I've been battling with my ISP for over 6 months now regarding a latency issue in my area. I had previously written up a super long detailed post regarding my current situation. My Internet serivce was uncooperative(how ironic), so now I am going to condense it for you guys.
The name of the company is Windstream Communications. The Internet service is DSL, and I pay for 3.0 mbps $60.00\mo, I definitely don't receive anywhere close to that. I'll start from the beginning here, brace yourselves.
The DSL service performed as advertised at 3.0mbps for a year solid. Since then, it has been the most abysmal service I've ever had, and with no other alternatives in the area. Right now, I get on a good day 0.24\mbps. It really gets no better than that. The reason this is concerning to me is because the company falsely claimed that I am guaranteed half the speed that I pay, and they also falsely claimed that it would be my own dedicated connection and that I wouldn't have to worry about sharing a connection with other people in the area, such as a cable user would. Which, working for a different Internet company in the past I immediately knew it was garbage, and untrue for the most part.
Over 6 months ago I noticed the Internet going incredibly slow, we had a technician come out. He claimed there was no problem and that everything was fine. I stepped in, told him that's wrong and that I could guarantee that they over sold and over utilized the DSLAM. He goes down there, checks everything out comes back and tells me I'm right and that they would fix the issue. I called customer support to verify that he submitted a work order for my area, and they give me an estimated date to fix the issue several months away Decemember 31st, 2012. That day has obviously come and go with no resolution to my problem. They then pushed the date back further in January, then to June 2013, and now the inevitable no timeline on when the issue will be resolved. In other words, "You have to deal it". I think that's unacceptable, and I think it's unethical. I'm basically paying $60.00 a month for dial up, and in most cases less than dial up capable speeds. I've continuously called and pestered them about the issue. They give me the most asinine reasons as to why it's not fixed such as "The technicians don't have the equipment to fix the issue", How can a company not have the equipment to fix their own equipment, sounds like a corporate issue? So I called corporate, no dice. I get excuses such as "they're working on it" "They're installing fiber in your area(they're not actually), and it's not "cost effective for us to fix it right now" WELL, it's not cost effective for ME to pay $60.00\mo for dial up Internet service. But they know there is no other alternative in the area, so basically I have to take it. I've done research regarding the company and this is their apparent mo. Their buisness model seems to be to oversell and overutilized the DSLAM and then offer no resolution based on cost. DSLreports.com has reviews of this company doing the same thign to nearly 285 others who have reviewed the company. The details are exactly the same for the others, right down to a T, same excuses, same problems, etc and no resolution.
I intend on contacting the Better Business Bureau, The depatment of consumer affiars, and taking them to small claims court.
Has anyone else sued their ISP, did anyone have any luck with doing so?
Check out my super fast $60.00\monhtly Internet service. No, you're not reading that wrong. I should be hearing fax machine noises when connecting to the Internet, but I don't amazingly.
Check out their reviews on DSL reports.comhttp://www.dslreports.com/comments/1596Everyone has the same issues. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention now when I call customer support I am laughed at, mocked( asin they're copying my exact tone of voice, etc), and hung up on routinely.
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