WINDSTREAM COMMUNICATIONS NUANCE TERRIBLE SERVICE AND PREDATORY TACTICS Little Rock Arkansas

BEWARE OF SIGNING A CONTRACT WITH WINDSTREAM COMMUNICATIONS!!!

 I was sold on changing my business phone service from Verizon to Windstream though someone I thought to be a Windstream employee and he turned out to be a broker of some type.  His name showed up on my address on every piece of correspondence.  Supposedly better features and service for half the money.  Once I had the service, I had lots of issues.  It was VOIP and had numerous dropped calls for the entire office at once and the internet service was often down.  I soon tired of the bad service and called to change back to Verizon.  I was told "NO WAY", that I had signed a 3 year contract.  So I stuck it out, my bills kept increasing and I was paying much or more for Windstream as I had previously paid Verizon when my 3 years were up.  I called Windstream to ask if I could deal directly with them and no broker as I was going to switch carriers unless they could substantially lower my rate.  They would not talk to me about that, I then told them I was going to switch and they transferred me to their department that handled this and I was on hold for more than 15 mins and no one picked up.  I called back later and again was put on hold.  I called the next day and again never got to talk to a person.  I called Verizon and found their rate now half of what I was paying Windsteam and told them to switch me back to them. They said they would take care of contacting Windstream for me to make the switch.  My service with Verizon has been flawless since.  However, a month after I started service with Verizon I also got a bill from Windstream even though I had no service through them.  I wrote on the bill the date we had switched service and told them to check their records that they were billing me in error.  I heard nothing back, the following month I got a bill for 2 months of service even though I was already paying Verizon and again wrote on the bill mailed it and heard nothing back.  And then a month later I received a 3 month bill with a late notice.  The bill now exceeded $1500.

I called Windstream and got the run around, they said I was supposed to give them notice in writing.  I told them I had repeatedly phoned and got transferred to an extension that no one answered and never was able to talk to someone that was in the cancellation department.  I got the run around, put on hold and finally someone picked up.  I explained the issue and they said they would turn over to their dispute department.  I later got an e mail from someone in this department telling me they would waive the data fees of about $400 but that I still owed the balance of 3 months phone charges even though all of my calls had gone through Verizon who I was paying.

i see this seems to be a common occurance at Windsteam.  I am filing a complaint with the FCC, anyone else with the same issues might want to do the same.  You can do it online through the FCC website.

My business has had telephone service with several carriers over the past 25 years, and Windstream by far was my worst experience!!!!!