Clear Home Internet

Clear internet service is ok when it works and frustrating as hell when it’s dropping your connection as often as it does. Aiming the antenna is critical but it’s difficult to know where the sweet spot is on any given night. For the money there are better alternatives.

HORRIBLE SERVICE!!! Seriously, this company is a scam. I don’t know how they’re in business. It’s just a matter of time unless they change their model. Really, it’s horrible.

Service is never anywhere near the advertised speed, tech support is powerless to help, and outages are frequent. This is not a good service.

Awful. The wifi crashes at least 5 times a day. Then when you reset it, it comes back maybe 50% of the time. Frequently, it doesn’t matter how many times I unplug it and reset the connection, it just refuses to connect. Sometimes the connection is moderately fast, and other times it claims its at full connection quality, but moves slow as hell anyway. If you’re someone who depends on a reliable internet connection for work, definitely DO NOT sign up with Clear. It’s the most ridiculously unreliable, spotty internet provider that I have ever dealt with. Just steer clear of this company. The «low prices» are not worth it.

I am really surprised by the negative reviews here — Clear has been nothing but amazing for me.
After dealing with Comcast and RCN I was so frustrated I quit cable altogether because they make you wait for a guy to come out and hook up your stuff (IF you can even get them to come out), they charge you crazy fees, their connections are not much faster and they charge you an arm and a leg for everything and then make you lug their equipment to a service center that is nowhere near you. Their customer service is always terrible and RCN even screwed up so bad it affected my roommate’s credit due to their complete incompetence. No thank you.
Anyway, so Clear was like a shining beacon in the sea of internet awfulness. The initial cost was not bad, they were helpful and walked me through the process of getting set up and mailed the equipment with the easiest directions ever. They started me out at about $ 50 a month which was a dream compared to the a-​holes listed above — and I even got the fastest, most expensive plan!
Their customer service has always been excellent to me — it was slow at a couple different points and they solved the problem right away and even gave me tips on how to improve my connection even more. I sincerely doubt the other folks in these reviews took the time to check and see if there had been an outage in their area causing the problem and they just needed to reboot or if they just needed to move their freakin modem. I mean, it’s not like lightening crazy fast, but it is still really good and the connection never drops for me.
Plus, I am moving and I was concerned that there was some complicated mess I would have to deal with (like with Comcast and RCN) but it’s as simple as just changing your address on your account and bringing your equipment to the new location. SO EASY! Seriously, it’s like a dream how great it is.
I don’t know what these other doofuses are talking about. Have fun with the greedy f*cks at Comcast, RCN or AT&T — I will stick with the little, better guy.

I allowed them to deduct monthly charges from my bank account. Without my permission, they started deducting a higher amount. I called to correct the problem and asked them to return the fraudulent charges. They refused. I will be reporting the fraudulent charges and dumping them today. Pretty stupid of them. I was a customer for years with them and now forget it.

Connection drops every half an hour and it’s very slowwwww!

My internet does not work… I can not fight with them anymore. Worst customer service that I have ever seen in utilites/​internet industy. It was not one bad egg… It was a bunch. Hope u think about it before choosing to put ur money into this comapny of employees that do not care.

Its really impossible to get this internet service. You get stuck on phone with someone you an’t even understand.

And yet another 1-​star review for 0-​star service. This place is a nightmare. Upgraded to their 5 Mb service only to get speeds around 1 Mb. Tried to cancel and they literally test your patience by 1, not allowing you to cancel on line and 2, making you wait on hold for 20+ minutes to cancel your account. The man said, can you hold for 2+ minutes, sure… now going on 20 minutes. Who knows when he’ll answer to simply cancel my service.

Clear is the worst excuse for an Internet Service Provider ever. Out of the 6 or so waking hours I spend at home each work night, the connection is non-​existent for 2 hours, and crawls the other 4 hours. I paid for the 6 Mbits/​sec service and speedtest indicates that I get about 0.18 Mbits/​sec; which is about fast enough to check my email and not much more. Want to load a graphic or image? Sorry.
But you know what? Let’s try calling their customer service, maybe they can fix it NOPE. It’s a bunch of crappy scripted messages telling you to restart the modem or reposition the modem. There isn’t even a metaphorical «fat guy» who knows everything in the back.
Finally, if you check their «coverage map» there’s a giant hole in the middle of River North. So they just decide not to service one of the busiest areas of Chicago? That’s smart.
There is one good thing, the 1 star is given because it is dirt cheap and doesn’t try to sell TV/​phone service with their crap… then again they aren’t exactly selling internet service either.
Here is the speed test I took tonight:

Had to leave, the speed was far too slow… sad.

HORRIFIC CUSTOMER SERVICE. RIDICULOUSLY CRAPPY INTERNET SERVICE.
I would give no stars, but I can’t.

I would like to give Clear zero stars but, as all Unilocalers know, that isn’t possible.
My husband and I got rid of cable because it was only enabling our procrastinating tendencies. However, we still needed to have internet but didn’t want to pay for a land line.
Clear seemed like the perfect solution and the monthly fee in the ad was reasonable at $ 37.99. I called to set up service and once I mentioned that we had a Wii device that would be used to stream Netflix, I was upgraded to a «better speed that would allow for better streaming without buffering.» I wasn’t happy that my monthly charge went up to $ 45.99 but if we didn’t have to deal with buffering, so be it. After the upgrade, rental of the unit and tax, my bill ended up being $ 52.67. Ugh, oh well at least it wasn’t the almost $ 100 per month for cable and internet.
Service started in July, by September I started noticing that in the evenings my Netflix show/​movie would stop and reload. Not just once or twice but sometimes 5 or 6 times in a matter of 10 minutes! WTF, this is NOT what they promised me. At first I wrote it off to a bad night since my husband wasn’t noticing it during the day or late at night when he got home from work. I called Clear and they ran a reset and said the problem might be with Netflix. I called Netflix and they said that they weren’t having issues, it must be my internet provider.
Finally in December I had enough and called Clear. The customer service rep gave me the same run around as before then said it was because everyone was home and using the internet during the prime time hours. After hearing enough of excuses I told him that I wasn’t happy with his answer; that flustered him setting him off his script. I asked for a manager who told me that my husband «is using up all the broadband during the day and in order to save some for me in the evenings he should not go online or stream so much.» WHAT?! I’m not a tech expert but even I know that is a load of crap. I told him so. All he could do was offer to reset the device.
Since I didn’t want cable or a land line, I was resigned to having to deal with this crappy service until we moved.
I have now switched back to RCN as they offer Digital TV channels (not cable) and 10 or 25 mbps for around $ 54.99 (or less) a month. When I called Clear to cancel not only did I hear «I’m so sorry to hear that you want to cancel…» and offers to lower my monthly charge, it took 20 minutes of back and forth to cancel my account. Several times I was told «2 minutes while I process your cancellation» only for her to come back with another way to keep me and more apologies. It never ends with them.
Good riddance Clear!

I abandoned AT&T after years of customer service issues and mixups. Out of pure desperation I went to Clear because that really was my only other option in the neighborhood where I live. It was not the answer.
Clear worked so-​so for a whole. Enough that I could sort of tolerate the random service drops and slow speed. However, at the present time clear works for maybe a minute or two at a time every ten to thirty minutes.
This service is awful. If I can convince one person not to use this service it was worth my time.

as you can see, clear is not good. i want it to work so bad, it’s cost-​effective, EASY, and in my experience customer service hasn’t been bad either.
HOWEVER, i often work from home and my connection drops probably once an hour if not more even though i almost always have 4 – 5 dots lit on the router. it’s a pain in the ass– i lose work, have to restart, get kicked off my work network, etc.
also, my bf plays a lot of video games (typical) and i get an earful of how bad clear sucks and how its causing delays on COD (sigh, lol).
i’ll be cancelling shortly. even though there’s allegedly great coverage in my area, i think there’s just too many building etc obstructing the signal or something.
disappointed…unreliable service, they need to do better.

Before ordering Clear, I asked them OVER AND OVER if the service would be fast enough to stream netflix and hulu, which they assured me that it definitely would. We don’t have cable, so that is primarily how we watch TV.
The service was good enough to get us through the trial period, but then became so slow that even simple internet browsing was painful. When we called to resolve that, they basically told us there was nothing they could do.
Enough was enough so I canceled my service (or so I thought). The next month they billed me again. I called back, they apologized and said that they would credit my account the amount they billed me. Not only did they not credit my account, they billed me another $ 83 for no apparent reason.
I called back immediately, they apologized and said that they would refund both charges, but before they do that I have to wait for someone to call me within 24 hours. Why I have to wait for them to call me, instead of them just giving me my money back, no one could tell me.
I am still waiting for those refunds, not to mention the fact that they charged the money to an account that I no longer use, so they have caused me 2 overdraft fees.
The service is cheap, but you get what you pay for. And in the end pay for again, and again, and again.

Clear service is OK for what I do on the web. I do not have a problem with speed. However, the customer service is HORRENDOUS. First of all, at any time I call, I am told the wait time is more than 10 minutes and there is no option for them to call you back. My wair time has never been less than 20 minutes to talk to a rep. Secondly, customer service is in the Phillipines. I prefer to talk to Americans.
I am moving in a month. Time to change my ISP.

I’m a fan of the free market and competition but when the playing field is full of shiesters it’s discouraging. I thought after experiencing a rogering with Comcast and their prices it was time to move on to another ISP. A friend recommends Clear and I’m like hey I’m moving so now it’s time to give someone else a try.
I went with their «unlimited» package with the USB mifi. I have to admit it was good at first then several months later… a complete 180! Speeds way below 1mbps and frequent outages. I suppose if you’re advertising unlimited bandwidth it doesn’t matter if you’re serving under 1mbps. Matter of fact unlimited x any small mbps = small mbps. bogus false advertising.
I’m officially fed up with them. My options are limited. Looks like I’m going back to Comcast with a promo deal. At least with them I don’t have a contract and I can have a consistent, fast bandwidth. *sigh*
We need more honest ISPs.

I rarely give one star reviews, but this is the WORST internet provider. I mean, Comcast is MISERABLE, but if you’re trying to compete DO IT BETTER. We have Clear at work, and I work out of a small condo office. Honestly, it basically goes out at least three to four times a week. 3 – 4 times!
And every time I call, they say «You have so many towers around you, and none of them are out, I don’t know what it is». EVERY TIME.
And the other worst part is that it doesn’t work with Vonage. At all. So when our internet is out, so are our phones. I have had it with them.
I know that I will NEVER get Clear at home, EVER, I will warn people against it, and I can’t wait to get our new AT&T internet this week.