A part-time Aspen resident who once was an owner of the Washington Redskins is suing a Miami-based technology company because he says the $20,000 phone system he bought doesn’t work properly.
Fred Drasner’s limited liability company, 181 Larkspur, is listed as the plaintiff in the lawsuit against Teleswitch Technologies Inc. The suit was filed Thursday in Pitkin County District Court.
Drasner, the chairman of venture capital firm Three Seasons Capital, owns homes in Aspen and Miami, according to the lawsuit. Chad Schmit of Aspen law firm Garfield & Hecht is representing Drasner, who was a co-owner of the Redskins from 1999 to 2004. He was also a co-owner and co-publisher of the New York Daily News from 1993 to 2004.
In May, he contacted Teleswitch, which had sold him a phone system in 2008 for his Miami residence, about getting a similar set-up for his nearly 10,000-square-foot home here.
“Mr. Drasner specifically requested and ordered a telephone system for the Aspen home that would operate as one integrated system with a telephone system in the Miami home,” the lawsuit says.
A Teleswitch salesman allegedly told Drasner that the system’s integration features, such as voice-mail, would allow accessibility from both homes.
The salesman “further represented to Mr. Drasner that the phone system could be programmed in Miami and then shipped for ‘plug and play’ installation in the Aspen home by a local technician,” according to the filing.
After the system was installed, it allegedly failed to work as promised.
Teleswitch “failed to disclose that the telephone system for the Aspen home works through an Internet connection, whereby if the Internet connection fails, the system disconnects, and voice-mail, software and other phone features become inaccessible,” Schmit wrote. “To date, the telephone system for the Aspen home does not work for its intended purpose.”
The phone company has allegedly refused to fix the problems, and the lawsuit includes claims for breaches of oral contract and warranty, and fraud. Teleswitch did not return a message seeking comment.
chad@aspendailynews.com