Selected ISP Support → Windstream > Windstream High-Speed Internet: STAY AWAY!

Re: Windstream High-Speed Internet: STAY AWAY!

Any progress or updates Aaron? It has been a week since they missed the ETR and left zero information for us. I hope they have been busy completing the task at hand and not wasting anymore time on this fix. Thanks for digging and keeping on these guys, hope to hear some positive news from you soon.

Apparently the same thing happened in my area. I was told by Patricia in windstream direct that the issue in my area is terrible and now they have to think of a new plan...

Had the same crap speeds for 8 months and if it is worse then it is because they keep selling new lines of service and speed upgrades they can't provide.

I also have had almost a month of non updates since Windstream engineers apparently don't have to answer emails about missed ETR. I keep getting "Engineering hasn't replied. I emailed again asking for new info"

Our stories sure do sound familiar and we don't even live in the same state. Smells mighty fishy to me.

Alot of confusion going around at Windstream it seems

I said these exact words! It all was way too fishy that in the last week of my ETR, all of a sudden the engineers were faced with staggering new complexities in which that they can't even update their managers or fellow staff with details. Tickets were closed, my DSLAM was pushed back due to "Back Hauls"...and ever since I'm still waiting to hear why the work wasn't completed, how close we are and what's next. And mind you, leading all the way up to this last week the Engineers said everything looked good and they were confident in the proposed ETR.

My head could explode trying to find a meaning to the insanity that is behind Windstream's project management or lack of better yet. Utterly disorganized and unprofessional doesn't even come close. Keep us updated and best of luck friend.

Hi Aaron,

Updates on the mystery behind the uncompleted DSLAM or AGG?

I would really appreciate at least an update on how close they are since they missed their ETR yet again and haven't even bothered to let anyone know where we stand for the completed fix. Please don't give up on me now. I greatly need this fixed for my work.

I am having very similar issues here in NC as well.

Not surprisede Gathis. Feel free to join the South Carolina Investigation Thread and FB group if you wish...the more the better. If you have time, just post a link to your thread and your experience with Windstream.

»Windstream DSL Investigation: South Carolina

»www.facebook.com/groups/southcar···roblems/

How long have your issues been ongoing? How ETR's have been promised yet missed?

Has anyone heard from Aaron lately? It's not like him to not answer PM's and I've been waiting on an update for quite a while now. Hoping everything is OK on his end. If this forum loses him we'll be in bad shape.

Here is a summary of how the last month prior to my ETR played out. It went from funding approved, confirmed, re-confirmed, engineers confident in ETR to..."TOTAL CONFUSION AND MYSTERY."

Well Windstream missed the ETR as usual and to beat all now everyone is confused on what had been done and how close the engineers are to finishing up. Aaron has been terrific in going the extra mile each week but I can't get a hold of him as of lately so I hope you will devote the same effort. Here is a quick recap...

On February 26, Aaron confirmed funding was approved not only for the DSLAM but the AGG - "Correction, Just got the second issue approved for funding! Site made the 2013 list. The ETR is 3/29/13. "

On March 12, Aaron confirmed again the funding was approved for all repairs in 2013- " On a bright note I have gotten the funding issues corrected, there will be no more confusion as to whether or not funding was approved (considering work is currently going on you would assume people would make that jump in logic . . . .). I will try to gather more info, in the next day or so."

On March 13, Aaron received word from the Engineers - "As of right now the Engineers seem pretty confident that they are on track."

On March 14, Aaron confirmed the repairs were in full effect - "Work on the DSLAM is moving again!"

Then on March 27, merely days before the propsed ETR, I receive this message - "I am still waiting to here back from the Engineers. But based on a cursory exam it looks like the AGG ticket is closed and the DSLAM is pushed way out. You may not remember but I had mentioned that your DSLAM is being upgraded as part of the Federal Stimulus project. I am wondering if the fact it is a stimulus project has something to do with why it is pushed out. I will let you know what I come up with."

Awaiting answers from mods so we'll see...sure hope Aaron returns soon for some clarification and backup on the matter.

My own connection upgrades and repairs keep getting pushed back as well. If it's oversale that's caused it, it probably won't matter much, much longer.

Most of the people I've talked to in my area are pretty much ready to move out to get better services from other ISPs at this point. They've no actual hope in getting anything fixed.

One of the things saving me is people are moving from where I am back into town that work because of fuel. I know of 10 people on my dslam whose houses sit empty because no one is moving back in this area either. So unless they have equipment failures what they fixed on me should not get over sold.
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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 |

If previous info is correct, these homes may still be connected to the dslam and drawing off it.

^^^Exactly. A fellow Windstream employee spoke up in my Windstream DSL Investigation: South Caronlina thread - "My experience working at Windstream is that they forbid us giving credits to customers in latent areas. Their accounts are tagged as being latent and our broadband help desk is not allowed to send techs for service calls in these areas. When I read the notes that are on these tagged accounts, it shows that the equipment is overutilized at 99%+. The equipment is designed to run at 80%, but we are continually selling to these areas and when someone wants to disconnect, instead of disconnecting them, our loyalty department (who gets dinged for not saving a customer) will put them in "broadband always on" at $16 per month and put a credit on for a year and hope that the customers don't notice the increase on their bill a year later. In other words, we are still giving them internet when they are not using it and it takes up space for people who actually will.

There are thousands of accounts like this. I see them every day and only about 4% of our customer base actually calls into the center. Our sales quotas are such that some are selling internet packages to the elderly and to people who don't even have computers because it is "the same price as the unlimited long distance plan" and "gives you the price for life guarantee". What they don't know is that the promotion ends and they end up paying more as well as taxes on something they don't need or want.

These people don't NEED or WANT the internet and it is taking away from people like myself who DO."

Waiting for a response from Windstream Direct since last Friday. The funny thing is you can see where Patricia and Larissa reply to others but bump other threads down the list without a response.

So let me get this straight, we are told to post our specific issues in Windstream Direct so the appropriate mods can assist us. Is Larissa and Patricia aware of their job role?

Patricia and Larissa are still logging into the forum in some capacity but still continue to ignore my ticket and thread without a single response yet in Windstream Direct. How is this level of negligence allowed in any company much less one of such size as Windstream? Their last reply btw was in late February, LOL. Unbelievable....

Dear Larissa and Patricia, I have contacted several corporate employees of Windstream and discussed your total lack of professionalism in great detail. It might be wise to respond to my thread tomorrow and skip your daily routine/ritual of blatantly ignoring it.

New Update:

Now I got word that my specific DSLAM is not receiving upgrades but equipment around my area is. This means I may see some relief from others being moved off my DSLAM but nothing is in stone as usual. This is truly disappointing as I have obviously been lied to in regards to what was being upgraded and what had been approved for funding.

I don't blame Aaron as he was just relaying the information he received. My local office and their engineers however have no excuse other then total incompetence in letting such false information out. I have never been so mislead by a company in my life. Lies followed by more detailed lies... unbelievable.

I did make a new contact who is higher up in CS and will be updating me monthly on the status of my area and my situation. I will keep you guys updated and will continue to pursue a thorough investigation in SC regarding their DSL service or actually lack of.

Latest Update:

Glad to have Aaron back in the forum first and foremost! Aaron and Mike are still working and pushing hard to get these upgrades completed in my town area but they are facing resistance as usual.

Has anyone else in SC received their upgrades recently?

Still down and out. Where are the upgrades and promised improvements Windstream?? July will be one year since the circus act like customer service begun in Campobello, SC and the ETR's first came and gone without resolution. Failure after failure and lies stacked upon more lies. I can't keep up with the mislead fix dates and apologies for never completing the promised upgrades.

A quote from another extremely dissatisfied Windstream DSL customer in Campobello, SC -

" My neighbor received a flyer in the mail selling even more subscriptions to this product.

They are touting DSL over cable as far as speeds and pricing on this literature they are sending to our neighbors.

They are fully aware of the issues, yet they still are selling more subscriptions.
It should be against the law to continue to sell something you cannot provide.

My neighbor asked me about windstream as he got a flyer.
I showed him this forum and let him try it for himself on my computer.

He said he would not spend any money on this service.
I encouraged him to call windstream and ask them why he should get hooked up.
He got to see first hand how slow it is. It actually slowed so bad while he attempted to log onto one of his accounts, it timed out.

Then he pulled out his smart phone and was logged into the account in seconds.

What can we do? How I wish Charter was available."

I'm so glad I switched to high speed cable that is much faster and cheaper! I pay $35 monthly for a 30down 3up connection, it's dropped once since I switched from WS months ago. No more disconnects and no more ping spikes, most importantly no more headaches. I didn't have it nearly as bad as some of y'all on here did, my area seemed like one of the better ones but for the $65 monthly I was paying I expected hiccup free internet.

You are a lucky guy Chad! I really hope for one of two things. Either for Windstream to finalize the promised upgrades or if they cannot commit, to get rid of the monopoly within the area and allow other ISP's to come in and supply adequate service. Nearly $50 month for dial up speeds...criminal at best.

I'm still waiting for an update from Michael and Aaron. Should have some information to share with everyone by Friday. I hope some serious progress has been made but we'll see.

Anyone that has an option like Chad has, really has no problem.
They can change providers. We can't.

Doc. Does WS own the poles that the cable could go on? Why is there a monopoly anyway?

Why is Charter not in this market?
They could have my business today.

I sure hope we get some relief sooner than later.

I am paying $39.99 for up to 1.5 mbps. I must be on the grandfathered plan as it has stayed at this price since we got it installed in the very beginning.

We were one of the first ones to get DSL out here.
I was so happy. Now I am mad.

In Lexington KY, NO broadband access for 4 days plus now.

Two service calls to Windstream.

5/29 early PM, no help. They said widespread KY outage. They promised me an automated phone call when fixed. No call.

I checked my modem including extended power off/reset every 6 hours the whole duration. Blinking DSL light and no internet light, every time.

6/1 around noon: different story, no help. They "reset" the modem. No change. They claimed the outage had been fixed. I explained consistent outage and NO PHONE CALL, despite their promise. (So how could it have been fixed)?

They then said "another" outage in Lexington for 20,000 customers. I requested another confirmation call when fixed, a credit for all outage days, and an estimate on getting reliable service back. No estimate, but they did promise a confirmation call (again) when problem fixed. They also claimed my modem had "been knocked off the network".

They seem to either be lying to me or to be clueless. Is there widespread KY outage still after FOUR days, or do I likely have a DSL modem problem?

I find little obvious detail on the nature of broadband outages on Windstream's site. I did find that they claimed the major outage Am I missing something obvious?

Note: I will almost certainly switch to QX.NET over the local cable network -- but wonder how Windstream can get away with this, especially the lack of information and competence.

If you have access to cable, you have no gripe here on this forum.
I do feel your pain.
But if you have cable available, why not call them today instead of windstream?

Hey Roger -

Hmmmm? I remember the outage you speak of. It was about 4 days ago because at 10 am I noticed I had no internet, so I called tech and got the recording that there was an outage, so I hung up. A few hours later my internet was back on and has been working fine.

Have you tried to do a HARD reset on your modem? I know you said you reset it but you can either reset it by rebooting it, or COMPLETELY reset it by pressing the small tiny button on the back for ten seconds which will restore it to factory. Then just plug the modem into your computer and open a web browser to do the setup again which will take a couple of minutes......

If you have already done this I don't know. That's weird. That outage has been fixed (at least for me) for a while now.

Like in many areas Windstream receives stimulus money from the government to provide broadband speeds to rural areas such as ours. In doing so they have a monopoly in the area basically preventing anyone else from offering competition. It' s a shame b/c so far our DSLAM and equipment in Campobello is archaic and you have to wonder where all that stimulus funding is going? I've got a few ideas...
I've been waiting for quite a while now for an update without success. Will really hit up these guys this week for some news. It just shouldn't take near this long to confirm project details and progress.

I finally got an update. It's not good news but I Michael states he's working hard to reach higher level management regarding our region. I hope he comes through....

"Sorry for the delay in responding. I have spent some time traveling for work lately. As Aaron stated I have been in communication with upper management about this area to see what changes can be made. We still do not have any work scheduled on your particular DSLAM but we are working on the other network elements that your DSLAM shares bandwidth with. We expect the work that we are doing on those elements are going to have a positive impact on your connection as you will be sharing less bandwidth with those elements. Unfortunately since the work is not being done directly on the Campobello DSLAM I can't predict the extent that you will feel relief. I did recently get some visibility in to the Campobello network so I can see what the utilization is out there as these projects are being completed. The last time I looked the utilization was still pretty high wich comfirms what you are experiencing on your end. As these projects get completed I will continue to check the utilization and let you know when we expect you to feel some relief on your end.

Any news is good news as far as the Campobello area.

Thanks Doc, for the update.

You bet John, I replied to your post in the SC Investigation thread.

same issue here in Olivia, NC. they have a monopoly here. If cable was available where I lived, WS could kma. lag is so bad is hard to type this text. letters pop up eventually. I call them "Fartstream". It stinks.