther better provider for a lower cost. I called clearwire and asked them to cancel my service. They indicated they would, no problem, (I had been a customer for over 2 yrs) they would send me a UPS label and could I box up the modem and return. I said I would. I never received the UPS lable, but I did continue receiving bills on my credit card. In October I called back and tried to clear it up, but they indicated they had my email address written down wrong, (How is that my problem) and they would now send the UPS label to the correct verified address. it never came, but another bill on my credit card did . I had to cancel my credit card and to this day, I have never received a label, and ended up taking the modem back to a Clearwire retail location, and I receive a phone call from Clearwire and theur collection agency every single day/ What can I do?

I moved 10 miles and cannot get clearwire service. I was told verbally my entire valley was covered. Now they want me to pay early cancellation fee or $165. This is a complete scam. I was lied to.

I talked to their account services dept who told me to run an ad in Craigslist to find someone to take over my account. She didn't have all the info of how this was done. I'm afraid I don't feel like I should be their extended sales arm.

I used their live chat and was told no supervisor was available I was talking to the wrong dept. Live chat is customer care but cannot help with accounts. Both people were like robots just spewing out pleasant comments but could give no answers other than quoting policy and yada yada.

Their service sucks too. I'm now on Qwest and am remembering how the internet can really be faster at home.

Clearwire needs to be put out of business.