Last February I got into a bit of dispute with my cable/ISP (Broadstripe) and quit both while on the phone with customer service.
I knew I wouldn't missed cable TV. But, I was left in a bit of pickle for internet. If I wasn't going to have cable, I definitely needed fast internet. Unfortunately, where I live, I was left with one choice for broadband... Clear.
When I first started with Clear, my service was fine. Not as fast as my cable modem, but fast enough for everything I needed: general web browsing, streaming movies from Netflix, uploading photos, occasional work. Really, it was fine.
But this past summer, download speeds would randomly drop, at times it would go out completely. If you're not familiar, Clear is basically 4G cellular service. So, like your mobile phone, sometimes reception just gets bad. I could live with that. Better than going back to my despised cable company.
But, for the past three weeks, my service has been consistently crappy. It's literally faster to create a wi-fi hotspot with my 3G T-Mobile phone than it is to use Clear. With Clear, I can no longer stream video. The internet moves along like I'm on a 56k modem.
While on a 'service' IM chat with them last weekend, I got dropped twice. The first person I spoke with was great. When I got dropped the first time, I was lucky enough to reconnect with the same person. The next time, I was reconnected with a different "technician" and literally had to start the conversation over from the beginning.
Turns out, the slowdown appears to be a known issue, as the tech said they "are working in (my) area" with no idea when the work will be finished. Why it took about 30 minutes to reach this point is beyond me. Also, if they they knew were working in the area, how about alerting their customers?
The best part of the conversation? While the tech was investigating the issue, Clear tried to upsell me a computer, with one of the selling points being the ability to watch movies on the go (see below). Not being able to stream Netflix is one of the reasons I was chatting with them in the first place. The nerve!
I'm moving to a different part of town next month. I'll see if the Clear service is any better at the new location. If it's not, I'll have to eat my $200 early termination fee. As they seem to be getting overloaded, this is probably what they want. If I was a lawyer, I would guess I could get out of it since I'm not getting the service I signed up for, but the hassle of going through that, let alone the legal fees, make that a battle not worth fighting. Maybe someone will do a class action lawsuit?
Here's a screenshot showing my conversation with the tech when they tried to upsell the computer, as well as my download/upload speeds at the time of conversation. Ugh:
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