SmartPath Technologies

Complainant did request new computers. [redacted], the owner of the company, went out and did a surveyof the businesses current situation and made a proposed suggestion that included a new file server, newgigabit network switch, new firewall, new wireless access points, a wireless point-to-point...

connectionacross the street to another business under same ownership so they could work cohesively, newworkstations, and new wiring. After approval was given, equipment was ordered and deployed at theclient location by our engineers. [redacted] explained to complainant during first meeting that he had atechnical team including a service manager, lead engineers, and technicians whom would complete thework. His primary job is sales, and he has a very experienced and competent team who takes control ofthe client after the sales process. Technical problems, scheduling, and coordination of work is handledby the service manager who supervises lead engineers and technicians to complete the work by thedescription of work given and signed off on during the sales process. While complainant claims [redacted]was unavailable, [redacted] wasn’t the one whose job it was to handle the technical work, and when clientcalled, they had technical requests. [redacted] is in and out and travels frequently so when calling our office,it is true that he’s more than likely not there or not available – but someone from management down totechnician is there for problems that someone has. Once the sale is completed, there is a hand off tothe technical department and they take control from there. Complainant always had immediate accessto service management and technical staff when she called. Often times, technical staff was on-site ather office within hours after them calling.We did explain to [redacted] that we offer VoIP phone systems, and often times we could provide freephones with a signed telephone service agreement. We also explained (multiple times) that it wasimportant to have a stable computer network before we thought about implementing a VoIP solution,and if they wanted to do that, it was a multi-step process of getting a stable network that ran withoutany issues for a few weeks, then increasing the internet bandwidth and testing to make sure VoIPservice would work over their internet connection, and then signing off on the agreement and gettingthe phones. We never got past step one as client continued to report problems. We do not want toimplement any solution a client wouldn’t be satisfied with, and it’s vitally important with VoIP that thephone system be engineered correctly and was a good fit for a particular client’s needs – but thatcouldn’t be done until the network was stable and bandwidth was sufficient. Due to the fact we nevergot to the point of testing and engineering the new phone system, complainant is correct that we didn’tremove their old wiring – because doing so would have rendered their existing phone systeminoperable. The wiring to their existing phone system was part of the wires to be removed – had weremoved them, the client wouldn’t have had phones or phone service. We certainly didn’t want that, sono, we didn’t remove their old wiring because some of the wiring to be removed was still in use by theircurrent phone system.Client’s complaint notes slow internet speeds after the project but says they have the “same internet asbefore”. Yes – they do, but they also have several more people using it. As part of the project, weconnected the office across the street to [redacted]’s office so they could operate as one network. Doingso would allow them to cancel internet service at the location across the street for a cost savings, and tobe able to use some of that cost savings to increase the speed at [redacted]’s office, which is where allusers from both offices are currently getting internet access from. So yes, complainant is correct thatinternet speed is slower – it has twice the amount of users on it, and some of them typically do thingsthat consume significant bandwidth such as streaming music. We never got to the point of cancellingservice and increasing bandwidth because complainant kept reporting computer problems and wewanted to get those ironed out and go at least two weeks with no reported computer problems beforewe moved on to the second phase of eliminating one connection and increasing the other. We nevercould do so as complainant told us they never wanted to see us again and had called someone else to doservice. So yes, unless changes have been made since we were involved, internet speed is the same, butit has users from both offices using it.The office across the street did not get new equipment – they got hand-me-down computers that werereplaced from [redacted]’s office. We do not doubt they are slow – they aren’t new; they are hand-medownunits. We recommend they get new equipment and doubt they’ll ever be fast as they were usedcomputers and they continue to age daily.We have detailed work notes for every visit made and about all work completed which I will attach tothis letter. We spent nearly 100 hours installing new wiring, new equipment, and configuring the newnetwork for them. We have multiple notes after completion where they complained of slowness, andeach time, they told us that it had gotten better as the attached notes show.The computers were new Dell OptiPlex 3020 computers with an i5 processor, 8 gigabytes of RAM, a 500gigabyte hard drive and complainant can visit the dell.com website and enter the service tag numbersaffixed to each computer to see the same. We have sold nearly 500 of the same units over the pastyear, and no one has complained of slowness or any problems with them. Any technical person can lookat the specs and see that the computers have enough processing power and memory to not be slow. Inaddition, their network now operates at gigabit speed instead of 100 megabit speed – another speedincrease over what they previously had. If complainant feels the computers have a problem, they havea 3 year business warranty and contact Dell to see if there are any problems or if we did somethingincorrectly to make them slow. Dell will confirm they are speedy units without problems.We completed nearly 100 hours of work as shown in the attached ticket notes, and multiple times,client reported that things were going better, that they hadn’t experienced any more problems afterprevious work, etc. as documented in those notes. We can’t confirm since we haven’t been involved fora few months that they may now be slow, have viruses or malware, or have some other problem – butwe can confirm complainant reported things were OK while we were involved as the notes attachedshow.After non-payment for 30 days, we did sent to our collection attorney as we do all past due balances.[redacted] called him and explained her frustrations, and he asked for a specific punch list of problems sothat our technicians could evaluate possible causes and try to fix them, but that punch list has not beenreceived as of yet. Complainant wants [redacted] to come back to fix the issues, but [redacted] no longer doestechnical work and hasn’t for a few years – he has engineers and technicians who do this work daily andultimately are more experienced than he is in the intricacies of specific issues. Initially, he would havebeen fine having his service manager and engineers come back to try to make things right, but due tothe fact that we haven’t received a punch list of specific issues, the fact that we have documentedmultiple times client said things were OK, and that we have a signed agreement that defines the work tobe done that was indeed done, we must continue to ask for payment in full. We have told complainantand will state again that if she hires another IT consultant we will work with them to provide them fullnetwork configuration and setup information, and help them in any way possible. We can even makerecommendations of other consultants she can contact if need be. At this late date, with the amount ofwork we have done – documented in the attachment to this response – we just want payment for workcompleted and for both of us to put this behind us and move forward. We do not feel there are specificissues a technician can come fix as it’s not been possible for complainant to gather a punch list, and wecan’t expend any more resources if it’s going to be impossible to ever make things right in the eyes ofthe complainant. We just want payment for work done that was signed off on. We wish them the bestand will be happy to help their new consultant.Attached: All work notes for all work completed for [redacted].