atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Other TDM Phone Systems Vertical Telephones & Systems You Won't Believe This

Just lost a customer due to Vertical's involvement with customer. Making a long story short, Vertical arranged pricing & installation with a Wave dealer for my used to be customer. Customer had total system system failure. (Had a STSe, 23 phones, voice mail) Installed an emergency system for them to have service. Priced him a SBX with & without new phones. Price was xxxxxx. Vertical sells him a Wave system @ 40% of my quote & then arranges someone to go install it. Giving him 3 years warranty on everything including free updates.

I've been a Vodavi dealer for 20 + years & this is the first time I've ever had any interference from a company that I am suppose to represent. This is real bad in my opinion. This is not suppose to happen. Keep your eyes open. Could happen near you.

David

I quit representing them several years ago for similar reasons. Not as bad of a situation as yours, but they rubbed me the wrong way for the last time. That blasted Wave has become nothing short of a prostitute's costume in my book. Vodavi was such a great company. Key word: WAS.

I am floored at this.

Seems like an act of desperation if you ask me....sell the Wave instead of a distributed product such as the SBX even if it cuts the throat of the dealer? Part of this is that the customer had no loyalty to the person looking after them as well.

The whole situation reminds me of the days I spent at AT&T in the GBS division competing against the AT&T stores for sales. In the end everyone loses.

And that still goes on today with Avaya. Had a belly full of them too.

-Hal

That's very sad. We're also former Vertical dealers. Will you be joining our club Draynor?

Hi,

Something does not sound right. Did you contact Vertical and ask what happen? I sell both Wave and SBX. I can not thing of how a Wave system could ever be 40% cheaper then a SBX system. Then add in that you are reusing the vodvivi phones? How is Vertical going to support it without a local dealer? I have seen where they will price a system but then give the whole deal to the local Wave dealer. Sorry that happen to you but seems there must be more too it.

Not a whole more I can add, but the guy that I was dealing with said they got the Wave installed using old STS phones everywhere for $4000.00. Now you do the math & figure a SBX as a 12x32 with vm, new phones & programming. I don't know about your labor but I'm not the cheapest dog in town. But I ain't going to go through the SBX for nothing.

And just to add this customer was a church in the holy town of Chapel Hill.

David

I wonder how they got involved with your customer. We're they shopping around?
Did you have a signed contract before you installed a loaner system?
What was the time frame between loaner system (sure hoped you charged them for it) and the install.
.

Customer went online & went from there. I charged them a service call & then rented system on a monthly basis. I even went as far as them keeping my loaner system, install an expansion cabinet, add a few more phones & apply service call charges to the final bill. This whole process took 3 months. I don't know of anything else I could have done. I bent over backwards to help. But thats fine, people will change for a dime.

It really doesn't bother me that the customer changed vendors, what bothers me is that Vertical's involvement with customer & Wave dealer goes against everything ethical.


Hey, we all lose customers everyday & thats the way this game is played, but you don't expect it from the company you are suppose to represent.

David

I know what you mean.
It's tough enough completing against other vendors, but against the manufacture, imposible.
Hang in there.

Even during the good 'ol days of Vodavi, I learned first hand that even they sold direct to "national accounts" (and that term was defined rather loosely) and that the cost of equipment to the end user was the identical wholesale cost that I paid. Why, I even Googled a price list and found our dealer pricing lists on one end user's site! It was always the latest one so I even started using it to check for price increases. Go figure.

I learned of this when Vodavi arranged for us to install their proposed system. They even had me do the whole dog and pony show for the prospect but in the end, Vodavi didn't get the sale.

Now, with the Internet, I wonder how small shops can even stay alive.

It's true, the Internet has made everything less profitable.
We just try to make it up else where.

Don't walk, run from Vertical as fast as you can. Vertical needed the sale even at the discount because SW subscriptions and power supplies will make their money back. No support without the SW current.