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Review by pickettj 
member for 175 days, 45 visits, last login: 1 days ago
lodged 1 days ago
 Inman,Spartanburg,SC
 Contract price not specified.  "on-site techs are honest and sincerely try to correct what they can" "waiting for phone support to struggle reading through support script" "provider of last resort in rural SC"
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I have had windstream DSL since late 2011. Until October of 2012 the service was exactly what I expected - about 4-5MB down on 6MB provisioned line, with support calls every couple of months for outages. Phone support was perfunctory, but local support techs were helpful and usually got things corrected quickly.
Starting in October of 2012 service was noticeably worse. Ping times of 300+ combined with 1-2MB down for most of the day was the norm. Service calls every couple of weeks. Since the start of 2013 a distinct change in service response - the phone support staff use "network latency" as an excuse for everything. Standard response to inquiries as to when problems would be fixed is "sometime in 2013." Refused to let me speak to anyone else regarding the problems on my line. For the last week internet unusable. Exactly as I would expect an unregulated monopoly to behave.
Comments:
 | | poor service As the one other reviewer experienced, service is simply terrible. Latency times are unacceptable, customer service is for all purposes nonexistent. The only times we can use the internet are before 8 AM weekdays and after 1 AM. Other times it's so slow most attempted connections simply time out or the connection is dropped. Not unusual to experience 10 - 15 drops in a 2 hour internet session. Our neighbors all have the same complaints, and when we have asked for a tech to come check our modem or line, CS simply said they were not sending techs out for internet support. Quite a company. | |
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Review by Gpickard
member for 25 days, 1 visits, last login: 3 days ago
lodged 3 days ago
- Springfield,Effingham,GA
- Contract price not specified.
- "No."
- "Everything possible, Terrible ping mostly all the time, Terrible DL and Upload."
- "Completely terrible, Cant use anyone else. Sucks."
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We've been dealing with windstream for four years or so now and as i am a person with a muscle disease (Limgirdle muscular dystrophy) the internet is my lifeline for a social life and just to have fun. The isp windstream fails to even provide a decent amount of ping and dl speed. its so bad that i just get frustrated over and over knowing there is nothing we can do about it, We call tech support and recieve the same excuses and what not "Theres a problem in your area" blah blah. Its rediculous, Our ping times for the last few months vary HIGHLY. For an hour around 1 pm they will be low and fine (Average for us is like 200-300 kb/s dl speeds and pings around 100) --This is fine usually. But completely randomly our internet will shoot up to pings of 400-1500 pings, No literally i've seen it at 1300-1500 for 2 hours. The only times the internet isnt comletely terrible is late late at night (12pm past that until next noon) Windstream just makes me completely depressed due to the soul fact of that they dont care for their customers because they dont have to (For us atleast) We've no other ISP or any other possible Internet provider in our area, Its depressing, Windstream just gets off having no competition for my area so in return they shaft us of good service. Sorry for the rant, This is just vet aggravating to me. Thanks guys, Hope we can see some change in the future with this terrible ISP.
Comments:
Reviews:
 ·Windstream
| Windstream does stink I also have windstream they do suck quite a bit for 3 years now i been having terrible speeds but after all this time on the 12th of april there's going to maintenance for the area i'm in to get new equipment. So when the time comes you'll probably get new equipment and have an enjoyable service.
Btw.. I hope you limb-girdle muscular dystrophy gets better! That's something hard to deal with i feel bad for what you have to go through... | |
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Review by Prodious
member for 14 days, 8 visits, last login: 1 days ago
updated 4 days ago
- Saint Matthews,Calhoun,SC
- $50 per month
- "cant think of anything"
- "everything"
- "if only i had another choice"
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Wind stream is the worst and only company for ISP in my area. When i first signed up for internet with them all was good. We have a bundle package with them and i was told when trying to upgrade to higher speeds that 12mpbs was what i was going to get. That was a blatant lie. I was getting 3mbps on my bill, and told later that was the max in my area.
The higher ups like managers will not put the time to listen to your internet problems and do nothing but lie when it comes to refunds, adding things to bill without asking, diagnostics, repairs, and upgrades.
Customer support on the phone is the worst trained support that I've had to listen to after being on hold for 30mins. I have never had a problem fixed for as long as we have been with them. I've had many of them hang up on me.
They have never returned a call, never sent a tech out to home when they said they would.
The company is down right:
not keeping equipment upgraded,
oversubscribing areas,
adding monthly charges to bill without notifying customers until they are caught and still wont refund you.
I wish another ISP that knows what they are doing would set up shop in my town so wind stream would be in computation so problems would be fixed.
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Review by GearheadX
member for 2.9 years, 501 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 5 days ago
- Hilliard,Nassau,FL
- Contract price not specified.
- "The only show in town."
- "Completely incapable of delivering service."
- "If you have anyone else you can go with, go with someone else."
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We originally purchased our DSL through Alltel until they were bought out by Windstream. Since then there has been a continual degradation of service. There is little to no evidence that they plan ahead and reinforce their infrastructure ahead of selling to new clients and will oversell until a DSLAM can no longer function.
Resolution times when this happens are measured in months. There are others on this site who have written reviews talking about years-long problems with their service and I cannot disagree with them.
If we could go with someone else, we would. We cannot, and therefore have to take our lumps, dealing with evening bandwidth loss and latencies in excess of 300 with spikes as high as 900. It is not the service we are paying for. It is not the service we want. But it is the service we have been informed we are going to get. Maybe until the end of the year. (This review is being written in September of 2012.)
I'm afraid I'm not going to hold my breath on seeing satisfaction.
EDIT:
2-24-2013: Our end-of-year repair date came and went, and was pushed back to the end of February. Latest communication from a Tier 2 tech claims we're presently on target for an end of March repair date. A letter forwarded to us in response to an FCC complaint indicates there is NO known target date for the repairs needed to get the network back up and running and our account as a ten dollar discount on it until September of this year. I am unable to actually use my internet service for anything save, perhaps, browsing the mobile versions of websites on particularly bad nights.
4-2-2013: It's beyond the end of March and supposedly the equipment is installed, however our 'repair' date is apparently just an 'install' date and it will be another four to six weeks for them to transfer the clients from the old hardware to the new hardware. Let's recap. My end of the year repair date set back in September was pushed to the end of March and we're now looking at the end of April or the middle of May before the repair will be complete. At this point is has taken them four months to delay an additional four months and it will be an additional month to month and a half before IN THEORY the problem will be resolved. If they complete the repair of my services in the remaining time they have stalled for they will have taken in excess of nine months to repair local service for a single road one and a half miles north of local city limits, off of which there are no additional paved roads.
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Review by Roy Parker
Fair warning: reviewer joined this month
lodged 9 days ago
- undisclosed location
- Contract price not specified.
- "Windstream"
- "Windstream is so Awesome"
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Whoops, I lied just like their customer service when it comes to why speeds are so slow at night.
They will tell you, I am so sorry that your internet service is slow, knowing that it will never be corrected and that they get paid for you being a complete, stupid, idiot for signing up with them.
Anyone who reads this, all the complaints listed here are not bogus. It is absolute truth.
Windstream TOTALLY SUX!!! What a complete, pathetic, poor excuse for a company.
At night, your upload speeds will be faster than your download speeds.
Comments:
 PiggieI Actually use WindstreamPremium
join:2005-11-23
Orange Springs, FL
·Windstream
 ·HughesNet Satell..
| The Truth This person speaks the truth. While I was finally fixed, it took nearly 4 years of ever decreasing speeds until just this Feb (2013) when they fixed it. Before it was fixed my speeds dropped to .43 M at night, which is exactly a modem.
Despite having finally been fixed (for now as been here before), they let their system go totally to crap (.43M) before repairing it. And yes, many nights my upload exceeded my download.
Don't tell me it's because of being rural. 8 miles down the road in a town the same size (thousand people), Comcast offeres 50 down, 5 up, and it works that way at night! They have better uploads than I have down 'when' mine is working right.
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| Speedstream 4200 Modem - 3m/384 plan | W98-W2KSP4-XPSP2 - All AMD | Buffalo WHR G54S with Tomato 1.18 | 3 downstream switches feeding 6 total clients (no wireless) | Including the Data port on the side of my neck | | |
| | |  Windstream DSL
Their next excuse is they are updating the equipment and in a while my service will be faster.
Then we go thru they are testing my modem.
I asked twice so far about a wireless modem along with the Ethernet modem.
One says I need to pay for the wireless and cannot use it with the Ethernet.
Other one says I don't need to pay for the wireless modem but can only use one of them at a time.
My bill is now $93, service bundle $60. non pub # $4., service plan $10, I only went with their service plan because they told me I would need to pay $75 for a new modem.
I remember when they sent out a new modem for free
I'm ready to go to Comcast
I ended up here searching on routers with different Ethernet connections, Roku and trying to get away from paying for TV, anymore all of this sickens me. | |
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Review by Maar
member for 3.9 years, 936 visits, last login: 2 days ago
updated 10 days ago
- Story,Montgomery,AR
 Business customer- $49 per month
- "Got DSL in 2006 worked fine for 4 years till it was oversubscribed in 2010"
- "Remote has been oversubscribed for a year now with no plans to fix until"
- "I would not recommend Windstream to anyone."
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I have had Windstream DSL since October of 2006. Had pretty much trouble free service for 4 years until they oversold the remote in 2010. Was told in December 2010 that they were planning to construct new fiber feeds to the remote to alleviate the congestion. They told me it would take until Sept. 9th of 2011 to complete. So I waited all summer and followed up with them on a couple of occasions and was assured each time that the repair was on schedule.
My last update from them was on August 3rd when I spoke to the woman in their complaint department that had contacted me in regards to my FCC complaint. She told me that she had followed up with engineering the end of July and everything was going as planned. Then on August 29th I am told that absolutely NOTHING had been done all summer and it will be sometime next year before any repairs are scheduled.
Windstream flat out lied for 10 months regarding fixing this remote. They still have no plans to fix the remote, yet are continuing to sell more DSL accounts off of it. Seems fraudulent to continue to sell new DSL accounts on a remote that Windstream has acknowledged to be oversubscribed for over 10 months. I would not recommend anyone to this company after my experience during the last year.
See this link for full history of how bad Windstream is. »DSL Speed Issues
Comments:
Maar
join:2009-04-09
Story, AR | Update: Windstream is now giving me a $10.00 a month discount for the next 12 months. Still no plans to fix the over subscription issue. | |
| | Maar
join:2009-04-09
Story, AR | Re: Update: Over 400 days of broken DSL with no fix even scheduled. | |
| | | | | Re: Update: This isn't that surprising. We signed up with Windstream a few months ago, and they repeatedly lied to my wife on various things. | |
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| | rotten service I've been all over, and windstream (shitstream) has THE worse service and products ever. If you (wish I had) have a choice DON'T USE IT!!! | |
| | micco
join:2012-05-17
Helen, GA | Re: rotten service I have taken to calling them SuckWind.... | |
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jin
join:2012-01-15
Hazard, KY | windstream, horrible service Agreed, don't choose windstream. | |
| | | | Re: windstream, horrible service Buyer beware! I live in the middle of a city and windstream was the best bundle by far than the other one available for my area. I read a post by a windstream tech which stated if you live in a rural area it is not cost effective for them to upgrade the equipment. He then says oh that's what you get for living outside of society or something like that with a LOL after it. They don't do anything even in a city unless you constantly complain and well that didn't work either just thought they were. Well I would like that tech to have to use the windstream service I have had for the last 5 months. He wouldn't be LOL at anything. I plan to try one more time to get this resolved. I have over 6 times had tech out to my house, a couple dozen calls to the online tech robots who just say please restart your modem, the next level of tech which is someone you think cares but still doesn't fix it. Then I even called corporate who said they would get a specialist out to my house. HAHAHA! Yep, he didn't fix it either. Said he installed a new something at windstream. Nope! I called and was at the tech robot start all over because they said there was no record of my call or special tech support. I have recorded my DSL speeds at less than half 99% of the time and then even lower the other 1%. If nothing is fixed this time I will ask for all monies paid for installation and service. That's what we do when we are not happy. No more posting on this board it doesn't do a thing! | |
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| | winstream sucks paying for 6Mbs get 2.6Mbs call after call after call and i get a different story everytime. still not fixed. To top that off they will not send me monthly bills but after 2 months they manage to find my address to send a late notice. Why cant they just bill me monthly. This company sucks. | |
| | | Sales Rip-Off From the beginning, I had a 1.5mb DSL connection on a dedicated line. Then for the last few months Windstream's Sales group had been bugging me to increase my speed, through a "Special Offer" they would double my speed for $5 less per month (Current monthly bill would drop from $61 per month down to $56), so my response was OK, let's do it! ... I received my new bill today, and it was $93.00. And after an hour or so on the phone to Customer Service, they have agreed to put everything back the way it was, and reinstate my $61 monthly rate .. but I will still have to pay the $93! ... If next months bill is not back to where it should be, I will be saying goodbye to Windstream in favor of my local cable company! | |
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| | Windstream sucks i have had windstream for 14 yrs. and i have 2 dsl lines and both on 3 mbps. i am gtting about half that. one line is on a wired connection and it always drops, with only one device connected to it.
i am paying over a 100$ for both lines. and call after call about the connection drop still nothing.
This is the only company that i know of that supports services where i live.
Windstream Sucks and i do not recommend them to anyone | |
| RaymccPremium
join:2005-10-08
Atlanta, GA Reviews:
·Windstream
| Same story as Jazzie13 " if you live in a rural area it is not cost effective for them to upgrade the equipment. He then says oh that's what you get for living outside of society or something like that with a LOL!" they basically told me this to my face as the tech who really tired to help and came to the house twice, said he could see my service sucked and it was their fault and he'd told corporate and that was basically what they told him back.
My 6mb connection noon GA, a joke
»www.speedtest.net/result/2443067167.png | |
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Review by Rebel Yell
Fair warning: reviewer joined this month
updated 10 days ago
- undisclosed location
- Contract price not specified.
- "Nothing"
- "Have had latency (super slow) speeds at every night for over 6 months"
- "Boycott Windstream so they can go f themselves"
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Windstream worked great for 5 years. It "was" consistent and stable. For over 6 months, I have had super slow (dial up) speeds "every night" as well as sometimes during days on Sundays and some Saturdays.
I dropped my NetFlix because it is unusuable at night. There is no streaming anything between hours of 5:00 PM and 11:00 PM. In fact, downloading anything is out of question. I have to get up early in morning or stay up late at night just to update pc software such as security software. It is a real drag. I twiddle my thumbs while just trying to check email at night.
Sometimes I get so frustrated, I plug my phone line back into pc and use my old trusty and reliable dial up connection.
Windstream customer service evidently has been taught by the best on how to BULLSHIT a customer to death. In fact, listening to them BS is as hilarious as listening to 456 Congress members talk about "fixing" USA.
I am not wasting time with specs and so on because I am far beyond frustrated. I want to make everyone aware of just how SORRY of a company they have become.
Evidently CEO is making a huge bonus, since profit should high. Keep charging people same price for shotty service and god forbid to spend any of it to repair infrastructure.
I hope they go down in flames just like JC Penney and nearly every other American company that their only objective is for more profit at any expense rather than providing a good product/service and build upon a good reputation. No wonder Japanese companies kicked American companies asses in the electronics and automotive industries.
So WINDSTREAM, what kind of way will you figure out next to keep weasling your way out of updating your equipment. Sell your territories to the highest bidder and pin all of problems on them. Sounds like a brilliant strategy to me. Do you need a new CEO?
Comments:
PiggieI Actually use WindstreamPremium
join:2005-11-23
Orange Springs, FL | They don't care if they go broke Windstream doesn't care if it goes broke. Those in power will take home the money when it goes belly up. It's planned. | |
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Review by smitty1234
Fair warning: reviewer joined this month
updated 12 days ago
- Sanford,Lee,NC
- $110 per month
- "Nothing at all"
- "Connection, Customer Service, Fees"
- "If you can, go with anyone else"
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So we have had Windstream for a little over a year now, and are beyond unhappy with their service. To start off, they were billing us for a faster service and when we realized we were not getting those speeds, they told us "oh you can't get higher than 3mgbs in your area, we will fix your bill." They did and gave us a credit for the bill, but chances are if we had not caught it, they probably never would have done anything. So we are supposed to be getting 3mgbs, but we barely see 2mgbs. And it has been that way from the beginning. In the last 4 months our speed has gone down to almost non existent, and everytime we call them it is some new excuse. We have had techs tell us everything from, "oh we are working on the lines," to "there are just so many new users on the system that it's slowing down your speeds." The last tech that came out told us that they plan on updating the main system for our area sometime this year, but can't say when. He then told us to go to the McDonalds up the street and use their free WiFi if we needed to use the internet that badly. Considering I go to college online, I'd say I need it badly. He also said we should call and ask for a reduction in our bill due to not having any connection. We currently pay $110 a month for service we can't even use anymore. We have not been able to get a page to load in over a month. So my husband called and asked about getting some money knocked off our bill. They told him they don't ever do that and there is nothing they can do for us as far as fixing our service, that we will just have to deal with it until they update their systems, to which they told him is not scheduled to happen in 2013 for our area. So my husband then said he was going to drop them at the end of the month due to the horrible connection, awful customer service and being told so many different stories by so many different techs. All they had to say was, "that's fine." Worst customer service ever. So we are now at a crossroads because Windstream has a monopoly in our area and we cannot get service through any other provider than Charter. And because our lovely builder made our driveway so long, Charter is refusing to come install service for us claiming the lines are too far from the house due to our driveways length. I swear I feel cursed LOL. It was odd though, after my husband said we were going to cancle our service, the internet worked wonderful for 1 whole week. Now it is back to working like trash, and I know there is nothing we can do. I guess our only option is to get a wireless hotspot from AT&T or something. Windstream is seriously the worst company I have ever dealt with. If you can get service though any other company, then do so. Windstream will only give you problems.
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Review by fowlrock
member for 6.2 years, 320 visits, last login: 2 days ago
updated 13 days ago
- Bradshaw,York,NE
- $60 per month
- (12 month contract)
 about 7 days- "A connection to the internet"
- "lack of speed and no internal communication"
- "Looking for an Internet Service Pretender? Welcome to Windstream!"
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have had Windstream/Alltel DSL for 2 years. 3mb was all that was offered company wide at the time. 6MB came out last april, but was told my CO could not handle it. Have talked with the local techs many times and know that the CO is fiber fed, and has a capable DSLAM (Stingray).....but Windstream is too cheap to pony up the card to allow 6mb. Instead, they are upgrading other areas to 12MB and leaving other behind. Good Business means taking care of ALL of your customer. Not happy with this crap connection when FREAKING AUSTRAILIA just put up 2 billion to make sure 99% of their population could get at least 12mb service. Capitalism at its best, Folks. Windstream is a joke, never should have divested from Alltel.
UPDATE 3-9-2012
12MB came to our area a few years ago, and I wish I could say it has been smooth sailing, but its been a joke. The major backhaul that serves eastern Nebraska has been severely over-sold, and the chances of getting a steady 4.5Mbps downstream during peak hours is about 1 in 30, literally. The rumor of bonded ADSL2+ and VDSL has been popping up via fliers and on-line chatter, with the hopes of a bigger pipe = larger bandwidth allocation. For current problems, I've complained to the FCC and Nebraska Public Service Commission, Windstream has made no attempts to appease. Tech support techs aren't given any real info and are virtually no help. Charter just ran a 92 count backbone fiber 3 blocks north of our home, I can only hope they will branch off into town so that I can switch to a company that actually innovates and improves their services in a competitive manner. I know that no ISP is perfect, but Windstream is at the back of the pack.
Update 3-25-2013
Another year, the problems just keep coming. Peak down/up is now about 1mb/60Kb. Off-peak at best is about 4mb/60Kb. Still paying for 12mb service. I have made over 12 phone calls, opened a thread in both the general Windstream forum as well as Direct Support, and have had two technicians out. They all like to use the term "latency outage"...but its purely a combination of an over saturated network and poor equipment. They've given a "repair" (Its not a repair unless something has failed) date, and they think 120 days is acceptable. This company is a joke, and under investigation in Georgia. I hope a national body of authority can get its' hands on Windstream and force them to provide the service that they are being paid for. Jeff Gardner needs to step down, bring in a Chief Technical Officer that has a clue, and start educating their entire company how basic layer 2/3 networking functions.
If you can avoid Windstream, do it at all cost. Worst communications company I've ever dealt with, personally or professionally.
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Review by thedad
member for 10.7 years, 183 visits, last login: 2 days ago
updated 15 days ago
- Douglas,Coffee,GA
- $35 per month
- about 5 days
 AllTel- "Thanks to windstream tech now getting up to speed"
- "was expirencing slow evening speed"
- "Once again happy with Windstream DSL"
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Just realized within the past few weeks something was not right. Got to checking things and all looked normal until i did a speed check.
I could only check in the afternoon and was getting speed of 500 - 650 instead of 2800 to 2900.When i checked in the morning it is where it is supposed to be at 2900.
UPDATE
Since my recent review update i have been contacted by Windstream.
The Tech has identified what is causing my slow evening download speed
and is actively working to resolve the problem.
Up to this point i have been well satisfied with my Windstream DSL internet for years. It seems that they are making every effort to earn my business and to keep me as a customer.
Comments:
sam26
join:2012-11-16
Macon, GA | not for me They don't seem to want to fix my issue, I guess they don't want me as a customer. Do you think if I give them a rating of 90 or higher they will fix my slow speed? NOT! | |
| | Reviews:
·Windstream
| Windstream Exposed: Under Investigation in Georgia Windstream Exposed: Provider Under Investigation in Georgia for Ripping Off Broadband Customers
Phillip Dampier March 11, 2013 AT&T, Broadband Speed, Competition, Consumer News, Public Policy & Gov't, Rural Broadband, Video, Windstream 3 Comments
Windstream Communications is under investigation by the Governor’s Office of Consumer Protection because of allegations the company is advertising broadband speeds and performance the company simply cannot deliver its customers in Georgia.
A Windstream employee in a company retail office in Dawsonville told an undercover CBS Atlanta photographer that the company can offer Internet speeds up to 24Mbps. He guaranteed service no slower than 6 to 12Mbps. But Mark Creekmore, who lives in Dawsonville, reports his speeds sometimes barely reach 1Mbps during the afternoons.
Duane Hartness, a Windstream customer, says Windstream has oversubscribed their service by continuing to sell broadband on a network that is overcrowded as-is, which slows speeds for every customer.
“Every customer they add to their oversubscribed DSLAM increases their revenue while further degrading your bandwidth,” Hartness said. “Lacking competition, they can ignore any and all complaints.”
Creekmore wants every Windstream customer in Georgia that is dissatisfied with their broadband service to file complaints with the state agency.
“The more complaints, the more likely the Office of Consumer Protection is to take action,” Creekmore said. “Please make sure to include that you are not getting what you are paying for and any other personal detail that would help them understand what you have gone through. If you have had multiple communications with Windstream, please include those details as well. In short, the more detail the better.” | |
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