Clearwire Billing Dispute

[Garp242]

A word of warning to those who are changing from one service provider to another ... be sure to inform your ISP of the cancellation ... in writing !!!

I was with Clearwire for about 18 months, but since the signal was unreliable, at best, and the service was expensive ... I decided to switch to another provider. I was out of contract at this stage, so I simply cancelled the direct debit (not realising I had to inform Clearwire ... in writing)

That was in Aug 2007 ... Clearwire promptly cut the signal (I checked !) and that was it ... or so I thought. Then I checked my bank statement for Jan 2008, and discovered that Clearwire had, out of the blue, re-activated the direct debit and took €49-95 from my account.

When I phoned to query this, I was told that as far as they were concerned, the contract was still active, and, I was 4 months in arrears !!! They now want me to pay €149-85 before they will cancel the contract ... apparantly it's a "rolling" contract, that is automatically renewed ... unless you cancel in writing ...

Bear in mind, that this payment is for a service that I wasn't using (I've been with o2 since Aug 2007) ... and for a service that Clearwire weren't providing (they stopped the signal when I stopped the Direct debit !!)

To make matters worse, my bank tells me that they are unable to stop Clearwire from taking payments from my account ... I was under the illusion that since I was their customer, the Bank would follow my instructions ... but it seems I was wrong !!

I dont intend to pay this bill to Clearwire ... but it seems I may have to clear my account or change bank's to avoid it !!

I'm now beginning to understand why these company's are so eager to sign us up to direct debit .... BEWARE !!

[blacknight]

Did you mention to them that they had withdrawn service several months ago?

[Garp242]

Hi There
In reply to your question ... Yes, I certainly did ... I asked why they thought I would pay for a service that I wasn't using and Clearwire had stopped providing anyway. His main argument was, that I hadn't cancelled in writing and as far as Clearwire were concerned my contract was still active ... even though they hadn't received a payment since Aug 2007 !!

[ADSHELL]

It's kind of obvious in my book, if you do not want a service you phone up the company to cancel it, it's kind of simple really.

[markhitman06]

Originally Posted by ADSHELL

It's kind of obvious in my book, if you do not want a service you phone up the company to cancel it, it's kind of simple really.

Really...simple...what isp are you with, cause nothing is simple with clearwire. If you say on the phone that you want to cancel the contract...it should be then cancelled, you should not have to write to them.

[Type17]

Info on Contracts from the Consumers' Association: link

"What is a contract?

When you engage a service supplier you create a contract between you, as a consumer, and the service supplier. A contract is an agreement between two or more people that is enforceable by law. Contracts may be written or oral and are made up of terms; some of which can be implied terms. Contracts may differ in many ways and there are no hard and fast rules governing what terms should be in a consumer contract. Terms in consumer contracts, however, must always be fair and clear to the consumer. Anyone involved in the contract should be clear about what their obligations are under the terms of the contract."

Basically, this means that you need to check the Terms and Conditions of the customer contract that Clearwire use, that you agreed to when you signed up to their service.

This should determine whether you owe the money, due to the contract still running on after you stopped paying. The T's & C's may state that written notice of termination is required. Although a verbal agreement should be enough to terminate any contract, many service providers' contracts do require termination in writing, to avoid misunderstandings or malicious terminations by third parties.

In fairness, Clearwire did withdraw the service at your verbal request, so you might talk to the Consumer's Assocation to see if this alters things (in doing this, they may possibly be deemed to have terminated the contract themselves, but perhaps not).

Even still, given that you did not/could not use the service after verbally terminating it, they should be prepared to leave it be but, knowing their reputation, I doubt that they will, as their policy seems to be to get as much money from their customers as possible, with the least customer service provided...