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News:
Nightmare Office Move
(and you think lifting boxes is the hard part of a
move?!)
Toward
the end of January, our office was informed that
our building was being sold and we had about 3
weeks to move. With that minimal warning, we
proceeded to locate another office that we felt
would be advantage to us by perusing the
classified ads in the Press of Atlantic
City. It was located just around the corner
on the Black Horse Pike, had a good configuration,
good exposure and was affordable.
The
boxes were packed; the phones were ordered to be
moved; a mail forwarding order was placed with the
post office; our national headquarters was told to
expect the new lease and carpeting was ordered for
the new office. Expecting a down time that
would not exceed a couple of days, the office
contents were loaded into a 26' moving van and we
said "goodbye" to our location of almost
2 1/2 years.
the
nightmare begins!
While
waiting for the new carpeting to arrive, the
new landlord decided he didn't want to deal with a
national corporation whose headquarters were
out-of-state...not realizing that NJ-licensed
companies are required to be accountable to NJ
courts, etc. Completely "losing his
mind" in regard to the lawful requirements of
our corporate headquarters, and being completely
unwilling to discuss any solution that would allay
his fears of dealing with a "foreign"
corporation (meaning, out-of-NJ), a "mad
dash" was instituted to locate other suitable
quarters.
The
next day, an
automated call came in on a cell phone to confirm
the move of the fax/DSL number. (We had been
told that the main number would take up to 13 days
to move! because Verizon was not our phone service
provider.) During the automated call, the
option was given to be connected to a Verizon
representative to cancel the order. Pressing
that button brought back a response that the
office was closed because it was after 5:30
pm...but, it was 3:30. Calling Verizon back
resulted being placed on hold until the office was
closed. As early the next morning as a
Verizon representative could be reached (8:30 am),
the situation was explained and a request to
forward the fax number was made. The mail
had been requested to be held for pick-up at the
post office and that order was left in place.
Wanting
to remain in the same general location, because of
proximity to the Garden State Parkway, Atlantic
City Expressway and Black Horse Pike, we found our
office choices to be very limited. Either
the potential offices were slightly larger than a
closet; or they were much larger than we needed;
or they were located on a second floor...which was
not desired...or there was some other
problem. So we continued to search while
working from a back room in order to provide our
clients with the good service we promised them.
Verizon:
Utility Provider From Hell!
Verizon
informed us that moving the phones, because we use
ATT as our provider, could take up to nearly 2
weeks...though Verizon could move a number (when
they are the provider) within a couple of
days...so much for equal access to the lines that
is mandated by the law! Then, Verizon,
instead of forwarding our phones to temporary
numbers, simply disconnected them! The error
was discovered by our local and long-distance
provider, ATT, but it was too late to save some of
our numbers. Verizon, rather than making the
numbers unavailable to new customers for a 30 day
period...as is the usual practice...proceeded to
give assign them immediately. We were also
told that Verizon could not simply move lines once
they were disconnected...they had to re-institute
service at the old location and THEN move
them...more delays! Finally, understandably,
our national headquarters, in Palm Coast, Florida,
insists upon approving all new leases...more
delays!
To
add more fuel to the fire, we were also informed,
by Verizon, that our DSL service might take a
month to re-institute because there was not enough
equipment to provide us with new service. We
said, "new service???" "We
are already a Verizon DSL customer!!!"
"Doesn't matter", said
Verizon..."When you move, we have to cancel
the DSL service and then restart it at the new
location...and canceling the service will make
your spot available to others who are on our DSL
waiting list." We said, "But why
can't you make a notation that we are just moving
the service, not canceling it!"
"Sorry", said Verizon, "There is no
way we can reserve your spot on our DSL
equipment...It may be made available to you, as
you are an existing customer, but we can't
guarantee that. And, even if your spot is
not reassigned to someone else, it could take
until the end of March before the move takes
place...and another couple of weeks before it
would function! Sorry about
that!" In the meantime, various emails
that were forwarded from different addresses to reliancedocuments@verizon.net
began to generate "undeliverable"
messages to the senders. We were actually
getting most, if not all, of the mail, but the
senders didn't know that!
Landlord
Michael and ATT"S Richard come to the Rescue!
Locating
new quarters proved more difficult than we
expected: We were offered choices, by
several Realtors, for offices that were too big;
too small; too inaccessible; too far from our
previous location; too dilapidated; or with
landlords that were going to be as difficult to
deal with as the one we almost became involved
with, or required leases as long as five years, or
more!
Then,
in an ad in the Press of Atlantic City, we found a
possible site for a new office. We called
the landlord, Michael, and he met us at the
place. While just a bit smaller than we were
used to, the prospective office was newly
renovated and was is located fairly close to our
previous quarters, on the same road. It has
good exposure to traffic, is affordable and has a
landlord who is friendly, flexible and patient
enough to deal with the initial vagaries of
dealing with a national corporation. Michael
offered to hang our sign for us; to increase
parking (even though it is probably adequate
as-is; and other kind accommodations.
Then
Richard, of ATT, stepped in to facilitate the
reconnection and move of our phones. He told
us that there were several improprieties in
Verizon's actions (disconnecting the phones
instead of forwarding them, giving the lines out
to new customers immediately, the time Verizon
takes to move reseller's phone accounts vs. their
own, etc.) He cut thru the "red
tape" and: cut the time for the phone
number move down to a few days; salvaged our main
phone number and one of the other old numbers; put
a forwarding order in motion until the move is
final; caused our DSL service to be re-instituted
and called for an investigation of Verizon's
actions by his legal department.
Finally...A
New Home At Last...
or...We Are Still Here Providing Service as
Usual...Keep In Touch!
Finally,
what was to be a quick move around the corner, is
being accomplished: Our lease has been
approved, the phones are being moved within a day
or so; and we will get our office belongings out
of storage. While we never slacked off in
our efforts to continue to process loans in
progress and service our clients, it has been a
difficult fight that we did not expect...which is
about to come to an end!
For
the short time needed, from now, to re-establish
the office...and if the main number does not forward,
please call 609-677-9858 or
609-502-0501 to reach the branch manager.
Faxes should be directed to 609-677-5446 and email
should go to mail@getreliance.com
until everything is re-established. Within a
few days, our 609-646-6644 main number;
609-646-6525 fax number and reliancedocuments@verizon.net
email address will be back up and running.
The
lesson we learned?...
that
moving the boxes and furniture in a new location was the easy part!
2-28-2006 |
