So I have a new customer who wants me to take over their IT services. They gave me the contact info for their old IT vendor for me to contact to obtain their network information. Since it is a Unifi site, I asked them to export the site so I could import it. They are refusing to export the site stating that “they are no longer doing business for that client and will not do any work for them going forward”. Is there a legal reason they must send me the site or do I have to reset their entire network device by device and create an entirely new config?
That’s a tough but not uncommon scenario. Maybe the handed off all the keys to the client but the client is not aware? Did you confirm where the unifi controller is hosted? Is it on site? You can also review the contract they had with the previous IT vendor to see if there are any clauses where they have to hand over any information. Tom might be able to pitch in.
You might be able to get something from Unifi, a very long shot but worth a call. The business owner may need to call them since they own the equipment.
If the owner is locked out of their system, they may have legal grounds to force this, but they are going to have to do the work on that since you are not the legal owner.
In the end, I expect you are going to have to set up all the devices and hopefully import the config . once you get them attached to your controller. Best case would be if they have a local controller and a password to get into it.
The site is on a hosted controller, not on-site. I advised the owner to call the previous IT vendor to get them to comply. If it was a small site I would just reset everything but we are talking about a 24/7 operation with many switches and access points.
I hope that hosted controller is something the client pays directly and not the previous IT services company. If they control it and something went wrong in the contract, they could just turn things off.
I’ve seen this far to many times, I would for sure look into the contract like others have said. Might be something that can help, but I’ve had to rebuild infrastructures in the past due to arrogance.
I’m just throwing this out there as a heads up, because the way that citation is phrased opens up a possibility that it is your new client who is the PITA rather than the old vendor. It could be either or so watch out and cover your bases.
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