Windstream, Your Techs Are Bad and You Should Feel Bad

It’s Friday, the day after Independence day here in the States.  We received an emergency email from a client who is unable to utilize their point of sale system for processing credit cards.  All was working properly, until Windstream introduced a new piece of hardware.  Where our client once had a modem, they now have an all-in-one gateway.

When accessing systems directly via UNC path, the systems are taking over a minute to respond.  Applications that communicate with the Internet, are failing to connect.  Connections are timing-out.

Oh, Windstream also enabled WiFi for the store – how nice of them!

When we called the tech who performed this installation, we were quite surprised to hear the response of, “Man, we do this all the time!”  Instead of, “Oh, well, yeah, I see how after I added a new Layer 3 device, the network is probably going bonkers now.”  No accountability.  When I mentioned the other router, his response was, “How was I supposed to know?”  Because it was right there in front of you.

This isn’t just an innocent mistake or little slip-up.  Mistakes happen, settings can be overlooked, etc.  This wasn’t the case.  The, “we do this all the time” response and lack of understanding how their change could cause issues, make that clear.

This tech didn’t like being called by some out-of-towner giving him an earful on a Friday.  Windstream techs and field techs out there, please, just show an ounce of pride in your work.  It’s businesses like our client, whose systems go down on a holiday weekend while you just get to “close another ticket.”

The scariest part is thinking about how many service providers out there just implement default installations, because “we do this all the time!”