SunRocket Saga: Still No Happy Ending for Many

Yesterday I got an email from an angry former SunRocket user, Mark Kruskol, who switched to TeleBlend after SunRocket shut its doors late last month. (TeleBlend paid to take over the SunRocket's customers and equipment and has signed up approximately 60,000 of SunRocket's old customers.) Kruskol is not a happy camper. He reported that he's had no incoming service for over a week.

TeleBlend's been on shaky ground ever since it took over SunRocket's subscriber base Some customers report they were migrated to the service without ever being notified. According to Whois.com the domain name for TeleBlend was registered on July 18, 2007, the day after SunRocket imploded. Last week, the company apologized publicly after blaming Global Crossing for its customer service issues.

Kruskol writes that TeleBlend support is impossible to reach, but as the quintessential squeaky wheel he's managed to get through to TeleBlend executives and PR representatives including Lisa Bickford, Bill Fogg, and Brian Lustig. According to Kruskol, promises were made and broken up and down the chain of command and no one had a good explanation of why service was not available or how many users were affected.

I emailed Brian Lustig, who used to do PR for SunRocket, but took up the sword for TeleBlend. Lustig painted a picture of TeleBlend as an heroic knight in shining armor:  "folks who stepped in to prevent 200,000 former SunRocket customers from losing their service overnight." For customers, the beauty of the TeleBlend offer as advertised was that you didn't need to change your equipment or disrupt your service to switch.

According to Lustig, TeleBlend stepped in at their own expense to keep SunRocket's network up and running for an additional two weeks—giving these customers the time they needed to work out other means for phone service, whether or not these customers eventually went with TeleBlend or another provider like ViaTalk. He says the majority of the transitions went seamlessly.

I can vouch for Lustig's claim because I selected ViaTalk as my own SunRocket replacement and I had two weeks of extra service from the time that SunRocket notified me of their bankruptcy. I can understand Mark's frustration, though, since I have not yet received my new phone adapter from ViaTalk and I'm VoIP-less at the moment.  I signed on for their service on July 28th and so far, no responses to my emails, either.

Lustig went on to say that there are some legacy complexities remaining for a small handful of customers—all related to the transition process—but rumors are flying. Suspicious minds believe that TeleBlend cannot get the credit advances or the deals in place to use SunRocket's various providers. Packet8, another alternative suggested to SunRocket users appears to be having no problems with the migration. Both Packet8 and TeleBlend worked with Sherwin Partners, the consulting firm that handled SunRocket's assets. The big difference is that  Packet8 was paid a bounty for SunRocket users it signed up and TeleBlend was created just to take over SunRocket's own network.

Companies are not perfect. They see an opportunity and they dive in without always anticipating the consequences. They dive in fast and hard when they see a quick buck to be made. I predicted in my last column that small VoIP providers would all get a black eye from SunRocket's cautionary tale. I also suggested that TeleBlend was too unproven to choose as a replacement for SunRocket. Unfortunately, I was right.

Let's hear the wisdom of the crowds. Are you feeling the shock waves from the SunRocket saga?

PS. Late last night Kruskol wrote me to say Brian Lustig of TeleBlend gave him a call and his TeleBlend service was up and running.