atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums TDM Business Telephone Systems NEC Telephones & Systems NEC Aspire

Upstateny: this has nothing to do with nec, just with that dealer.
By the way, nitsuko is just another name for nec.

I beg to differ with you there, EELCO. Many, if not most "dealers" in our area selling Tie/Nitsuko/NEC are trunkers, as in unlicensed, uninsured guys buying these systems from the local supply house.

They mark up their cost 10%, charge a minimal installation fee, then leave with a few hundred tax-free dollars in their pocket. When the customer needs training or support, they try to call the guy on his cell phone (that's the only phone he has) but he's busy selling or installing the next system. He can't be bothered, so when he gets home at 8:00 PM, he MIGHT return their call, but the customer is gone for the day. This cycle continues for a few days until the customer gets frustrated and begins their quest for another "dealer".

I have been seeing and dealing with this for almost 22 years in this business. Yes, I started out as a "trunker", but even in those days, I arranged for a nice retired lady to answer my business phone in the mornings and paid my sister to answer it in the afternoons. If the call was urgent, then they would call my pager and I would respond.

NEC, or any manufacturer selling their products directly to trunkers risks damage to their reputation. The customer has no concept of dealer heirarchy, purchase levels, etc. All they know is that the product has the manufacturer's name on it, not the installer's. While this guy may be long-gone, the brand name cannot be changed, thus a bad experience for the customer in purchasing the product.

Aside from people getting repeatedly raped by AT&T/Lucent/Avaya or Nortel, most people only take a bad experience with a brand name once before they switch to another. The aforementioned parties just feel that they are too important to purchase lesser-known brands. They will let these big names beat them up over and over again before they finally wake up and realize what is happening.

I am sorry to bring black cloud over the subject, but I speak from experience.

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ev, This is my first post. I must tell you that NEC was pretty discriminating when going over my company's (is the apostrophe in the right place?)application. We are licensed dealers and your post doesn't reflect well on those of us that are licensed my NEC to sell and service their product.

ohbee:

Welcome to the hood!

When I spoke of licenses, I meant electrical contractor's licenses to pull permits, not simply being licensed by a manufacturer. There's a huge difference there. My statements were very broad in nature and I should have been more specific. I apologize for offending anyone here.

There are so many licenses required in our area (you know, all of the cities, counties and states around here). It's easy for people to say they are licensed. Maybe in one jurisdiction, but not likely in all of them. I just got done adding the City of Gaithersburg, MD to our collection of licenses for one dinky system sale.

You can be licensed all day long by a manufacturer to sell their product. That doesn't authorize the actual installation of these systems in most Northern Virginia and Maryland jurisdictions. A statewide contractor's license PLUS a license in every county or city you service is the hard part. DC is even worse!

Sorry to ramble on....I carry on way too much about this stuff, but it's a real sore subject with me after the trips around the Beltway and the thousands of $$$ we spend annually for licensing and permits to be legitimately "licensed".

ohbee, I find that it is not actually the Licensed dealers that are bad, it is the poeple like Ed (ev607797) said that are bad - the trunkers. There is a right way to start a business (like Ed did) and a wrong way. The trunkers that just get their product (Usually NEC, sometimes Vodavi Starplus, and occasionally Comdial/Vertical DX-80) from the supply houses care little for the end user - certainly this is not always the case, but more often than not I find it is.

From what I have seen a 10 minute "training" class and a 1 page copied "used Guide" is what they get for training, everything else is billed later, usually at a hour rate after 15 min.

With us (and many reputable companies) training is class oriented by a dedicated trainer (not the techs) and they can ALWAYS get free training over the phone. Phone tech support is nearly always free if it takes less than 15 min. On site support is supplied for changes and such for the first month or so at no cost. We always put a modem on the system as well so we can save ourselves and out customers the hastle of a site visit when possible.

Steve:

I am with you on that one. It doesn't matter which brand the system is. If the seller/installer doesn't follow through (like your company and mine) with the support you described, then the customer ends up with a bad attitude about the product. Not the poor support from the installer, the product itself. We get calls all the time about "this piece of junk we were sold". Two hours spent on-site programming the system properly and training them and they are a customer for life.

It's just the same thing with cars. A car is really only as good as it's driver and mechanic. The ones that are "pieces of junk" are usually also the ones that never get the oil changed or a simple car wash every now and then!

speaking of Aspire.... How do I make it so if ANYONE wants to contact me, through my extnsion from one office to another, I have to be called. Now, a little beep sounds, and I dont have a choice of "acting like I am not there" 'cause they can hear me typing hard at work.... This is pissing me off! Please help a dude out!

With handset down:

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