What if you owned a bunch of real estate that you had no use for and couldn’t get rid of? If you’re like most of us that sounds like a dream, right? I’ll figure THAT problem out! But if you’re Verizon it’s a lot trickier.
Some years ago I did a stint at Verizon, where I was wrapped up in the “what do we do with our payphones?” question. The company installed WiFi at quite a few of the then-company-owned phones, but that wasn’t making any more money than the all-but-defunct coin phone business made.
For Verizon the problem was that it wasn’t making money off the phones any longer, but was obligated by tariff and also by the existence of long-term advertising contracts on the phone enclosures to keep the phones running.
Verizon’s solution was to sell or lease the pay phones to other companies. Problem solved.
One of those companies is spending a pile of money to give New York City free WiFi. And it really is free. Altruism? Of course not; you can count on Van Wagner selling advertising in their WiFi signals, and since Van Wagner is an advertising company it’s a good bet that they’ll succeed.
It’s a business change that makes sense, so long as Van Wagner can keep the antennas healthy and the web servers running. The latter is easy; we’ll see about the former. Verizon had a hard time with that part when they were giving away WiFi from the phone booths.
And it’s straightforward and honest, too. Starbucks gives away WiFi (also with embedded advertising, of course), in the hopes that you’ll hang around drinking expensive coffee. Van Wagner isn’t getting anything except that advertising revenue—and maybe a nice cozy relationship with the City of New York and Mayor Bloomberg.
It makes you wonder why Verizon couldn’t figure this out for themselves, doesn’t it?
As I said, I spent a few years working at Big Red. And I can tell you that they couldn’t do this kind of deal themselves because the department that controlled the advertising, the department that watched over the pay phones and their enclosures, the department that counted revenue from those phones, and the community affairs department didn’t talk enough or care enough about each other’s business issues to cooperate on what could have been a great opportunity. Even within the same company, coopetition wasn’t working.
Of course, that shouldn’t come as a surprise. The larger a company gets the more protective of individual fiefdoms its managers become.
Verizon is particularly dysfunctional in this regard. I learned about The Federal Subscriber Line Charge when I was at Verizon, and was encouraged to tell customers it was a tax (it isn’t) because marketing and operations couldn’t agree on how to talk to customers. It’s the reason Verizon’s customer service is such a mess. It’s why Verizon FIOS Quantum is being misrepresented.It’s why, back in the day when Verizon Wireless was still offering unlimited data plans, that data wasn’t really unlimited.
From a technical perspective I don’t believe the Van Wagner Advertising/City of New York/Verizon free WiFi initiative is going to actually work very well, but Van Wagner should win, and The City will win as long as it can claim to be giving away something of value. And that’s business change.
Real Estate people like to talk “Location, location, location”. This business change is about using your existing locations for something you han’t thought of before. Nice job, Van Wagner.
The City Marshal already has been paid for the “Order of Seizure” there is a filing fee based on the C.P.L.R. regarding Order of Seizures. The fee’s are set for all the County Sheriffs and the N.Y.C. Sheriffs’ Office. The city Marshal is entitled to the same fees.
(The below is from the N.Y.C. sheriffs website)
Orders of Seizure
At any time before a court decision is made, an Order of Seizure can be issued to collect personal property which may have been wrongly taken or withheld from the person entitled to it. Orders of Seizure are temporary. Please bring or send:
A certified copy, plus two copies of the Order of Seizure and the papers upon which the order was granted including the summons and complaint;
The undertaking fixed and approved by the Court for twice the value of the property as stated in the affidavit;
Cover letter detailing actions to be taken;
Check or Money Order for $121.50 made out to “NYC Sheriff”; (THIS IS THE FEE THE CITY MARSHAL WAS PAID)
If sending by mail, send the documents to the office in the borough where defendant or defendant’s property is located.
Regarding the ARTICLE 78 I don’t think you have a leg to stand on, sorry just telling you like it is. The Order of Seizure allows the City Marshal to remove the meter without your permission if its mounted on the outside of the property. If the meter was located say in the basement the City Marshal can not enter the home “unless the Order of Seizure allows the City Marshal to ” Break and Enter” if the order does not have the provision they can not enter the home ” UNLESS YOU ALLOWED THEM IN”
Remember a City Marshal can not demand entry to you home unless you let them in or the order states they can break and enter…..oh and they have no arrest powers they are neither police or peace officers unlike the Deputy Sheriffs in N.Y.C.
Hey Dawg:
I appreciate you watching and responding. I’m pretty sure from the way you wrote that, that you’re correct on all the facts you state. And if you re-read my original article you’ll see that the point I was really making was that Marshal Linda Swift skated awfully close to impersonating a police officer, and then misinformed me about stuff so her fees would go up.
So this morning’s commenter, while … let’s say it … “in the wrong” , was expressing frustration with a system designed to trick people, and from where I sit the fact that the City of New York enables such a system is now as it was then, heinous.
Lets face it all City Marshals are first and foremost a business, they will use all methods to impose their will on the public because the City of New York Gave them a tin badge.
Lets face it I would be more tan happy to be a City Marshal with a store front office, I love capitalism.
The public is frustrated but these individuals were served with papers to opera in court on these matters most disregard it and never try to work it out with the plaintiff. I have a few questions for the poster.
How many months have you gone without paying your gas bill and what was the outstanding balance owed ?
Also Did they advise the gas company about the 90 + year old living there ? I think there is more to this than the poster stating, it’s always at the last second that elderly family member or friends suddenly appear at the residence …. Mostly when it’s an eviction …I enforced these rods for over 28 years so I speaking from experience not opinion . God Bless the System
My apologies for the spelling and punctuation due to my sausage sized fingers on a little key pad ..lol