NYPost article

[MooYork]

If they had only given them the signs...look at Beep2000.......

http://www.nypost.com/business/73328.htm


HARVARD CELLULAR HITS WIRELESS WOE

By BEN SILVERMAN
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

April 14, 2003 --
DotcomScoop.com

ALAN Kaufman believed he had it made when he was tapped to help launch Cingular Wireless in the New York City market.

But less than six months after being instrumental in the No. 2 wireless company's migration into the nation's No. 1 market, Kaufman found himself more than $2 million in debt and forced to close all five of his Manhattan stores - in the process laying off more than 30 employees just one week before Christmas.

You can imagine why Kaufman feels used.

"What I get only 30 days after helping them launch in New York is some Cingular executive walking into my office and calling me a 'child' because I had some serious complaints and concerns," said Kaufman, the CEO and founder of Boston-based Harvard Cellular Inc.

"Cingular wasn't ready to come into the New York market. The company made false representations and sales projections to get us to come into the market with them," Kaufman said. "And I took all the exposure on this deal. I put down $800,000 in security deposits alone.

"They had no support in the marketplace, and they were unprepared to enter the market."

Cingular declined to comment.

Kaufman claims Cingular induced him with loans to help finance his five stores - which amounted to half of all Cingular's stores in New York when the company launched service in the area on July 1, 2002.

He says the company didn't pay out commissions owed to him; it was late in completing the build-out of his stores and in installing outdoor signage in front of his outlets; and it misrepresented its plan and distribution model in the market, as well as his role in it.

Now Kaufman is seeking $12 million in damages because of the New York debacle, and an additional $2 million due to problems with his Boston stores.

His complaint is headed for arbitration, but it comes at the same time a group of Cingular retailers has launched a class action lawsuit against the company, claiming breach of contract, fraud and deceptive trade practices.

Kaufman says his concerns were routinely ignored. When he told a Cingular executive that his store on high-profile Madison Avenue needed a sign, and that it would be forced to close soon if sales didn't pick up, he says he was essentially told to get lost.

" 'Close it. And does that mean I don't have to put up your damn sign?' is what [the Cingular executive] told me," Kaufman said.

The company later fired the executive in question, as well as another high-level executive involved in the New York market.

Sources say the firings came at the direction of Ed Whitacre, CEO of SBC Communications, which, along with BellSouth, owns Cingular.

But those firings came too late for Kaufman.

He says 12 to 14 percent of his customers returned their phones because of poor service - an outrageous rate, considering the industry-wide return rate is about 3 percent.

And with sales well below expectations and the number of subscribers just a fraction of what Cingular had promised, Kaufman was forced to close his stores.

"I was the largest dealer in the New York City area. They were heaping praise on me the day we launched, and in the end they destroyed me."

[sonichrome]

Im not defending Cingular when I say this, because I don't know any of the whole story, but there are two sides to every story.

[MooYork]

So, aherm, what's the second side? The parties in question were fired, so you better have a good story!

Originally posted by sonichrome
Im not defending Cingular when I say this, because I don't know any of the whole story, but there are two sides to every story.

[cellone1234]

Harvard Cellular.......................hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm mmmm

[MooYork]

Does anybody have any facts? Anything other than inane comments and conjecture?

.....

Originally posted by cellone1234
Harvard Cellular.......................hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm mmmm