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You know you are walking into a cluster **** when...
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Post 1 made on Monday September 19, 2016 at 16:08
Fins
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I show up to meet charter at a customer's house to switch internet service, and I find two bucket trucks, a technician's van, and a line burial crew in the driveway

Last edited by Fins on September 19, 2016 17:56.
Civil War reenactment is LARPing for people with no imagination.

Post 2 made on Monday September 19, 2016 at 16:46
77W
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Keep driving and say you messed up the schedule.

I hate that shit. We need to bill like 6 hours minimum for internet or TV service change overs.
Post 3 made on Monday September 19, 2016 at 18:34
Brad Humphrey
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I actually would be happy to see that.

Because the guys in the bucket trucks usually are the top guy who really know what they are doing. So signal from the road will be good.
It usually takes an act of God to get them to a house.

The line burial guy is awesome, because it usually takes weeks to get the fool out to bury that 'temp' line that was installed.

The only one that would make me nervous is the technician truck. I would ask him "can you just give me the box? I'll take care of the rest thank you".
Post 4 made on Tuesday September 20, 2016 at 15:06
amirm
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On September 19, 2016 at 18:34, Brad Humphrey said...

The line burial guy is awesome, because it usually takes weeks to get the fool out to bury that 'temp' line that was installed.

That's what happened to my own house. It took 6 months and at least two chats with them online to come and bury the thing. They had no idea in their systems at Comcast that they still needed to do this!

Then they sent two guys (outsourced) who took an entire day to hand dig the thing! It was a very hot day to boot so felt pretty sorry for them having to dig into hard dirt and rocks to do that.
Amir
Founder, Madrona Digital, http://madronadigital.com
Founder, Audio Science Review, http://audiosciencereview.com
Post 5 made on Tuesday September 20, 2016 at 20:58
brucewayne
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I had to warn all my customers. Switching services is a minimum of a $1000.00 on my end factor that in before switching.
brucewayne
Post 6 made on Tuesday September 20, 2016 at 22:26
Trunk-Slammer -Supreme
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TWC subcontractor guys "buried" my cable the next day after a new line was installed.

Using a small power trencher then went all of 2, and in some places, 3 inches deep at best.

It's been hit and cut by lawn aerators more than a few times.


New line was run, and those guys cut the old phone lines to the house (back when we had a land line).



Quality is not job one.....
Post 7 made on Tuesday September 20, 2016 at 22:33
Mario
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Casey, if you bill T&M, what's the problem?
Use the 'downtime' to up-sell them on new stuff.
OP | Post 8 made on Tuesday September 20, 2016 at 23:28
Fins
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On September 20, 2016 at 22:33, Mario said...
Casey, if you bill T&M, what's the problem?
Use the 'downtime' to up-sell them on new stuff.

It was 4:00 pm when I arrived at the house, and I had personal stuff I wanted to do after work. Remember, I'm salary. Hanging out with the cable guy after 5:00'does me no good.
Civil War reenactment is LARPing for people with no imagination.

Post 9 made on Wednesday September 21, 2016 at 00:47
simoneales
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On September 20, 2016 at 23:28, Fins said...
I'm salary. Hanging out with the cable guy after 5:00'does me no good.

You need another gig. If you boss gets paid for your time there in a situation like this, so should you. If not, he should re-book you for when they are done or come down and wait himself from 5:00.
I guarantee I'll tell you the truth and I guarantee I'll tell you what you need to know but I can't guarantee that I'll be telling you anything you want to hear.
Post 10 made on Wednesday September 21, 2016 at 01:01
Mac Burks (39)
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On September 20, 2016 at 20:58, brucewayne said...
I had to warn all my customers. Switching services is a minimum of a $1000.00 on my end factor that in before switching.

I think you are spot on.

I did an RCN to Comcast swap on Monday. Client uses DISH network as her primary TV source but her building provides free cable to all units so she has it as a back up for when the weather is bad.

System is about 10 years old now so its distributed component. First hurdle was getting the comcast guy to find me an older box with component outputs. Second hurdle was convincing him that there is only one cable outlet in the entire house and that its a home run from the rack to the cable can in the hallway. He kept saying things like "are you sure" "some houses have the cable wires hidden so maybe you dont know about it". I was here when the wire was pulled so i think i am pretty sure. 3rd hurdle was the 20 year old slide out rack that i hate, Luckily i was able to do the swap without moving it.

Then it came time to update programming. The new remote had so many additional buttons...remotes are RTI and processor is crestron...so i decided to go home and schedule another day to upload the changes. This was an old system builder system that was bugging out when i tried to edit the UI files. I finally found an old laptop that i was able to use...with old crestron software that worked. Then i had to update the RTI file for each of the remotes.

Changing from RCN to Comcast turns out to be 3 hours of babysitting (between 1 and 2 and they showed up at 2:00) and 2 hours of programming with 2 truck rolls.
Avid Stamp Collector - I really love 39 Cent Stamps
Post 11 made on Wednesday September 21, 2016 at 10:57
Trunk-Slammer -Supreme
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I have a client that just received some lighting damage froma nearby strike.

Cable company tells them the cable box is fine without coming to the home (I wondered how they can tell if it actually is sending out a video signal), and wants $60.00 to come out to do a physical check.


Talking to the client it does appear the Snap HDBT extenders are dead (no idiot lights at all), even though I had a Ethereal surge on the output of the cable box.

This is the second such event in as many years.
OP | Post 12 made on Wednesday September 21, 2016 at 11:45
Fins
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On September 21, 2016 at 10:57, Trunk-Slammer -Supreme said...
I have a client that just received some lighting damage froma nearby strike.

Cable company tells them the cable box is fine without coming to the home (I wondered how they can tell if it actually is sending out a video signal), and wants $60.00 to come out to do a physical check.

Talking to the client it does appear the Snap HDBT extenders are dead (no idiot lights at all), even though I had a Ethereal surge on the output of the cable box.

This is the second such event in as many years.

I had one of those recently. It really wasn't a complicated system. AVR, BDP, cable box, and MRF350 located in a cabinet over the set bar next to the fireplace. 65" LED over the fireplace, with an ethereal HDMI extender. Lightning took stuff out. The client's pilot tried to fix it himself. He replaced a less than a year old Aventage AVR without having anyone check it. Still no picture. Charter tech shows up, refuses to even touch anything because it's too complicated. Finally the client's new secretary figured out how to check the old secretary's very organized files and call us. I went out and in 2 minutes knew the cable box HDMI was dead. Charter had said the box was fine because the front display showed it was on and changing channels
Civil War reenactment is LARPing for people with no imagination.

Post 13 made on Wednesday September 21, 2016 at 19:26
King of typos
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On September 21, 2016 at 11:45, Fins said...
Charter had said the box was fine because the front display showed it was on and changing channels

Wow, just wow! How do people like them walk? I damn well know that they cannot walk and chew gum at the same time.

KOT


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