Norvergence Information Page

Important Notice - TAA has provided the information below for free to any TAA member since December 2003. TAA is no longer actively updating this page in favor of sending out a weekly "Norvergence News" email newsletter. You will receive a copy of the email newsletter every Friday to the email address you registered with.

Click here to subscribe for free to TAA's "Norvergence News" weekly email newsletter.

 TAA is currently investing the majority of its resources supporting the members of the Norvergence customer legal co-op. Please use the links below to access the most popular information on this page.

Norvergence Legal Co-op Page    Providers Helping Norvergence Customers

Bankruptcy Court Information      Original "Norvergence Review" by TAA

Norvergence Rental Agreement    Norvergence Media Story 1  Story 2

7/22/4

Qwest Disconnections Underway?

TAA has received sporadic reports of interrupted service. To confirm if Qwest has interrupted your Norvergence/Qwest service TAA advised that you call Qwest wholesale's trouble desk at 866-874-6790 or 800-860-6403. 

Norvergence Customers Exploring Options

Sorry for the delay in posting updates.  TAA has been somewhat overwhelmed by requests for assistance from all TAA members in general and by TAA's obligation to assist the Norvergence Customer Legal Co-op first.

To make sure you get all information TAA has to publicly distribute about the Norvergence situation via TAA's "Norvergence News" email newsletter, make sure that you join TAA - it's free and it's fast. To join, click here or visit http://www.telecomagent.org/Member.htm. 

The following is information TAA can share publicly with all TAA members:

1. Many finance companies are starting to put many Norvergence customers under pressure to get current on their lease payments or be forced to pay the entire amount at once. TAA has had reasonably confirmed reports that one finance company in particular has already filed suit against a Norvergence customer in Florida.

2. TAA is working closely every day with the Norvergence Customer Legal Co-op and has provided all documents in it's possession to the co-op to assist in determining if the Norvergence rental agreements are enforceable. If you are in possession of documents you believe will help, please fax them to 909-494-4257 if you have not already done so.

3. TAA is attempting to contact all Norvergence customers to let them know that TAA is creating a storehouse of information that their attorneys can draw upon. If you know of someone with a complete list of Norvergence customers that can help TAA distribute this information, please contact Dan Baldwin at db@telecomagent.org. 

4. Many thanks to all who are helping to support TAA's efforts to help Norvergence customers. In summary, following are the items that are currently needed:

     A. Copies of your Norvergence agreements IF YOU'VE NOT ALREADY FAXED THEM IN.

     B. Copies of any letters you've recently received from the leasing companies.

     C. Notes on your letterhead of anything that transpired from your first contact with Norvergence to your last contact with the leasing company that you believe points out a specific example of an impropriety.

      D. A complete list of Norvergence customers so that TAA can make sure all Norvergence customers know that TAA is creating a central storage point that all Norvergence customer attorneys can draw upon.

     Fax information to 909-494-4257 or email it to db@telecomagent.org. 

Sincerely, Dan Baldwin

7/16/4 

5pm Eastern - Norvergence Customers Get Up To Two Week Reprieve

The attorneys from TAA's Norvergence Customer Legal Coop have been in contact with Qwest's attorneys and have learned that Qwest intends to delay terminating the Norvergence T-1s by up to two weeks.

Sprint has and T-Mobile have indicated that they will attempt to contact all Norvergence customers before terminating service to allow them a one-time opportunity to roll the service into their own name. TAA does not believe that the Norvergence Sprint/T-Mobile customers will be able to port their cell phone numbers to other carriers, it's come with us or get terminated (which is one more option than you had last Thursday at 5pm Eastern.)

7/15/4 

6pm Eastern - Norvergence 800 Numbers Going Down

Norvergence customers on the East Coast are reporting that the new 800 numbers assigned to them by Norvergence stopped work for an hour and then started working again. To confirm with Qwest if your 800 number is associated with the Norvergence account, call Qwest at 800-860-6403 and dial option 5 + 2 + 2.

If your Norvergence 800 service is down click here for more information. To find out which carrier is responsible for any 800 number, call 800-337-4191 and follow the automated instructions.

Unofficial Qwest Statement

"Qwest does not have a contractual relationship with Norvergence's end user customers and we are unable to provide service to their customers directly. Norvergence customers should contact another telecommunications provider to discuss options for service. Qwest cannot transfer services provided to Norvergence to other telecommunications providers because the US Bankruptcy Trustee controls Norvergence's assets."

Unofficial Sprint Statement  

"Sprint DOES NOT intend to terminate service at 5pm Easter today."  This came from a Sprint manager who was attempting to send TAA a written statement once it was approved by the bankruptcy trustee. The contact said Sprint would contact the Norvergence/Sprint customers via text message over the next week to arrange to switch the service.

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

 Unofficial T-Mobile Statement 

Norvergence Bankruptcy Converted To Chapter 7 - Quest, Sprint & T-Mobile To Terminate Norvergence Service Today at 5pm Eastern

Click here to read attorney letter

Click here to read newspaper story

7/13/4

NORVERGENCE CUSTOMER LEGAL CO-OP FOUNDED BY TAA Are you a Norvergence customer with a 60 month equipment lease? Would you like to join in with other Norvergence customers to explore whether the equipment lease is valid and enforceable in light of Norvergence's installation problems and chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation?

Join dozens of Norvergence customers large and small who are funding the Norvergence Customer Legal Co-op so they can band together and fight the leasing companies who say, "It doesn't matter what happened to Norvergence, you still have to pay!"

Click here to send an email to Dan Baldwin at dbaldwin@telecomagent.org of TAA to get the paperwork to join the growing co-op. You may also call 206-203-6115 x2 to get more information.

7/9/4 

Fax TAA Information About Your Equipment Leasing Company Are you a Norvergence customer wondering about the status of your equipment lease? TAA is assisting several attorneys look into the validity of the leases in light of Norvergence's financial challenges. Please fax to TAA at 909-494-4257 the identity and contact information of your leasing company. Please include any notes about anything that seems peculiar to you about how the lease was transferred from Norvergence to the leasing company.

Sprint & T-Mobile Join Qwest To Terminate Norvergence In a bankruptcy hearing on Thursday, the judge did not grant Qwest's request to immediately terminate Norvergence's service. Click here to read the newspaper report.

In the past two days, Sprint & T-mobile, owed 10 million and 2.2 million dollars respectively by Norvergence, have submitted motions to the court to terminate cell phone service to Norvergence customers. 

New York TV Station Report on Norvergence Broadcast on 7/8/4

7/8/4

Update on "Call Forwarding" of Norvergence Customer's Main Numbers - As has been previously recommended, all Norvergence customers should call the phone company they had before Norvergence to inquire if their "main number" is in a "call forwarding" status. Many Norvergence customers have reported that instead of porting their main number into their Norvergence T-1, Norvergence simply "call forwarded" the customer's main number to the Norvergence T-1 and had the bill for the call forwarding sent to Norvergence for payment.

Many Norvergence customers have reported that their main phone number has been disconnected suddenly and to get the number turned back on they had to call their previous provider, pay for the "call forwarding" charges (unpaid for several months and several hundred dollars in some cases) and then change the billing address back to the customer's address.

Norvergence Letter To Customers  Includes new Norvergence customer service hotline 888-735-7544.

One Leasing Company Responds To Norvergence Complaint A letter sent to a Norvergence customer regarding the status of their equipment lease. 

Newspaper Story "Norvergence Customers Wonder What's Next" Star-Ledger

7/7/4 

Newspaper Story "NorVergence in debt to tune of $15 million - Newark telecom files for Chap. 11" Star-Ledger

Qwest Attempts Petitions Court To Terminate Service - It appears that on 7/6/4, Qwest requested and received a hearing in the bankruptcy court scheduled for July 8th that may allow Qwest to terminate service to Norvergence customers almost immediately. TAA's opinion is that Norvergence customers should set into immediate action a plan for backup service in the event that Qwest prevails in court tomorrow.

Click here to read the Qwest motion

Also, many Norvergence customers have reported to TAA that their main phone numbers are being disconnected. Upon further review it seems that when Norvergence installed many customer's T-1s, Norvergence had the customer's old main phone number "call forwarded" to the new Norvergence T-1. Many of these call forwarding accounts have not been paid by Norvergence and are being terminated by the customer's old vendors.

TAA's opinion is that Norvergence customers should call their former provider to make sure that the "call forwarding" account for their old main number is paid and that the billing address is changed to the customer's, not Norvergence.

7/6/4 - TAA has received numerous calls about the status of Norvergence. TAA has no direct affiliation with Norvergence and can only offer the following speculation:

1. While it was initially thought that Norvergence filed chapter 7 bankruptcy (liquidation), it appears that that chapter 11 (reorganization) is what has been filed (see below).

2. Many thought that Qwest and the cell phone carriers would interrupt the service of Norvergence customers on Friday. No outages have been reported. It is not known whether the providers will interrupt service or if they are prevented from doing so due to the protection afforded by chapter 11. It is advised that Norvergence customers contact the bankruptcy court at the phone number listed below.

The following is posted on the Internet at the Trenton, NJ BBB site:

Chapter 11 involuntary petition was filed on 06/30/2004. Involuntary summons is issued to Norvergence and they have till 08/02/2004 to answer. For more information you may contact:

US Bankruptcy Court, District of New Jersey 
PO Box 1352 Newark, NJ 07101-1352  
Phone (973) 645-4764 
Case # 04-32079-RG www.njb.uscourts.gov 

Use the following form to file as a creditor: http://www.uscourts.gov/bkforms/official/b10.pdf 

Mail form to:

U.S. Bankruptcy Court District of New Jersey 
Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Building 
50 Walnut Street 
Newark, NJ 07102 

Send a copy with a SASE and you will get a confirmation back in the mail.

3. It is unclear what the near or long term prospects are for a successful reorganization of Norvergence. If it was indeed the banks buying the Matrix box leases who forced the chapter 11 in order to preserve the validity of their leases, it remains to be seen if the banks can create a successful business from what they have to work with.

4. TAA's EDITORIAL OPINION is as follows: When the banks take a good look at what they have inherited, they will quickly determine that they are in their full rights to require that the Matrix lease holders pay in full for a box that is providing little or no value. The banks will also determine that all the money the Matrix lease holders are required by their lease to pay leave no money left over to actually pay for network usage.

TAA's prediction is that the chapter 11 will move to chapter 7 when it becomes obvious to the banks that no tangible assets exist, no workable business model exists, no "goodwill" for the company exists, no extra money exists to purchase the needed network usage required to provide service through the Matrix boxes and that the Matrix box lease holders will be forced by the banks to honor their leases. It is further predicted by TAA that the current network service providers (Qwest & the cell phone companies) for Norvergence will discontinue providing service as soon as the courts allow.

PLEASE NOTE THAT TAA IS NOT PRIVY TO INSIDE INFORMATION REGARDING NORVERGENCE AND IS NOT CONNECTED TO NORVERGENCE IN ANY WAY. THE ABOVE EDITORIAL OPINION AND PREDICTION MAY BE WRONG. PLEASE DO NOT BASE YOUR DECISIONS ON INFORMATION PROVIDED SOLELY BY TAA. PLEASE CONSULT NORVERGENCE, THE APPLICABLE BANKRUPTCY COURTS AND YOUR OWN ATTORNEY BEFORE MAKING ANY DECISIONS REGARDING YOUR PHONE SERVICE. TAA WILL UPDATE THE ABOVE OPINION AND PREDICTION AS EVENTS WARRANT. 

New Jersey TV Station Report dated July 1st, 2004 Reports Norvergence is being forced into bankruptcy by several banks. Employees will not be paid.

View web report  View video  

New Jersey TV Station Report dated June 29th, 2004 Reports Norvergence employees paychecks bouncing and Norvergence manager reporting cash flow issues.

View web report  View video  

Help Keeping Your Phone Lines Turned On

Call one of the following TAA members:

877-261-3615 KeaneTel

888-893-8755 TBI

800-233-8258 x116 CMS

888-723-0411 Zirvo

800-225-5862 TMC

201-833-4091 TelcoMaven

These phone numbers are provided as a courtesy only. 

Review of NorVergence, Inc.

by Dan Baldwin, TAA Editor-at-Large, December 3, 2003

The following NorVergence review is the opinion of TAA published for the exclusive use of TAA members who may only view it in the password protected members only area of the TAA website at www.TelecomAgent.org. TAA members are not authorized to print or redistribute any part of this review in any form. Anyone who wishes to read this review must first become a member of TAA at www.TelecomAgent.org.

The purpose of this review is to help TAA members understand the value of the complete NorVergence telecom service offering by breaking the complete NorVergence offer down to its individual components and then assigning value to the individual components based on the opinion of TAA.

This review does not conclude with a recommendation that anyone should or should not take advantage of NorVergence’s complete offer. The information that follows simply offers one way, but not the only way, to evaluate whether the complete NorVergence offer will provide a sufficient amount of value to justify all costs associated with taking advantage of the complete offer.

Please note that TAA members must not base their decisions regarding NorVergence on this publication alone and are highly encouraged to contact NorVergence directly or to seek other independent sources of NorVergence information. TAA has shared this review with NorVergence so that NorVergence can properly address any information that they believe requires revision, update or will cause NorVergence to sue TAA.

The NorVergence Offer

On their website at www.NorVergence.com, NorVergence offers small and medium sized businesses the opportunity to cut their local, long distance, Internet access, private line and cellular costs “up to 60%” utilizing NorVergence’s “MATRIX™ hardware system”.

As has been reported to TAA by NorVergence prospects and customers, that in order to achieve the claimed savings of up to 60%, a NorVergence customer must sign a 60-month equipment lease for the MATRIX™ hardware system that is installed at the customer’s physical location.

Once the MATRIX™ hardware system is leased and installed, the NorVergence customer experiences up to 60% savings in that the two new invoices received by the NorVergence customer, one for the 60-month MATRIX™ hardware system lease and one from NorVergence for the “unlimited USA inbound & outbound calling” network services that NorVergence is delivering, is up to 60% less than what the NorVergence customer was paying for their network services previously.

The NorVergence Difference

The primary difference between NorVergence’s offer and the network service offer of other vendors is that the NorVergence offer includes deep discounts on cellular phone calls and is entirely contingent upon the NorVergence network service customer leasing the proprietary MATRIX™ hardware system via an agreement that is separate from the agreement for NorVergence to provide network service. 

Other vendors that would offer near flat-rate prices for wired network services do not require that the user lease a proprietary hardware platform to access the network service, most any industry standard network interface device will work. 

This difference is critical in that with other vendors the network interface hardware piece is a very small part of the overall solution cost such that if the network service provider fails to deliver network services, the customer can cancel their network services contract (which is the biggest part of the solution cost) and is left with a network interface hardware device that didn’t cost much and is usable with other network service providers. 

With Norvergence it seems, the network interface hardware device, the MATRIX™ , that is critical to NorVergence’s delivery of network services is the largest cost of the complete NorVergence solution and is entirely separate from NorVergence’ agreement to provide network services to the leaseholder of a MATRIX™ device. 

Unlike the risk associated with other network service vendors where you can walk away largely unhurt if they fail to deliver service, with NorVergence, if they fail to properly deliver network services you can stop paying them for network services but the cancellation of the network services agreement in no way cancels your continued lease obligation for the MATRIX™ hardware – you keep paying that for the full 60 months.

"Open" Equipment Design

To help understand the important differences between network service and the hardware that makes network service useful, consider the idea behind the “open design” of most business phone systems and the “closed design” behind many cellular phones. 

A thrifty business owner can purchase and install an “open design” digital Panasonic phone system with all the necessary features including auto-attendant and voicemail for just a couple thousand dollars. (To see how inexpensive & easy installing a Panasonic digital phone system can be visit www.AbleComm.com). 

But even after installation, the business owner’s “open design” Panasonic phone system is useless until he or she contracts separately for network services – the dial tone, long distance, Internet access and the like that makes the Panasonic phone system useful as Panasonic is not in the business of providing their customers the network service their customers use the Panasonic phone system on. 

The business owner is free to barter with multiple network service providers because Panasonic has designed their phone system to work with any network services vendor hence the idea behind “open design”. If one network service vendor doesn’t work out the business owner doesn’t throw away the Panasonic phone system, he or she simply contracts with another network services vendor and continues to use the same Panasonic phone system.

"Closed" Equipment Design

The opposite of open equipment design is of course “closed equipment design”. An example of closed design can be seen in the “push-to-talk” cellular phones. When a customer subscribes to the cellular phone service of a particular cellular network service provider, the customer may need to buy a cell phone compatible with that provider’s network.

An important understanding here is that the cell phone equipment purchase is a transaction entirely separate from the transaction and agreement for the cell phone network service provider to deliver consistent ongoing cellular network service. 

If the customer decides that the cellular network service provider no long meets their needs and switches to a different cell phone service provider, the cell phone the customer purchased to use with the previous provider most likely could not be used with the new cellular service provider. Most customers of cell phone service now acknowledge up front that their investment in the actual cell phone equipment will be lost when they no longer use the service provider the equipment is designed for.

Assigning Value to the NorVergence Offer

Understanding now the important difference between open & closed equipment design and that network service is generally purchased separately from the equipment that makes it work, let us break down the complete NorVergence service offer and assign value to its individual components.

TAA's current understanding is that the complete NorVergence package of unlimited USA inbound and outbound calling is delivered through two completely separate agreements. 

One agreement is for the MATRIX™ equipment. This is the agreement that has a fixed price for 60 months and, as it is an equipment lease, it can be sold or assigned to another party in that a customer who has leased a MATRIX™ box may soon find that they are remitting their monthly lease payments directly to a bank that is in no way associated with NorVergence and is not a party to the network services agreement that the customer leasing the MATRIX™ box has with NorVergence, the second agreement that makes the overall NorVergence package work.

To properly review the overall value of the complete NorVergence package, it is recommended that the value of the two separate agreements that comprise the overall package be separately considered.

What's MATRIX™ Worth By Itself?

Take first the monetary value of the required MATRIX™ equipment lease. If the lease is $500 for 60 months, the total cash outlay is $30,000. Is the MATRIX™ equipment worth $30,000 to the customer leasing it with any other network service provider other than NorVergence?

Now take the monetary value of NorVergence’s network service agreement. Theoretically, the NorVergence network service bill received by the customer from NorVergence will be very small – just a flat monthly account management fee and charges for any international calls made since the customer can make unlimited USA inbound and outbound calls. Many might agree that the monetary value of this agreement, unlimited calls for a small flat service fee is quite high.

Considered together, the two separate agreements seem to compliment each other rather well and provide considerable value. However, if the two agreements are completely separate from one another and, as much as one may wish to consider their combined value, it could be an improper valuation if the two agreements are indeed entirely separate.

As the equipment lease is the agreement that requires the customer to invest the most money, consideration of this separate agreement is what must take precedence. In the example above, if NorVergence ceases in their delivery of unlimited network services, the inbound and outbound USA calling, for which they are charging next to nothing, the
customer will still be the lease holder of a $30,000 MATRIX™ box. 

Who Other Than NorVergence Does MATRIX™ Work With?

In this scenario, for the MATRIX™ box to retain its value separate from NorVergence’s network service agreement, the MATRIX™ lease holder must be able to use it to contract for similar network services (unlimited inbound and outbound USA calling for a minimal monthly fee) with a non-NorVergence vendor. 

Currently, TAA is not aware of any network services vendor exists, other than NorVergence, that would provide the leaseholder of a MATRIX™ box unlimited inbound and outbound USA calling for a minimal monthly fee.

The decision therefore to accept for one’s business the complete NorVergence package is to understand that the receipt of benefits of one provider’s agreement is entirely contingent on the deliver of services of another vendor where the two vendors are in no way connected with or responsible for the services provided by or the agreement of the other vendor.

How Hungry Are You?

As this review is written in December, America’s eating season, this review should conclude with the story of a fine restaurant.

The fine restaurant in this story sits atop a high mountain that is accessible only by taking a tram. There is only one restaurant atop the mountain and there is only one tram that serves the mountaintop. 

The restaurant serves unlimited quantities of the finest food to anyone that enters the restaurant for just one dollar per visit but the tram only carries customers that prepay for 5 years of tram rides. The people who own the tram company and the people who own the restaurant know each other. 

The transaction to purchase a 5-year tram pass is completely separate from the $1 transaction to eat at the restaurant. The restaurant is in no way responsible for the tram services provided by the tram company and the tram company is in no way responsible for the services provided by the restaurant. 

Enjoy your meal!

End of TAA "Review of Norvergence, Inc." Telecom Association, Inc. © 2003. All rights reserved. No part of this review may be printed, copied or retransmitted in any part or whole without the written permission of TAA. You may contact TAA at 206-203-6115.

			Norvergence Response to TAA Review

December 11, 2003

Readers of this TAA report by Mr. Baldwin should know that it is largely based on online exchanges between unidentified people who lack a reliable source of information about our solution and services. They may even be disgruntled former employees. To that end, we are updating and expanding our Web site to provide factual and complete information, as well as frequently asked questions.

Additionally, we would like to refer readers to a reliable source at corporate headquarters for securing accurate information. Trish Galvin, Manager of Corporate Communications, can answer any questions relating to our customized engineering solutions. Ms. Galvin can be reached at patricia.galvin@norvergence.com. 

For information on our rental services and contract terms, contact Robert Fine, Director of Banking Relations at (973) 242-7500, ext. 4293.

Further, there are a number of inaccuracies in the article. To clarify:

• NorVergence does not offer lease agreements. NorVergence only offers rental agreements.
  
• Only credit-qualified customers can receive five year terms. Not every rental agreement allows for 60 months
  
• There is nothing unusual or unethical about the way NorVergence bundles services and products to deliver convenience and savings to small business customers. In fact, all of the vendors involved in our operation are working in concert.  We have no reason to cease delivery services unless there is nonpayment from a customer.
  
• Our MATRIX gateway is an open-standard system that will work with any next-generation carrier network, including all VoATM and VoIP platforms.

Finally, we don’t think telecom engineering and services firms and restaurants compare, but if our company were to be compared to a restaurant, it would be a healthy smorgasbord with all your courses available for one low price that’s actually affordable.

Regards,

Alexander L. Wolf
Chief Operating Officer
NorVergence, Inc.

 

			Follow-Up

In order to best serve the information needs of TAA members, TAA will continue to collect and publish information about NorVergence that TAA deems to be objective and helpful to TAA members.

If you are an end-user prospect or customer of NorVergence and would like to speak to other end-user prospects or customers of NorVergence, please fax your request on company letterhead to TAA at 909-494-4257. To confirm your end-user status, please include with your faxed request the cover page of your NorVergence invoice or proposal.

If you would like to add to TAA's ongoing published review of Norvergence, please contact Dan Baldwin via phone at 206-203-6115 x2 or via email at norvergence@telecomagent.org.

If you would like to get a proposal for integrated T-1 service for your business from an objective and independent telecom agent who is also a member of TAA, click here for a list of agent names and phone numbers.

 

			Appendix

Norvergence Equipment Rental Agreement - Front  This is page one of a document faxed to TAA by a Norvergence prospect in 2003. TAA had the document transcribed for legibility. The yellow highlights have been added by TAA.

Norvergence Equipment Rental Agreement - Back  This is page two of the document faxed to TAA by a Norvergence prospect in 2003. TAA had the document transcribed for legibility. The yellow highlights have been added by TAA.

Norvergence Equipment Rental Agreement - Back (ENLARGED)   This is the same page two of the document above, faxed to TAA by a Norvergence prospect in 2003, with the text enlarged to make it easier to read. TAA had the document transcribed for legibility. The yellow highlights have been added by TAA.

Legal Opinion of Norvergence Contract & Rental Agreement  This is a brief opinion paid for by TAA. TAA provided to an attorney the Norvergence contract and rental agreement faxed to TAA by a Norvergence prospect. TAA posed four questions to the attorney about the Norvergence contract & rental agreement. This document provides the attorney's response to TAA's questions.

Norvergence Public Records From NJ Attorney General's Office (PDF 1.7 megs) TAA contacted the New Jersey Attorney General's office and made an open public records request for any documents related to complaints officially lodged with the New Jersey Attorney General's office regarding Norvergence. The NJ attorney general's office provided TAA with 34 pages which are deemed part of the public record. TAA has published the same 34 pages available to anyone who requests it from the NJAG office via an open public records request.

New Jersey TV Station Report dated July 1st, 2004 Reports Norvergence is being forced into bankruptcy by several banks. Employees will not be paid.

View web report  View video  

New Jersey TV Station Report dated June 29th, 2004 Reports Norvergence employees paychecks bouncing and Norvergence manager reporting cash flow issues.

View web report  View video  

New Jersey Newspaper Article dated June 17th, 2004 (The following article appeared in the "Garden State Briefs" section of the Star-Ledger newspaper)

     Internet company restores service
     By Joseph R. Perone, Star-Ledger Staff

     About 10,000 high-speed Internet customers of NorVergence were without service yesterday after the Newark telecommunications company failed to make a payment to its network carrier, Qwest Communications.

    NorVergence Chief Executive Peter Salzano said the company failed to make a payment to Qwest for the phone lines his company leases. "We had some financial matters that needed to be cleared up," he said. "Qwest had turned off some of our circuits nationally. This was a working capital issue."

    Salzano said his company made a payment to Qwest to restore service. "They received what they needed to receive," he said, "and they are turning us back on."

    Confused customers initially were told yesterday the NorVergence network was having technical problems. "Their customer service lines were busy for three hours," said Steve Riess, a head-hunter in Chicago. "I haven't had Internet service since 2 p.m. Tuesday afternoon.

    Qwest spokesman Claire Mylott said there were no outages within the Qwest network, and cited a "confidential customer matter" in declining further comment.

New Jersey Newspaper Article dated February 26th, 2004 (The following article appeared on page 53 of the business section of the Star-Ledger newspaper)

    'Restructuring' wipes out 300 jobs
    By George E. Jordan, Star-Ledger Staff

    Norvergence, a Newark-based company that sells low-cost telecommunications services to small businesses, has abruptly fired 300 telemarketers as part of a "restructuring." 

    Alexander Wolf, Norvergence's chief operating officer, said the job cuts Tuesday evening significantly reduced the company's cadre of telemarketers based at a call center at 550 Broad St. 

    Asked why the company cut jobs, Wolf said: "We have to bring on people en masse. It's not always the very best-qualified people for the roles. You have to go back and ask what's working and what's not. It's a constant act of reshaping." 

    Wolf said a few hundred sales agents in the field and fewer than 100 telemarketers who remain account for 80 percent of the company's sales. 

    Norvergence, founded in 2001, reported $150 million in sales last year, according to a D&B business report posted on Norvergence's Web site. 

    After the job cuts, Wolf said, the company has 2,500 employees and, on average, hires 300 new employees a month. 

    The company markets voice, data, Internet, pager and cellular telephone services to small businesses, claming it can reduce a business' monthly telecommunications expenses by as much as 60 percent. 

    Because fewer than 500 workers were fired, Norvergence was exempt from giving 60-day advance notice under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act. 

    State Department of Labor counselors went to the company Tuesday evening to hand out applications for unemployment benefits as the lobby of 550 Broad St. filled with stunned, tearful workers headed home after receiving word of their dismissal. 

    "All in all, it was a huge shock for the total number of people to get fired at one time," said Jeffrey Ochoa, 31, who worked at Norvergence for three months. "They just kept calling in 40 to 50 people at a time into a conference, and we would never see them again. Then the next group was called in." 

    "They just axed us," said Don Hagans, 37, a Newark resident who joined Norvergence 10 months ago. "It was just complete disarray and chaos. It's just very unfortunate for me and a lot of other people to have to go through that. You put hard work into a company and all of a sudden they tell you your services are no longer needed." 

    The telemarketing agents earned $30,000 a year plus commissions for working six hours daily soliciting businesses around the country by telephone. They made appointments for face-to-face visits by sales agents. 

Other Links

Yahoo Group of Norvergence Customers

Yahoo Group of Norvergence Employees

http://www.esi-estech.com/