Friday 8-22-08. Our vendor ETB Services Inc in Collegeville PA, owned and operated by Erik Barnshaw purposely crashed our computer systems by logging into our network, resetting our router and erasing all event logs in the server.
This unpleasant experience happened after ETB Services submitted a very high price quotation a week prior and our company decided to shop out the quote. We were wanting to purchase several computers and upgrades to our existing computers such as memory upgrades. Erik Barnshaw of ETB Services found out we were shopping around and once we called to revisit the quote based on our shopping findings, decided he no longer wanted to service our company. On that phone call, we wanted to pick some of his offerings and award him with the computer sales and labor associated with installation. He declined to work for us. About a half hour later, I had drove to his office location in Collegeville PA and ask for all of our networking codes which we didn't have since his original installation in 2005 so that we could access our server and make pass code changes and get a new networking company in place. For three years, we were never in possession of these necessary codes for access. When I asked for them, Erik Barnshaw proceeded to use profound language about me personally and my company. While trying to suppress the situation, he finally agreed to give us our codes. But first, after I waited for a half an hour, he brought a legal form of General Release of which discharged him of any actions, suits or judgments against him or his company before giving us our access codes. All while we were waiting for this paper work to be generated, my office staff began calling me on my cell phone indicating our network and internet connections went down. My staff contacted our high speed internet connectivity company, Comcast Cable, to verify if they were having service issues in our area. Comcast indicated they were not having any failures and tested our signal to verify we were getting full signal. Once I review the legal General Release document, I faxed it to our company lawyer who indicated that this is property we own and since we did not owe ETB Services any money that they should draft a mutual release form if this was the avenue Erik Barnshaw wanted to take. After refusal to do so, he would not release our networking codes all while our business computers and computer network completely shut down. We were not even able to print, email, have internet access nor access our accounting software. Not until 5pm that day after us having to file a police report and many correspondence back and forth with each others lawyers did he finally release them to us.
Our company is runs an e-commerce business with multiple internet properties that feature live chat support and etc of which ETB Services purposely cripple us that Friday morning. After being down for the rest of the business day (Friday) and two days after that (Saturday and Sunday), our new networking company found that the router had been reset and all the event logs in the server had been erased. Obvious fancy footwork by ETB Services. We then contacted Linksys, the router manufacturer, and asked if they had any trouble with this particular model and version router ever resetting itself. They indicated that there has been no known documented cases of this router ever resetting itself without physically pushing the reset button (now known that it is a very small recessed button that you would have to reset with a paper clip) or resetting it through the server configurations (which we didn't even have access to). The only 1 in a million chance that could ever possibly reset the router, and again no known documented cases ever found, that a power failure could cause. We know that there was no power outages that day since my staff was in the office all day and we then verified with the local power company, PECO Energy whom verified that there was no power outages in our area that day or at our business location.
So why Eric Barnshaw of ETB Services would do such a malicious act of purposely sabotaging a business and shutting it down is simply a disgrace. We are seeking any high security experts or authorities to help us prove this criminal act so this will be the last time a company like ETB Services and a person like Eric Barnshaw ever does this to another company. It is wrong and a deliberate act that needs to be address and Erik Barnshaw and his company ETB Services held accountable for.
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