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Edmonson County's Number One Source For Local News and Information

Letter To Editor Prompts Action: Edmonson Voice Challenges Windstream To Act

1/10/2018

21 Comments

 
Darren Doyle, Editor:
The Edmonson Voice published a Letter to the Editor on Monday, January 8, 2018 from Kelly Witt, a resident of Crump Road in Rocky Hill. It resulted in dozens of our readers commenting on the article itself as well as our social media pages. The letter basically called out Windstream for their poor service and products with no end in sight as county residents are forced to pay the same rates as other areas. 

In the past, we here at the Voice have spoken against Windstream publicly for their lack of concern for the services they provide in our county and Windstream has never made a single attempt to rectify any of our concerns, and to our knowledge, the same holds true for other residents, minus a few temporary fixes here and there.

Someone named Phillip McAbee, who listed his title as Windstream President of KY Operations, left a comment on the published letter and said he wanted to find solutions to these problems and left his email address. Below is a copy of the email our editor sent him yesterday, to challenge him to make good on his word.
Mr. McAbee,

Thank you for leaving your email address in the comment you left on our published Letter to the Editor. My name is Darren Doyle and I'm the owner and editor of this publication. I appreciate the fact that you're willing to communicate with unhappy Windstream customers, but I don't think you understand the full severity of Edmonson County's personal thoughts about Windstream.

I left Windstream over two years ago and it's been wonderful. While a Windstream customer, we dealt with multiple weekly outages, constant router resetting, service tech after another, and the best anything ever got was a bandaid. One particular day in 2014, as I was trying to send an email and the internet was down, I called customer service and was determined to get some answers. I was prepared to wait on hold all day, or keep asking my call to be transferred to someone that could answer my questions. After four or five reps (I assume I was moving up the ladder) I gave Windstream an ultimatum of either giving me answers right then and there or they could simply cancel all of my services. I was actually willing to go without service instead of paying you for yours.

Eventually, I had a gentleman tell me that our lines were outdated and our equipment here was not capable of handling the demand in our county and that there wasn't going to be a solution anytime soon. He said our population was too small for a major investment of upgrades at that time. I was offered a $10/mo credit from then on until better quality was available. I accepted long enough until I was able to get cable. I understood his answers and I appreciated them. What I didn't appreciate, and still don't today, is the fact that you don't charge accordingly. Customers here are being charged the same as the larger towns and cities. We might be small, but our money is just as green as that that's in downtown New York City.

Here's where Windstream has failed our entire county: You know you have a monopoly on so much of our area...there are simply no other options. You CANNOT provide quality service and products to our residents, yet you continue to charge the same overpriced amounts, month after month. You are taking advantage of a small populated county simply because you can.

I have publicly spoken out numerous times against Windstream on this network, with our elected officials, and in front of our county government's fiscal court. I don't know if they choose not to do anything about it or if they actually can't, but you should be ashamed of yourself. If you actually cared anything about our company, you would be here right now, either trying to find solutions for service in our area, communicating with your customers here, or offering some sort of credit to the accounts that have trouble, which I'd say are 100% of the customers in Edmonson County.

I'm going to publish this letter for our readers to see if you actually will do something about this. It's very simple, if you care, you WILL do something that makes a difference. If no difference is made, you simply don't care.

Sincerely,
Darren Doyle
Editor/Publisher
Office: 270-597-6550
EdmonsonVoice.com
We received a reply from Mr. McAbee early this morning. Below is his response.
Good morning.   I really want to help and is why I've been reaching out,  I've had several individuals send me their information yesterday.   I'm excited to get the chance to try to find a resolution to their specific issue.   

I hate that you had a bad experience w years ago.  I wish I would have been working in KY then.  Maybe I could have helped then?  A lot has changed in our technology and network since then.   Maybe you and I could talk live about your examples so that I have a clear grasp?  Believe me, I want to help.  

Phillip McAbee
President KY Operations
130 West New Circle Rd
Lexington KY 40505
Mr. McAbee also left us two telephone numbers and we plan on following up with him about this situation. 

We are urging ALL EDMONSON COUNTY WINDSTREAM CUSTOMERS EXPERIENCING ISSUES to contact him at the email address he provided to us, phillip.mcabee@windstream.com, and share your concerns with him directly.

​Edmonson County is about to find out exactly what is important to Windstream. Let's hope it's the people of Edmonson County.
*As is the case with all published articles on EdmonsonVoice.com, comments without a first and last name and an email address are not published. All comments are subject for review and must adhere to the Edmonson Voice commenting policy which is posted on this site.
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21 Comments
Rebecca Jones
1/10/2018 10:53:38 am

I sent him an email. Hope we get some help.

Reply
Tim Skees
1/10/2018 04:21:05 pm

Thank You Darren and EV !!
Glad someone finally took a stand !!
#windstreamstinks

Reply
raymond hedges
1/11/2018 02:29:04 pm

this is crazy they won't even add my post I put it on yesterday???

Reply
Pat Blair
1/10/2018 11:12:48 am

I would sign my name on the bottom of your letter. The reply you for is no more than expected from Windstream. I could devote my whole life to trying to get decent internet from them. It took me several months and an FCC complaint to get someone to fix mine. It was a temporary fix and its horrible again already. I dont have the rime or energy to fight with them anymore. That is exactly what they count on i think. Good luck!

Reply
Kelly Witt
1/10/2018 02:00:40 pm

I received a phone call from Windstream Customer Care today. I spoke to the lady and explained everything that I wrote about. I asked her why can’t we have fiber wires like the ones in town have. If Copper-fed is the problem, then change us over to fiber. Yes, it’s that simple. Its 2018 folks, I’m surprised we don’t have dial up still, although it sometimes feels that way still. The CS rep said she is going to get back to me (we’ll see) after she does some digging. This customer does not want excuses. I want solid fixes and working internet.

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Tyler F Johnson
1/10/2018 03:49:49 pm

I sent an email to Mr McAbee from my phone because my internet was down. I don’t expect a response since he likely never received my email cause he probably uses Windstream.

Reply
Phillip McAbee
1/25/2018 12:12:54 pm

Mr. Johnson, I have not received an email from you. I have received one from a Barbara Johnson. Not sure if that's the same account or not. My email is Phillip.McAbee@windstream.com if you would like to resend. I will be more than happy to investigate and respond.

Thank you
Phillip McAbee

Reply
carol moore link
1/10/2018 03:54:03 pm

bill keeps going up with no changes started out at 5 0some dollars a month and gone to 8000 dollars when I call them they say a new sir charge very slow an poor service they are offering new people better packages than their old customers people that live on fixed income can not keep taking these raises every year

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sharyn lawler
1/12/2018 02:17:20 pm

I have the same problem, It starts out as one payment, and then the prices keep going up, with no changes. The internet is slow, and alot of times it goes out. Prices need to be cheaper for the servcies we get!!

Reply
Jessica Cheatham
1/10/2018 07:54:53 pm

This isn't just an Edmonson issue, but a statewide issue. I live in Taylor County. I pay almost 100 dollars a month for 4mbps....on days that it works. When I lived in town, I had Comcast and paid 30 dollars for 25 mbps. Windstream is taking advantage of Kentucky residents, and something needs to be done!

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Alan Kepple
1/10/2018 11:24:49 pm

I'm so glad I switched to Bluegrass cellular's wireless service a few years ago! I couldn't take any more. At the time we lived a few hundred feet from the Warren County line and the internet/phone(we had things called "home phones" back then) service through Windstream was awful! I called to cancel and they continued to bill me, after trying to contest it I had to pay $120... AFTER I called to cancel my service. Horrible service and horrible customer service. Bluegrass has been amazing, zero problems. Good luck and best wishes on this matter to everyone!

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Kara Dearing
1/11/2018 12:25:01 pm

Thank you to the people responsible for making this a widespread issue!!!!! windstream is a terrible company, and they treat us like we are a bunch of dumb hicks. the technicians will even tell you how horrible the company is!
I have had great interactions with the technicians, they are very nice, but windstream as a company is terrible! so glad to have seen mr. mcabees contact info, as I too, have sent him a very long and detailed email stating the unhappiness of my family!
thank you all for making this possible!

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raymond hedges
1/11/2018 02:26:51 pm

I also Live in Rocky Hill, Ky I pay for 50 Megs of service I get from 12-30megs of what I pay for everytime I call Customer servive they beat around the bush I can be watching a streaming movie & it keeps Freezing up & rebuffering till I quit watching usually with in 10 mins it has happened 3-5 times then just freeze I Lived in Louisville & Shepherdsville & my service was only 10 megs & never had these Problems! this is a Very Poor Service & we need to contact someone who will fix our service or give back Our money for the Last 2-5 years, I have never had this Problem through a Cable Company!!!

Reply
LR Kennon
1/11/2018 11:29:39 pm

All service providers should have to be held under a contract for service review every five years where they have to show improvements to keep the area or lose the contract and be fined.
Also I don’t understand why WRECC doesn’t get into the internet service business. They got pioles and right of ways. Somebody more knowledgeable please comment on that.
Thanks.

Reply
The Edmonson Voice link
1/13/2018 08:36:28 am

Commenting Policy Reminder: There have been over 50 comments left on this article; unfortunately, most have automatically been deleted from our system due to failure to provide a first and last name and valid email address.

*As is the case with all published articles on EdmonsonVoice.com, comments without a first and last name and an email address are not published. All comments are subject for review and must adhere to the Edmonson Voice commenting policy which is posted on this site.

Reply
Devon Woosley
1/13/2018 09:48:50 am

I would agree that Windstream’s issues are not isolated to Edmonson county, but rather a statewide problem. I am employed by an organization that had at least 10 Windstream connections across multiple counties in central KY, and I can say that all areas seemed to have the same issues. I am an Edmonson county resident, and dropped Windstream about 6 months ago. I was recently trying to resolve some Windstream issues for a family member in a neighboring county, and according to Speedtest they were only receiving 1 Mbps on a good day. Most of the time, it was much less than that when it was working at all. I was also observing severe latency when performing ping testing. I contacted Windstream on their behalf, and they basically told me they were aware of issues in the area. In fact, they admitted to me that the service is so bad in that area that they are no longer offering internet services to new customers. They advised me to switch to Dish if my Windstream services were unacceptable.

I plan on forwarding my correspondence with Windstream (most of which was documented in a chat session) to the KY Public Service Commission for review.

Reply
Phillip McAbee
1/17/2018 06:12:55 am

I'd like to take a minute to thank everyone who has personally emailed me with their concerns, and examples of issues related to their phone/internet services. I have collected the names, along with specific account information needed to investigate the issues. In several cases we've already been able to address and resolve some of the issues.

I'm posting this message as a commitment to each person who reached out to me that I am reviewing your concerns. It's not a quick process to pull all this information together. I want to thank everyone in advance for their patience with me as I continue to work through the list. Everyone will receive a response.

I appreciate the candid feedback, examples & concerns related to Windstream's service. I will continue to follow up with those who were kind enough to give me the opportunity search for resolutions.

Sincerely;

Phillip McAbee
President KY Operations
Windstream Communications.

Reply
Raymond Hedges
1/18/2018 07:33:50 pm

you still have not contacted me & there is a few others who were not contacted

Reply
Phillip McAbee
1/19/2018 10:26:07 am

My apologies for what seems like a slow response. As I stated in my email above, I appreciate everyone's patience as I work though the list one customer at a time. Each customer's account and issue is different. I wish it was as simple as one solution would fix everyone's issue. Each request is getting a case by case review.

Thanks for everyone for your patience as I continue to focus and work on each Account individually.

Phillip McAbee


Raymond Hedges
1/18/2018 07:37:19 pm

you know that is Hog wash it's very easy to take our Money Every month, How about not taking Our Money till you Fix it I bet that would get the Ball Rolling Huh?

Reply
Glenna Black
1/17/2018 02:00:16 pm

I sent in my request for help with some software issues and I received prompt service to get it fixed. The gentleman I spoke with is following up with me tonight. Mr. McAbee is a breath of fresh air from a service perspective and I thank him for stepping up to the plate offering assistance.

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