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AnonymousOne
Former Broadband Rep
join:2007-08-04
Salina, KS
| reply to Piggie
Re: Piggie has now joined the Haters!
For what its worth, calling into tech support to squeeze info out that we probably do not have wont help. We may be support but we do not unfortunately have every answer or every hour by hour update on things like this. Yes, calling in to report and inquire is a good thing but if it gets to where everyone is calling in every hour for an update...all you will do is upset yourself more when we have no more info provided to us from either the techs or engineers working it. I know how it can be, our cable provider here was that way many years ago and all I used to get was "our network is fine, its your pc". Depending on what is going on, it could take some time for parts or equipment, that stuff is not cheap and has to get approved. Yes we are a fairly good size company that makes money and to be honest, I have no clue how much some of that equipment costs...but it can be quite a bit. Latency is one of the worst things to experience as well as to diagnose and fix on our end. Please update when you can!
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Helpdesk | |
mojo1
join:2006-12-05
Jefferson, GA
 ·Windstream
| AnonymousOne,
I have only called twice regarding the current situation. Once was last Thursday and a ticket was opened then. I received a call on Friday saying that they found the problem and it would be fixed by Monday. I gave them 3 more days beyond the promised day and the problem is still there so, I called again.
The person I spoke with last night was very professional and explained that they did not have an answer but that it definitely was not fixed yet and would have engineering look into it today and call back.
I certainly don't expect the people in support to have all of the answers because they are not told everything that is going on. But, I do expect to get the service that I pay for. To recap my situation, I signed up in October 2006 and had problems from the first day. After many, many calls to support, the problem was corrected around July of this year. I could recap the explanations I was given during those 9 months, but it would take too much time as it was a different excuse every time.
The point for me is that in the last 10 months, my service has worked properly for about 4 weeks total. I think that is a pretty poor record from where I sit.
In Windstream's defense, I have rarely had trouble getting credit for when it doesn't work (Piggie, call and request credit - it is easy) and MOST of the people I speak with are very nice and professional. However, there is only so long most customers are willing to wait to get what they pay for. As I have paid very little over the months, I am still willing to wait patiently to get this problem fixed, again.
Just my 2 cents worth, Please don't take it wrong as I don't intend any harm, I just want my service to work the way it is supposed to. I think 10 months is long enough to wait. | |
Piggie
Frying Noises in My Brain
Premium
join:2005-11-23
Orange Springs, FL
 ·HughesNet Satellit..
·Windstream
| reply to AnonymousOne
said by AnonymousOne  :For what its worth, calling into tech support to squeeze info out that we probably do not have wont help. We may be support but we do not unfortunately have every answer or every hour by hour update on things like this. Yes, calling in to report and inquire is a good thing but if it gets to where everyone is calling in every hour for an update...all you will do is upset yourself more when we have no more info provided to us from either the techs or engineers working it. I know how it can be, our cable provider here was that way many years ago and all I used to get was "our network is fine, its your pc". Depending on what is going on, it could take some time for parts or equipment, that stuff is not cheap and has to get approved. Yes we are a fairly good size company that makes money and to be honest, I have no clue how much some of that equipment costs...but it can be quite a bit. Latency is one of the worst things to experience as well as to diagnose and fix on our end. Please update when you can! I wasn't going to quote your whole post but I feel any less will take things out of context. While having been CS for a small modem company one in St.Pete FL so I have a limited understanding.
All I want to say and why I said a Consumer's Group was for two reasons.
1) A lot of people don't notice problems until they get very big. This problem started on Aug 2 and for all I know I was the only caller. But it has gotten progressively worse since, until Thursday night (day 8 of the problem) it got so bad and people could not even read email or surf. Then they phone banks when off, from what one customer service person told me. However it was the same problem it just had to get bad. Had we had a group in place, then everyone could have tested for themselves and decided for themselves if they wanted to report their finding at their house. This would have let Windstream know right away that it was not isolated to a pin or DSLAM output, etc etc, thought the person I talked to believed me when I read my margins, etc before being asked and told them all I saw was ATM errors. I can't see how this would be a bad thing. It would help the customers and Windstream.
2) I have been a Windstream (was Alltel) Customer for eons. And it's not just WS, but even back in the old Southern Bell days right after Judge green split them from ATT Longlines, right through Bell South. It's almost like there is a fixed amount of delay in repairing any problem. Well all those except basic dial tone, which coincident is regulated. Coincident? I think not. Actually when I was installing remote radio links for a living, Alltel then was more responsive than Bell South. But I digress to residential. This problem was identified by notes read to me as 4 T1s taking errors feeding the DSLAM on Monday the 6th. But it wasn't until Friday the 11th that 4 actual bad T1 cards were found. I know from calling in during those 4 days the ticket was closed at least once repaired, though it wasn't. So I ask, why did it take so many attempts to find the problem, knowing it was 4 T1s taking errors that it was 4 T1 cards that were to blame. Now I did hardware for 20+ years, in communications, TV, Radio, Cable, and limited phone. So if you have a T1 one that is fiber and probably even copper that has errors, the most likely place to fail is the T1 card at one or the other end of the link. 99 percent of the time noting fails in the middle of a cable unless it's cut or getting wet. Fiber further simplifies this as there is less to break in the cable itself. Just like most lamp, extension, microphone, etc cords fail at the ends, not the middle.
Having the problem narrowed down that close by Monday, by Tuesday the 4 cards could probably be found in under an hour, by just swapping the ones they had in service. That would have given them a 3 to 4 day jump on ordering parts.
So in conclusion, had more customers here been alerted to the problem Wed Aug 2, then it would have escalated faster, troubleshot faster and gotten back up to speed yep faster. So a problem that could have been resolved in a week, will most likely take now at least 2 weeks. It would not surprise me if it extends out a third week, depending on how fast the part are ordered. I realize I am not on a 3 hour response like a T1 line, but 9 days to actually seriously troubleshooting the problem is excessive. And the reason I believe it's tolerated is often it expected a great deal of the customers won't notice it, is why I believe it would be good for users to collaborate. After all isn't that a large part of the purpose of this forum?
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| 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 | | |
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