Internet Services Review – is CLEAR Wireless 4G better and cheaper

June 7th, 2010

I am happy with my Comcast cable service. Happy with the speed and services, that is. I am not so happy about the price – about $70 per month. I have been thinking of looking elsewhere for a while. Then I received an ad in the mail for CLEAR Wireless 4G Internet. Back in the days of Xohm, I had been interested in WiMax. So, I decided to give CLEAR a try.

From the beginning I was a little wary of this company.

For starters, I didn’t like the envelope in which the mailing arrived.

“This is not junk mail.”  Oh? Then what do you call an unsolicited advertisement sent to your home via the United States Postal Service.

The ad claimed that for, “$30 a month” I could have “Super fast intenet.”  The little asterisk clarified that, “Super fast” means compared to 3G, not regular home DSL.  On the CLEAR Wireless website, they claims to offer 6.0 MBPS download.  Not bad.

I called the customer service number.  The rep was rather pushy, making fun of me for not wanting to “save money” and quickly switch to a company I know nothing about.  I decided to go along.

I answered all the rep’s questions including those relating to putting me through a credit check.  Then she tells me the total is $45 per month.  Wait!  What about the $30 ad?

“Oh, no,” She says, “The $30 is for old people who only go online a few times a month.  You want the $40 plan.  The extra $5 is the modem rental.”

I asked what the difference is between the $30 plan and the $40.  She skirted the question and started telling me about all the money I would save.

I then expressed my misgiving about a 4G wireless connection in a home I can barely even use my 3G cellphone.  Once she saw I was hesitating she began to push the, “But don’t you want to save money?” theme.

Here is a summary of the fine print:

  • $30 per month – only if you want the “Basic” service (1.5 mbps up, 0.5 mbps down).  Anything better starts at $40 (6 mbps up, 1.0 mbps down) plus $4.99 per month for modem rental.
  • 2-Year Contract – CLEAR has a two year contract (unless you want to pay more for a month-by-month contract).  Termination fees can be as high as $185.
  • Initial costs – Up front you have to pay for the first month – $44.99.  There is also a shipping fee of $9.95 and an Activation fee of $35.00.  The Rep waived the Activation fee for me.
  • Return policy – There is a 14-day return policy before you are locked into the 2-year contract.  But, even before the 14 days run out, you don’t get all your money back.  The month is pro-rated and you only get refunded for the “days you didn’t use.”  So if you spent 13 days trying to get it to work for you and fail – you are out $22.50.

Another thing that really bothered me is that Clear seems to have multiple websites and each one is different in design and layout:

Additionally, onilne it is very unclear that there is even a $40 home plan. They tout the $30 plan but never explain it is limited to, “people who just check their email a few times a day” as the rep told me online to convince me to go with the more expensive plan.

The site also only mentions the 2-year contract information to the very fine print at the bottom of the list of plans. Just reading through the site will give you the impression that there is no contract.

In the end I ordered the service, but subsequently did more research (on which the above information is based) and decided to cancel the order. The reasons I gave them for canceling:

  • I don’t like contracts – only cell phones do that and I think that should be outlawed as well. If you are afraid people won’t stay with your product – fix it, don’t lock people in.
  • The multiple websites and very difficult to find information rang some alarm bells.

    • In life, one has to come to trust one’s gut feelings. I have found those feelings to be quite accurate many times. This time my gut feeling was to cancel.

Posted by Zev Steen - www.blabberingon.com

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Cash for Clunkers – Is it Worthwhile?

August 24th, 2009

Cash For Clunkers, the Federal program that gives consumers a $3500 or $4500 credit for an old, low mileage-per-gallon vehicle when they buy a new, more fuel efficient one, has been wildly successful. But, is it really worth doing?

There are no new cars that cost $3500 or $4500.  That means that many, if not most, people will be financing the remaining $8000+ of the cost of the new car.  Is it really worth going into more debt and paying more interest to save $4500?

Posted by Zev Steen - www.blabberingon.com

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Moving?

August 10th, 2009

Moving is expensive.  There is no question about it.

There are several moving options people consider:

1. Hire a Professional Moving Company – Hire a professional moving company to do the whole move job start to finish.

The movers pack the boxes and transport everything to the new location. This is the easiest, least stressful way to move.  It is also the costliest and can range from $5,000 to $20,000 or more.

2. Half and Half - Hire a professional moving company but try to save money doing part of the move such as packing and unpacking the truck and sharing a truck with other people.

The moving company drives the truck. This saves some money, although the price tag is still in the thousands.  This method also adds a lot of physical stress.

3. Self-Move – Rent a truck for the duration of the move and do everything.

This saves a lot of money, but is a tremendous amount of physical stress – the last thing you need when you are already trying to work out all the other details of a move.  This method is still quite costly.  While truck rental costs seem ridiculously cheap – as low as $29.99 a day, there is also the $0.75 per mile fee.  Moving 1000 miles will cost $750 in just mileage fees.  Also, these trucks are not known for their economical gas mileage – about 5-8 mpg for a fully loaded large truck.  Moving 1000 miles at $2.50 per gallon will cost $360.00 in fuel.

There is another option I would like to suggest considering:

Do you have expensive furniture or mostly the cheaper Ikea/Walmart variety? How much would it cost to replace all your furniture?  Is it more than the cost of moving with one of the methods above or less?  Often it is less. In this case, I suggest selling all your furniture and packing and mailing all your small items such as clothing, books, kitchen items, toys, etc.  Buy new furniture at your destination.   This could ultimately cost a lot less than moving, especially since the money from the furniture sale can go toward the purchase of new furniture.

Price it out yourself and let me know what turns out to be the best deal for your move.

Posted by Zev Steen - www.blabberingon.com

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Juice – Make It Yourself

August 3rd, 2009

The members of my family prefer juice over water (surprise!).  A store-brand bottle of fruit juice, for example apple or cranberry, is about $2.50.   We used to go through about 5 bottles of juice a week at a cost of $12.50.  In order to save money I decided to cut back and only serve water.  Unfortunately, may family staged a coup, saying they would not drink plain water.  I could save money buying soda – but I attempt to be somewhat health conscious.  Giving my kids soda at every meal did not seem like a good idea.

Then I saw a Readers Digest article about the health benefits of iced tea.  I decided to give it a try.

I boiled 2 gallons of water, threw in 6 Lipton tea bags and tossed in a 3/4 cup of sugar.  After cooking for a while I added ice cubes and let it cool.  I poured the tea into pitchers and put them in the refrigerator.  I served one pitcher at the next meal.

It was a hit!

Aside from the obvious fact that my family was drinking a healthy beverage with regular sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup (and not that much sugar either – about 4.5 grams per cup instead of 20-35 grams in fruit juice) and no artificial ingredients, let’s see if I save money.

1 week of iced tea (adjusted to 2.5 gallons to equal 5 – 64 ounce containers of fruit juice):
- 2.5 gallons of water @ $0.007 per gallon = $0.02
- 6 tea bags (Lipton regular) @ $4.70 per 100 bags = $0.29
- 3/4 cup of sugar @ $2.99 for a 5lb bag = $0.19

Total cost of one week of tea = $0.50
Total cost of one week of store-bought juice = $12.50

Weekly savings  =  $12.00
Yearly savings  =  $624.00

Of course, if you want to be creative you can try flavored teas that cost a bit more.  6 bags of Celestial Seasonings tea bags at $2.99 for 20 bags is $0.90.

On the more-economical side, you can buy Store Brand tea bags, which I have found to be $1.50 for 100.  6 of those bags is only $0.09 which would save an additional $0.20 per week or $10.40 per year.

There is one caveat:  We ended up drinking more tea than we ever drank of juice.  We go through about 4 gallons a week so we only save $611.00 a year.

Posted by Zev Steen - www.blabberingon.com

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Breakfast Economics – How to Save over $500 a year

July 27th, 2009

Breakfast is an important meal.  But it doesn’t have to break the bank to be filling and easy to make.  My family of 7 (only 5 eat at home – I eat oatmeal at work and the baby is too young for food) used to go through 4 boxes of cereal each week and 4 bottles of milk.  The average cereal costs $3.50 a box (taking into account some boxes were store brand and some were name brand) and a quart of milk is $2.75.  Breakfast cost us $25.00 each week.

Cereal and milk is a difficult meal.  Children eat a third, waste a third, and spill a third.  It is not the type of food you want to eat when you are late and trying to run out the door.

One day, while browsing the store isles I hit upon a solution – frozen pancakes and waffles.  A box of vitamin fortified pancakes or waffles costs between $1.70 and $3.00 depending on whether it is name brand or store brand.  Each box usually comes with 10-12 servings.  My kids love the mini-pancakes which come 40 to a box for the same price.  I buy 4 boxes for the week, usually of several varieties such as mini-pancakes, chocolate-chip waffles, and strawberry waffles.  At an average of $2.00 per box (I stick almost exclusively to store brand but buy some name brand now and then, since they have more of a flavor variety.) I spend $8.00 per week.  Just to be fair I still  buy 2 quarts of milk each week for cooking and the necessary breakfast chocolate milk fix.

Let’s see how much I save each week:

Before:
4 boxes of cereal @ $3.50 ea  =  $14.00
4 quarts of milk @ $2.75 ea  =  $11.00

Total  =  $25.00/week

After:
4 boxes of pancakes/waffles @ $2.00 ea  =  $8.00
2 quarts of milk @ $2.75 ea  =  $5.50

Total  =  $13.50 /week

Weekly savings  =  $11.50.
Yearly savings  =  $598.00.

Here is a pancake/waffle consumption chart based on my experience:
1 box of 12 lasts an adult 4 days.
1 box of 12 lasts an older child (7-12 years old) 6 days.
1 box of 40 mini-pancakes lasts a young child (1-6 years old) 10 days.

Do the calculation yourself and see if you save.

(Just keep in mind you may have to spend $2.00 a bottle on pancake syrup.)

Posted by Zev Steen - www.blabberingon.com

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