sundance-communications.com/forum Forums TDM Business Telephone Systems Nortel Telephones & Systems Two non-technical Nortel/Norstar questions

Hello,

I am responsible for IT at a number of car dealerships in Metro Atlanta and we have recently bought two defunct dealers locations both of which have pre-existing Norstar Modular ICS installations which would appear to be functional.

This gives rise to two questions I can't come up with good answers for.

1. The first location is of particular concern because this dealer went out of business owing money all over town and I am wondering if there is a good way to establish if this system is encumbered. There is a large amount of brand-new hardware on the premises such as T7406e's and Norstar compatible Polycom conference room phones.

Along with the usual T7208's and T7316e's (about 50 combined)

I would love nothing more than to put all this to use, but I would be astonished if wherever it came from was paid for any of it.

2. The second much smaller location has a decade old MICS 5.1 installation with non-CLID trunk cards, no voice mail and about 15 M7208's and a pair of M7324's - I have a surplus 6.1 MICS with CLID trunks and a CallPilot I can install on this site. Is the MICS with 5.1 and those telephones likely to have any tangible re-sale value?

If so, what?

Thanks,

John

look for a sticker or any other documentation on the equipment that tells you the installation company and give them a call to see if there is money owed they should be able to prove it if there is if not they can help you get it up and going

None of the hardware at the larger of the two locations has anything identifying a dealer or installer. The hardware I am most concerned about is still in factory sealed boxes. Although I am concerned the entire system might be leased. We have already had several visits from a repoman looking for some photocopiers and printers that are not on the premises.

I have reset the password on the CallPilot and the KSU itself still has a default passwords so assistance isn't required there. (I was an installer myself in the Meridian heydays before I got into IT) - I just need to establish nobody holds a claim to this hardware before I get out the trusty programming templates or let the guys on the lot get attached to the T7406e!

I'm no lawyer by any stretch of the imagination, but if your dealership assumed the assets of the now defunct dealership, then the new owner purchased everything within the walls of the building.

Yes, there is the possibility that some of the hardware was leased, but something doesn't sound right. Did the former dealership file for bankruptcy? If so, then the creditors (lessors, etc.) should have been informed of such filing. They would have had the opportunity to appear at the first bankruptcy hearing to have their case heard in order to receive an opportunity to receive a portion of the payout of the remaining assets. If there was a bankruptcy filing and these creditors didn't show up to stake their claim, then they have no right to the equipment.

You might want to think about those repo men showing up. Although they might want their hardware back, they may no longer be entitled to take it. While I know that this is not your responsibility, I would think that the new owners would have had all of these bases covered by now.

If equipment was leased, it still belongs to the leasing company, I have removed a couple that way.

A repo guy can come and take leased equip.

If you can still get in touch with the former owner it may be possible to find the person who was responsible for buying equipment.

You could do a sys id check and take that serial number to Avaya and see if they could tell you what distributor sold it. Maybe the records exist and maybe not but if you can show a good faith effort it is probably yours.

AND, letters from a lessor would be coming to someone's address, maybe a forwarding address or the lawyer for the former owner.

Our lawyer is going through the affairs of the old dealer looking for a probable source of the hardware (which is going every bit as well as you might imagine) however the boss is going to lose patience with that very quickly. Hence my inquiry...

I will try calling Avaya this morning, not sure if or where mail is being forwarded.

We have been down this road before with some subprime mortgage scammers who subleased office space from us. I pretty much had to threaten to have a bonfire in the parking lot to get the lessors to repo their crap. Except in this case I would be more than happy to provide a good home to the abandoned goods.

The sales contract should include all of the contents of the building, if it includes the phone system, it is yours, if not and it is leased or owed monies on, you will have to pay that. if the previous owner put in the contract the phone system was included, or had wording that states all contents are included, then they owe, trust me, I have been screwed before by that.

For the purposes of the sale we bought the title to the property from a real estate investor who bought several dealerships for the land. The operator of the original dealership has ceased operating. Most of what remains in the building is random garbage and really didn't come up. Lets face it how many people would recognize a Nortel phone as anything more than a $20 telephone from Radio Shack?

The first indication I had that there was anything here was when I was surveying the existing data and telephone wiring. I thought I had seen a Cisco wireless access point mounted in the service department only to discover it was one of four T7406e base stations.

We got something of a lead today on the origin of some of the hardware, a packing slip for one of the Polycom conference phones. I will have to see if that leads anywhere.

it seems to me that this is a question best answered by your lawyer opinions expressed here are that and nothing more

if the boss is losing patience it needs to be with the lawyer

the polycom packing slip probably wont be much help as they where more than likely purchased after the fact and from a different source

Basically, I was hoping since installers themselves buy and sell so much used equipment there was some technique to be shared that you use to check ownership. From there the lawyer can determine if there is a legitimate claim against it. The lawyer trying to figure where they came from has been expensive guesswork.

The Polycom is the Nortel branded Polycom/M7100 hybrid, so I am hoping at the very least it might identify the source of the brand new Nortel hardware.