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Silver_2000
Premium Member
join:2005-12-12
Carrollton, TX

1 edit

Silver_2000

Premium Member

Re: Paetec/ Windstream are to be avoided at any cost

Aaron

I appreciate the offer to help but Ive now waited 14 business days for first contact on a Network change. According to the sales rep thats the Windstream SLA. The expected wait time . Now the wait begins for the issue to be shuffled from dept to dept for a few weeks.

Its my hope to get this resolved by 2013 ...

Ive worked in the IT industry for nearly 20 years and Ive NEVER seen a company set SLAs that are 14 business days to first contact for a network change. Not 14 days to resolution 14 days to the first time any windstream rep will contact you.

At this point I'm using this forum as a way to help inform prospective NEW Windstream customers of what they will expect.

If I had seen this before we signed our contract I would have chosen another vendor.

The good news about Windstream is the t1s are stable and the VPN network is pretty stable. The down side is that Windstream only resells the T1's so they cant take any credit for that.

Thanks again for your help

Windstream
Premium Member
join:2009-03-31
Twinsburg, OH

Windstream

Premium Member

I can understand you frustration, a 14 day contact time is unacceptable. We are currently working to get a new process in place for the former Paetec areas/customers. As an IT professional I am sure you understand what is involved with changing and creating totally new processes. However it is incorrect and untrue to let everyone assume that this is an issue for all Windstream Business customers. There will always be issues and difficulties when acquiring a company and its existing customers. Please be assured that we are actively working to change many of the processes that were in place before the Paetec acquisition.

Aaron
Specialist II

Silver_2000
Premium Member
join:2005-12-12
Carrollton, TX

Silver_2000

Premium Member

I appreciate your reply. But the problems have been going on since 2010. I met with the Executives at Paetec in the corp offices and they promised a new ticketing system ( ServiceDesk) in August 2010 that would solve the issues of TX region tickets not being responded to. Those issues were blamed on delays in the McLeodUSA acquisition from 2008. Now we are 2 years after those meetings and nothing has changed. ( 4 years after mcleod acquisition ) To me a its a corporate culture. Do as little as possible and blame acquisitions.

In your opinion how long is long enough to fix documented customer service failures ? 2 years ? 4 Years ? 6 Years ?
THe good news is our contract is only 5 years - which means we wont have to wait 6 years or more for simple processes to be implemented.

As an update on most recent ticket we are now nearly 30 days from first request to change VPN IP address and its still not done. I have an Appt for Wed which will be the FIRST contact with the dept that can actually help. 25 days after the ticket was entered.

BTW - I have worked for companies that grew by 5x in size in 4 years - We solved those kinds of problems. Wasn't easy but we cared enough to keep our customers happy. And we invested in the processes to get them done.
flyboi
join:2012-08-21
US

flyboi

Member

In Sugar Land, it is the same. After 4 years with numerous clients in the area, I can honestly say that Windstream has been the worst ISP I have ever dealt with from response stand point and even tech stand point. Out of 20 Engineers they have, maybe 1 will know anything. That guy is swamped! I deal with Logix, AT&T, Comcast, CBeyond also. Since Windtream no longer has monopoly in the area, all clients I've had made the switch to Comcast; I have one client left to make that switch (contract ending).

I honestly wonder if management ever review their service level quality from clients. I wished they would survey their client base to really get an idea of the quality they provide or lack of.
Slipen
join:2010-04-18
Cairo, GA

Slipen

Member

Just look at their Facebook page, it was a mistake for them to make one. I looked back until the first of the year and I couldn't find one person saying anything nice about Windstream. Even when they were giving away free crap people told them somehow Windstream would find a way to make it crap. People getting .05 on a 12mbps connection and been that way for over a year.