Review by totalradio  - Location: Crossett,Ashley,AR
- Cost: $69 per month (12 month contract)
- Install: about 7 days
Good "Local field techs know their equipment & their network. Great guys."
Bad "Tech support/customer service is HORRIBLE ! Won't deliver on what they said they would"
Overall "God help you if you need support"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
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09/27/2013
Well, the truck roll is complete and most everything is working again. However, when they changed my speed, they knocked me down to a dynamic IP. I can't work that way, but I was able to get someone in the business office (that was competent) and they are going to change it back to static. Local grunts (field techs) are very good, and know their equipment and their network.
Can't say that about the tier 1 support. They are very incompetent and need MUCH more training on their product and how they deal with the public. I won't bump up their review until Windstream can show me they can handle simple orders.
09/26/2013
Like I've said before, if you need support, God help you. Wanted to upgrade my speed (from 3 to 12). Placed the order on Friday 09/20. The upgrade was going to take place on 09/26. Fine with me.
09/26 comes and at 2:15pm, I lose my sync and the service goes down. Being a retired telephone employee, I know the circuit has got to come down for the re-provisioning of the circuit. A job that should only take no more than 15 minutes. After 2 hours down, the circuit is still down. So I call tech support (ugh).
The lady that answers is completely clueless (where do they get these people ?) So they transfer me to Tier 2 support. OK with me, that's what I wanted in the first place.
Darren answers the phone and sees where the work was completed at 3pm and sees that everything is "normal". Except my DSL is still down. Gotta have a truck roll to fix the damn thing. That's supposed to happen sometime between 1-5 on Friday 09/27. Since I work from home nowdays, most of my work is at night and now I lose money because of their incompetence. A simple upgrade in the soft switch is all they have to do, and Windstream screws that up.
I'll update Friday after the "truck roll". If they don't fix it, I'll tell them to leave it down and I'm done with Windstream. I do have a choice with the cable company for internet. If you have a choice for internet, DON'T GET WINDSTREAM ! They can't even get a simple service order right, just imagine if you need them for support what a hassle you're going to have.
Its become quite obvious to me that Windstream is an incompetent company who can screw up a wet dream !
UPDATE 07/26/2013 - 7:39PM (CT)
As I suspected, my static IP is STILL not working as was told to me earlier that it would be (basically lied to). Called tech support (what a joke), since I cannot find the WS people who hang out here and TS says that it would be 5-7 days before it would be working (their automated system says that my order is completed...lie #2). Victor in retention placed the order on Wednesday (07/24) and he ASSURED me that it would be worked by the 26th. Aaron (a "specialist") reached out to me and told me that I should "reach out to him should I have problems". Well I tried to reach out to Victor & Aaron, both apparently do not want to help me with my "problem".
Whatever you do, DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH WINDSTREAM !!! The Windstream trolls (that hang out here on BBR) who are supposed to work for them do not want to help, only to look like they want to help, so they can avoid the bad press they seem to be receiving (and they're about to get more bad press, thanks to my friends in the media in Little Rock). Their only job is to lie to customers and not provide the service they "offer". Do not put ANY trust in ANYONE (from Windstream) on this forum who says they will be willing to help (Aaron, Victor...are you listening? I'm referring to YOU, but I doubt you care since your attitude is just a reflection of what management wants).
UPDATE 07/26/2013 - 1:45PM (CT)
Decided to downgrade Windstream. As far as the connection is concerned, it has been flawless, but that's where it ends. Placed an order for a simple static IP for my business. WS told me that it would be done on Friday (07/26), but as of this writing, that ship has sailed and I still do not have a static IP, as I was told I would have. Further indication by Windstream's automated system says that my static IP order has been completed, but I know that's a lie as my IP is still changing. WS says that it should be enabled by 7:00pm Friday (07/26), which I believe is also a lie. Two WS employees indicated that if I needed further help, just let them know. Been trying to reach out to both of them all afternoon, neither of them can be found (like they fell off the earth)
Since my business is time-critical (sensitive), I thought I could depend on Windstream to provide me with simple services. Since they can't (or won't), I'll call the cable company ASAP. At least they have assured me that they can provide me with simple services without the run around or the lies.
member for 6 years, 1710 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 8 days ago
Comments:
 | | Windstream is the worst phone/DSL provider I live in the North Georgia mountains and only have one phone and DSL provider available, Windstream. Since they have a monopoly in the area, I am forced to deal with them. I recently moved and needed to move my line to my new location. The service reps stated that it would take 7 days to disconnect my line at the old home and reconnect it at my new home. They disconnected the line from the old home in a few hours and have not connected the line at the new home in the past 5 days. Now I have now phone or connection and cannot work from home or receive any faxes until maybe 2 days from now.  | |
| | | haha.. don't get too far ahead of yourself... only with Windstream for 3 months? Give it some time. They'll make you regret saying anything good about them. | |
| | | Windstream never comes through If we had an alternative in this area, we'd take it in a heartbeat. The options are actual dialup, satellite, or windstream's poor excuse for DSL. We've been waiting for two years for a fix and I suspect we'll be waiting a decade more. We were told it would be resolved by July 31st. For real, this time. It isn't. Shocker.
Current speed on our supposedly 3Mb/768k DSL:
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|  | Reviews:
 ·Windstream
| Re: Windstream never comes through Knowing the area of Thornton like I do (I grew up on a small farm just north of town), my guess is that the entire town is either CO fed from Fordyce, or a RT in Thornton itself. To see that Thornton even HAS DSL is impressive. Probably the DSLAM is overloaded or your buried cable is quite old, or both. Windstream has obviously lied to you too, but I'll send you an IM with an email address and you can see how that works out. | |
| | Reviews:
·Windstream
| The oversold "latency outage" in my area started November 2010. I couldn't begin to count how many promises Windstream has made saying when the equipment is going to be upgraded and fixed. It kept getting pushed back, of course. The latest news that a rep finally told me was basically, never. At least not for the foreseeable future. So they continue to mail people offers of DSL bundles, knowing they're not even providing their current customers what they are paying for. The BBB nor FCC would do anything about it, except write a written letter to the head Windstream offices then relay me the response of Windstream saying sorry for your inconvenience. Suppose to be on 3.0 MBPS.. This speedtest is actually a little higher than usual hahha..
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| | | | speed test Atlanta georgia. most of WS connection in Arkansas routing goes to Atlanta before it goes anywhere else it actually goes to Atlanta and then Dallas and then Little rock from routing tables i have looked at. | |
| | | | I'm in the same boat in Vilonia. I've called every month the past 5 months we've lived there because I have yet to see 3mb. This last month the tech told me upgrades were coming by July 30th. Nothing has changed. I called yesterday and the tech told me the date was still in there and it said 99% complete. Yeah, right.... I know there are two T3's that feed the whole town and everyone is sharing a part of those 3mb lines. They have massively oversold their bandwidth. The tech said there were 77 people sharing the line I'm on. That's ridiculous!
I transferred to billing and told them I wasn't paying my full bill when I'm only receiving less than a 1/3 of the bandwidth I was promised. The lady told me when you sign up for their service you agree to pay for "up to 3mb", with "up to" being the keyword. She did give me a $50 credit but next month it will be right back to the full amount. If we didn't use so much Netflix and streaming content instead of paying for satellite TV I would switch to satellite internet. | |
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| | My review of windstream Talk about horrible internet
have you heard of windstream wanna bet
They'll take yo whole check and leave you on dial up
customers riled up
complaints pile up
From the floor to a mile up
because of negligence, incompetence, it makes no sense
that every time I do a speed test, at best, I get less
than yesterday
Why don't I get the speed I pay... fao (for)
aint that against the law?
aint it called fraud when you cheat me out what I bought?
I'm applaud at your fist and second clause
in yo TOS. I expect nothing less than the very very best
But what I get?
No respect!
Internet no connect!
Indian customer service in effect
Speed test said in jest as routers reset
And every time I call, all you do is stall
I want half off if you got-the-gaul
Screw all yall!
Eat this law suit, like soup, I hope you sip it through a straw!
cripple this company like a lion with his claws
around a gazelle
Not to yell but yo company fails!
How you make a sell? You should be like Dell!
Out of business
Every single witness
on your message boards gives a negative review
And b**** so do I. I'm through! | |
| | Enix
join:2011-05-16
Sanford, NC | Re: My review of windstream *Claps*
I love it. | |
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| | signed up for 12Mbps ... getting less than one See:
»www.speedtest.net/my-result/2896471748
I was getting ~2Mbps regularly until last week, when my modem died and the rate then fell even more to 1+ as the tests indicate.
"Latency. Documented. Cannot do a thing..." - Windstream tech chat
Somehow magic latency is killing throughput? Not.
tom | |
| | iowaboyPremium
join:2004-02-28
Fairfield, IA Reviews:
·Windstream
 ·WildBlue
| Re: signed up for 12Mbps ... getting less than one I signed up as I also only had one choice, Windstream. 4 ISPs in this town and only Windstream serves my area, about 1.4 mile from where the other 3 stop. Finally had Sat installed so at least I could have internet but can't use it for work, wife and I both work from home since we are disabled. I did have half internet that would work and was stable till got noise on both phone lines. After they tried fixing the noise and the speed dropped even lower. Now I am getting the modem drop at least 12 times a day. So much for working and they wanted me to switch to a business account, Yea Right. If they can't provide a decent residential line how are they going to provide a business line that is more expensive. | |
| | | | | Re: signed up for 12Mbps ... getting less than one Windstream finally did a truck roll, and the tech verified quality back to the local serving office equipment. He then verified the buried line from the overhead to my 'demarc' box on the side of the house.
They can check line quality and power, essentially plugging in a tester that sends DSL stuff back and forth.
I would suggest that if you have phone line noise, pursue that as it is 'covered' by the fact that Windstream gets Federal {yours and mine, not really theirs} dollars to serve rural areas. So, they respond more to noise on the lines than DSL, it seems.
In most cases, you get noise, IMO, from corroded connections, ant-infested boxes, or punctured underground lines that have gotten waterlogged. The copper lines them self do NOT degrade with age to my knowledge. Their interconnection may, more readily.
Sorry about your service condition. Mine has been a lot better, with only a few occasions where it has dropped service.
The modem has been up for 665 hours, about 27 days. SNR 13.5-14 atten 36.5 with very few errors.
The log shows that the DSL was last bounced around midnight 9/26, but I don't think I was using it at the time. I think there has been one or two other interruptions, but I have not kept track of them.
tom | |
| | | | iowaboyPremium
join:2004-02-28
Fairfield, IA Reviews:
·Windstream
·WildBlue
| Re: signed up for 12Mbps ... getting less than one the field techs were able to verify that the noise and dsl was great to within 1500m feet of me. At 1500 feet away the pedestal has clear phone and 3Mbps download speeds. 500 feet to the next pedestal the phone had noise on the line and dsl dropped to 1023 kbps. the next pedestal 500 feet away had noise on the phone and 1023 kbps dsl download. then is mine. phone has noise and 1023 kbps dsl download. They decided that the line was bad between the pedestal 1500 feet away and the one 500 feet from it. Now it is up to the area manager to find the money (what I was told by the field techs) to replace the busied line. That was over 3 months ago. Modem is rebooting on its own avg. 12 times a day and the phone is same as unusable on local calls cause you never know when the conversation will be drowned out with the noise. Calling in does not do any good as there is still an open ticket and I am told it will not do any good to send anyone out since we still have this open ticket. | |
| | | | | | | Re: signed up for 12Mbps ... getting less than one Go buy yourself 510 feet of twisted pair. Call the tech and have her/him connect the two pedestals using your wire....
They have water intrusion and should rip out the buried cable.
I make the assumption that it is buried because of the use of pedestals.
Other than that, they CAN find the spot where the problem is by using a device that see/hears tones they put on the wires. The signal will be modified {being nice} where the problem exists. In a lot of cases they can dig up buried cable, and splice it to work almost as good as un-spliced. They can do the same with overhead.
I don't know how many wires are in the cable, but another alternative, if there are spares, is to switch your traffic to an unused pair. Again, I don't know specifics.
Either option should not be significant in their budget, and if neither is applicable, then I guess, I'd be on the phone to my local PUC lodging a complaint that telco service is bad, and you could not even use the phone to call an emergency team.
Local officials don't seem to have clout, but state PUC {public utilities commission} seem to. They are the folks who authorize rate changes, and what products are allowed to be sold by the telco.
tom | |
| | | | | | Reviews:
·Windstream
| Re: signed up for 12Mbps ... getting less than one The biggest problem with Windstream is they can't afford to make too many changes (replace cable, install new DSLAMS, etc.). They are deep into debt by taking over smaller operations. The infrastructure was shoddy when they bought the smaller companies and they can't afford to upgrade them unless they absolutely have to.
As far as telephone service, your state PSC (or PUC in some states) will be able to do something. Telephone service is still a regulated product in most states, unlike DSL, which is un-regulated. However, if you feel that Windstream is misrepresenting its product (which they probably are), then a call to the Federal Trade Commission would be in order. The FTC regulates advertising (in any form), so I'm quite sure if the FTC gets enough complaints, they will tell Windstream to stop deceptive advertising. | |
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