I have been with Clearwire since September 2006. This is my
experience two days ago (Jan. 22nd). I would love to join in a class
action lawsuit.
I saw at Clearwiresucks.com that Clearwire was trying to sue a poster
for, basicly, libel. Well, I have sent this same story to three
television stations, the Washington State Attorney General, the
Federal Communications Commission, and even Clearwire themselves!
The true is the best defense against libel. Let 'em sue me -- I'm not
even posting anonymously. :)
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After being a strong supporter of Clearwire for the last year and a
half, I am ready to cancel my account. Here is what happened:
At 11:54 AM yesterday, a message was left on my voice mail. It
said, "This is Mike from Clearwire. There is a problem with your
account. Please call me at xxx-xxxx." I called at 12:08 PM, having no
idea what was wrong.
I never got to Mike -- I learned that when you call the number that
they give, you might be sent to any of their call centers. The Level
1 tech didn't want to help me, because I had forgotten which high
school I had left as my security question. (I attended 5 high
schools, and it was my husband's high school we had used!). Finally,
he told me that my modem had been permanently disabled for being
a "bandwidth hog." I asked to talk to a Level 2 analyst, but after 20
minutes on hold I gave up. I really wanted to eat lunch.
I didn't have any more time to do anything until after work. Shortly
before 5:00 PM, I called again.
After several more minutes on hold, I was transferred to a Level 2
tech who was obviously reading from a script. "For the five days
ending January 17th, your bandwidth exceeded the allowable amount.
This is your third offense, so we have permanently disabled your
modem. You cannot get it re-enabled."
What???? This is five days later; I had absolutely no notice that
they were going to disable the modem, and I had no idea what it meant
to be a bandwidth hog. I also did not think they could permanently
shut down my modem when we were paying for the Clearwire phone;
certainly, the FCC regulations would not allow a disabled person's
phone (my husband has diabetes and heart disease, among other things)
to be turned off without notice. A cell phone has to always have
access to 911; our phone didn't even have a dial tone!
They said this was the third offense. OK, the first time was my
fault -- I hadn't put a firewall on my wireless router, and the guys
next door were stealing my signal. That is no longer the case. This
happened again in December; they couldn't tell me how they knew I was
a bandwidth hog, or how to fix it other than the steps I had already
taken (MacAfee, virus and spyware checks, etc.). I said that I
sometimes watch streaming media; they said maybe that was the
problem. I asked if a technician could come out and check my modem;
they said that they wouldn't roll a truck for that. Nobody warned me
that the next time this happened, I would be banned from Clearwire.
The guy told me to log into www.clearwire.com and look up the rules I
agreed to when I signed up -- but, I HAD NO INTERNET ACCESS! He told
me to call someone, but my home phone wasn't working so I had to use
my cell phone -- something I really didn't want to do.
After arguing with the guy for half an hour, he finally agreed that
no one had ever warned me that I could be permanently banned. He
agreed to turn the modem back on -- but it still didn't work.
I went down to Southcenter and spent about an hour and a half with
the Clearwire salesperson there. He had never heard of a bandwidth
limit; after he called his manager, he found that this is one of the
little-known regulations. He called several people; nobody could even
access my account. Finally, he got hold of a tech that thought he
could do something; at that point, the salesman's phone went dead.
Mine was close to dead. I had been on the phone for about 2 hours
total at that time. (I spent a total of about 4 hours on my cell
phone through this whole thing.) I finally gave up and went home.
The Internet still wasn't working. Once again, I called. My first
call that day went to a Florida call center; my second went to New
York; my third went to Las Vegas. Now, I was back in Florida. The
woman who answered checked my account and said that the modem
wouldn't be turned back on until I paid my past due bill. What???? I
pay by automatic payment to my credit card; how could my bill be
overdue? Clearwire decides how much I owe and when I should pay it.
She insisted that I owed (get this) 87 CENTS. Whatever -- just put
the bill on my credit card and get the modem turned on.
The modem still wouldn't work. Now, I had to go through a lot of
trouble -- turning off all of the computers (we have five adults and
five computers in the house), the router, the phone, and the modem,
waiting for the modem to be reset, then turning it all back on.
Finally -- at 8:38 PM, the Internet was on again.
All through this mess, I continued to ask two questions -- How do I
know how much band width I am using? What is the band width limit?
Nobody could answer either question. I guess I will know the next
time they decide to turn off my modem. It seems that if this is a
criteria for service, that they should at least provide some kind of
monitor that I could install on my home computers. Nothing fancy,
just a red/yellow/green indicator that stays in the taskbar. If the
indicator turns yellow, I would know that an excessive amount of
bandwidth is being used -- at that moment, I could check to see which
computers are on and what activities are using the bandwidth. I don't
see where that type of application would cost very much to build.
So, here is what I am planning to do. Because Clearwire is
headquartered in Kirkland, I can go after them in small claims
court. I plan to ask for reimbursement of my time, cell phone
minutes, and a penalty for my husband not having access to a phone
for the day. (If he had had an accident or medical emergency, he
would have not been able to call for help.) I am also going to ask
for punitive damages for their policy of turning off a modem with no
warning, and with no way for the consumer to mediate the problem.
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