Windstream Communications
Reviews and Complaints

Windstream advertises internet services in our rural subdivision. We requested service - telling them I had to drive 6 hours as they said someone would have to be present, their customer service reps assuring me it would be no issue. So I took off work and made the drive. When they showed up the techs told me they didn't have capacity to hook us up and new lines would have to be pulled.

Four months later they tell me the construction cost is too expensive and I would have to cover any overages (couldn't give me the amount). Mind you this is a subdivision so then I asked if I pay for the overages do I get any revenue when others sign on using the capacity I paid for. Nope.

Sorry company, sorry processes, sorry communication.

I pay my bill every month on time. My neighbor decided to switch to windstream and while they were hooking them up they unhooked my internet and home phone. I immedatley called them and they said they couldn't fix it for 9+ days. I get it that they are busy but this was their fault not mine. I then called to talk to a supervisor which said my account would be credited and they could get someone out a bit early. Which is today. I called to find out what time frame they would be here and when I called they said they can't come for another 3 more days. This is ridiculous as this wasn't my fault it was their workers and I have a handicapped daughter at home that relys on the home phone for her services.

I called and paid my bill today. I told them I only wanted to pay the bill that was past due and I would pay the new bill when due. When I was done they had took more than what I had told them. I told them $92 and they took $180 from me. I called and told them and they said they would refund my money back to my account and I could pay my bill over. They never cancelled my payment or sent the money back to my account.

We are trying to change phone providers for both of our business phone numbers. I have contacted both a new phone provider (Nextiva) and Windstream (our current provider). I have filled out the LOA forms that Nextiva provided to us to have sent to Windstream. We have sent the LOA forms to Windstream several times, making changes where they say are necessary. Windstream will not port out our two business numbers. I have received emails both from Windstream and the Nextiva saying all looks good to have numbers ported, and then Windstream rejects the process every time.
Windstream support is at [protected]
Nextiva support is at [protected]
We have two business numbers that we want ported out. They each have their own account number with Windstream and apparently this was the problem. I have spoken to Ann at Nextiva who assured me she took care of what needed to be done to get the numbers ported.
I got an email on 6/24 from Ivin Bustillo from Windstream that states: "Everything is good for the numbers to be ported out."
Then when checking with Nextiva this morning, 6/25, once again they are telling me it was rejected by Windstream. We have been back and forth like this for 2 and 1/2 months.
Windstream accounts:
[protected] Waterproofing, Inc. acct# [protected]
[protected] Home Improvement Experts acct# [protected]

I have been trying for almost 30 days now. I have called numerous times and talked with numerous departments but have been unable to get my number ported. Everyone has been very nice but unable (or perhaps unwilling) to assist me in this endeavor until today. I did have a conversation with someone in the cancellation department who took the time to call the Windstream Port (or maybe the Escalation) department in an attempt to help me.

I am currently on hold with PureTalkUSA trying to get this issue resolved. I am keeping one line and high speed internet with your company and have had service with you for almost 22 years. I would think that your customer service would be better than this.

Lightning got my phone line Monday morning. No phone line. Internet Modem burnt up. Thursday this smart [censored] mouth technician shows up and proceeded to tell me he has checked everything outside and I have a wiring problem in my house and need to get an electrician to run new wire. I told him I don't think so. He said well I am sorry but that is not our job. I ask him into the house to check the wires from inside to outside. He was still mouthing off but came in. He put his tester on the lines and went back outside. He had already looked at the junction box outside where there are 4 surge suppressors that belong to them. His young trainee that was with him found one of them blown. He replaced it and viola my phone worked. He replaced my DSL modem and I was back in business.
Daingerfield, Texas [protected]
Had a problem with my internet in July of 2020 and had the same problem with this same tech. Took them 5 different tech. and 7 days to fix my service

Called 3/25 with internet problems (dropping services hourly, having to unplug, replug, reboot hourly). Given appt for 3/30. Stayed home all day missing work (-$150) to be told they were rescheduling for 4/1. Stayed home all day today loosing more money. Finally told would be here between 1-3, then 4:12 then 4:26 and lastly 5:46. 6:40 now. Told via phone that no jobs started after 4:30?
I cannot send files to clients. I cannot complete work online. I cannot miss another day of work. I cannot get a commitment from Windstream to repair my internet.
What do i do?

Our business service was decomissioned on Feb 25 with no warning. Windstream says they contacted us via letter (not received), email (to an email that would have bounced back), and via 5 phone calls where they left messages (to 3 numbers we've not heard of and our own phone number with an incorrect area code). We immediately began the process of setting up service with a new provider. By March 1st we were then disconnected.
We've been trying now for 25 days to get our numbers ported. Communication is difficult as they are now owned by an Indian company. I'm hoping we've finally made headway but I am not overly optimistic. We've had this business phone # for 40 years and would very much like to keep it.
Oddly, when I called to get the credit we are due (we paid for service through March 7th) I was told we would need to be disconnected first. So, we are still connected for the sake of a refund but not connected for porting. Something seems fishy!

Services have been down for over a month, My wife called today to get some information on repairs and was treated terribly.
When she called to ask about repairs, she was hounded over the bill and payment and the [censored] from Windstream would not even address the fact that she has been a month without service, so why would she have any reason to give a crap about the bill.
she lives in an area where cell phones do not get service and she has to drive 11 miles just to get service on her cell phone to call Windstream, and then is treated like crap. This service needs to be fixed right now, come Monday morning I am going to the courthouse to press charges over this unprofessional company.

[protected]@gmail.com

1/12/2021 - 386-684-3523 - Phone service keeps going out or keep getting bad static in line. They have been out 3 times since October 2020. The solution is run another line but just through it on top of the ground. It has been torn out twice since then. Still have not buried line. Neighbor had a problem last week and their line was buried the next day. Mine still laying on the grass. I have been dealing with this bad service for 15 yrs.

I am a senior citizen that has been with windstream for 20 years or more. Since my health insurance has gone up I need to cut corners in order to have health coverage. I called today to cancel phone but keep internet. You are having a special for 12 months which the young lady told me I did not qualify for since I am an existing customer. What a horrible, horrible shame Windstream does not appreciate a loyal customer or give seniors discounts. I know this complaint will not go anywhere but I feel as a loyal customer I am entitled to express my opinion. Guess I will have to start searching for a new internet provider. By the way, the young lady on the phone was extremely courteous.
Jeanette Brzoska
Account number [protected]
[protected]

Again we have no phone service. I called on 9/30. Phone was not working late on 9/29 but wanted to wait overnight to call. I was doing the automated system (of course - no people contact), and was told it would be resolved on 10/2. It was not. I called today on 10/3 and was told - after being disconnected twice - that it was "not possible to complete the job as they ran out of time", so 10/8 is the earliest. What a joke! I will be cancelling my service once I get all the associated personal services switched from this phone number. I will NOT put up with lousy service and lousy customer service any more. Half the time, you can't even understand the techs on the line - they are outsourced and I refuse to give money to a business that doesn't have the decency to use US personnel.

I am a nurse working from home. I had issues last month. Every time I have an issue they tell me repairman is coming which they don't . Then I see I'm back online. I demanded a new modem which was sent to me. Still no repairman. Monday August 31 I have no internet all day due to outage in my area. It came back on after my shift ended. I am using hard earned PTO time every time I have no internet. Then Friday September 4th it goes out again. This time I'm told my IP address is "lost" whatever that means. I get a text on Saturday September 5th I'll have a repairman will be at my house by Thursday the 10th. I have to be working by Tuesday the 8th at 8 am. I am getting unexcused abscences for every occurrence. This is unacceptable. We have been w Windstream for years. If I lose my job over this it won't be good for Windstream.

Your service is horrible. We have had problems with your service for over a year. After several modem changes that did no good it was discovered that the line into the house was damaged. This was discovered independent of your company. Our upload and download speed is still borderline. The last person who attempted to fix things left and we immediately there after lost our land line. Your on line employee who I communicated with told me there was an outage in the area. THERE WAS NONE. We continue to have no land line. I must say your employee who I talked with was sympathetic and somebody is to be coming over approximately one week after your employee damaged our land line. We have replaced modem several times at your recommendation and now have to turn modem on and off daily to get signal. I can not describe how horribly your company has served us. Unless these problem are fixed promptly I plan to use social media to alert prospective customers of the problems we have experienced. It is obvious your company does not care about the problems we have had and continue to have. I am sure I will not receive any reply that would be helpful. Your company probably knows your service is the only readily available one in the area and as a result it is obvious you do not care.
Robert A Brown
452 Deans Drive
Dawsonville GA
[protected]
PS I would give my land line phone number for you to call but because of you it does not work. If I receive another officious answer I would not be surprised. As well a service rep refused to send a repairmen out to us and hung up on my wife. Our internet is so poor our tv and Alexa cannot even hold a signal.

When our internet goes out there is no urgency to fix the issue. We are at a time when people are working from home and students digital learning

Our internet went out April 24th and I notified them as soon as it happened. The earliest someone could come repair the issue was April 30th. This impacted work and school. I had to call several times for the service date to be moved to April 28th

Internet went out Sunday July 26th. I called as soon as it happened and I was told someone would be out on August 1st. I called several times and got the date to be moved earlier and the best was July 29th. This impacted my work.

Internet went out August the 6th, called as soon as it happened and was told the earliest someone could come is a week later in August 13th. This is impacting my work and kids school.

The internet speed and bandwidth is very poor, the extreme decline started after the April 25 outage. I have asked for support and I have been told there is nothing that can be done

When our internet goes out and I call it takes too long for someone to address, this impacts my work and my kids school. How am I supposed to pay my bills if internet is going down? How are my kids supposed to do digital learning when the internet is down?
When we used our data from our phones we went over our data plan which I was charged over $400 in April and in July.
The anxiety of not having the internet for work cannot get a price tag.

My internet either does not exist or it is slow.
This morning I tested my speed...1.5 Mpbs upload and 0.5 Mpbs download.
Pathetic! I have wasted so much time of my life dealing with Windstream. Their customer service is horrible. Techs don't show up when I take off work. Not even a courtesy call! And this after hooking up the newest router last night. This company is a complete ripoff and I'm not surprised they are in bankruptcy. Sure could use another option!

Since May 30th we have had 2 issues with our internet reliability. Both times when we have called customer support we have been told it will be at least 2 weeks until someone can come out to help us. Both times I have reached out to the Escalation Department to get the issue escalated. This past time the internet went out on 7/6 and would go on and off. Contacted Windstream on 7/7 and was told 2 weeks until it would be addressed. Contacted Escalation Department and then was told it would be 7/9. On 7/8 a tech shows up only to tell me the issue is with the lunar site and he cannot fix it. Said the ticket would have to be turned into another department to get fixed. Said that would take a day or 2. That night the service went out completely. Up until that point we at least had intermittent service with slow speeds. Escalation department then tells me the repairs are "estimated" to be done in 7/9. THEY WERE NOT! Contacted support chat on 7/10 and was told that the issue would be addressed in the order the escalation was received and that there was an issue in the area affecting dozens of people and as soon as they had the manpower to address the issue they would. On 7/10, 2 Windstream trucks were present in the neighborhood at 9:15 and were gone by 9:20. No Windstream activity since. Going on 2 full days without service and keep getting the runaround form everyone. I work from home and my son is on an Esports scholarship and is required to be able to get online to practice with his teammates while home for the summer. Terrible!

On July 7, a brief thunderstorm rolled through and my DSL internet went down, which has never happened before. I had multiple visitors working from home due to Covid-19. I immediately called customer service and was told a technician would be dispatched to my home, which they said would be no later than Friday, July 10th, but almost certainly earlier than that. My visitors all had to try to find alternative sources for internet access. I called customer service again a day later and was told my ticket had been "escalated" and that someone should be able to arrive Weds or Thurs, which didn't happen. Today, Friday, July 10, I called again to check on the status of a visit and was told a technician is scheduled for 3:55-5:55 today, which I'm not confident about because nobody called me to tell me that. I only got that time schedule after three calls. I was also told that they do no triage of service calls; the customer who just has slow service is treated with the same priority as a customer with no service. When I asked if there was a manager I could speak to, or if there was somewhere I could lodge a formal complaint, I was told "no." This situation left three people trying to do their jobs from home scrambling for alternatives, and Windstream's response was to give me a leisurely tech visit in 4 days (hopefully, as I still haven't gotten it). This all seems like terrible customer service to me.

We brought a lake house in Leitchfield we was trying to get service at the place so we found out Windstream is the only one that do service there so I call a week after we got the place in May and we still haven't got service or do anyone call you back horrible customer service they rude don't return calls and pass you from person to person now here it is almost July still no service can't talk to them they lie the whole time you on the phone now am going to the BBB and see if they can get some understanding

On Monday June 22 a tech installed internet at my neighbors house. At the same time they disconnected all of my services. I have no land line and no internet. I live where cell service is spotty at best therefore I rely on my land line for communicating and emergencies. When I called Monday night and submitted a repair ticket for something their tech did - I was told it would be five days before they could get to my repair. I have called three times since then to get the ticket escalated and still no answers. If I had any choice in carriers I would never recommend or choose Windstream.