[AusNOG] Trouble with an ex-Customer

[Jared Hirst]

Is said customer on this list?


On Tue, May 7, 2013 at 8:20 PM, Skeeve Stevens <
skeeve+ausnog at eintellegonetworks.com> wrote:

> So,
>
> This is a new one for me.... and I'd like to know what the community
> thinks about this situation.
>
> Background first...
>
> We have an ex-client, a micro ISP who has been very hard to deal with over
> the time we've been involved with them.
>
> Basically, They've been a customer for over a year, but only on a minimal
> basis.  We offered them a higher level of service - even offered to let
> them try it out for a couple of weeks for free before signing up to the new
> level.  They seemed happy, and at the agreed upon date we asked them to
> sign the agreement and can we issue the invoice.  They agreed to the
> issuing of the invoice and then we sent the paperwork to them a little
> later.
>
> Life goes on for a couple of weeks, and we're getting no response to
> questions about the agreement or to overdue notices - while still
> delivering them the service.  They request a meeting, and we agree... The
> customer has some new staff who were quite arrogant, abusive, and question
> everything we've ever done - even though they have no idea about this
> industry or how it works.
>
> We don't appreciate being abused, so we say we'd rather not do business
> with them anymore and suspend their support services with us the next day
> due to the non-payment of their account.  All good and normal.
>
>
> So a few days later they come at us with legal letters claiming we've
> locked them out of some devices - which we haven't - we ceased doing any
> work for them immediately.  We explained that we would help them with
> whatever they needed - if all they did was pay their overdue invoices.
>  They could do anything they needed themselves, but they are just clueless.
>
> Now, this has been dragging on for a few weeks with letters between
> lawyers, with them claiming all sort of bizarre things.  My stance is that
> 'without paying their invoice, we're not doing any work for them at all...
> no handover, no anything'.  I am not in the habit of being bullied into
> doing work for people - nasty letters or not.  They also threatened they'd
> gone to the NSW Police Cyber Crime unit... who I called, and they just
> basically shrugged their shoulders and said they'd received nothing yet but
> will let me know if they do.
>
> Today we informed them that we will be deleting all information that we
> hold of theirs in a few days (all documentation, etc).  I don't really want
> to put us at any further risk by having access to their information -
> whether it is still current or not.  We're completely within our rights as
> we have no legal requirements to keep anything for them.
>
> So, an hour or so ago I got a call from my lawyer.  He was contacted by a
> detective at the Kings Cross police station.  Apparently they ex-customer
> has gone to the cops and made some claims and a detective seemed to think
> that their claim may be valid under Section 308E of the NSW Crimes Act<http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/nsw/consol_act/ca190082/s308e.html>
>
> The reason I am posting here is to draw on the communities experience of
> these kinds of things.  I've not heard of the NSW Police getting involved
> in these things, especially at the local station level... but it seems they
> are.  I think that they are just using the Police to attempt to intimidate
> me into doing work for him... but I won't tolerate that.  I am more than
> happy to let them arrest me and let the DPP figure out how to prove their
> case against me.
>
> Firstly, my lawyer agrees that they can't compel us to do work for them
> without paying.  I also believe that under the Act above, that we haven't
> "impaired" (by the Act's definition) anything by not giving them any
> information or knowledge we have.  The lawyers agree.
>
> My view here is that they are free to go to any consultants anywhere...
> hire who they like, but I am not going to be pressured into doing work for
> them without them a) paying any unpaid invoices, or b) paying for any new
> work they want, such as handover, etc.
>
> This is a frustrating situation as over the time we've been involved with
> this customer he has been abusive and used very violent language in his
> dramatic outbursts about completely bizarre things (like us expecting him
> to read his email).
>
> I am sure some will say I shouldn't be discussing this here, but this
> bullshit of going to the cops because I won't do work for him without him
> paying his bills, is a new depth of stupidness I didn't think even they
> would go to.
>
> So I am wondering if anyone else here has had these sort of intimidation
> tactics used against them in this sort of context.
>
> If you have advice, but want to send it off-list, feel free.
>
>
> ...Skeeve
>
> *Skeeve Stevens - *eintellego Networks Pty Ltd
> skeeve at eintellegonetworks.com ; www.eintellegonetworks.com
>
> Phone: 1300 239 038; Cell +61 (0)414 753 383 ; skype://skeeve
>
> facebook.com/eintellegonetworks ;  <http://twitter.com/networkceoau>
> linkedin.com/in/skeeve
>
> twitter.com/networkceoau ; blog: www.network-ceo.net
>
>
> The Experts Who The Experts Call
> Juniper - Cisco - Cloud
>
> _______________________________________________
> AusNOG mailing list
> AusNOG at lists.ausnog.net
> http://lists.ausnog.net/mailman/listinfo/ausnog
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.ausnog.net/pipermail/ausnog/attachments/20130507/ab342ffc/attachment.html>