After sharing the post last weekend about my husband receiving a phone call that he was being cut from Windstream after 34 years of dedicated service, I decided to share another post this evening about the days of when Windstream was ALLTEL Communications. ALLTEL's President Joe Ford displayed integrity and a commitment to bring a product to his customers that would rival all the telecommunications industries then and today. Even though ALLTEL had issues as well with layoffs, Joe Ford and Weldon Case had a vision and knew the direction they were going. From the days as an employee's wife, I remember a time when ALLTEL hosted an ALLTEL Family Picnic in Atlanta Georgia's theme park of Six Flags Over Georgia. Employees from Georgia and Alabama came together with their families. Employees were treated with respect from the executives from ALLTEL that day. They mingled with their employee's family members and got to know them. I remember feeling a sense of security and pride that my husband worked for such a class act company. We all felt that the executives cared about their employees and their families. Since the phone call on January 18th, we have enjoyed reading the many posts on this site. Each and every post has helped us feel a little better about the situation. We realize that we are not alone as we read other posts from employees who have faced the same fate. Each day is getting better. This site is definitely a support system. Since January 18th, my husband and I are feeling more at peace about this ordeal. The love and support from the employees in his office continue to make the days a little brighter. My husband says that he feels that Joe Ford would be so disappointed to see his telephone company take such a nose dive in the area of providing customer care and service. The community and families where we live are so angry and upset with Windstream's lack of care and service, that so many of them have filed a class action suit against Windstream for not providing what they promised them and sold them. Many families in our surrounding community have also switched their service over to another provider. Finally, our pray is that this company becomes the company that Joe Ford and Weldon Case envisioned for ALLTEL. Bless you all who are facing a new chapter in your lives as we are facing. May you all experience God's grace and a brighter future in the days ahead.
15 replies (most recent on top)
pepperidge farm remembers
- Remember when.... * yes if you have some years under your belt chances are you worked for a successful Company until Windstream came to town. We are a bunch of red headed step children now. They don’t want to hear how operations used to run like a well oiled machine. They dislike employees with lots of years under their belt. I dare you to do the research and look at how many Companies Windstream bought over the years .... lots of lives were affected. So yes we all remember when.
You do realize Ford built a wireless network, then spun it off with no debt...and I'm sure he got paid out the *ss. What he did should have been criminal. If it wasn't for that move there wouldn't be a Windstream....It would still be Alltel!
I was employee for 30 1/2 yrs wanted to work 2 more yrs.but just could not see the direction we was going.I think Joe Ford had good vision but Tony has no care for his employees and his management team.Sad thing is he is running Windstream in the ground.Look at win and equiti stock gone to nothing.So how can employees invest there hard money in company stock.May god be with the few that are left.
I believe the comparison between the days of ALLTEL vs Windstream relates to how employees were treated. ALLTEL days there was respect and they valued their employees vs Windstream who disrespects their employees, does not appreciate the hard work of their employees....
I heard the WIN stock is the featured item on the McDonalds dollar menu in Little Rock
- stock not sick ^^^
Windstream has more VPs than they do customers. If you read stream, the company is doing great. If you work in a dept that is face to face with the mad customers that didn't ask for that upgrade you know why our sick is cheaper than a double cheeseburger. so sickening!
In a great part of Windstream's footprint there is no competition. ALLTEL did and Windstream does provide service to rural areas that has no competition. The upper level management should get out of the metro areas and go to some of the areas we provide service in. They'd find that in a large portion of the areas there's no dependable cell service regardless of what AT&T,Verizon & other wireless carriers coverage maps may show. The same goes for cable companies. It seems upper management is only focused on the CLEC areas & have forgotten the ILEC rural markets that both companies were founded on. In the ILEC areas people that have been customers for 30-50 years have been forgotten it seems. I know that may be hard for management to comprehend since these people/businesses have been customers more years than most of management have been alive. It is true though. I'm not saying the company shouldn't change with the times but they should continue to take care of those rural customers & provide decent customer service to them instead of just wanting to collect their payments each month. At Windstream sub-par service has become the norm.
To be honest, back then the telecom industry was in full swing with not as much competition. Broadband was fairly new and on the rise and bringing in tons of revenue. Fast forward to today, we are a struggling industry no different than printed newspapers. Competition is high and customers have many options. Telco companies would not survive if they kept all of the people we had during those better years. I am just a peon myself, but I do understand the times.
You school teachers are all alike, I’m not taking the test.
I apologize for writing such a long and detailed post as I did above, but when I speak from the heart the words seem to grow. Have a blessed day.
When Joe Ford and Weldon Case ran this company there were definitely better times...employees were treated with respect...Windstream has destroyed this company with their lack of direction and continual turmoil...this company will fail. Yesterday I was asked by a friend if I ever had any regrets since I left this company 2 months ago...I chuckled and said absolutely no regrets, it was good to get away from so much stress, I feel extremely bad for my co-workers who are trapped due to their financial situation...that is why most employees are staying with this company! So sad....their health and well being accounts for something that money can’t buy!
lol previous commenter is a windstream vp who thought he was replying to a work email
Can someone summarize the post? I'm too lazy to read all that.