The ClearSpot 4G+ has a dual-band modem that can do either 4G or 3G. The plan I was offered gave us unlimited 4G and up to 5GB of 3G a month. After the 5GB point it was 5 cents a megabyte. The vast majority (50+GB over the last month) of our data is downloaded over 4G, but every so often we find 4G dead zones and have to swap over to the 3G side.
Naturally, I was concerned after a few weeks of sporadic 3G usage how close we were getting to our 5GB cap. The first place I went to look was the Clear My Account page. The “Data Usage” link took me to a page that said, “Coming Soon!” and told me nothing.
I called customer service and the operator told me our total data usage at the time was 57GB. I told him I hoped most of that was on 4G, and he said he didn’t have a breakdown of which data was on what network. I asked if he could find out for me and he said I was the first person who’d ever asked that.
After half an hour on hold and 3 transfers, I got a rep who told me the people I needed to talk to was the “dual-band office.” I was put on hold for them, and waited 45 minutes before I hung up and called again.
Once again, after the rep went through the same set of questions I was put on hold for the “dual-band office” and waited an hour before I gave up. Obviously from the hold times I’m not the only person trying to figure out what their dual-band data usage is.
What I thought would be a relatively simple question turned out to be an all-day affair. I’m lucky to have a desk job where I could continue to work while I was on hold. Other people would just be out of luck and have to play data-plan roulette at the end of the month.
My next try was to go onto their website for “live chat.” I was connected with Shaun P., who told me the only people who knew anything about my usage were the mythical Dual-Mode Office, who I would have to call on the phone. When I expressed my frustration at already having done that twice to no avail, he apologized but offered no other options.
So far we’ve enjoyed the Clear internet service. It would be a shame for us to have to look for other options simply because of dismal customer service.
UPDATE - After 4 calls, one web chat and collectively 3 hours on hold I finally reached “Bear” in the Dual-Mode Office. This is ridiculous. There should really be an easier way to monitor 3G data usage (or any usage at all) from the Clear website. It’s simply unreasonable to bill someone for overages when they don’t offer any reasonable way to keep track of how much data you have used.
To his credit, “Bear” was very helpful and seemed to know what he was talking about. Our 3G data usage was well below the cap (as I suspected), I’m just incensed that I had to go through this whole ordeal to find that out.
“Bear” says Clear is working on a solution to put usage data on their website, so I’ll post pack when it shows up for me. If anyone else needs it, the direct phone number I was given for the Dual-Mode office is below:
ClearWire Dual-Mode Office (for 3G/4G hotspot usage questions)
1 (877) 956-4080
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