Windstream should make no claims about good or even acceptable customer service. I have reached this opinion based on how Windstream has treated me over the past 8 days.

Contact with Windstream on 7-25-08
I called my local Windstream office to see about telephone and internet service. I gave the lady my information (name, address, cell phone number, etc) She read back the information with the wrong street name. I corrected her saying it was South not West. She told me that someone would call me on 7-28-08 with my new phone number and scheduled installation date and time. As I work via the Internet, I will have to delay working for one week and take a loss of $1000 wages.

7-28-08
I did not receive a phone call from Windstream.

7-29-08
I went into the local Windstream office. The lady couldn't find my information in the computer. Finally she found the handwritten form in a cupboard. She wrote my phone number and installation date (8-1-08) on a blue post-a-note and gave it to me. I asked what time on the 1st would the technician be out. She said "Oh, they will call you before they come out". Then she verified my cell phone number.

8-1-08
Ok I have planned my whole day to be home and available for the Windstream service technician. At 2pm, I call the office wondering if the tech is coming or not. The lady tells me that they work until 7pm and yes the tech will be out. She doesn't verify any information like name, address or contact number.

8pm on 8-1-08
No technician, no phone call from the technician or the Windstream office. I contact the repair department as they are the only ones available. The lady there informs me that I am not in the system and would have to contact the business office on Saturday morning between 8 and 5 EST.

8:15am EST 8-2-08
I call the phone number I was given by the repair representative and get a recording that tells me I need to call back during business hours. So I call repair again. The lady there tells me I have to wait until 8am my time (MT) to reach the business office. So I go to Windstream.com. There it says that the business office is open from 8:30 to 5 Eastern. By now it is 8:40 Eastern. So I call the business office number again. I still get the recording that I need to call back during business hours.

So I call repair again. I ask to speak with a supervisor. I explain to the supervisor that I am very upset and I really need to contact the business office. She places me on hold while she gets someone from the business office on the line. The person from business finally finds my installation information. He is upset with me because I don't have the work order number. I was never given a work order number.

Finally he finds my information and tells me that I gave them the wrong address so my installation was placed on hold until I contacted them. He informed me that it was my fault that the tech was sent to West instead of South and that I would just have to wait until the next available time for installed. I asked him why the technician had not called me when there was a problem; he said "We don't do that. We wait for the customer to call us when we don't show up."

I went to where I had Internet access to look up the corporate information for Windstream. I find 501-748-7000 is the main office number. I call it and as I expected, got a recording. The male voice said to leave a message and someone would return my call during the next business day. Then a female voice says "This number does not accept messages".

So the poor communication and customer service starts right at Windstream corp headquarters.

So here I sit waiting until 8-8-08 sometime between 8 am and noon to maybe, possibly, have a technician appear to install my phone/internet service. I wonder if Windstream will reimburse me for the second week of lost wages or even apologize to me for the physical and emotional stress their poor customer service has caused me.

Windstream has to be the worst communications company that I have ever seen! I should know because I've been working in this industry for 22 years. The service is always your fault even though I know that is not true. I know for a fact that in todays communication world they would rather hire people that have no clue than to hire someone that has the experience and knowledge to actually fix the problem.People need to understand that the customer does'nt matter as much as the bottom line.Why should they care?What can you do but to sit on hold for 3 to 4 hours because your time isn't important and you don't have a choice between companies, you have to take their crap or do without.

Windstream has the worst customer service I have ever seen. I wanted to give them business at my home for phone, internet and TV and after 1.5 months I am still waiting for service. They hooked up my phone and left the line lying in my back yard for 4 weeks before finally coming to cover yesterday. After covering the phone no longer works and I have to wait another week to get someone to fix which I am sure I will have to pay for service during this time. Also nobody can tell me when they can hook up my internet, I have spoken to 8 different customer service associates and 1 manager and they all give me the same B.S. response. Don't waste your time ever calling their customer service and if possible use any other company besides them. I am in the process of hooking up with another local company and will never recommend using Windstream to anyone!!

Windstream bought our local phone company, Kerrville Telephone with the blessings of our city fathers who knew this was already a near monopoly. They have raped and pillaged the service to their customers, laid off everyone who had a decent salary and they handle everything outside of the local office. It is useless to walk in there unless you are bringing them money to pay a bill. Their email service is absolutely horrendous with very strict limits on file sizes and they would rather send 100 "you are over limit" notices that let you have your email. I HATE THIS CORPORATION.

In the beginning, I had Alltel telephone service for appx. $28.00/mo. They sold out to Windstream. At first, no problems, and I continued to have the same phone service for the same plan and price. I also had Dish Network, for appx. $36.00/mo.
I had a dial-up internet service for $9.95/mo. Then, I decided to go with the Windstream Bundle Package, since I was already using both Windstream and Dish, and wanted a faster internet service. The Bundle package included three services, 1. unlimited local & long distance calling, 2. Dish Network Satellite, and 3. DSL internet service.

They said that the monthly bill would be appx. $92.00 each month. They also said that the modem for the DSL I would be getting would be around $60.00, and that there were 2 rebate forms I could fill out, which would save over $100.00 on the total cost of switching plans, which was only supposed to be around $160.00. So I made the switch, and it wasn't long until I got a bill in the mail for over $500.00! I called Windstream and questioned them about the bill being so high, and asked them where were the rebate forms they were supposed to be sending me in the mail to fill out and return? They said they knew nothing about the rebate forms, and the >$500.00 had to be paid immediately or they would interrupt my service!
After much talking, they agreed to split the total amount into 3 payments, but only if I would let them pull all 3 payments out of my checking account on each day I got paid for the next 3 paydays, which they did, the last one being 2 weeks ago today. (They also charged $5.00 each time they did this as a service charge.)

I asked them during the conversation, how much would my monthly bill be after all of that was paid in full, and they said it would be appx. $140.00! Remember, they had quoted the monthly price at $92.00! I was getting pretty aggravated by this time, and threatened to have them disconnect it all, at which time they said they would remove the long distance plan from my phone, and that would bring it down appx. $40.00, making the monthly payments then around $92.00/mo., which was what it was supposed to be in the first place (but it was supposed to be that amount WITH long distance service).
I've asked them a total of 3 times for the rebate forms they promised to mail me, and have not gotten them yet. It's been so long now, I don't expect to be getting any.

The DSL service is no faster the the cheap dial-up I was paying less than $10.00/mo. for. Today, I received another bill in the mail for over $300.00 (for what!?!), which led me to look up this site and write this complaint, in hopes that it will help someone else to be smart and use other companies besides Windstream and Dish if they have a choice. If I wasn't worried about it showing up on my Credit Report, I wouldn't even pay these people, and would have discarded their services at the time I got the first bill for over $500.00.