Path: visi.com!winternet.com!patrick
From: patrick@winternet.com (patrick)
Newsgroups: winternet.general
Subject: Some parting thoughts ...
Date: 16 Jul 1996 02:22:56 GMT
Organization: StarNet Communications, Inc
Lines: 98
Distribution: local
Message-ID: <4seue0$gee@blackice.winternet.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: subzero.winternet.com
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2]


Winternet Management,

It's time for me to move on.  I've been through a few bumps and long
stretches of excellent service and value over more than two years at 
Winternet, but recent events have urged me to exercise my vote as a 
consumer and leave.

I've migrated over to Vector and my new address is patrick@visi.com.
My prepaid year ends sometime in August and I expect you to forward my
mail at least through that time frame.  You may disable my login at any
time, I have cleaned it up and set up things at my new provider.

In saying good bye, I feel I should pass on some thoughts to the new
management.  Or maybe I'll just babble for a bit.  Or maybe I'll just try
and tell you how to run your business, I did this a few times to Mike when
growing pains were showing up.  What the heck, you can always ignore me if 
you choose.

Some lessons you hopefully have learned:

Communication is always important, but never as important as it is during
times of change and rocky roads.  Communicate honestly and early in all
situations.  Lack of communication and lack of honesty has proven to be
very destructive to the relationships with your customer base.  I don't
think many trust you these days.  The lack of communication in the early
days of your management situation had absolutely disastrous affects.  The
bad press you had everywhere from Usenet, to IRC, to the local media were
very damaging to your reputation and the trust that users had in Winternet.  
Not a good start.  Read as:  taking two steps forward (at least in your
eyes) and 10 steps backward.

Know your strengths and weaknesses and surround yourself with a staff
whose strengths match your weaknesses.  Judging from recent events, I'd
guess that a grasp of ISP technology is not one of your strengths, hire
appropriately.

Understand your assets.  Winternet's assets were the technological savvy
of the previous staff and the goodwill present in customer relations.
A result of possessing these assets, Winternet saw revenue and growth.
Had you realized this up front, I think things might be different today.

See the big picture.  You have stated that Winternet needs more business
management.  That is probably true.  But all the business sense and
management in the world won't save a company that is heading down fast and
losing customers and market share by the minute.  I wasn't present at
negotiations with Mike to bring more accounting and business practices to
Winternet, nor do I pretend to know anything about such discussions, but
I think it's safe to say a middle ground that combined the talents of Mike
and his staff with a solid business manager should have been found.  If it
had been, your business would be headed in the opposite direction it 
appears to be headed in now.

Failing to work out a deal with Mike in the days following the takeover will
probably have many negative affects.  Certainly Mike's new employment
situation is one of these affects.  As this storm continues for you, I 
suggest you plan for the drop in revenue you are sure to see.  I haven't 
seen any numbers, but many people within the Winternet community are leaving
or preparing to.  

I was directly responsible for bringing at least 10 people into Winternet 
after having highly recommended the service based on my experiences.  I can 
no longer recommend Winternet and probably never will since I won't be around
in the unlikely event that you get things turned around.  Sure, I'm just
one guy and 10 recruits is a drop in the bucket when weighed against 4000
customers, but sentiments such as mine are running rampant and collectively
they represent a considerable share of your user base today and in the
future.

I can't recommend my new ISP just yet, but I am telling those that ask that
having Mike and Doug aboard is a real good thing (TM) for Vector's future.
I suspect adding the rest of 'The Crew' will be a good thing in the future.
My first impressions are solid and everything I've done so far at visi.com
has worked.  Communications have been up to Mike's phenomenal standards
and I'm excited to be at the 'new' fastest growing ISP in the area.

I can't say much of anything has worked for me at Winternet recently.  You
have a long way to go.  It seems that somewhere along the line the
Winternet motto:

   Winternet: We don't suck 

   changed to 

   Winternet:  We really suck these days, but operations are back to normal, 
               except for e-mail, irc, PPP connections, and a few other things, 
               we have solid accounting practices, and we're really trying 
               hard

Good luck, and I hope someday you look back and feel it was worth it.

Au Revior,
Patrick.

PS:  Up the counter, another one signs off.

--
e-mail:  patrick@visi.com