I brought my ipad to Brazil and I didnt want to roam with At&T or my charges would end up being to high, so I went to Claro ( one of the local Brazilian carriers) to get a chip and access to a prepaid internet service via 3G for my Ipad...here is what happened:

1st day at Claro store: After a 2 1/2 wait to get the account up and running, I was given a copy of my prepaid contract and a chip. after I paid $120 reais or the equivalent to US$85.00 i was told that I need to have a I-Phone 4 in order to activate that chip (That was told after I paid and signed the contract). The reason being is that you first need to insert that chip in a iphone to obtain a code which is sent to the phone by sms, which will then allow you to call in and "hire" the service that you just paid for. Then you remove the chip, and put into your Ipad to make it work. In other words, it doesnt get more complicated and convoluted...doesnt work with any other phone. So i figured I could use one at the store just for sake of obtaining such code via sms, but no one working at the store had one. They suggested I would randomly go to someone of the street to get an Iphone 4 and ask them if he/she could do me the favor....now, is that for real???? YES!!! with a straight face. The salesperson initially said he could not call to activate the service with their central system, it could only be done this way....I should have known that if this is how everything started, it could not possibly go on with other problems. When I asked them to cancelled the service, they decided to open an exception and try to call them to activate...which they did and 45 mins later, the salesperson's words were: You are ready to go, as soon as you put the chip into the ipad, you will be internet access. So i went home to test it.

Day 2: After numerous attempts, the chip didnt work so I called and that was the longest sequence of calls and transferences from departments to departments leading to no actual solutions but a bunch of excuses as follows:

1st call: 45 minutes long, while on hold the call misteriously" drops. At that point they were checking my info, access number, ss#, address, trandfering from a department to another, and when I finally got to the right department, the call dropped...I must have been out luck, I guess right?

2nd call, I could pretty much copy and paste the above, and from the point where the call was answered, the diagnosis was that it takes "some" (undetermined number of hours) time to make the service work. Mind you I prepaid 7 days and I was mid day into my 3rd day without service. The salesperson is a cheerful and confident tone told me without a doubt, my service will be working in a maximum of 4 hours span.

3rd call: Let's copy and past the 1st call up until we got the right department to find out this time that the problem was that my number was registered as a phone service no a pre paid wireless modem, so that is why my chip wasnt working...Great, seems like they found the problem...So I was transfered to 7 other people when I finally got misteriously disconnected AGAIN....humm...must be the raining weather outside.

4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, call....copy and paste 1st call unfolding events til I would repeatedly get to the wrong department til the magical click to hang up sealed the call.

9th call: I get to the right department which was repeadly said by the agent on the phone that it was the "wireless department for prepaid internet for ipads". I was about to pop a champagne, it seems that I got to the right person and at that point I will have my last 3 prepaid days of internet available to me. Fantastic! So after I explained my problem, and provided all the information, all this person culd say and confim to me was that: "sir, this is the wireless internet service for prepaid Ipads, but it s a different department that fixes it and all departments at Claro are open today (xmas day) except that one!!

Now, tell me this is not a SCAM, and as a Brazilian living abroad, every time I think about moving back to Brazil, the universe tends to remind me how good I have it in the States where we also encounter problems, but you are rarely scammed like this.

When you call claro, this is what the company recorded on the automated message:

"if you are a client of Claro and would like to file a complaint of cancel service please press 2" - That should tell you that if a company has an option for complaints, that means it is pretty common for them to receive complaints.

Although I have had some problems with TIM, another cell carrier in Brazil, I assure you that CLARO is probably not only one of the worst services in terms of coverage, they are PROFESSIONAL scammers. If you come to brazil, DO NOT under circumstances hire their services, prepaid or contractually you will have problems connecting and then cancelling your services.

I hope enough people read this and comment on this complaint to cost these people at least 100 times in lost potential customers than they have cost me.

Now Claro means "clear" in Portuguese....I hope this message is as CLARO as possible as to how they work and you help to support my reinvindication against them by NOT hiring their services.