Lenovo Special offer from CLEARWIRE SCAM

Question

Hello,
I'm writing this as a warning to anybody who considers wimax capable card for their thinkpad. 30 days Free trial is not available in Philadelphia, PA. I've ordered t400s with Intel 3150 specifically to try the CLEAR wimax service that is available in Philadelphia, PA. It seems that Lenovo customer service is unaware of the conditions of the Lenovo-Clear promotions published on the lenovo's web site http://shop.lenovo.com/ISS_Static/WW/AG/merchandising/US/popups/promos/clearwire.html especially when it says that 'You must activate the offer through the pop-up window that will only appear if you receive a WiMAX signal from the CLEAR network.' I have had one customer service representative hunging up on me and another one admitting that he has no idea what I am talking about. Even though I can see the CLEAR WiMAX service, no popup window has ever surfaced. 

Answer 1

Hello,
Lenovo advertises "Get 30-days of service FREE everywhere CLEAR’s WiMAX network is available." The details of the offer are available here http://shop.lenovo.com/ISS_Static/WW/AG/merchandising/US/popups/promos/clearwire.html
The only way to get the promotion is to use a pop-up window as per description referenced above. It says:
You must activate the offer through the pop-up window that will only appear if you receive a WiMAX signal from the CLEAR network.
and then
This 30-Day Free Trial offer shall only be redeemed as described above.  This 30-Day Free Trial offer is not available for redemption through the CLEAR.com website or at any retail stores distributing CLEAR service.
It seems that the description implies that the only way to redeem the offer is to use the pop-up window that would appear when laptop sees WiMAX signal from CLEAR. There're no other options available. This sounds reasonable enough, right? If there's a problem one would just pick up the phone and call Lenovo technical support. The knowledgeable and friendly customer service representative(s) would resolve the issue in no time. There's probably a button somewhere that needs to be pushed or something really simple like that. After all this is the only way to get the offer, so Lenovo would make it as simple as possible.
There's a lot of CLEAR advertising here in Philadelphia, PA. The service is available throughout the city and in nearby counties. I was curious about WiMAX, so I've decided to spend extra money on Intel 5150 card while configuring my T400s. It comes with 30 days of free service, I thought. Yesterday I've decided to try the WiMAX service. I've watched the WiMAX tutorial first. It didn't mention anything about the pop-up window. I've used Access Connections tool to activate WiMAX. It searched for providers briefly and presented me with a single tower like icon labeled "Clear". No pop-up window appeared. I've tried 'Wide Scan", but the result was exactly the same. A single Clear tower, no pop-up window. On the next step I've clicked on the tower icon and then hit connect button that appeared on the right at the bottom of the screen. A small pop-up window appeared on the screen informing me about the progress. It was saying "Applying WiMAX settings", "Obtaining IP" and then completed. No other windows have appeared. The system just connected to the WiMAX. I thought, oh well, maybe I need to open up the web browser. May be the pop-up window is a web browser window? No, it was not the case. Internet explorer has greeted me with MSN and Lenovo tabs, no pop-up window. Ok, I'm missing something here. It's time to call the tech support. The representative promptly opened up a case, put me on hold for 7 minutes and came back with an answer. He said that there's something wrong with my setup, so I would have to restore the system to the factory condition. Ouch! The laptop is two days old; I didn't put a lot of things on it yet, so I've decided to give it a try. An hour later I've tried connecting to the WiMAX service again, this time using the system in its pristine state. The result was exactly the same as before. No pop-up window ever made its appearance to ask for my email, login and address. Ok, there's gotta be something I thought dialing the customer support again. This time the representative was not sure that WiMAX even available in Philadelphia. He then mentioned that he can't hear me well enough and asked if he can call me at a different phone number. I gave him the land line number, but nobody called. Half an hour later I've made another call to the technical support. The representative asked me if I can connect to the WiMAX service. My answer was yes, I can connect, but it's not the point. He said that if i'm able to connect, there's no issue and hang up the phone.
I'm still able to connect to WiMAX today, but it wouldn't let me browse the net. I'm getting redirected to Clear web site where I can buy a day or a month of service. Still no pop-up window though. I guess I'm still missing something.
Did anybody actually see the WiMAX CLEAR promotion pop-up window?