| Former SunRocket Customers Become Exposed |
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11 October 2007 VoIP provider, SunRocket created a flood of questions when the Virginia-based company closed its doors abruptly on July 16, 2007. The company ceased all operations without warning to customers or employees. The official cut-off date for service was expected to be August 5. While many SunRocket customers were to be absorbed by other VoIP providers, some customers actually got more than they bargained for. One Washington-based customer temporarily lost his phone number during the brief period between the SunRocket closure and the take-over of the new provider. This customer was relieved when his number was returned to him, until he received a strange phone call. This customer, a Bill Adler, had become a customer of ViaTalk, one of several VoIP providers who took over SunRocket’s some 200,000 stranded customers. Adler was provided with a temporary number while ViaTalk was negotiating to recover the old one. A few weeks after he thought the problem was resolved, Adler received a call from the ViaTalk customer who had claimed the number as his own, if only for a few weeks. Adler’s first impression was that the call was a prank, until the individual was able to read him inbound and outbound phone records. These records represented the time that Adler was using the temporary number. It is hard to discern which is worse in this situation – the fact that a third party was able to access Adler’s records, or the fact that Adler was notified by the individual himself and not ViaTalk. Noel Gueugneau, the third party, noticed the error himself and found ViaTalk’s customer support to be of little help. Representatives of ViaTalk claim that the company is looking into the matter and have yet to determine if there is a bug in the system, or if the problem was due to human error. They have also claimed that the issue is now resolved. Whether or not the issue is resolved remains to be seen as Gueugneau still has access to Adler’s old records. The ease in which customers can change service providers seems to be lost on Adler, however as he claims that switching to another company would case more headaches than resolving the issue as is. The question still remains to how many other customers this apparent glitch affected. For some, they may just be happy to have phone service again. For others, this is a significant invasion on their privacy. In the end, ViaTalk made a mistake and their feeble attempt at damage control could easily cost them customers – for those who feel it is worth it to make the switch. tmcnet.com |
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