Since certain individuals within Knight (Orlando Operations) are not honest enough to admit all the times they have really screwed over their company. I decided to make some calls to people I know on both sides and get the real story. The real issue here is that Knight from day one in Orlando went about running their business in the most unprofessional way possible.
Knight as everyone knows, WAS asked to go to Orlando to help assist with a "stagnant contractor workforce". This was decision WAS made by an individual one could describe loosely as "upper management". This decision was met with great frustration as their reputation preceded them and none of the people who would have to deal with them wanted to... Even the ones who pretended really well. The REAL upper management had no true opinion and did not know Knight from any of the other 8 contractors they brought in.
They were also told they should bring in their OWN techs or hire new ones. This concept was immediately discarded. They complain about techs not being able to jump from contractor to contractor because nearly all of their work force was simply transplanted from other contractors by false offers of more money, better work, or even my favorite. more freedom to break the rules. Needless to say the work they received was mostly the lower end work anyway that no one else wanted to do. So they managed to build up a decent number of techs - although they were constantly caught lying about the true number of techs they had in an effort to get more work from a Bright House that really DID NOT want to have to give them anything. Many of the techs left Knight to find work with their original contractors or a new one. You will find in the system more EX-KNIGHT techs than nearly any other kind. (It ususally doesn't take long for the true BS to come out).
Then there was a further complication when Knight went through 4 different managers in the span of a few months. We won't go into why they were let go - and leave it at that many would not have been touched by the other contractors even in their lowest position possible.
Knight made a name for itself from the beginning. Each policy Knight "questioned" showed their ultimate agenda which mostly centered on how can we do the worst possible work, fail the most QC's, hire the poorest trained labor, and sneak people into the system who could not pass a standard background checks - ALL while telling Bright House "BUT THIS IS HOW WE DO IT IN TAMPA!".
Wether knight was right or wrong doesnt matter because everyone else knew they were wrong. Forced to release a number of technicians when Bright House did their own background checks they began to really develop their reputation. A number of Bright House personnel by this time had gone on record and simply refused to deal with them. You also have the issue of where to put the S%&# work that they were doing that no one else wanted. They were given to the one region that said FINE - we will deal with them if no one else will (AND NOW LOOK WHAT THAT DID FOR THEM).
That's when Knight decided to make the ultimate bone-headed move. They hire an individual from within Bright House who LIED about why they were leaving. Then start to spread incredibly stupid lies about how others wanted to go - but were turned down. Clearly trying to build a solid reputation with Bright House.
They finally grasped at their last straw. Without and quality record to stand behind (they remain to this day doing practically NO WORK one of the worst contractors in QC's, Complaints, TC after Install, follow up) they were forced into the last region that would take them. A region with MANY other contractors who could begin to lighten Knight's load- permanently.
Sensing the end Knight began to claim that Bright House was enforcing new rules for "Knight to use on their techs that were in clear violation of the laws of subcontractorship." In reality these rules have been in place since long before Knight arrived. Obviously hoping to scare Bright House into some sort submission - it was very quickly determined that Knight had NO IDEA what the true definition of contractor was by either the laws of the State of Florida or by the many legal decisions that have been handed down on the subject.
Trying to give Knight the opportunity to bow out gracefully - the arrogance of the local management forced Bright House into releasing them from their contract. An act that for nearly EVERY individual in the Orlando market who was interested in better pay for contractors and an environment for everyone to be successful gave thanks for! Bright House has been far more receptive about positive change for contractors now that the main group giving contractors a bad name has been effectively handled.
Many of Knights techs will be following Knight or leaving the industry as no other contractor will touch them. Their antics in the Orlando area have had some affect on their operations in Bright House everywhere. There are now individuals in other systems who now have their eyes open a bit more and will be careful to keep the "bad seeds" out of what they view currently as an operation that is working for them for now.
Knights newest claim is their plans for the Orlando Operation. A quick call to the telecoms (Sprint, Embark, and Bell South) will give you an idea of how far fetched their statements are. Don't be fooled. The telcom's are coming - but they will be making their mark for good or bad without Knight's help.
As for Knight's dominance in Tampa which ranks consistantly in the top 1 or 2 in all of B/H systems countrywide. (I will reserve the endless fits of laughter until after you have visted www.mybrighthouse.com and seen how many TOTAL Bright House Systems there are.) - even more amusing is the claim that the CFL division ranks poorly! Someone should tell that to the President of the operations in Florida for Bright House. I bet that will come as a large suprise.
It is a shame that a company that for all intents and purposes has an owner who is as respected as Knight's and some decent operations in Tampa would let a few vocal idiots spread the lies and mis-information from their unfortunate experience in Orlando. Bottom line is poor management and some REALLY bad decisions by the local Knight group sealed their fate LONG before March of 2007.
What Knight Keeps Deleting
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