| ***** It's Official****Winfire Out o' the Biz!!!!! It's official, Winfire Closed down shop at 3:15 pm on 2/27/01. On 2/26 all temp employees were recalled by their agency and the following day (today) rumors abounded about how we were closing shop.
I thought to myself...oh it's just hysteria, and even at 3:00 one of the higher ups told us to return to our desks if we were scheduled to work, and the rest of us to return in the morning...I believe the phase was "business as usual"
Much to my chagrin, I received a phone call that we were to report for our final paychecks in the afternoon and that Winfire and it's sister Octive Technology ceased operation.
So, all you peeps out there waiting for pending escalations and callbacks, or waiting for modems or waiting to get provisioned, I would suggest you go to cable Inet access.
DSL is ****** from the word go, the phone companies can't handle the demand, 3rd party providers run by megalomaniacal, snotty little rich kids with delusions of Internet millions that thought starting a DSL would be an interesting capital investment for daddy's money can't make a sound business decision even if the family jewels depended on it.
I saw classic freshmen mistakes that even a first year BizAdmin major could spot from a mile away. I sat there and dished out the bullshit "corporate" responses to idiotic mistakes made by the so called "experts".
So, all of you that signed up with Winfire, I apologize to you for putting up with the far from stable network, the modem shipment problems, the bullshit excuses, the long wait on the phones etc, etc, etc ad infinitum. Believe it or not, there was a large group of us people at Winfire that the rest of the corporate goons thought was full of crap, they never believed us when we tried to give them information on what was going on from the end users standpoint. We really tried to help our users, because we all at one point were on your end...getting dicked around by some faceless corporation. It's funny, when we first started out, posts about us on DSL reports were pretty good. As time wore on, the official corporate position was to keep people away from DSL reports because of the bad press....
But, just remember all you FreeDSL users out there, you got what you paid for....caveat emptor.
To all my fellow Winfired buddies, I know this comes as a total shock to all of you as it did me...Some of us were former Flashcom and ASI people and I feel bad for us having to endure this shit again. Hey, at least it wasn't a long drawn out thing...Thank god for that. Well peeps, let's keep in touch. If I get in anywhere else, I'll keep you guys in mind.
Thanks for being such a terrific team to work with, I'll miss all of your smiling faces, your friendship, your words of encouragement and
To our end users, we all apologize for all the crap you were subjected to, and please understand we did our best because we really believed in our company.
I almost forgot, when you call the 800#, you'll get a message that says "Thank you for calling Winfire, our call center is experiencing technical difficulties, please call again tomorrow" Do yourself a favor, don't bother....you'll not get through tomorrow, the next day, not ever...Spend the time rather, and get yourself a new carrier.
Peace Love and Harmony, maybe I'll see ya all out at the unemployment office!!! Or perhaps at the next DotCom deathpool. Hey, ya know what, we need to put together a pink slip party....
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| That confirms the rumor from www.f**ckedcompany.com then. It says that employees were told to come by tomorrow to pick up their last pay checks. That's sad. I signed up for WinFire DSL but decided not to go through with it. Good thing. |
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Anon | reply to WinFIRED employee
What do paying customers like myself do now? Will our connections be suddenly disconnected without notice? |
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| I believe you'll be transfered to another company,,, but the price on the other hand is a whole other deal. Who knows if you'll get it for that cheap.
Anyways, Having worked there myself. I just wanted to say it was a great job, I learned alot and helped alot of people. Of course mabey 1 in 20 will come here to say anything,,, dsl reports has basicly become a flame arena for the chumps that either have a f*cked up Operating system, inside wiring issues, or the phone company messed up and the isp gets blamed for it. Either way. If you find yourself ordering dsl (from anyone!). Expect the worst, because DSL itself isn't the answer to world peace.
I cant tell you how many people expect the world from a free service. Its sad. Winfire was really a great company, and I enjoyed working there alot. However every rose has it's thorn. At least now I have a excellent resume for my next job from the promotions I gained while working there. So, Anyone got a question about dsl they've always wanted to hear the truth about? lets hear it,,, free tech support :P |
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Anon | Thanks for the reply. Winfire Cust Serv was certainly hit or miss, but I have to say I did some "straight shooting" tech reps that gave me honest answers such as admiting when it WAS Winfire's problem and that they were expanding too fast.
Anyhow, do you happen to know whether they will keep service "on" while our accounts get transferred over to another company? Any insight would help.
As of now, still a recorded message on the toll free line and no announcements on their homepage either. |
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Anon | reply to WinFIRED employee
I read your post with great interest. I'm glad to see that someone in the place understood some of the "freshman" mistakes. DSL is a viable product. Your commentary about 3rd party providers is right on.
No concern for customer service-interested in making a big name for themselves - loading up the system with crap - you name and these folks did it. The premise of the Octive system was sound - poor execution - poor understanding of the environment - private infighting when bigger issues were looking them in the eye. Classic case of a poor management. The 20 that remain there today - are the cause.
I'm going right back into the DSL game. Folks - stay away from anyone who offers - free - free - and anyone who can't answer a phone in a reasonable amount of time. If they didn't build the phone system WHAT makes you think they built the systems to install your line any better?
It really isn't the phone company's fault when these poorly run firms don't pay the bills. |
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| reply to Anon
Right now that is really uncertain. I would think that they will, but as you know the unstability of the network in certain area's could prove me wrong.
Personally if I were you, I'd switch to something like speakeasy or Earthlink. You really get what you pay for. I know that speakeasy makes it really easy to get an ISP switch which only takes about a week for them to take you under there wing.
But anyways, Im leavin to go get my check,,, wish me luck  |
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| reply to WinFIRED employee
I've been told I will get my service installed within 30 days every time I call. I've been calling every month for almost a year now. Maybe if they decent customer service or were just honest with customers, they would still be in business. By the way....I still don't have DSL. Guess I'll have to pay a "real" company for it. |
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| reply to Winfire Tech
This sucks, I finally get Winfire DSL at 1.5 Mbps, but it's not 1.5.. but anyway. I had it for about 3 weeks and NOW WHAT!!! I am posting this message on the 28th of february and I still have it, so what is going to happen to ME! I don't want to wait another year just for anther company thats is slow to get me broadband!!!! WTF!! SOME ONE PLEASE TELL ME WHAT THE F*CK IS GOING TO HAPPEN TO MY CONNECTION! |
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| You'll eventually get whats called an ISP switch, who its going to go to, I have no idea. I dont think anyone does at this point. But I'll tell you now, it'll take up to a week I think for them to switch you,,, once they do. |
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| oh cool, you think I will have to pay more, and whats about my 1.5 megs per sec? |
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| reply to Hates Free DSL
You wanna know a little something?
Winfire "has" ordered your line,,, they order it right away. But you wanna know why you were being held up? Your PHONE COMPANY! The loop has to be ordered from the phone company first. Without that, the ISP cannot do ANYTHING.
Having worked there myself, I see this kind of thing happen very often. Someone order dsl, wait several months. and get nothing as a result or find that dsl is not possible in your area. People ordering dsl have the misconception that dsl is the answer to world peace and that it is guarenteed bandwidth. ITS NOT! ADSL is in no way shape or form guarenteed. SDSL from "certain" providers will guarentee a 80% of the speed/plan you order.
And you wanna know why some dsl company's can have you up and online in under a month? Because they sometimes host their own equiptment within the phone company's cage. And you know what that means? MORE MONEY.
Put it this way, If you didn't understand anything I just said. Mabey this will clear it up for you.
If you got 10 thousand dollars and you buy yourself a nice little compact car. Sure you got a great economy class vehicle, But If you compare it to the 100 thousand dollar Viper or Ferari or somthing of that sort. Your paying for performance. All those little details that make it "worth" 100 thousand dollars. You sure as hell should not expect Ferari performance from your little ford escort. If you do, then thats your own fault for being that ignorant. Enuf said.
People, dsl is very sketchy so to speak. If you have excellent line conditions, a good central office, and a decent ISP AND most importantly, you are "under" 10 thousand ft of that central office. You should go for dsl. Any exceptions to those rules, EXPECT PROBLEMS! |
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| reply to WinFIRED employee
Is this true ?? Or is it just some joke ?? I just got my DSL modem from winfire about 3 days ago. And I'm running DSL right now.
If it is true that they went out of business .. what will happen to current customers who have the service ? |
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| reply to WinFIRED employee
It was just a matter of time. They had terrible customer service. I can't remember how many times I attempted to get in contact with somebody and never got a single reply. good riddance. |
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| reply to WinFIRED employee
Wow,
I'm a former Rhythms/Winfire worker and I wrote almost the same letter to my manager about what was happening. I remember him saying "honesty does not count for anything." I fought for the customer on other teams until Rhythms managers would literally stand over my shoulder and tell me to start billing customers who had canceled their orders. I can't say as I will miss but about 3 Rhythms workers.
Keep in mind that these snot-nosed rich kid managers could be facing some serious criminal charges for their alleged roles in defrauding customers and investors. |
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Anon | reply to WinFIRED employee
I knew it was too good to be real...Free DSL!!! I've been getting email from Winfire every week about them going to cancel my order if I didn't respond. Guess what...I didn't respond, it's like throwing out the Publisher Clearing House junk mail. |
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| reply to WinFIRED employee
yah i read the post and ppl are sayin that we are gonna be switched but my friend got billed like 3 times in the past month and im sure he cant do anything to get the money back except to call the cc company and tell them the situation (they should be understanding) but should ppl block winfire from charging their cc because if they started billing me a couple of times and i cant reach any customer service to work it out at winfire im basically screwed, unless i do the above but is blockin winfire necessary? that's the question |
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Anon | reply to Anon
Will our connections be suddenly disconnected? Yup! My line just went totally dark. Can't even get the hated "portal". |
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| reply to WinFIRED employee
Re: ***** It's Official****Winfire Out o' the Biz!!!!! I totally agree with what you said;
"So, all of you that signed up with Winfire, I apologize to you for putting up with the far from stable network, the modem shipment problems, the bullshit excuses, the long wait on the phones etc, etc, etc ad infinitum. Believe it or not, there was a large group of us people at Winfire that the rest of the corporate goons thought was full of crap, they never believed us when we tried to give them information on what was going on from the end users standpoint. We really tried to help our users, because we all at one point were on your end...getting dicked around by some faceless corporation."
I worked tech support for Winfire through a contractor which will remain nameless and that is exactly what we had to put up with. No one told us anything or either fed us a bunch of lies to give to the Customers. I saw some of our best agents let go for attempting to stand up and fight on the Customers behalf. I was happy when finally droped Winfire but I still felt sorry for the customers who were going to continue to be dicked. Us here at Tech Support did the best with what we had to work with and the false promises given to us from above. The only thing that mattered to Corp. was not how many Customers were working but how many more they could get with there misleading offers and word games. To the former employees who put up with the Shit....Take care. |
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| reply to Anon
Re: Will our connections be suddenly disconnected? i can say that i was one of the "few" customers which I would say was relatively pleased with winfire... that's right folks, I was happy with my service.. I paid $21.95 for AOHELL and got crappy service with lots of busy signals, and for $20 with winfire I got 388/110 !!! now that's hella good in my eyes.. Being the internet freak I am I can no longer live without dsl so if it is a necessity I may (if absolutely necessary) pay for the full priced dsl.. Winfire really did try to give some good service, and besideds port blocking it was great! Downloads were 150 k/s for me with a program called download accelerator pro, almost all the customer support guys I talked to were really cool as well.. I like to be nice to customer service and not be a prick becaues they were doing us a favor by giving us free/cheap dsl! I currently am still online with freedsl and will be savoring every minute of it.. hopefully i'll be able to keep the service at the same price.. (my mom is only willing to pay $20 so i'd have to take a job to pay the rest ).. ok enough of my ranting now.. |
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