Wednesday, November 6, 2013

An experience with Clearwire

Two years ago we were in San Francisco and the conference hotel had incredibly bad Internet. But one of the facilitators, Tim, had a clear modem and it was flawless. That sold me. Got one for Richmond VA and it worked great. When we moved to Seattle, I ordered another one and it had no reception, but they were very helpful to take it back. All that is the good news.

Now the bad news. The house in Richmond is up for sale. I wanted to close the Clear account so two months ago, I called them from Hawaii and customer service said you can only close accounts between 8 and 12 AM East Coast Time. Yes, I can get up that early in Hawaii, six hours later than East Coast, I have done it for business meetings, but I do not like it.

I could not find a way to do it by email. Finally, in frustration, I cut up the credit card. And that generated the following note:
= = = =

CLEAR internet service
Customer Number: 2993129
Service Name: RV1016347
11-02-2013

Dear Stephen NORTHCUTT,


We have been unable to process payment for your CLEAR internet service(s)and
your account has been suspended. Please contact us right away to update your
credit/debit card or electronic check payment information to avoid continued
suspension of your CLEAR internet service.


  •  Online: Log into My Account at www.clear.com to update your payment
     information


  •  By Phone: Our Customer Care Support Team is also available to assist
     you at 888.888.3113


We appreciate your immediate response and look forward to continuing to
provide you with CLEAR internet service.


Sincerely,


CLEAR


Note: Please do not reply to this message. This email was sent from a mailbox

that does not accept replies.

= = = 

Called them at the 888 number. Spoke with three people before I received someone that might be able to resolve this. Miles said, "we only have one phone call from you, it was November 4 and from your son". That alone is interesting because my son does not know the answers to my security questions; I NEVER give a correct answer for a security question. I replied, that is not correct, I have called multiple times. And then he said "you owe us $75 dollars."

I offered him the opportunity to escalate this, but no. I will mail them a check for $75 dollars. There is no way on God's green earth I will give them a credit card number, they would probably charge my account until the second coming of the Lord or force me to kill another credit card.

The bottom line. Am I saying don't do business with Clearwire? No, look at the top of this post, I have had some good experiences. Am I saying watch your stuff? Yes. They do appear to have some deceptive practices. If you have had a similar experience, I would love to hear from you: stephen at sans.edu

Update: NOV 6, 4:46 EDT: I just got a phone call from the Clearwire "robot" asking about my customer experience. I was able to answer the first question, "How likely are you to recommend Clearwire). But the question, did the call solve your problems,  However, after 15 tries I gave up pushing "1, 2, or 3) on my keypad, the robot would not accept either 2 or 3 and there is no way in heck I was going to push 1, solved all my problems. (Wonder if they used the same coders that did the Obamacare web site. Ooooh, that was mean, sorry. I will try to keep this clean. )

Update NOV 6, 5:04, EDT when I was on the phone with Clearwire, I asked for a local Clearwire store because I did not want to give them a credit card over the phone, they are just too screwed up. We called the number Clearwire gave us; I am not going to list the store, but they were wonderful. First she told me they do not accept personal checks, which I had already filled out and addressed the envelope since that is what I told Miles that is what I would do. But then the kicker, she said there was no way I could have a balance since they pre-charge. So what do I do?

Update NOV 6 5:35 EDT Ahhh, I think I understand a bit more about what they are going through. In September 2013, Sprint began the process of laying off 70% of the workforce. That will mess up any company. Word on the street is they only acquired them for their spectrum.

Update NOV 7 3:47 EDT Kathy called Clearwire and there is an escalation department. He said, "As long as we do not reactivate the account, he would waive the fees". My guess is they will not still be in business 90 days from now, so this is a safe bet. Despite all this, I will not be surprised if we do not hear from a collections department in a few weeks. 

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