March 25, 2009

Delinquent FTTH ordered to vacate Association property.

Dear Member of Victor Gardens Community Association:

For the past several months, the Victor Gardens Community Association has been attempting to work with FTTH Communications- a provider of telephone, internet, and television service to many in the community.  Despite many efforts and attempts to address on going concerns, FTTH has not responded.  Effective April 30, 2009, FTTH will no longer be permitted to occupy space in the Neighborhood Activity Center and will cease to be a service provider in Victor Gardens.

FTTH Communications has failed to live up to its obligation to pay Victor Gardens Community Association, as agreed upon, for the space it occupies in the Neighborhood Activity Center.

On February 20, 2009, the Board of Directors mailed a Delinquency and Impending Vacate notice to FTTH Communications and gave it 30 days to fulfill its obligation to the Victor Gardens Community Association or vacate the Neighborhood Activity Center.  To date, Victor Gardens Community Association has not received payment; therefore, the Board of Directors has no other choice but to order FTTH Communication to vacate the Neighborhood Activity Center.

If you are using FTTH Communications as your television, telephone or internet service provider, please consider other alternatives before April 30, 2009.

Should you have any questions, please contact our Community Manager, Casey Groff at 763-225-6498 or via email at cgroff@developcommunity.com

Sincerely,

The Board of Directors, Victor Gardens Community Association

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18 comments:

  1. I think FTTH was purchased by Rudder Communications 2 years ago.

    They (rudder/FTTH) have a lock on sales of DIRECT TV in our development - meaning everything has to go through FTTH.

    Has Rudder even been approached on this(community bldg rent)?? http://www.ruddercc.com

    This certainly seems both hasty and unfair to give us residents only 35 days to come up with alternative services.

    Randy
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  2. I have phone and internet service from FTTH and need to keep the high speed fiber optic service (for the days I work from home). Can anyone tell me if there is another provider that offers fiber optic internet in Victor Gardens?

    Joan
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  3. Heres two options there may be more:
    http://www.comcast.net/
    http://www.qwest.net/
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  4. After the Master Association transitioned from CPDC (the Developer) control of Victor Gardens the Board was made aware of a verbal agreement between FTTH and Homer Tompkins, President of CPDC. Mr. Tompkins, who not surprisingly had a separate business interest in FTTH, allowed the company to use our Neighborhood Activity Center for its equipment - rent free. In addition, our Association and your dues paid FTTH's electric bills. All of those servers and communications equipment used a lot of power, and cost us a lot of money. When the Board put a stop to FTTH's free ride, an agreement was negotiated so that FTTH would pay a very modest rent each month. They did pay a few months, but then stopped altogether and became unreachable.
    This was not a sudden or easy decision for the Board to make. The Board made several attempts to resolve the issue with FTTH, but were unwilling to continue using our association dues to subsidize one outside business' operations. Unfortunately, FTTH placed themselves in this situation, and resident subscribers were caught in the middle.
    On a related note: I personally wondered how FTTH could keep up with stronger competition as Comcast and Qwest continued to speed up their internet connections and offer more choices for TV and phone products. If FTTH couldn't afford a few hundred dollars of rent how long would they be able to compete with the larger companies and sustain their business?
    There are at least few of FTTH's competitors who offer similar services without requiring subsidies from residents.
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  5. We have been meaning to drop FTTH and go with Comcast or Qwest... this is finally our reason to finally do it! FTTH told us several years ago they would be bringing cable service to VG... obviously, that never came to fruition. Service has been spotty as well.

    Thanks for the information! By the way, for those of you using Comcast or Qwest, any recommendations? Does Qwest have their fiber optic out this far?
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  6. I've been an FTTH customer since my family moved in nearly 3 years ago and service has been 95%+ reliable. I'm disappointed with the outcome, but fully understand the board's position. Even if FTTH had fulfilled their obligations, I was expecting a rate increase to make up the difference anyway.

    In doing some research last night, Comcast has faster service for internet, while Qwest is cheaper per month. I plan to move my phone service to Vonage which will use my internet connection for phone service and likely save me $20+ per month. Worst case, I'll bundle phone and internet again with 1 company since I'm not giving up Satellite TV.

    A word of advice if you have a home that has never had Comcast service. They are asking me to deliver or fax a copy of my Title documents to verify my right to connect service.
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  7. A big point I am trying to make is this - more then 50 % of the SFH's are on FTTH. If we send someone up to "unplug" the power to the FTTH server equipment, you are going to have some pretty upset residents.

    I think there needs to be more time to make people aware of the change. 3o days are probably not enough time to even get the word out to residents who are on FTTH (I am not on FTTH by the way). I don't think this blog is visited by every resident.

    I am all for the eviction of FTTH for non payment but I am wondering if we as an association are protected legally on this? Are we protected from a potential lawsuit from Rudder/FTTH if we disable the power to their equipment?
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  8. I agree, not everyone checks the website that often. That's why our Community Manager, Casey Groff is sending all owners an "official" notification via mail. I wanted to get the news out to residents ASAP via this website and the emails I sent. Most of the Single Family Village owners, and a large number of Town Home owners subscribe to that "Announcements" email list, so I hope that no-one will be surprised when the service is disconnected.
    There's no question that this a lousy situation for residents that subscribe to FTTH. The reality is that FTTH has been aware of this for months. They've chosen not to address the fact that the are housing their equipment in a space that they don't pay rent or electrical expenses for. They've stopped answering the Board's calls or emails too.
    The Association has been patient and careful in the way that it has proceeded. Now it is within its rights to act.
    In my opinion, this grew out of another familiar situation in which the Developer CPDC furthered their own interests on the backs of dues-paying residents. The Association has made great progress since the transition, but it's taken some time to clean up the mess that was made when the Developer left. Good news is that the Board is making great progress in this effort.
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  9. Just an FYI to compare Offerings/service in our neighborhood:

    FTTH (Fiber) - up to 20mbps

    Qwest (DSL) - up to 7mbps

    Comcast - up to 50 mbps

    Qwest Fiber service is not yet available in our neighborhood (per their website). For those that require/d Fiber service due to high bandwidth requirments, Comcast now offers 50mbps service to the home.
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  10. I've done some checking and found Verizon and Qwest do not offer high speed internet to our neighborhood. Comcast does at comparable speeds to FTTH.
    Phone & internet with FTTH is $77
    Phone & internet with Comcast is $90 plus $60 installation fee. Add cable and cost is $125. (I have DirectTV...tried to get television thru FTTH but it is not offered in Victor Gardens.)
    Unless someone knows of another provider, Comcast is the only (high speed) internet option. Joan
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  11. Switchers need to be aware that a few different technologies are available. FTTH used fiber optics, Comcast uses cable, and Qwest uses DSL over phone wires.

    I have experience with both Cable (Comcast) and DSL (Qwest). DSL is painfully slow to use as a internet connection. Keep in mind that the speeds these companies quote you are under ideal lab-type conditions- not real world conditions. If memory serves me, DSL is rated at approx. 1.5MB/sec download speed. I actually tested mine and and was recieving .75 MB! Half what I was rated for! My DSL connection was only marginally better that the 'ol fashioned dial-up. I don't know how fast FTTH is, but our Comcast (Cable) now provides speeds I tested better than 10.0MB/sec download speed.

    We have the comcast triple package, TV, inernet, and phone, and the service has been great.
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  12. I don't think FTTH internet speeds are that fast. I have done some speed tests and you are just above the 1.5 mbps threshold. Although maybe they offer a faster service than what we have. Although our neighborhood might be wired for fiber optic, I'll bet the input to the local switch isn't.

    I just had Qwest offer me 7mbps and phone service for $56/month for a year. additionally, they offered in a $100 gift card. As Joan mentioned, internet and phone through FTTH runs $77 or so.

    Anyways,
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  13. I called FTTH and my internet connection is 5megs. It's fast...my kids watch TV and movies online all the time (hulu.com, etc.)and there is no lag time when I connect to my employer's computer system and work from home. Joan
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  14. Companies overstate the speeds they provide. To check the speed for yourself using your wiring and your computer try http://www.speedtest.net/ or google "bandwidth test", etc. I'd be curious to see the actual speeds vs. the ones promised.
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  15. Hi everyone;
    We received a letter from FTTH yesterday (as others likely have too) indicating that they have legal rights to provide service. We are scheduled to meet with Ed Guck of Comcast tonight to switch service. Wondering about the legal ramifications for our HOA: Are there reasons to put off switching today? Vickie
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  16. FTTH may have rights to provide service. Just as other utilities would have the right to provide service to our homes. FTTH is failing is on the obligations they've already agreed to, but haven't paid. Do they have rights? Yes. Our Association has rights too. We don't have to subsidize one company's business. Would we also be forced to subsidize Comcast, Qwest, or Verizon? No.
    I also received a message from FTTH citing a utility right of way / easement. This does not include our Neighborhood Activity Center however. That's where their equipment is stored currently.

    I would ask myself this question: Would I want to do business with a company that doesn't pay its bills, and threatens legal action against an Association I am part of and that I pay dues to? Especially when there are other options available? In my opinion, the answer is absolutely not.
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  17. I too am an FTTH customer. I was surprised and concerned about our decision to evict them as so many residents will be affected. Are we cutting off our nose to spite our face here?

    I called FTTH Monday morning regarding this problem. They told me they weren't aware there was a problem until several VG residents/customers called that morning with concerns. Did we speak with company representatives or correspond strictly via written communication? Also, the company rep. told me it was unlikely our service would be affected even if they were removed form our community center as they would find another location nearby. I intend to keep the service and would like to see us work out a solution with them and avoid the impending eviction.
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  18. Sounds to me that there are two very distinct issues here:

    1. Ftth has equipment in the Activity Center and isn't paying for that responsibility. Basically the HOA has done what they should to remove the equipment and make the necessary changes so the HOA (all of us) no longer are paying for the business to do business.

    2. Ftth does have the easement and is in many homes. They also have the responsibility to continue to provide that service as those customers have contracts for service in place.

    My take is: Remove the equipment as they have been notified and the homeowners that want to continue to have the service demand no interruption to their services.

    Since FTTH is already aware of all of this, the removal of this equipment from the Activity center should NOT impact current customers. FTTH is contractually obligated to provide the service.

    If I had FTTH and wanted to keep them, I would call them and tell them that they have had enough time to put another solution in place and this should not disrupt the services they are stating they have the right to provide.

    Let them provide it, but not at the associations (all of ours) cost.
    ReplyDelete

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