Story · Insurance · Switching
Their outgoing provider switched off their phones at eight in the morning.
The arrangement was clean on paper. We would take over IT, the incumbent provider would keep the phone system. Then the owner gave notice, and it stopped being clean.
The situation
The outgoing provider sent an invoice for a full year of software licensing that the client was never going to use, for the remainder of a term he was about to stop servicing. One of our partners read it and found it did not hold up. He was billing for revenue he was about to lose.
The owner did not pay it.
At eight o'clock on a Tuesday morning, the provider switched off the client's phones. An insurance agency without phones is an agency that cannot sell, service a claim or answer a customer.
What we did
We had temporary lines in and a cloud phone platform running by the end of that same day. Not the following week, not after a planning meeting. That day.
The numbers were ported shortly after, which is the part that actually takes carrier time, and the temporary arrangement carried them until it completed.
The sabotage continued through the transition, so new laptops and a new server went in as well. When you cannot trust what is on the equipment, you replace the equipment.
This is among the most abusive exits we have seen, and we have seen a number of them.
"A vendor who will switch off a client's phones to win an argument tells you everything about what the relationship was before you arrived."
How the partners put itWhat changed
ResolvedThe agency was answering calls the same day it lost them, kept every one of its numbers, and came out of it on systems nobody else holds the keys to.
The referral behind it is its own point. An employee who had worked alongside us at two previous employers told the owner to call us. That is most of how this business grows.
Order the internet circuit the week the lease is signed. Carriers take six to twelve weeks. Nothing else on a move fails as often.
The relocation checklist Did you knowA backup that has never been restored is a hope, not a plan. Ask for the date of the last tested restore.
What to actually testQuestions people ask about this
Can an IT company really hold our phones hostage?
If they own the platform and the account, they have more leverage than most owners realise. It is one of the first things we check when someone is thinking about switching.
What if our provider turns nasty when we give notice?
Most do not. For the ones who do, we plan the exit assuming no cooperation at all and are pleasantly surprised when we get some.
How fast can phone numbers be moved?
Porting takes carrier time, usually days to weeks. Getting you answering calls again takes hours, on temporary numbers or lines, while the port runs in the background.
"We couldn't ask for a better IT tech than Jamie or a better IT company. Thank you Midwest IT for all the phenomenal help and services you provide."
Client, 2024 surveyMeet Jamie- A technician who knows your setup takes every request. Not a dispatcher, not a queue.
- Every closed ticket is surveyed and a partner reads every response.
- 99.5% of surveys come back positive.
- Family-owned since 2005. 21 years in the same corner of Wisconsin, not going anywhere.
"Thanks for the hard work. I was kept informed with regular updates until the concern was resolved."
Jeff, insurance brokerageThinking about giving notice?
Talk to us first. The exit is much easier when somebody has planned for the worst version of it.
Talk to a partnerTalk to a partner, not a sales script.
Tell us what is going on. A partner will call you back the same business day, look at what you have, and tell you honestly whether we are the right fit. No pricing pressure, no pitch deck.