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

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Eventually, I had a gentleman tell me that our lines were outdated and our equipment here was not capable of handling the demand in our county and that there wasn't going to be a solution anytime soon.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.