Windstream

Windstream Communications (
) advertises a (up to) 6MBPS basic speed internet service. Now, as a Military service member, I don’t have a lot of spending money, and 6MBps speed would fill all the needs my family of four has for a lower price than the higher packages. Unfortunately, in October, when I ordered windstream’s basic service I was unaware of that when they said «Up to 6MBps» what they really meant was «avg of 1.5MBps» and sometimes even as low as it is as I write this complaint. According to
by Ookla, with the closest server, my download speed is 0.55MBps, and the upload speed just says, «connecting».
The issue began in November, when my wife noticed a very sharp drop off in speed in the middle of the day. Since we live in Military housing, no one was home in most of the neighborhood, and it certainly wasn’t peak hours. By December, this had become a common problem happening many times a week and the drops in service speed would last hours at a time. The weather, internet congestion, etc… had no obvious affect on it. The speed was ok during a snow storm last week, but then at 4PM on Wednesday with zero precipitation, the speed disappeared.
Over the course of December, we made several phone calls, initially as curiosity, because we were dealing with more pressing issues, such as our autodraft payments not being set up properly (which continued to plague us every month until today when I cancelled service)
They told us in December that they could not figure out why our internet speed was so low, and that they would send a technician out to the area to check on the lines. They also stated in that same phone call that our autodraft was setup for January and that if the technician needed to speak with us or enter our home, he would come by.
The following Thursday, we were taking out the trash for pickup Friday and went inside to get the next bag. In the 30 seconds it took to walk from my front door to the kitchen and back there was a paper hanging on my doorknob saying we weren’t home and the technician thinks the problem is addressed, but would have liked to enter the home. I do not know if this technician is a ninja or is the flash, but had he taken the time to come in, he would have noted that our speed at the time was 1.6MBps. out of the 6MBps that was paid for.
Then I made another phone call on 04JAN2016 because we received a notice of disconnect of service. Looking back, I should have cancelled then and saved myself a lot of trouble, but I wanted to give the company another shot. Windstream communications said that the last phone call never actually signed me up for Autodraft. I told them that I would like to be signed up for autodraft immediately, and paid the «past due» balance. Next on the same phone call, I reminded them of their speed issues and assured them that it wasn’t resolved. They apologized and said there was a problem with «low utilization» on the line, and that they would address it.
It has been three weeks now and nothing has been resolved. I called in again and spoke with a customer service rep. I told him that I have given them three months of time to resolve their issues and that in my mind, their «trial period» to convince me that the issues could be fixed has run out. I told him that since he was providing me with ¹⁄₁₂^th the internet speed advertised, I should only have to pay for ¹⁄₁₂^th of the price. That, not surprisingly, did not fly well, so I cancelled service with windstream communications, today 27JAN2016 at 1645.

This company doesn’t even deserve the whole star. This company is the WORST. You think dealing with Comcast is bad… try being on-​Hold for two hours (no exaggeration) with really annoying music, and finally when someone gets on the line they can’t fix your issue because that is the wrong department. So they transfer you to «the right department/​person», after repeating why are you calling in regards, they tell you once again that that is the wrong department and they transfer your call yet another time… Remain you, you are on-​Hold with horrible music in between transfers… then someone else gets the call and tell you that the account number is under some other «platform» so they’ll be going to transfer you, again… then they just hang up and you have to start all over again…
After three rounds of holding-​transferring-​holding I ended up back on the line with the very first person I spoke to two hours earlier. And guess what… he had to transfer my call…
Today is the third day I attempt to get my issues fix, and as I write this review I am on-​hold…
I first dialed at exactly 8:00 am ET it is now 9:10 am I’ve already spoken with 5 different reps from different departments and no one, no a single one has even attempted to resolve the issue, they just transfer the call…

One of the worst Service Providers I have ever worked with! Unless you are willing to wait a year for your service to be turned up, go somewhere else!