Wickham Security Meet & Greet
Wickham Security customers were given a chance to air their views on the take-over of the company by the On Call Group during a day of informative sessions in Bromley.
On Call Group Chairman Michael Vry invited customers to drop-in sessions at the Bromley Court Hotel to discuss any concerns or reservations they might have since the former family-run business was absorbed into his group.
The move came as part of £8.2 million worth of acquisitions in the last 2-3 years.
The event was a huge success with around 30 customers attending – all who left understanding that On Call Group had had to step in to keep the business going after the former owners took a back seat due to retirement.
Micheal Vry, On Call chairman said: “The family who ran Wickham Security did a fantastic job and it is a business we were happy to take over.
“We realise there have been some concerns, as you would expect with the country’s fastest growing independent alarm company taking over a local concern, but we are listening, and we are here to help”.
Among the major issues raised were:
- The closure of the Wickham shop on Wickham High Street. It was explained that the shop was closing anyway due to rent increases by the landlord which the shop could not sustain amid a drop in profits.
- The need to upgrade some of the old Wickham systems due to the PSTN telephone network changes nationally.
- The visits by senior security advisors were necessary to check what systems people had and to ascertain that they had the correct level of security needed.
- Complaints that engineers were coming down from the Midlands. It was clarified all the Wickham engineers had been kept on, one had subsequently left, but the others were being supported by engineers from outside of the area.
- These engineers were based out of the Bromley Court Hotel to cover the huge scale of jobs in the area and this was bringing money into the local economy.
- Customers with issues needing maintenance or who had not yet been serviced were booked in so that those issues could be addressed as a matter of urgency.
- Any customers who had not had the welcome letter sent to all when On Call took over Wickham were asked to let the office now so that these could be resent.
Mr Vry added: “There are also teething issues when you acquire a new business – especially one so popular locally as Wickham is.
“There will be people who feel we did make mistakes when we took over and we hold up our hands if we didn’t do everything as people would have liked – but we are working hard to put these things right.
“Please talk to us if you have any concerns. Our offices and our phonelines are open and supported by our on call engineers 24 hours a day.”
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