The only thing I can think is your habit got so bad that suboxone couldn't take away the WDs, but they still should have helped them to some degree....
The time this happened to me was I slipped up but instead of doing dope again I start ordering powdered, just about pure fentanyl. After starting at like 300mcgs a shot I eventually got to 2-3 (ocassionally even 4 mgs (of fent, not dope or morphine- 1mg of fent is equal to 80-100mgs of morphine) and it only took a few weeks and I was trying to keep it from getting too high; but due to the short half-life you end up dosing fent again and again like literally you are lucky if you make it an hour (I couldn't, even being in a dead sleep, go for more than 2.5 hours and would wake up having to do more- I did try subcutaneous around my belly button and that made it last a little longer)). My habit obviously got HUGE. When I went to take the sub again it really didn't work (I would say it took it from the extreme fent WD to a pretty bad dope withdrawal) and this was even trying to IV the subs (which it was sort of lucky I IVed them so they didn't last the days before being out of your system, I had to go from fent to dope for a few weeks then back to subs).
So essentially if your habit was HUGE they might not work, but I would think they would still bring the WDs down a little which is what happened to me.