Metron Shut Down!!!

[Doctor Bob]

Here is a note from one of their Employees!!!


From: "Cruise, Kelly" <Kelly.Cruise@metrononline.com>
To: <Undisclosed-recipients:>
Sent: Sunday, September 18, 2005 8:30 AM
Subject: InstallationPro


Hello,

If you haven't heard yet, I wanted to let you know that Metron and
InstallationPro closed their doors on Friday, 9/16, at 5:00 p.m. It was last
minute notice. We knew work has been slow, of course and there were times we
were worried....but we still thought we'd make it 'til we got work from some
new contracts in the works. But then we got an e-mail from Bob Crabtree on
Friday around 3:30 p.m. stating there was a company-wide meeting at 4: 30
p.m. Then we found out the business was folding--forever.

I am so sorry it went down this way. Please refer all your customers to
their retailers for installation. No pay will be coming to you for
outstanding jobs or current jobs in trac-it.

When one employee asked Mr. Crabtree about the inventory in the warehouses,
he said it all belongs to the bank now. So, you can see it's bad. No money
left, etc...

Take care and God bless. Thank you all for all the hard work you did for
InstallationPro. Again, I am so sorry.

I am accessing my work e-mail from home to be able to send this. I will lose
access shortly, I am sure, so I have given you my personal e-mail address
below, for those who want it.

P.S. For those who got bounced checks recently, I want to say I had no idea
it was due to lack of funds. We were told it was a "bank error", and it had
"nothing to do with insufficient funds." That's what we were told. I am sure
it naive of me to believe that. I am sorry.

Kelly Cruise
Former Contractor Account Representative
InstallationPro, LLC
irishladykelly@yahoo.com

 

[dishjockey]

The end of an era. They used to be one of the best companies to subcontract to 100 single 50 for an a/o.
It's sad where this industry has gone.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

From Today's Knoxville News Sentinel

Troubled Metron closes
About 200 lose jobs following decision that shocks employees

By DAVID KEIM, keim@knews.com
September 19, 2005


Workers at Metron North America plan to pick up final paychecks or head to the unemployment office this morning after the Knoxville company abruptly closed Friday.
Company officials have denied rumors of financial trouble since Metron lost its biggest contract this spring, but workers said CEO Bob Crabtree called a staff meeting at 4:30 p.m. Friday to announce the closure.

" 'We gave it our best shot; as of 5 o'clock, Metron will be closed,' " employee Jennifer Schrebe recalled Crabtree saying. "Not in those exact words, but pretty close."

Executives declined to detail the immediate impetus for the decision, and a spokesman said they told workers as soon as they realized the company would need to cease operations.

Shocked workers wept, returned to their work areas to tell subordinates and collected their final paychecks early. The checks were supposed to be distributed this week, and those who didn't work Friday are expected to get them today.

Metron was in business more than 20 years and provided distribution, sales, marketing, e-commerce and customer care services, primarily in the consumer electronics industry. The company in recent years was one of the two largest distributors of DirecTV in the nation and served other clients including XM Radio, TiVo, Toshiba, Samsung, Philips and Circuit City.

DirecTV, its biggest customer, ended its distribution and service contract in March, nine months ahead of schedule, but Metron expected to recover by providing its services to companies that didn't want to do such work themselves.

Metron employed 340 earlier this year but had dwindled to about 200 largely through attrition, marketing manager David Livesay said Sunday.

Livesay said Crabtree would not comment Sunday night.

"We found out on Friday probably mid-afternoon that we were going to have to close Metron down, and we let the employees know as soon as we could," Livesay said.

He said Sunday that Metron's loss of DirecTV began a chain of events that led to the company's closure, although he said he could not elaborate.

"We'd been working through a number of situations and doing our best to work through them and felt that we were addressing things the way they needed to be addressed," Livesay said.

"The one thing I can say for sure is that everyone has tried their best to do the right thing with this company. We notified the employees as soon as we knew. A lot of very talented people have worked very hard to push this thing forward. It just didn't work out. There were too many dominoes that fell the wrong way for us."

Companies of Metron's size generally are required to give 60 days' notice of a mass layoff or closure to the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development, although there are exceptions if it wasn't "reasonably foreseeable."

Workers said they are receiving no severance pay and lost their paid-time-off days. They said they've had concerns about the company's prospects but were told a recent new contract with Dish Network would boost revenues.

"That's why this is so bizarre, why this is so unexpected and so crazy," said Amanda Mathes, who like Schrebe supervised a team in the call center. "We're at a loss. We don't know what to think. Everybody was telling us we're fine, we got the Dish Network contract."

Schrebe said she believes SunTrust Bank officials toured the company last week. "I basically heard that the bank took over and basically put them out of business," she said.

SunTrust officials were unavailable for comment Sunday night.

Metron's headquarters is at the western end of the Cumberland Avenue Strip, visible from Alcoa Highway just south of Interstate 40. It last year received a four-year property tax freeze from the Knox County Industrial Development Board to assist a $12 million call center expansion.

The company also had operations in Sparks, Nev., and earlier this year got a seven-year, 50-percent tax abatement on a 124,500-square-foot distribution center building in Anderson County.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Just a reminder for our installer friends to check out our sister site at http://www.dishretailer.com

 

[minorthr]

Hmmm wonder how this effects those XM online deals? I have ordered a few of them and they have all come from Metron.

 

[sonic2000]

Hmmm wonder how this effects those XM online deals? I have ordered a few of them and they have all come from Metron.

Ordered two SkiFi 2 through the link provided under great internet deals, on 9/14 and received them Friday. Only problem I had with either is I had to call XM to verify the account information.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Looks like the deals from XM will be down for awhile.

Congrats to all that got in on these excellent deals!

 

[Van]

Ouch, sorry to see anyone loose theyr job.