anyone else having trouble with clear?

[JoB]

which would have been useful to me if only Qwest ran DSL on the “wrong” side of 35th…

That old stereotype is creating a lot of missed merchandising opportunities for more than one merchant.

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[Garden_nymph]

JohnnyBlegs- You are a lucky man!

After posting here about my opinions re: Clear, is it a coincidence that our service was out from 8:30 pm last night, until we called them today around 2:20 pm?! Although we have asked, we are NEVER given a credit for the time our service is down! After we were reconnected, the “customer service” rep stated that there may be further interuptions in service because they are working on the tower… Then he went on to add that the chat option is available 25/7. We tried to point out that w/o an internet connection, we are unable to start an on-line chat but this concept continues to elude them! (No we don’t have phones that have e-mail capabilities and most Wi-Fi businesses are closed when our connection goes down.) Ohhhhh they F-R-U-S-T-R-A-T-E me SO much!!!

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[Garden_nymph]

**Update** As I tried to post the previous comment, our connection went out AGAIN, after being on for only 10 minutes. After waiting on HOLD for 15 minutes I was able to speak to a customer service rep that was actually very informative. She stated that there are 6 towers in West Seattle, 35th and Holden, 35th and Roxbury, 45th and Wildwood Place/ SW Brace Drive, 14th and 100th, Holden and 13th and 114th and 16th Ave. Currently they are working on ALL the towers trying to fix a problem with the microwaves. (It’s what she said!) Per a message to the Customer Service department from the tower crews, “They are aware of the outages.” She said the problem will be fixed w/in 2 to 24 hours. When I asked how far into the 24 hour window we were, she stated she didn’t know. I then asked when the message was posted- she said there was not a time stamp on the message (sure there wasn’t!) I asked for a credit for the time our system has been down and she stated we needed to call back tomorrow to request it, as their account reps are only available M-F. I asked if her message would be sent to the Account Rep dept so that I wouldn’t have to pay to wait on hold (with the rest of West Seattle) AND re-explain the situation to request the credit we are due! She states the Account Reps can look out our service and determine how often and for how long our service was interrupted and refund us for the time our service was unavailable. I’ll keep you all posted.

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[JoB]

garden nymph..

ours was out from 8:30 till 10:30 last night

on again but crappy till this afternoon some time around 1PM.. off again

on again at 3:30.. but i don’t expect it to last:(

we are supposed to have access to 3 towers. are they all down?

we get a new modem tomorrow but something tells me it isn’t going to help…

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[Garden_nymph]

I was told that they are working on ALL of them, updating them somehow. The only one she saw currently working is the one at 35th and Holden. When she tried to connect our line to that tower, she said that everyone was trying to connect to that tower and it may be overloaded. I have to admit, she was the MOST informed rep we have EVER had, so kudos go out to Florence O’Neil in New York!. I asked if I needed to put on my tinfoil hat and paint my toe nails blue… she stated that the hat won’t work, but a good toe nail color might! ;) If I were you, I would request a refund. Why pay for service you aren’t getting?!

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[Aim]

OK. Here’s what I did. It may or may not work for you.

First let me say that Clearwire SUCKS, and I called no fewer than 10 times in my final 2-3 months with issues and probably made 30+ calls over the 15 months I had their service. During one of those calls I was told that we never should have been sold service, because we were on the bottom floor of an apt building that sat in the valley of Delridge (between the two peaks on 16th and 35th) plus we had >1 story buildings on either side of us and there was no way we could get a decent signal. This after a number of very long calls with reps “now turn it a quarter of an inch to the left, now half an inch to the right, etc etc.” I wasted SO much time with them, even going so far as to replace the modem (which is not technically a modem, as the geeks in the house know full well.)

Finally I’d had it. I told them to shove their contract because we weren’t getting the service we were promised and I would be happy to join the very large class-action suit against them if they didn’t let me out of it with no fees. I mentioned this suit (Google it) at least twice per call on two or three different calls, including one with a supervisor. Then I called Comcast. I went through an independent sales rep who got me a $19.99/month deal for 6 months, and said to call him back when that 6 months was up and he’d re-up us at the same rate. I haven’t yet done that, but will soon. In the meantime, I am paying $50/month, which is still less than the BS $55 I was paying for Clear, who had asked me to bump up to their “premier” service as a troubleshooting measure. Yeah, yeah, I know better.

Clear billed me again after I sent their modem back to them. I called and they claimed they’d look into the billing and get back to me. Guess what, no call back. So I went through my bank and told them I was being billed after canceling the contract and that I wanted to put a permanent block on any and all billing from Clear. The bank reversed the last two payments and I’ve heard not a single word from Clear. It’s been about 8 months now, and no bill. Also nothing showing on my credit report, so they didn’t sell it off as a bad debt.

With Comcast I do NOT have TV or voice – you are not required to bundle. I regularly get ~20mb download and ~10 up. I’m supposed to be on the 20/5 or thereabouts plan, but I definitely exceed the promised speeds. I can stream multiple things simultaneously, or download large files while streaming with no effect on the perceived speed.

Your mileage may vary of course. I don’t guarantee anyone else will get out of their contract by using these tips, but I managed to do it. Feel free to try.

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[JoB]

i hope it’s a tower issue

i hope they resolve it quickly

we have had intermittant service for several days now.. and it’s not so great when it’s funcitoning:(

i am ripe for a comcast sales rep:(

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[sam-c]

bleah- we lost service today.

it said we had 5 bars, but our computers said we had nothin’

this was around 2:30 when I was trying to look up instructions for a tax form.

guess I’ll look it up now. more bleah.

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[ScottA]

I’m not in WS but downtown so for what it’s worth I recently canceled my service after having it for several years (I think I was one of the early users of Clearwire probably in late ’06). I was getting frustrated with “server not found” errors since getting the new modem a few months ago – although maybe this just coincided with too many new users overloading the network and not related to the new hardware.

When I called tech support (only twice) they were pretty useless. Since I had 5 bars it wasn’t a connection issue to the network but both of my PCs had the same “server not found” issues. On the first call the guy had me do the ipconfig commands to clear the cache (didn’t help). On the 2nd and last call the guy said to try a fixed DNS nameserver and he suggested the OpenDNS address. OpenDNS takes address bar searches I did and redirects them to it’s own version of Google search results or something similar which was really annoying.

If you have a similar problem I’d try the Google DNS addresses 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 which seemed to result in much better reliability for the couple days I used it before my cancellation kicked in and now I have Broadstripe cable modem service and I haven’t had an error since but it costs about $63 instead of $42.

I’m actually a small investor in Clear so this really frosts me!

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[JoB]

sam-c..

i have noticed this weekend that there doesn’t seem to be any real correlation between the bars on my box and the internet service i am experiencing.. that is when i have internet service:(

anybody have any idea how long is might take to do the “work on the towers”?

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[KatherineL]

I’ve had the same problem with full bars showing on the modem, but no connection found. It came back on this morning, and has been steady all day. Hope it stays that way. I counted up the days this month with poor or no service, prepared to call Billing and demand a reduction in fees. Luckily I checked my account first; they’d already reduced my usual fee.

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[JoB]

message on customer service…

they are aware we are having connectivity issues..

24-48 hours?

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[Jiggers]

I hate wireless Internet in Seattle. Portland has free Internet thruout the city because Intel is located in Portland. Seattle is nothing more than a greedy city all the way around. Wireless in Seattle is very un-user friendly. I’ve complained about this here a few months ago.

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[valvashon]

We have Earthlink broadband provided by Comcast. It is high speed, cable internet for 45.95 a month. We have earthlink.net e-mail addresses and pay the bill to Comcast. If you don’t have cable tv or phone from Comcast, it is a cheaper alternative to their stand alone cable internet. It’s quite reliable, too. I can’t remember the last time it was down.

Val

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[MousePotato]

Before responding to this thread my service was fine. My mistake…. I spoke out against the CLEAR. I must repent….

The CLEAR is good and all powerful.

The CLEAR is all knowing and merciful.

The CLEAR has restored my connection because of my faith in the CLEAR.

Long live the CLEAR…. Long live the CLEAR…. Long live the CLEAR…. Long live the CLEAR…. Long live the CLEAR…. Long live the CLEAR….

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[miws]

MousePotato, REBOOT!! REBOOT!!

Mike

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[JoB]

LOL…

is clear good and all powerful this morning?

i haven’t had the time and energy to call customer service to see if they have resolved tower issues..

i will install the new modem when the trickle down effect in towers and upgrades.. so they told me.. end.

then we shall see…

my only other choice is the expensive evil..

and speed of comcast:(

may be important as hubby will be needing both next week to ensure a happy and tranquil household.

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[JoB]

I just got off the phone with Clear Customer service one more time today after worse than spotty service for the past week…

the latest story… it appears there is an area code related problem and you do have to bypass their message and contact customer service to fix that problem. They have to “take your modem off the system and put it back on” because of “something” “someone” did”.

that was supposed to fix my problem… new modem.. new registration..

same problem.

so.. after i had done the tech support dance and unplugged my modem from the power supply “which was limiting the electric current to the modem” and plugged it into the wall without being able to get any signal because my outlet was too far from the window.. and replugged it back into an extension cord…and unplugged my 2.4 mghz phone and moved my router in a straight line 6 ft from my modem even though that put it in the middle of the room and moved my modem and went through my operating system and made sure that i had accepted all updates for my operating system…

after that… with the modem still bouncing itself off and on… after i lost my cool…

she checked and found “they are still having problems with 4 towers in our area and that the techs are working” on it…

and that they have no expected date of resolution.

Before i give in and call comcast.. whose tech service gets worse reviews than Clear…

Is anyone else still having substantial problems with Clear?

if this is a Clear problem we will probably hang in there a little longer so they can either “fix” or “update” their towers.. depending upon which story you buy. We’ll see… My patience is wearing thin.

if this is going to be an ongoing problem created by the little ecosystem we live in… i had best be calling comcast soon…

i can’t get a straight answer from tech support so i am asking my fellow Clear customers…

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[MousePotato]

JoB,

We haven’t had any outages since the fiasco last weekend. However, we are very close to one of the towers and perhaps our tower is not one of the four they are currently working on. (If that is even true)….

I have a very difficult time with anything that their customer service says. Every time we call we have to do the dance around unplugging our modem, removing our router from the mix, re-angling the modem, etc…. only for them to eventually say, “Oh, looks like their is an outage in your area.”

Ya think they could check that first….

You could possibly be in a dead area for their towers and it could be that quite possibly you will never get a consistent signal from them. We always have 5 out of 5 lights on our modem. How is your signal?

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[JoB]

mousepotato..

i used to get a steady 4 and sometimes 5

now i am lucky to get 2 or 3..

after 3 separate modem upgrades over nearly 2 years..

and even the brand new one installed today is cutting out regularly:(

we are between the 32nd and morganish and 28th and Bartonish towers.. by the middle school on Thistle..

our best signal has always been due east.. and all i know about that tower is that it is over a mile away.

i have tried every window in the house… pointing the modem in every direction so i am pretty sure about our clearest connection.

i have plugged and unplugged everything possible.. and soem things i am not sure made a bit of difference.

i am tired of trouble shooting.

LOL… moving to get a better signal is not an option :)

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[sam-c]

don’t know JoB- it sounds like you have some sort of equipment failure with your modem or cord or something.

except for last weekend’s issues, I haven’t had any problems (though the weather this whole week has made our dtv reception terrible)

the only time I ever called their customer service/ tech ( couple years ago), I spoke with a technician because page loading was so SLOW >>> he had me load a page while I was on the phone with him, so I could let him know how long it took. he couldn’t believe it. (3 minutes to load a page). while I was on the phone with him, he asked my address, tinkered around a little, and then it was fixed. it was crazy.

another thing to try that sounds crazy. have you made sure their aren’t any kinks in the cord ? I swear, one time we had slowness issues. I unkinked a couple of really tight bends (at the time, joking that the internet cord wasn’t like a garden hose). and that actually helped.

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[Traci]

Wow, I’m so glad I read this thread. I’m enjoying the internet for the first time in days… Same problems here – it’s extremely frustrating! I’m about to axe them myself if this doesn’t get better very, very soon. Bummer.

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[JoB]

i think i am pretty much giving up on Clear.

i even straightened my cord this morning and moved everything so i could plug it directly into the wall:( didn’t make a bit of difference.

hubby clocked our connection every 5 minutes.. and it’s dismal… and he wasn’t even measuring speed. We were lucky to get a signal one out of 6 pings… and when we get one it isn’t stable:(

between the two of us we have talked with tech support nearly 10 times in the last 3 weeks… that’s altogether more time than we want to invest…

i’ll see you all more when i have a connection i can trust.

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[Author]

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