Review: CLEAR WiMax in Atlanta

1. 
   paul permalink

   Kim,
   if you aren’t a heavy internet user, Clear is a great option. I can’t speak for the Norcross area, but if you get service similar to mine, you should be perfectly fine. Of course, you will want to get a trial and make sure it works in your house, because signal definitely can vary house-to-house, even in good coverage areas.
2. 
   Kimball permalink

   I recently tried Clear to replace my DSL connection, and was thrilled with the speed and reception in the Boise, ID area, but had to cancel after only 3 days because Clear has made one of the dumbest decisions an ISP can make… Read more on my blog:
   http://www.kimballlarsen.com/2010/09/13/clear-internet-a-review/
3. 
   Francisco T permalink

   I had a clear service. When I installed I had some problems with the signal, I had one or two leds on only, so I called to clear people and they offered to help with some procedures that rally do not improve the speed of internet. I had 1 mb only. After several calls, they offered to send a technician to my home (this technician spend 3 weeks), the technician said the area in my home was overloaded, so they could not give me 6 mb as they promised, so I was free to cancell the service. Then I called to cancel my service, but thay do not want to receive the modem again because they said has passed 14 days of test period. I explained that I wait more then 14 days because they were trying to help, they told me, “Please do not cacell because we will help you”, and now, they do not want to respond.
   I think clear is a dishonest company becasue they Know perfectly they can not give a good speed (6mb as they promise) but they are still selling more contracts and they are saying they have a good service. This is just spam.
   Clear take adventage of clients that do not know about speed or about internet in general.
   I you need good service and Hi speed…. stay away of clear.
4. 
   James permalink

   As a former CLEAR dealer my cancellation rate for CLEAR internet service was 10x higher than that of Comcast. The bundle rates are good but the service is terrible and the vesting period is too long for the commission payout. We had over $11,000.00 in charge backs for 3 consecutive months and just decided that selling CLEAR was too detrimental to our business. We lost so much money that we are still paying off our CLEAR reps with our Comcast commission as opposed to just leaving them without an income. We later learned that CLEAR has a charge back for lack of words SCAM where their system incorrectly generated a cancellation for what was a suspended service for non pay customers. The customers would call in and pay the bill, CLEAR charge back the dealer on the commission, and keep the customer. They claim that the system was corrected in July where it would capture the reactivations and issue a pay out on them. Well my company never saw one and to my knowledge no other dealer has either. Additionally, they never offered to repay for the reactivated customers prior to July. I personally don’t think CLEAR will be around long, regardless of this new technology if they continue to cheat their dealers in this manner. Additionally, the service really needs to improve. It slows down tremendously when it rains and even goes out. The only good thing about the service is that you can bundle two nationwide aircards. Thats the only thing thats gonna keep them in the game. If ATT, Verizon, Sprint (parent company), Comcast, Bright House, and Time Warner provided a unlimited data usage plan for their aircards at comparable rates, they would SHUT DOWN CLEAR completely.
5. 
   SirAnonym permalink

   Trying to avoid having Comcast, I’ve been dealing with the inconsistent and often incompetent service of Clear for the over six months now. When I initially had their service installed, I was promised a quality of service that would allow me to stream video and and participate in online gaming. This wasn’t happening so I complained and they cried it was due to the limited service of my plan. I upgraded (eventually to the unlimited tier), only to find no change in the quality of service. They then tried to sell me on the fact that the tower needed servicing and would be in a month or so, never giving specifics (of course). So I opted to remain patient, really wanting this silly product to work. After the alleged tower work I never really noticed an exceptional change in quality, nor was I ever contacted by Clear support as they mentioned they would. Furthermore, it should be noted that even after having more than several conversations with support I would find that previous calls were not documented and the the tech staff would have me go through the same troubleshooting techniques repeatedly, none of it ever solving anything. At this point my life had gotten busy with work and I had little time to deal with it, basically home only weekend nights. Although certain times I could sit through a Netflix stream without it looking like television from the 1950′s and rebuffering every 5 minutes, the speed of internet I was receiving was severely inconsistent and often down right unusable. Finally I was able to find some free time and contacted them again. And again I was sent through all of the borderline incompetent troubleshooting hoops to again be told that it is, of course, a problem with the tower, which is scheduled to be looked at in a month or two from now. At this point I’m fighting to recall what it was about Comcast that drove me to leave. After a series of well deserved “are you kidding me?” and a final threat to leave them for good, I was given a considerable 6 month discount with supposedly no downgrade to the bandwidth plan. This is my final straw. I will see if come January is was indeed a tower issue that was fixed, if not I will unfortunately go back to the monopoly which is Comcast
6. 
   Amy permalink

   Do not get Clear! The speed is awful and customer service is even worse.
7. 
   Kareem Ahmed permalink

   I own a cell phone store in the Nashville area. A while back a clear representative came in trying to sell me on becoming an authorized dealer. I agreed to meet with her and honestly her pitch sold me. There commission structure was one of the best I had seen, the upfront dealer costs of $1000 were cheap compared to other companies, a large percentage of that money went to purchasing promotional items, and she made the service sound solid.

   One of the prerequisites of becoming a Clear dealer is that you have to purchase there service on a take 3 plan with a 2 year contract. I had no problem with this, if I am to sell there product I should be using it. I was told the service was unlimited with no cap in the 4G bandwidth. I was also told that if I wanted to buy out of my contract I would only have to pay 2 months of service.

   After purchasing Clear, and becoming a authorized dealer I was pleasantly surprised with the service. My speeds were really fast, I was streaming full movies with no problems, and I was saving money since I was supplying Internet to my store and my home on the same plan.
   After about a month of service I started to experience the nightmare of Clear. My speeds had dropped dramatically, and the service was unbearable. When it worked it would take minutes to open the simplest of pages. I remember one time where I timed it and it took 1 min 32 seconds to open Craigslist!

   As a dealer I tried to contact a representative to find out what was happening with my account. For the life of me I could not talk to a customer representative. The first few times I called I gave up after waiting for about 45 minutes.
   After finally buckling down, determined to talk to a rep, I finally reached one after being on hold for a hour and a half. After another half hour of being given the run around they finally admitted to throttling my speed. I was furious. When I tried to cancel my account I was told my termination fees were close to $300. Way more than my rep quoted me on.

   The first month I had Clear my rep was helping me to sell it. I sold it to three customers before my account was throttled making back approximately half the money I spent to become a Clear dealer.

   After my web was throttled I would no longer sell it to my customers. I actually had a few customers come in specifically to buy Clear and I talked them out of it. I make about $300 a customer that I am able to get on a 2 year contract. I threw this money away because I am a firm believer in believing in what you sell.
   Also, at about the same time our account began to get throttled, the rep that sold us clear was laid off due to Clears massive cutbacks. The new rep that replaced her, I had never met.

   Clear stole $1000 from me with false promises. Additionally they also are continuing to get $83 from me per month because I am unable to terminate the service. I have since wrote my rep and explained to him my opinions and in turn they terminated my dealer privileges. which is all in good as I would not sell there service anyway.
   I keep the Clear sign in my store window so that if someone comes in inquiring about it I can save them the nightmare that is Clear. You would think that if there was any customer that they would not throttle it would be there dealers as they are representing them. However they lack the common business sense to do that.

   Do yourself a favor, if you run into a salesman that is trying to sell you Clear, run as far aways as possible as fast as you can. They are a crook company that should not be allowed to continue to do business.

   A actual ex-Clear dealer
8. 
   Jenny permalink

   I am leaving a comment here because I am so furious with this fraudulent company that I feel the need to warn as many people as I can by leaving negative reviews everywhere. I never ever bother to review anything because I am so lazy but this company has upset me so much that I am willing to do this much effort. To keep a long story short, here’s a list:

   1. I completely agree with the above reviewer, Kareem Ahmed, the ex-clear dealer and his experience. I feel his pain.

   2. My device have not been able to connect online for the past 3 weeks and after days of calling, no one gives a damn.

   3. Every worker in that company, from customer service, sales, to tech support tells lies about everything. Do not believe a word they say because the sales just wants to make a sale, the tech support just wants to get you off their back, and even the managers don’t give a damn that you haven’t had service for 3 weeks.

   4. They are not knowledgeable about their product and service and so each one tells you a different reason for the problem you experience. Several tech support tells me to call back after 24 hrs several times and a manager even promised that my service will be fixed after 24 hrs but to no avail. Eventually no one will even pick up my calls anymore and they will put you on hold and never return. One lady insists that I have a battery problem and insisting to send me a new battery when I reassured her over and over that my battery is working just fine!

   5. After many attempts, I finally got someone on the phone who is willing to cancel my account, but I have to pay penalty charge. He now says he’s willing to send me a replacement device if I don’t cancel (when this should’ve been the answer since day 2 that I called!). But when I asked about reimbursement for the 3 weeks of no internet service, he says that will have to be dealt separately after I make my decision! That is such obvious fraud omg! There shouldn’t be any negotiation there what-so-ever! Seriously, no one there cares at all about the problem you are experiencing…they just do everything they can to get you off their back, including the managers because I spoke to them.

   Of all my life and working in the tech field, I have never experienced such terrible, horrible service! I am shocked to find out that such big company should be so poorly run. They deserve to go out of business.
9. 
   Rachel permalink

   m paying 45 a month for a service I’m not getting. I live in Tacoma wa and my plan is unlimited 4mbps or more but I only get 1 or less. They keep telling me that something is wrong with the tower but they expect me to pay the full price when I’m not even getting half the service? I’m very opsset at this.
10. 
    H Chan permalink

    My own experience with Clear is very similar to that of Kareem Ahmed’s. The only difference in my case is that I WAS an indirect dealer (i.e. through a master dealer) so I didn’t have to fork over the $1000 upfront cost. However, I did have to set up a demo line to demonstrate the service to potential customers. For the first 2 months, service on the demo line was good and speeds were in line with what the reviewer got. Then, about the 3-4 month mark, connection speeds and reliability tanked. And, just like Kareem, I tried multiple times to contact my account rep concerning the issue–cause there was no way I could demo something like this to customers. Guess what? I had been throttled. Not just for that month, but for the rest of my time with Clear. It didn’t matter that I was a dealer, that I was trying to help them sale their product, or that I paid full price for a demo line service… THEY TREAT EVERYBODY EQUALLY LIKE CRAP! I wouldn’t be surprised if they let you run wild for the 1st month, until you get passed the no-return period, and then cap and real in your service for the rest of the contract so they can collect ETFs. Oh, and the ETF, same as Kareem’s… 2x what my account rep (who conveniently quit) had quoted + tax on the ETF too.

    As bad as Clear treats its dealers AND customers, they will not be around for long. If you bought equipment form them, return it if possible and as soon as possible cause it’ll soon be a paper weight. If you’re starting service with them, CANCEL IT RIGHT NOW! There are better services out there and this is NOT a company that deserves your money or support.

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