Review by lcnoble 
Posted: 343 days ago
member for 1.7 years, 169 visits, last login: 9 days ago
 Nancy,Pulaski,KY
 $30 per month (12 month contract)
 about 5 days
 "Happy that service is available."
 "Never attains advertised speeds."
 "Better than satellite and dial up."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
|
This post is directed to potential Windstream customers. I am doing this to expose the false assumptions of customer satisfaction as it relates to the sugar coated statement of, "It is better than dial up and it is all I can get". Because of location, I must use Windstream if I want some resembalance of broadband service, and I will not entertain the idea of satellite, (as it is refered to), broadband service.
To date, my service with Windstream is approaching 8 months. During this time I experienced, learned, or observed the following;
The appox. $24.00 month package goes to appox. $30.00 a month if you do not bundle your service.
The modem rebate check is not mailed in 4 weeks, it is 6 to 8 weeks. The modem rebate does not come from Windstream, the rebate comes from the manufacturer. Mine came in 10 weeks!
The first Windstream invoice overcharged the broadband service by appox. $25.00.
Your original system, as it is received, will reply to ping commands.
My system does not maintain connections without hard DNS settings.
E-mail capacity is low.
I opted for the 1.5 meg service and to date all speed tests show performance well below what is advertised. Speed test results started at appox. 900k to 1.1 meg, then dropped to appox. 600k to 750k, and at times the results were 100k to 300k.
Ocassionaly my service was equivelant to dial up speeds. My service, on one occasion, was almost useless because of low, (-3.5 to lower than 10), SNR readings. Windtream customer service on a Thursday stated that a service call was scheduled for Friday. The Windstream technician called on Friday and stated that the service call could not happen until Tuesday. Friday night Windstream customer service stated that all calls
to the local service organization would not be answered because no one was in.
So, potential customer, I make the statements below after eight months of Windstream service;
Windstream technicians are in short supply. I question the time required to restore service during diaster or storm recovery?
Cable, satellite, and now DSL sales personel are deceptive snakes.
A sugar coated comparison of appox. $25.00 to $30.00 a month service versus dial up cost relating to speed is just a hopefull assumption when Windstream service hovers near 100k to 300k. I am sorry to say, the www features you excitedly expect to use
work just as bad at 300k as they do at 56k.
Polite customer service representatives are useless unless your advertised service is available.
There is no value added to the service when you must constantly take action to maintain a service that you pay to be trouble free! For example, examine the cost of dial up versus Windstream, where dial up may save you $15.00 a month as opposed to
Windstream. Is your time worth appox. $15.00 month, month after month, year after year?
You can get all the refunds for deplorable service that you want, but you still do not have the service that is advertised.
I should clarify one point, I do not like dial up, and I do not like Windstream service to date. However, as a wimpy broadband wish-a-be at a reasonable price, it is all I can get. Take your satellite and stick it on a pole! I also question how long Windstream can continue operating under pretenses before they sell out to the next, Windstream, or back to Alltel!
Maybe the Public Service Commissions will invest the rural broadband iniative funds into broadband over powerlines!
The wiring, filters, gizmos, and the blowsmoke settings of my system are just fine! Windstream did intall a filter at the NIC at a cost to me of $20.00, (I feel it was a good investment), and corrected something relating to line termination before service entered the house. Intermitent problems motivated me to hard wire all phone lines to the NIC, but did not improve the DSL service. The hard wire did correct quality issues relating to normal phone service, keep the local ya who satellite TV network techs away from your phone system.
Not once has speed reached 1500 kps of service, and uploads get close to 300 kps. Depending on the testing service, speed averages 900 to 1300 kps down and 250 to 300 kps up! After adjusting to Windstreams problems, service has been reliable, but this area is in severe drought! The field service technician did his job after leaving a re-schedule notice on an answering machine, but I am biased on the side of field service personel.
So potential Windstream customers, after prodding from Broadband Reports, my final comments;
DSL service can be difficult to establish because of technical and administrative issues.
Get the manual for your modem, read it and use it.
Do not use satellite broadband, period! You are better off with dial up.
After dealing with Adelphia, Comcast, Charter, Hughesnet, Wildblue, Cingular, Bellsouth, and Windstream, do not sign anything that the field service personel put in your face, especially if they are sub contractors!
Research to exhaustion all reviews and comments related to your potential service. Honesty and fair deals probably do not exist, especially in the morality of broadband service sales.
Have good everything, everybody.
Followup comments:  
Piggie
Frying Noises in My Brain
Premium
join:2005-11-23
Orange Springs, FL
 ·HughesNet Satellit..
 ·Windstream
edit:
August 24th, @12:26AM
| DSL Speeds and I agree I totally agree and have seen everything you talked about here. To the average person, your post sounds like a rant.
The comments you read above are all true. One clarification needs to be added about DSL. DSL has been marketed for ever at what is called the Provisioned speed. In this case they bought 1.5m which is 1536kbps. But there is overhead in PPPoE connection of at the very very best 15% about and 20% is not uncommon.
This means a DSL from any company sold as 1.5m is doing fine at 80% provisioned. 1.5mb = 1532kb x 80% = 1225 kbps which is doing very well on a 1.5m DSL line. And most places consider that all ok above 66* which is 1013kbps. But anything less is not living up to what they sold you.
So if you get between 1013 and 1225 you are running fine. Below that you need to call CS and above that your darn lucky or ready it wrong. I have seen as high as 86% on DSL, but it's in the middle of night to a close fast server.
None of my comments take away from the author, just wanted to clarify how DSL is sold in most places in the county.
The reason so many WS customers see less than 66% is WS like everyone else now is overselling their capacity. So yeah, technically sales is lying.
===================================
Also if your speed goes below 66% of provisioned, call CS, get a ticket open, get the number and ask to be connected to sales and ask for a credit.
--
| Speedstream 4200 Modem - 3m/384 plan | W98-W2KSP4-XPSP2 - All AMD | Buffalo WHR G54S with OpenWRT WR0.9 | 2 downstream switches feeding 5 total clients (no wireless) | Including the Data port on the side of my neck | | |
|  | lcnoble
join:2006-11-11
Nancy, KY
·Windstream
| Re: DSL Speeds and I agree The providers take advantage of exactly the kind of crap relating to overhead. Let the providers eat the 200 kbps to 300 kbps, just give me the 1500 kbps that I pay for, and maybe a little value added more for the trouble I must endure to maintain connection, wait on customer service, or to keep me as a customer! Don't tell me that I am damn lucky to get 60% to 80% of what I pay for and expect! I do not care about their problems, if I did I would be in the broadband business. Let them dig into their pockets, not my pockets or time. Just because a service is sold by a certain method does not mean that it is right!
So potential customers, I say again, watch for the snakes hanging from the wires. Do not fall for the "damn lucky" perceptions. When was the last time you received 60% to 80% of a gallon of gas when you paid for a gallon? | |
| | | AZinOH
join:2007-04-25
Swanton, OH
·Windstream
| Re: DSL Speeds and I agree "Just because a service is sold by a certain method does not mean that it is right!"
Of course it isn't right, but for better or worse...it's the way things are. Example: my computer has a 250GB hard drive, but the reality is that it's usable capacity after being formatted is about 222GB. Example: any car dealer's ad in any newspaper saying you can lease (insert any make/model of your choice) for $XXX per month, but the reality is almost no one does. I could go on but you're probably already bored.
These and the ISP's claim of 1500 kbps are all examples of sales puffery, which the FTC has defined as a “term frequently used to denote the exaggerations reasonably to be expected of a seller as to the degree of quality of his product, the truth or falsity of which cannot be precisely determined.” See: »en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puffery It's easier to say "we will sell you 1500/384" than it is to say "we will try to sell you 1500/384 but it will probably be 1200/300 depending on your computer-the quality of our lines-the weather-the phases of the moon-etc".
Despite our wishes to the contrary, remember that:
Broadband is still an emerging technology.
The world is full of deceptive snakes. I hope your service improves. Continue to complain about below-average service and if WS can't or won't help, talk to your local Public Service Commission. | |
| | | | |
| Forums » comments on review of Windstream |
|
(25)
(12)
(13)
very unhappy with wendstream cann;t cannect !
