Windstream Communications - DANGEROUS SUPPLIER hurts small business in Nashville Tennessee

Windstream Communications served two of my companies in Nashville for the last three years.  I discovered they simply ripped off my hobby company.  When our "contract" came due for renewal, we thought this was an opportunity for them to "make good" and we were willing to extend.  We were in good faith discussions for several months - looking to reduce our costs, but nothing happened.  They never addressed our complaint.  They just kept sending bills.

The issue: they told us we had roll over privileges, meanning that we paid a flat monthly fee, but due to seasonal demand changes, we could use those paid minutes in our peak season.  This turned out to not be true.  Windstream charged me for over 40,000 minutes we never used over the life of the agreement (that I could verify).  The minutes were not particularly cheap, so that I might not care...they were, however, paid for... but Windstream simply expired them after 90 days without telling us.  You have to be a genius to catch them at this.  They steal your minutes.

Windstream would not reduce our service level unless we signed another, multiple year extension.  This went on, and on.  We simply want to reduce our costs to reflect our needs.  They would not change.  We gave them notice.  We found a competitor that cut our costs dramatically.  We followed every single step in their silly and onerous process for notice of termination.  We paid all of our bills.  Exiting this contract (which was month to month by this time) is nearly impossible.  Even after change over to the competition, they sent us invoices, month after month, for services we do not use, and we have to invest more time to set them straight, month after month.  We got another bill this month.  

I told them I would keep my second company on their service if they made good for the overcharges in my wholly owned first company.  They did not.  Separate companies, is their reasoning.  Same owner, is mine.  Nobody in the organization can make a decision.  They can sell.  Unfortunately, they can't actually DO anything to service you when problems arise.

Their service as a telecommunication company was "acceptable" but not great.  Their cost structure was good, but not great. If they would not have been guilty of simply stealing time we paid for, I certainly would have found other things to do with my time and resources, other than cancel their service, and write consumer warnings like this. 

Because nobody could address any issues, I directed management in my second company to terminate services at the expire date of our contract.  We pay all our bills.  We sent them notice.  They fumbled here again, and everyone at Windstream knew exactly what and why we were terminating.    

Do not start doing business with Windstream. It is nearly impossible to get decisions and management attention or action out of anyone working there.  They give you the run around.  We moved over to a competitor and we saved a great deal of money.  

If you are already doing business with Windstream, I encourage you to start to study and comply with a time consuming difficult process of exiting their service agreement, well in advance of any reasonable notice period you might expecct.

Unfortunately, actually quitting Windstream is nearly as big a pain in the butt as doing business with Windstream.  

Obviously, that's their objecive.