Atacomm, a well-known distributor of VoIP equipment bites the dust. I was aware they were in trouble for several weeks actually. I had several Atacomm customers/resellers ask me if I knew what was up with Atacomm since they weren't receiving Atacomm equipment that they paid for. I was hesitant to post gossip about Atacomm's pending doom and potentially put the final nail in their coffin. I may be a journalist, but I still have to go to sleep at night and wondering if I put dozens of people out of work based on rumor just isn't worth it.
Anyway, I guess this is great new for VoIPSupply.com, one of their main competitors.
This from their website:
Anyway, I guess this is great new for VoIPSupply.com, one of their main competitors.
This from their website:
Dear Atacomm Customers,
Sincerely,
Atacomm Sales & Support Staff
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Another major competitor to ATAComm is The VoIP Connection.
Atacomm customers can look to .e4 for support
.e4 Technologies
Tom:
I have mixed emotions about it. Certainly, in business, you don't root for a competitor...but I don't believe that we ever considered Atacomm a direct, "apples to apples" competitor.
Our business has evolved significantly over the past few years. Online sales is a very small part of what we do. We have a large, dedicated team of inside channel account managers who work directly with our VAR and integrator customers. We focus a lot on technical training and knowledge transfer.
There is a lot of choice in the market, and often users need assistance and inside perspective in order to make sound decisions, whether choosing a residential service provider, or a business IP communications platform.
We offer technical pre and post sales support, and tremendous breadth of product.
With all the negative press lately that has tarnished the image of our industry a bit, at least in terms of its perceived solviency, this is not a positive for us.
Events like this certainly validate our model, in contrast, however....
We are certainly not the absolute cheapest vendor out there on every product we offer, but the Cost+1 stategy does not scale that well. We add value and offer a consistent and positive customer experience.
Regards,
Cory Andrews
EVP
VoIPSupply.com
Atacomm was one of the first VoIP equipment internet resellers and a worthy competitor. I can't say that I will miss them but I do respect them.
Cory, I couldn't have said it better. Customers need help making informed decisions and their orders to show up on time. The cost+1 model does not provide enough margin for either.
Best Regards,
Thomas Baxter
President
Voiplink.com
I hate to see whenever a company goes out of business. I really thought that they were doing well.
I guess there is a new sheriff in town and he can be found at
Astawerks.com The new leader in VoIP
Tom,
I agree with much of what's been said above. Unfortunately there are still too many voip'r'us.com type companies left that are trying to gain market share by selling at cut rate prices. They cannot survive in the long run, just like the ITSPs who tried to gain market share by competing solely on price.
As a distributor focused on value-added products and services, Neobits has over the years resisted the urge to compete on price alone. We have invested in support infrastructure, and employ pre- and post-sales consultants who know how to evaluate requirements and propose solutions, which we can then support. This is intense work. We have been profitably delivering solutions to happy customers - over 2,500 phone system customers and several thousand resellers at last count.
In the process, we have become one of the leading providers of sales, fulfillment, installation and support of PBX phone systems for the small to midsize business market.
I might suggest that many manufacturers ought to consider the reasons for Atacomm's failure and take steps to deter commoditization and ensure the long-term solvency of their channel.
Regards,
Arvind Goel
Neobits, Inc.
http://www.neobits.com
I'm just finding this out today. We ordered 35 Grandstream GXP 2000's from them on September 7th, put them on a credit card and didn't hear from them again. We ended up ordering 35 more from some place else and got them within a week. After calling ATAcomm for weeks to find the order or cancel the order and getting no one the phones show up at our office. Now we have 35 phones that we need to return and no where to return them to. Any ideas as to what we can do?
I can buy them from You ! How much do You want ?! THX ! Peter
So many internet based companies are pushing product and thinking that the only way they can sell it is at rock bottom prices. Unfortunately, while it may seem like this is good for consumers, it is not. Consumers are left out in the cold when they need help. They can try and go to the manufacturer, but often what happens is they get frustrated, and, blame the manufacturer. We wholesale Talkswitch Hybrid IP PBX systems. Customers always think they want a rock bottom price, but, they quickly find out how important service is. We do not deal with deep discounters. Manufacturers should really think twice about their product being sold almost at cost, it is not good for them!
www.sohopbxconsulting.biz
866-415-0674
THE Talkswitch specialist