Clearwire Problems? You're Not Alone.

Tacoma, WAAccording to several Internet message boards, Clearwire, a wireless broadband Internet service provider (ISP) serving markets in the US, has upset a lot of people. And that's putting it politely. If Clearwire (also called "Crackwire") continues to charge early termination fees, it will likely start losing a lot of customers and create a whole lot of lawsuits.

Clearwire claims to provide reliable, high speed Internet service but judging from several blogs and forums online, the Internet service they provide is neither reliable nor high speed. Some disgruntled customers report that they were sold a contract in their area where towers are over-capacity or even non-existent.

Clearwire's website advertises big savings, especially with voice bundling, but people are saying the savings aren't worth dealing with the aggravation of bad service and faulty equipment. So they want to cancel their contract but early termination fees cost a bundle.

Mike H. has had technical and service issues with Clearwire but he's stuck: he says the contract will cost $140 to cancel--worth a full 3 months subscription when his contract ends later this September. "It's almost like Catch-22," he says. "This product is a major disappointment and I recommend anyone…to stay away from Clearwire.

Chris wanted to get out of his two-year contract but he too says he is "pretty much stuck with Clearwire" because he doesn't want to pay the early termination fees. "Do they [Clearwire] honestly believe that anybody would walk into a Clearwater contract knowing that it'll be a financial nightmare to escape it?" he asks. "Caveat emptor".

According to other complaints, Clearwire auto-renews contracts unless the customer lets them know 30 days in advance of the expiration that they would not want to renew the contract. There is report after report of customers still getting charged the $200 cancellation fee even after cancelling it in the appropriate manner.

Heather wanted to cancel her Clearwire account because she was told that her location would be great for "excellent service" when in fact she couldn't even connect to basic sites such as Google. "When I argued that I had been lied to and wanted to cancel my contract they said no problem, well just debit your account for the early termination fees (ETF)," says Heather."I'm on the phone with them and do the math on the ETF….its almost three times what it would be for me to just make my monthly payments!"

After paying monthly charges for two years, Heather called Clearwire in January to verify her contract term date—February 1st. " I was told on the phone by a customer service rep that all I had to do to finalize the termination (because they automatically renew the contract if this is not done) is to take my modem that I "bought" into the nearest Clearwire distributor," says Heather. On January 31st, Heather took her modem to the nearest Clearwire store but was told that they don't accept those kinds of modems. With a hungry two-year-old in tow, Heather didn't have time to find another store. "So now they have re-activated my contract since the modem was not received by the end of the contract, and they will not cancel it," she says, understandably angry.

Michael P advises people who are considering Clearwire to "just don't get it, it's not worth the money, time or effort you put forth to get it. I'd rather have teeth pulled by the mafia than go through that nightmare again."

John H says: "I too am a victim of their fraud, deception and bait and switch tactics. I've got 11 months left on their miserable service and of course they want the $180. Then there's the automatic renewal they don't tell you about. If you don't catch it, oops there's another $180. If there is a class action suit, heck yeah sign me up…"

If you have had problems with your Clearwire service, and Clearwire will not let you out of your contract, clearly you are not alone.