I had a customer call me today asking if they needed a new phone system as he was told this was the case due to the National Broadband Network (NBN). With fibre optics being run throughout the south side of Brisbane CBD and Telstra’s proposed FTTP (Fibre To The Premises) network, we must ask ourselves if this is a clever sales pitch or do customers really need to change their phone systems? So far it looks like they don’t need to replace their phone system but it may be time to start considering what upgrades could be made to your current phone system with changes in phone system technology such as VoIP. I may be wrong but it reminds me of the sales pitches from the Y2K era where half the people updated their technology out of fear that their phone systems or computers would not display the correct date or become obsolete because we were changing into a new century. Alarmingly, many major service providers will begin pushing contracted sales teams and targeted advertisements into areas of Brisbane as the NBN expands.

To avoid falling victim to the hype and purchasing a new phone system or switching providers ensure that you do your own independent research (get several quotes for a phone system at least) and be aware of scare tactics and sales pitches.

It’s been just over 2 years now since the theft of a shipping container full of Avaya phone equipment from our main office premises in Loganholme, Queensland, where we sell our business phone systems, data cabinets, headsets, cables and spare parts for phone systems.

It was any interesting start to that morning of discovery after the theft. As I sat to have coffee in the office, one of my staff asked “What have you done with the container?” Initially, I was thinking they were referring to a food container of some type, not realising they were talking about the “shipping container” outside our office full of Avaya stock. Immediately I wandered out side to take a look as I was thinking it was some kind of joke. To my alarm, this was no joke. An entire 20 foot shipping container full of Avaya telephone equipment was missing from the delivery location.

My first reaction was to think that I had sold the Avaya phone equipment, but increasingly as the minutes passed I realised the container of stock had been stolen.  Immediately I rang the local police who guided me to call their main operations centre. In turn they referred me back to the local police!  So bundled into the car and off to the local police station to report in person about the missing shipping container of business phone stock.  The police arrived at our premises to view what was now called a “crime scene”.  Their questions included “What would anyone do with an entire shipping container of phone stock?”  My response was that the stock would be completely useless to any individual who did not have extensive industry knowledge about the shipping container goods.

As the police investigated the situation they found no evidence at the time. Their advice to us was that our own company had a better chance of locating the missing stock due to the unique contents of the container — Avaya phone equipment.

Time has passed and we have shared the knowledge of our loss with some other key phone dealers in Australia. Still no resolution.

Consider the following points ~

• One of the larger items that were in this container is not an everyday / common Avaya product.  To my knowledge, only 6 of these larger systems have been sold in Australia.

• We did have a witness come forward two weeks after the theft to report that he saw a large white tilt tray at our premises at 6:30am on the morning of the theft, loading the shipping container.

• Another lead came in telling us that items were appearing on eBay. This was investigated by NSW Police, however no luck.

We did make an insurance claim on this loss; however I have taken the opportunity to post this here in our blog in the event that somebody may know something, seen or noticed the Avaya stock.  I would appreciate if anyone does have any information that they come forward and let us know confidentially or even anonymously. Today in business none of us need to suffer theft, unnecessary loss and increased insurance premiums.