I am so disappointed with my experience with SSP Data. I got connected to them in the fall of 2012 - they were offering a Barracuda lunch 'n learn, I'm a Barracuda fan, so why not?
Fast forward several months and we now have a bonafide relationship. I am the new IT person at a company with a slew of network issues and since I have been out of this type of role for several years, I could use some help!
I worked on several things with SSP Data - I migrated from an on-premise Exchange to a hosted solution through Intermedia and I also replaced our dated and non-maintained Cisco Call Manager with a CudaTel by Barracuda. At the onset of both of these solutions, I was led to believe that they had experience with these solutions, which I found out later they did not - I was their first on both of these solutions. This was only somewhat of an issue because at the end of the day, they knew enough to make the migrations mostly successful.
However, all the while, there were issues with communication. I would send an email to the tech(s) that I was working with and I wouldn't hear back for a very long time - days. Often times, I would email two of the primary techs, Anurag Jain & Dev Mutha multiple times and then finally I would email Dev's brother, Sandesh Mutha and then finally, someone would get back to me. (Dev & Sandesh own SSP data) I expressed my frustration with this lack of follow-up and "dropping the ball" to Sandesh several times. At which time, it would get better for a while, but then it would ultimately go back downhill.
Given my position, the work that we had done together and the relationship that I had built with them - Dev & Sandesh especially, I wanted to forge ahead and continue to use them as needed.
For me, the straw that broke the camels' back was in December of 2013 - New Year's Eve actually. I sent an email to Dev at 8:45 AM in a panic. I was in the middle of a server role migration and the server that I was trying to phase out died unexpectedly and I needed to accelerate my plan - by a LOT - and needed to take advantage of the New Year's Day holiday to complete this. But in order to do this, I needed some help. I sent a lengthy email to Dev, expressing my desperation. Now, it's NYE and I know that a lot of people will be knocking off early today, so when I haven't heard back from Dev by 11:45, my panic accelerated, so I started calling different people at the company, trying to get someone on the phone. Finally I got Bill Guggemos. I explained to him my situation, he said he was available to help and asked me to forward to him the email that I had sent to Dev that morning. So I did at 11:55. At 1:27, I reach back out to Bill, asking if he will still be able to help me and his response at 2:18 PM? "I'm actually not a DNS guy. Dev would be the expert on that Lu's I'm on the toad heading home." Translated from what I assume is auto-correct striking again is that he can't help and he's on his way home... really? I mean, REALLY? He knew that I was desperate, he knew me and he couldn't do me the professional courtesy of a PHONE CALL on NYE, letting me know that he couldn't help? Bottom-line, between waiting for both Dev and Bill to respond, they killed 6 hours on NYE, effectively making it impossible for me to reach out and get help elsewhere - I mean REALLY?!
Again, I understand that it was short notice on a holiday - I get that - but that's when you need a reliable, professional IT company the most to step up - if they can't help because they're busy / short-handed / otherwise committed I understand, what I do NOT understand and what I can NOT forgive, for the umpteenth time was their lack of communication on this. If they would have gotten back to me early, I could have sought help elsewhere. But in this case, they totally screwed me and they clearly, couldn't care less.
If an IT company leaves you stranded when the proverbial shit hits the fan, then what good are they?
No good. Move on. Find someone else to work with. I would not work with this company again, under any circumstances. And there is no way that I could recommend them. read more