Best Buy Acquires SpeakEasy

spazimodo writes "From the announcement e-mail from Speakeasy CEO Bruce Chatterley: 'I am pleased to announce that Speakeasy has been acquired by Best Buy, an innovative and growing Fortune 100 company and the top consumer electronics retailer in North America. This is a significant milestone for our company as our new relationship will help us realize our goals of becoming the No. 1 provider of voice and data solutions to small businesses. It is important to note that though Speakeasy will now be a wholly owned subsidiary of Best Buy, we will continue to operate as a standalone, independent operating division with headquarters in Seattle.' As a longtime Speakeasy customer, it's too bad to see their business moving in this direction. Back in the day when I called up their support with a problem, and mentioned I was using an OpenBSD box as a firewall/gateway the response was: 'cool!' — slightly different from the response Comcast or Verizon would give. I can't imagine they'll be able to maintain that independence, and there's no way I'm paying a premium for Internet service to Best Buy."

God Forbid

[Bananatree3]

I sure hope they don't turn SpeakEasy into another Geek Squad quandry. Consumerist has a nice quote on this: [consumerist.com]

A common refrain we hear from the former and current Geek Squad employees we've been talking to is that Geek Squad used to be awesome. Robert Stephens built up an award-winning company with a reputation for being the best in the business. Then he sold it to Best Buy and they turned it to garbage.

April Fools

[yppiz]

Please tell me this is an early April Fools.

Please?

I hope they hold it together, but if they don't, there's Sonic.net [sonic.net] which is like Speakeasy without the marketing budget.

--Pat

DSLExtreme

[vyrus128]

For those in areas where it's possible, I'd strongly suggest dropping Speakeasy and switching to DSLExtreme. That's who I use, and much like Speakeasy they offer free static IPs and no restrictions on the usage of your line.

Speakeasy

[pHZero]

As an existing Speakeasy customer, the e-mail I received from them this morning made me uneasy, but I'm willing to stick around for a while and see how things go.

Here was the text of the e-mail I received:

Dear Speakeasy Members,

Today is an historic and exciting day for Speakeasy.

I am pleased to announce that Speakeasy has been acquired by Best Buy, an innovative and growing Fortune 100 company and the top consumer electronics retailer in North America. This is a significant milestone for our company as our new relationship will help us realize our goals of becoming the No. 1 provider of voice and data solutions to small businesses. It is important to note that though Speakeasy will now be a wholly owned subsidiary of Best Buy, we will continue to operate as a standalone, independent operating division with headquarters in Seattle.

Speakeasy will be an important part of the Best Buy For Business service that delivers simple, reliable, and affordable technology solutions to small businesses. Speakeasy's array of broadband voice, data and managed services offerings will be the focal point of the Best Buy For Business communications solutions. This agreement is a major step forward for our company. While our business remains strong, our relationship with Best Buy provides us with additional resources and brand recognition, while opening new sales channels which will dramatically accelerate our growth.

Best Buy, like Speakeasy, is known for its high level of customer service. Our reputation as a trusted provider of voice and data services with stellar customer service will not change. Our values are similar too -- Best Buy shares our customer passion, respect for individuals, and drive to do the right thing while achieving results. All aspects of your service will continue to be managed by Speakeasy and the excellent service and support you expect will continue uninterrupted.

Best Regards,

Bruce Chatterley

President & CEO, Speakeasy, Inc.

GENERAL INFORMATION

What are Best Buy and Speakeasy announcing today?

Best Buy has agreed to acquire Speakeasy, a privately-held voice and data solutions company based in Seattle, WA. Speakeasy will be aligned under the Best Buy For Business (BBFB) unit, enhancing Best Buy's technology portfolio and ability to help small businesses improve their productivity and cut costs.

Why is Best Buy purchasing Speakeasy?

Speakeasy is a highly regarded voice and data services provider with national coverage whose values align well with those of Best Buy. Best Buy is seeking to accelerate the growth of Best Buy For Business (BBFB) by providing core communications solutions for small businesses. Speakeasy's array of products offer a simple, understandable value proposition to small business owners, and gives BBFB the opportunity to build and maintain a regular, recurring relationship with customers.

Who is Best Buy? Where are they located?

Best Buy Co., Inc (NYSE: BBY) is one of the nation?s leading retailers of technology and entertainment products and services. Their mission is to give customers great experiences - whether they are shopping for consumer electronics, home-office products, entertainment software and appliances, or using those products and related-services in their homes or offices. Best Buy's corporate campus is located in Richfield, Minnesota and it operates over 1,150 stores across the U.S., Canada, and China.

Why would a retailer buy a technology company?

One of Speakeasy's core product offerings is Voice over IP (VoIP), which is becoming a popular choice for small businesses who seek efficient and cost-effective telecommunications services. Best Buy For Business' mission is to deliver simple, reliable, and affordable technology solutions to small businesses. A product offering such as VoIP, which has immediate compelling appeal to most SBs based on cost savings and simplicity, is an attractive value proposition that allows Best Buy to round out its

Re:This is bad

[blincoln]

I'm sure they'll claim "nothing will change"

Things are already changing.

I signed up with Speakeasy several years ago, and was always impressed with their quick and friendly tech support. I also liked supporting a business that had grown from a small local company to something more successful - I remember using the monochrome dumb terminals they had for free lynx usage in their coffeehouse back in the mid-90s.

In December I decided to switch to their OneLink product, because I wasn't using my home phone anymore. It took a month for them to send someone from Covad out and to call the right number when they got there. I ended up taking 3-4 days off of work because (unlike the phone/cable/power companies) Covad can't be bothered to keep keys to locked utility rooms at apartment buildings. However, once it was finally hooked up it worked great, even if I did have to buy yet another DSL modem.

Then, a month after I switched, they sent me a bill with an extra $300 tacked on for "missed appointments" with the Covad techs. I called them up and they would only remove one of them. I figured there was no way out of it and paid it but decided to cancel my service. When I did, they told me that by using it for more than 25 days, I had implicitly agreed to a 12-month contract with a $300 early termination fee. I asked them how it was possible to agree to a contract without signing anything, speaking anything, or even clicking on an "I accept" type button, but they insisted it was true. I'm still disputing that fee.

I suppose they were just gearing up to switch over to the Best Buy model of customer "service". It was especially thoughtful of them to not bill me for the alleged "missed appointments" until I'd already supposedly agreed to their 12-month "contract".

Speakeasy having money problems? Terrible support

[Anonymous Coward]

I have several clients using Speakeasy (many lines, in many states, over 5 years), and their support is now very poor despite the premium they charge. I hope/assume it's just a lack of resources. You can always get someone on the phone who is polite and professional, but their universal response to problems is, 1) It's the customer's fault, and, if you can disproves that, 2) There's nothing we can do.

For example, one client has a T1 with and SLA from Speakeasy. If it goes down, their website says automatic monitoring will notify a support engineer who will open a ticket. If you ask the engineers, they insist that there is no automatic notification, and they are unaware of the problem unless the customer calls them. Again, that's on a T1 with an SLA.

If I call them, they start by trying to pin the blame on us. If I can prove it's not us, they try a few quick diagnostics and, if those don't help, they say 'I don't know what's wrong -- that's all I can tell you'. If a DSL line is malfunctioning, they say, every time, 'you are too far from the CO for that level of service; we can give you a slower service'. Of course, the third time they say it about the same line (after we've lowered the speed twice), it's a little implausible, and when I point out that we've been paying for that service based on their previous recommendation, they don't care. The bottom line is, they take no responsibility for meeting their obligations, not in spirit and not even the letter of them.

I've been planning to find another vendor for awhile. Speakeasy long had an excellent reputation for service; I'm guessing they are constrained by a lack of resources. Maybe Best Buy's deeper pockets will help with that.

Re:God Forbid

[Billosaur]

Forget the GeekSquad mess... Best Buy has been called out for having an internal web site that looks like their external one but with different prices [consumerist.com]. If they bring the same kind of quality to SpeakEasy, it's as good as dead.

Re:This is bad

[holden caufield]

I'm not quite sure I'd recommend Drizzle. It all depends on your needs. Maybe they're good simply running a server. I've been a customer of theirs (with Qwest being the DSL provider) for about the same time - five, maybe six years, I forget. I don't run dedicated servers, but I am an internet user who loves using bittorrent to trade live concerts.

I will attest that their uptime for straight DSL/ISP service has been pretty solid. Maybe one unscheduled outage per year - max, but things are getting worse - especially since being purchased by a larger ISP whose name escapes me. Their email services are really lacking these days Other issues: 10 MB total for an inbox? Not to mention their connectivity to their webmail (a SquirrelMail interface) is at best dicey on a weekly basis. Their customer support folks, while knowledgeable and helpful, are only available business hours M-F. Each of these complaints might have seemed quaint a few years ago, but now it's getting tiresome. The main reason I don't get rid of drizzle (other than being too lazy to set up my own domain and mail forwarding) is that I don't think I'll be able to find 1.5MB/1.0MB ADSL service elsewhere for $50 a month.

It's been a good ride with Drizzle. I'm sorry Speakeasy got purchased. On more than one occasion I considered jumping to them from Drizzle. I don't know who's left, as it's been a long time since I've searched for ISPs. Maybe Blarg is still around? Can anyone attest to them?

OK, Cut the doom & gloom and focus

[Unlikely_Hero]

I just got off the phone with someone in the corporate office in Seattle and I for one am willing to wait it out.
He explained it quite clearly to me, without doublespeak or marketing crap.
Speakeasy will be a wholly owned subsidiary of BestBuy. All the staff is staying in Seattle, all the tech support will still be in Seattle.
SPEAKEASY WILL STILL BE OPERATING THEIR NETWORK, IT WILL NOT BE MANAGED BY ANYONE FROM BESTBUY.
It basically came down to this
1. BestBuy needed an ISP that didn't suck to offer their business customers when they offer to "outfit" a business. For BestBuy (regardless of how malicious they may be), offering a business customer they want to keep as a long term client Comcast or Verizon or ATT or god forbid AOL isn't a winning strategy. So they want to be able to offer SpeakEasy and have it be quick, efficient, and "standard" if you will. They want Speakeasy to be their standard offer.
2. Speakeasy wants a shitload of working capital. BestBuy can give them this. Now, I think it's kind of like accepting blood money, but I'm not the one that has to take care of the accounting.

It's not like we're going to have blueshirts running the network or those yellow-shirt mafia answering the phones.
The e-mail hit me like a punch in the face too.
Also, just so folks know, no one at Speakeasy is "cashing out". Well, at least not the "out" part.
The executive/management people are all staying. Bruce Chatterly will be reporting to a VP at BestBuy, not sure which. the internal structure of Speakeasy is remaining as is.
Also, to point out a big difference. Geek Squad was brought "in house". Speakeasy is NOT being brought "in house" (thank god..)

Thanks to those who pointed out SonicDSL and DSLExtreme as alternatives, I hope I won't need them.
I'm gonna give speakeasy a chance. They've been a fabulous ISP and they deserve the chance.

Re:Goodbye Speakeasy

[krack]

They want Speakeasy's VoIP offerings. From the email I received this morning:

Why is Best Buy purchasing Speakeasy? Speakeasy is a highly regarded voice and data services provider with national coverage whose values align well with those of Best Buy. Best Buy is seeking to accelerate the growth of Best Buy For Business (BBFB) by providing core communications solutions for small businesses. Speakeasy's array of products offer a simple, understandable value proposition to small business owners, and gives BBFB the opportunity to build and maintain a regular, recurring relationship with customers.

From a post on broadbandreports.com:

When you think of it... ...it's the perfect way to complete Speakeasy's transition to a Business-centric model. How many residential server geeks immediately started thinking about alternatives when they saw this in their inboxes this morning?

(threads: http://www.dslreports.com/forum/news,82567~mode=fu ll~days=9999 [dslreports.com] and http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,18070496~da ys=9999 [dslreports.com])

I hope you paid with Visa

[phorm]

If you did, there's this little option called "chargeback"

Moreover, if you don't have verbal (record) or written assent to the so-called contract, it'll be dumped. Basically what Visa does is get both parties on the phone and ask the salesperson to play back the part where they indicated a contract or non-refundable item. Nothing said, nothing written = no contract, and your money usually comes back to you.

Re:This is bad

[Anonymous Coward]

The $300 "missed appointments" ($150 missed appointment fee x2) and the additional $300 early termination fee is presented to you by Covad through Speakeasy. Covad is a massive DSL line carrier and Speakeasy piggy-backs Covad with their Internet service in an almost Master-Blaster type way. Covad will present the charges to Speakeasy who informs the customer and then gets it in the ear. As you can tell, I worked for Speakeasy and as a PTA I handled many, many calls regarding these fees. The Speakeasy terms of service states the 12 month contract term and other fees that can apply for various reasons. (ie, missed appoinments, early termination) No, these terms aren't discussed very often with your Speakeasy sales rep, but if you were aware of these you would probably have never signed up for Speakeasy in the first place.

This has nothing to do with Best Buy acquiring Speakeasy, this is how the Speakeasy/Covad relationship works and I wouldn't expect it to change.

Remember the Cafe?

[FranTaylor]

Way back whem, my buddy Mike and I heard about this Speakeasy place that was going to start up an Internet cafe in Belltown. They had not yet opened up for business, so we went around back to the alley and knocked on the door. Nearby we could hear Mark Arm from Mudhoney practicing on guitar somewhere. The door opened and we met the owners, the Apgars. They were totally cool and really knew what they were doing. When the cafe opened, we used to go there all the time. They had a bunch of machines for public use. They had coffee, beer, food, live music, and it was a perfect place to hang. They realized that they weren't utilizing all of the T1 that they were paying gobs of money for, so they decided to sell some dialup accounts. This is the beginning of the Speakeasy that the rest of you know. Soon after, the cafe burned down in a terrible accident that also consumed a favorite pool hall, the 2-11 Club. By then, the dialup business had really taken off, and they never bothered to reopen the cafe. The Apgars sold out at some point to the current management.

Best Buy. Sheesh. I hardly ever go in there, when I do, I realize that the Target next door has much better prices and much friendlier folks, and I shake my head and walk out. Speakeasy has died, and now its zombie corpse will haunt us. It just goes to show you that everything good will eventually turn to crap.

Damn. You got my hopes up

[Sycraft-fu]

Sonic.net does sound promising... But they work with SBC/AT&T only :P. Unfortunately we are Qwest territory out here so no go.

That was one of the good things about Speakeasy, they went through Covad and Newedge so you could get it almost anywhere.

Re:God Forbid

[gessel]

Crap crap crap. So now what? I've been a speakeasy customer for years now: good SDSL service, excellent customer service, people who actually know configuration options. I'm seriously unhappy. From the zenith of ISPs to the nadir of corporate misculture. Will they start to dynamically rewrite speakeasy quotes between the ad and the sale? [dailytech.com]

poo. this sucks.

Re:God Forbid

[Anonymous Coward]

Posting as AC as I still under a dubious DNA through Accenture that I really dont feel like fighting. They did the same thing with Magnolia Hi-Fi. Took a company that won best service award for 20+ years and sucked all of the good ideas out and gutted the company. Two years after the purchase people were walking into the retail store and saying "Magnolia just doesnt feel like Magnolia anymore" We did not advertise the fact that Magnolia was owned by BBY but the customers could feel the culture shift. Returns went from easy to BBY complex. Customers that had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars we being charged fifty bucks for stupid stuff. They left. Not because they couldnt afford it, it was the change in relationship.

Speakeasy will have the same thing. First the first teir techs will get more scripted and dumbed down because somebody in Richfield will figure out that if they trim tech pay off by a buck an hour the BBY stock will rise by $0.01. Then the AUP will change, then they will become a follower not a leader in R&D and "cool" projects.

I willingly pay an extra $10 to go with speakeasy for the relationship and compitent english speaking front line techs that dont blow me off when I say Cisco or Linux. No more. They lost me and I will be suggesting to my 30 speakeasy clients they migrate to somewhere else when the contract is up.

Re:God Forbid

[Anonymous Coward]

the brain drain there has been terrible in recent times with several key engineering folks leaving for better pastures, i personally left Aug of last year and was glad I got out while the going was good. There are some great people working there who do the best job they can, but they also have a lot of asshat's in charge these days, and I don't imagine this acquisition will make that any better...

R.I.P. Speazy. :(