DO NOT Use CLEAR Internet Service

They are a scam! Here's my story: in February we switched ISPs and went with Clear. We were a bit skeptical at first because they were a fairly new company, but ultimately we decided to make the change for three reasons: they had an unlimited usage plan, their service was built to stream video really well, and the pricing was good.  So we buy their modem for $150 (to avoid being in contract) and signed up for their unlimited service plan at $45/mo.  It only took a few minutes to hook up the modem to our router and we were off and running. Everything worked great! There was a few days were the service seemed to be a little slow, but we attributed that to March Madness and figured there were more people using the service during the games and what not. No big deal.

So last week they sent us an email saying that during routine maintenance they found an atypical amount of usage on our account and said we were bogging down their system. They attributed this to a) viruses on our computers b) an unprotected router and/or c) constant uploading or streaming of data. They told us to check the computers, router, and to be more cautious of our usage to be sure other users weren't experiencing problems. My first reaction was oh wow, I hope someone isn't piggy backing on our router and causing the problem. If they were they'd have to be doing a massive amount of downloading and what not in order for our account to be causing other users problems. Then I was bugged. I thought we were paying for unlimited usage so even if others were on our router it shouldn't matter, right? We called them and they confirmed our unlimited plan and told us to take the above listed precautions to avoid any problems. So we looked into it and we don't have any viruses on our machines and our router is password protected. We'd done everything we could on our end and figured it would work itself out. Well Wednesday we got another email saying the same thing, only this time it said that if we don't adjust our internet usage to an appropriate level they will terminate our service. WHAT?! Adjust our usage? We have an UNLIMITED plan. And what exactly is an "appropriate" level? Here's a few screen shots of our usage since March.

Mar-Apr 255,409 MB used

Apr-May 179,682 MB used

May-June 144,408 MB

We are using much less now than we did when we first started using the service! But apparently that is soo much we are a problem to others. I find it hard to believe that one household's usage could be killing their systems. And even if that was the case and that user has an unlimited plan, it's not a user issue to fix. It's Clear's. Get more towers or better systems or whatever. Do not put some imaginary limit on the user that's paying for what they think is unlimited service! So, we did a little more research into this problem and apparently this happens to A LOT of their users. This is their scam. They get people in the door with an unlimited plan, everything is fine for a month or two, then they say you are using too much, bogging down their system and cut you off. What a joke! Luckily, we are not in contract with them. In some cases if you are in contract they penalize you for terminating it, even if they are the ones doing the terminating! UNBELIEVABLE! I hate this company! So now we must find a new ISP. Blahhh. So if anyone has some suggestions I'm open. I will not go with Comcast, their customer service is HORRID and Qwest is too expensive. Oh PS I posted this negative review using Clear's internet service. Bitches!!