This isnt about the issue of getting paid. Not worried about that part of it. It is ridiculous that anyone would walk into a house and removed a connected device that they know nothing about. On top of that, the douche keeps lying saying the client told him to remove it.

I ran into this same thing awhile back.

The village idiot claimed in front of the supervisor and me that the lady of the house told him he could "fix" what I had done wrong.

Called the lady of the house who happened to be right next door (she had let me in not 10 minutes before the TWC guys showed up) and had her come over.

TWC paid the bill via a huge credit to the clients monthly and the idiot was left with some serious egg on his face....


The best part was when she said "I told you WHAT?" followed by some other remarks.

To some extent the installers are under the gun to "get in, get out" as fast as possible. This makes the corporate spreadsheets look better and increases the chances of a bonus. Some of the installers tell me about requirements to make a certain number of calls per day. This can result in someone walking away from a site. And, there are "charge backs" to the first installer if a second installer must be dispatched to "fix" something that went wrong. If the installer doesn't think that he can fix the problem or if it might require too much time, leaving now cuts his losses. This is one reason why the cable technicians keep cutting ends and re-terminating everything. "Replacing bad ends" looks good on the service ticket, justifies some time, makes 3rd parties look bad and defends against "charge backs" for not replacing ends.

I recently was called to "fix" one of my networks. After being victimized by cheap and DIY, the network was serviced (multiple times) by Comcast for "poor WiFi". I found the system split between my router and Comcast's gateway and there were three Airport Extreme's, one of them much too close to some other WiFi kit. And there was some Sonos on the network. As we know, adding players, BOOST, and BRIDGE to separate subnets does not work out. The Comcast installers would demonstrate that WiFi was working (at one spot of their choice) by calling up a website, declaring "done", and then split. Sonos not working? Happens to him all the time, very troublesome equipment, best to leave it disconnected, but the WiFi works -- see!

I should have done this for one of my clients who had a guy from a local computer dealer doing their computer/router setup. I had installed a Request server in the beginning of the project and decided to log into it, to see if it had bee reporting to the DDNS on a regular basis but when the web page showed the player, I couldn't log in so I looked for the line that shows when it logged in last- 1:15PM, the previous day. I called and asked if they had bought a new router and he paused before slowly asking "How did you know that?", as if it was a totally creepy thing for me to know.

I then had to open the ports for the Request and camera DVR because Mr Genius (who now works at one of the Apple Stores) didn't bother to look for this info in the old router's setup.

Butthead!

I can't think of a single reason to touch anyone else' cabling, for any reason other than removing it to change over to something else, if it was damaged by someone else or if they were only responsible for the rough-in. Obviously, ATT, Time Warner and the other providers don't do only the rough-in, but I have asked about the hiring practices of ATT and T-W installers, in a way that doesn't come off as "You suck and here's why..."- more in a way that makes them think I'm interested in working for them and being interested in their qualifications.

They're not asking for much.

A homeowner asked the alarm guy if a cable could be removed, so he went into the next room, cut it and removed everything, back to the demarc box. Guess who got an e-mail, telling me that the internet wasn't working. I went there, looked at the ceiling and saw that the Cat5 was gone and then saw that it was clipped a couple of feet from where it passes through the 2" hole in the plaster ceiling on its way to the base cabinet in the office, along with my speaker cables and several other network cables and at least one coax. I told the homeowner that the alarm guy probably cut it and that he should come back to fix it. Got the "It's working" message and the next time I was there, I saw that what had been a white Cat5e is now black, fastened to some of the pipes and conduit with white electrical tape in a room that has a finished ceiling and is painted white. In the adjacent mechanical room, it was taped to the pipes with white tape in very few spots before it eventually passed through the basement window frame. While I walked around the house to make sure nothing was needed and saw that the alarm guy had just laid the cable on the ground along the outside of the garage and kitchen as it made its way to the demarc box. It could have been chewed by an animal or chopped by a weed wacker, but the guy didn't seem to care.

This homeowner like neat cabling and knowing that, I also looked at the pipe where the old electric service had been installed. It had four sets of ATT cables and a pair of abandoned coax- only one of which was needed (the currently used ATT drop). I removed everything and when I re-ran the new black Cat5e, I passed it through the garage wall so it could be attached to the other cables that were fastened to the inside wall on their way to the hole that goes into the basement.

I guess pride in workmanship isn't something they look for when hiring installers.

Workmanship takes time. It takes time to learn it and it takes time, every installation, to apply it.

Time spent is the enemy of the installer. They are there to be able to show that one thing works, and to get a signature. Without that they do not get paid.

not to the extreme of this but on a regular (2-3 times a month) I will have time warner monkeys unplug one of my hdmi's or electrical plugs to install their equipment. So then you're left with the great scenario of charging the client and make them go to TW for reimbursement all over the installers stupidity.

My most recent one.

TWC sends a "tech" to install a new cable box. "Tech" cuts the end off of the emitter, rather than just pull it off.

Client calls me and I tell him in detail where to place the emitter, and to just tape it on until I can come by with a more permanent fix.

"What emitter? There's just this tiny wire lying here on the shelf.".

That's nothing. I've had them cut the hdmi cable before.

So that guy didn't get fired?

Crestron was closed today as well, at least this afternoon. Instead of posting this on RC, I thought it was perfect time to go home. I did have a 15 hour day yesterday so I was ready to go home.

Annnnnd wrong thread

Don't know, but removing a connected and working device, plus installing a system with no zone labeling, on top of a system that triggered 4 times the evening/night that he was there, oh and no working CO2 in the house, it wouldn't be uncalled for if he does get fired.

Has to be wired with fire rated wire here in florida. Pretty sure if you call a code inspector some kind of shit would hit the fan. Not that adt would even care. Wouldnt hurt them. They just buy there way out of code issues.

It does take time and it tends to be more reliable, too. Taking a few extra minutes is worth the lack of service calls and it's good for business. I would rather hear "He's a bit pricey, but he does great work" or "He's not lightning fast, but when he leaves, he doesn't need to come back unless he's doing something new or he comes for a social visit".

I'm sure you have heard "You can have it fast, good or cheap- pick two, because you can't have all three".

One of the jobs I'm working on came as a referral from someone who wanted cameras on his office building, but I haven't had time to do the job. The new client is the ex-husband of the new wife of a past client and all of this business ultimately came from the people who recently asked about Anthem (I have referred to them several times over the years).