[lug] ISP's in Denver... (from RMIUG list)

[Nate Duehr]

Hmm... without seeing any info from "the other side" on this story, it
would appear that recommending either Dimensional or ForeThought might
be a bad idea right now for that fella that was looking for an ISP...

Kinda sometimes seems like it's still the Wild West out here, don't it? 
Glad I own a cowboy hat, even if it's not exactly ten-gallon.  :-)

[Forwarded message allegedly from the former head of Dimensional
below...]

----------

I spent 7 years building my company, Dimensional Communications, to be
the best ISP in Denver. This year I decided it was about time to become
a
competitive telephone company. The only way a small player could afford
that, in my view, was to combine forces with another small player.

I negotiated with the operator of another ISP. I made it clear that I
wanted to be in charge of the network and technical operations, and
would
gladly defer the sales and business end of things to him if we combined.
It was under this pretense that I proceeded.

Both DimCom and foreThought.net were about the same size, but FT had
well over $300,000 of debt. I was concerned about their obvious spending
problems, and asked that the Board have say on any new spending beyond
day to day operations, and that I be consulted on any significant
changes or expenditures in the company. I thought we were at agreement
with these points.

On April 12th I completed merging DimCom with foreThought.net to form
Futurum Communications Corp. Because of the excess debt held by FT,
we split the merger 60% for DimCom owners and 40% for FT owners,
which made me a 30% owner of Futurum. The Board of Directors for our
new company was made up of two people from both companies, for a total
of four people including myself. It seemed as if things would proceed
fairly, with both myself and the foreThought.net president working
together to form a new, stronger company.

We began combining services to save costs, and began working towards
our goal of offering our own DSL product and voice services. It soon
became apparent that the principle of foreThought.net was power
mongering, and had no intention of letting me be in charge of
anything.

As soon as our offices had been combined he started treating me like
an employee rather than a partner. I complained about this many times,
and no other Board member seemed to be concerned. He continued the
behavior, and eventually convinced the other Board members, in private,
that I was a deficit to the company.

They called a Board meeting for Monday, October 14th. Their first offer
was putting me on probation, in my own company!, and to cut my salary
to $9,000 less than that of at least one regular employee. I would not
even be able to afford my mortgage and other bills if I accepted. I was
insulted, and refused. I was not even given evidence of my accusations,
nor given the opportunity to defend myself in any way. I was then
stripped of my Director title, fired, and escorted out of the building
by armed security, without even being allowed to gather my personal
items or clean my desk.

Thank You to everybody that supported me thru the years.
I can no longer guarantee the privacy, integrity or stability
of the services Dimensional Communications provides. I am sorry.

::UPDATE:: Nine days later, I still have not been allowed to retrieve
my personal belongings from the Futurum/foreThought/DimCom offices. I
have contacted the Denver Police, who confirmed they are violating the
law.  They stated they will escort me to retrieve my things anytime, so
I will be heading down this morning with cops in tow.

-- 
David Denney                 "Those who would give up essential liberty
daud at pagan.net               to purchase a little temporary safety
deserve
http://www.pagan.net/~daud/  neither liberty nor safety."--Benjamin
Franklin

...they can have my ssh when they pry the keyboard from my cold, dead
hands!

-------------

Nate