Since this happened just the other day I thought I'd start a thread.


Cable guy came by and replaced all the Moca boxes AND the main box that was in the equipment closet.

After getting everything going he tells the client:

The only problem is that you have to stand in the hallway, in front of the closet, in order to use the remote.

Why would that be a problem?

Well I suppose that if you need the exercise it wouldn't be. But if you're comfy in the recliner and the hallway is at the other end of the house, it might be...

It's as if he had been living under a rock for the last 35 years.....

I had one tell me that cable distribution modules aren't allowed in Time Warner installations because every F81 causes 1dB of signal loss. With their amplifier IN THE SAME ENCLOSURE, I fail to see how this would be a problem, but he removed the one I had installed and connected only some of the cables to his 1 in/8 out splitter in a way that made closing the enclosure impossible because I had cut all of the cables to length and he was only connecting some of the drops, from both modules.

He didn't bother to ground the feed, either and when I mentioned that it's a code violation, he had the supervisor call me and that's who ended up going out to correct the ground. I asked about the requirement for 1dB loss & avoiding the dist modules- he said it's not a problem if they're clean and tight.

I swear, they exist to make our lives more difficult.

At my house, years ago when cable cards first were available, I had a COX installer have a hit sent to the cable card with the coax disconnected, he was putting a new end on it! He was a big dude so I didn't say anything smart to him, just watched in amazement. Oh, and by big I mean pro football sized big!

I had one that swore to the homeowner that it wasn't possible that we were going to send 4 cable boxes to 11 TV's...had no idea how an HDMI matrix worked, and couldn't wrap his head around it when I tried explaining it to him. Kept telling the homeowner that it wasn't possible and the cable boxes copy protection would block it from happening. He literally hung out at the house the whole day, then once he saw it working he called his supervisor to tell them that we were "hooking up some gadgets to steal cable"- when the homeowner overheard that call, he kicked the guy off the property.

Thank god for CXI.

I had one a few months ago on a job where the client was getting the most shitastic cable service Altice One.  Those that are familiar with it, they have the modem, router, AND cable box all combined in one unit.  You cannot shut off wifi or bridge them.

Anyone, I was talking to the client about his options to improve wifi while this guy was there to add two more cable boxes.  I jumps in to say how he loves his Google Wifi, that he he uses on his Altice One at home.  I said I believe you cannot bridge Google Wifi, so you would be creating a double nat since you cannot bridge the Altice one "router".  He goes on to say how much he loves his Double Nat.  He can surf on his network while his son games on his.



Another one years ago wasn't so much a cable guy as the customer/tech support I had to call to have them send a hit to a box to wake it up.  The woman asked what TV was it hooked up too.  I said none, we are just using it for audio.  She went on to say that is impossible and it needs a TV.  Argued with me for 10 minutes.  At this point I was basically telling her she is a dumbass and to get me a supervisor.  Wait about 15 minutes and she gets back on the line and says, I am sending a hit to the box right now.

I'm pretty sure they specifically look for non technical people to work in these companies.

|He literally hung out at the house the whole day, then once he saw it working he called his supervisor to tell them that we were "hooking up some gadgets to steal cable"

Here in Australia, years ago, in the 'contract' with Foxtel, I believe there was wording to say that it was not permitted to connect more than one screen to their cable/sat boxes.

We once hired a guy trained on cable systems to do A/V installs with us. At one point during an installation I hooked up to my signal meter using a short piece of cable with an F81. The cable guy told me that wouldn't work because F81s cut the signal in half. This had been taught to him to guaranteed that he would NEVER use an F81 for anything.

I had already learned that he was trained to do things without thinking so I didn't try reason on him. I strung together a half dozen short pieces of cable with F81s and I showed him with my nice signal level meter that the six F81s in a row attenuated the signal by about a half hour. Just one half. He was flabbergasted.

We talked about his training and in a couple of minutes I realized that he was taught mistruths that guaranteed a good installation but gave him zero tools to be able to think through new situations. You should have seen his reaction when I set up a piece of cable (this was back when you could diplex LNB signals) that took an LNB signal from end A to end B while taking a TV antenna signal from end B to end A. He thought it all had to go in the same direction, a logical conclusion, if you don't or can't think it through.

Since then I've seen a situation where a nurse could not think something through because she had been given iron-clad rules to follow. That realization was a bit scary.

And as for the rest of us here, has anyone reading this the first time yet realized that it takes seven, not six, F81s to string together six pieces of cable?

I did Cable in early 00's

Mostly they just want a box to put answers to questions in so the techs dont have to think.

But my story is the new guy and I went to a house, Homeowner was drinking and also happened to be gay apparently. He took a liking to the guy I was training during our time there and had continued drinking during the installation.

My trainee was on the hardwood floor trying to reach behind the equipment cabinet to make some connection and by this time the homeowner was not holding his inner thoughts back at all. He grabbed the trainee by the ankles and started dragging him down the hall to the bedroom.

He popped up pushed the guy back and we left.

LMAO!!!!!!!!!!

I just switched a customer in Old Tappan from that steaming pile of ISP service back to Verizon just for internet. The Altice system is pathetic really. For the last couple weeks, internet would just stop completely for anywhere between 5-35 minutes. Customer thought it was my router or he was hacked or something.

Nope, just awful service.

It's the worst service I've ever experienced, for sure

I have a customer who married a guy and he likes to build computers. Yay. He also likes to tinker with the network. Yay. I wired the place before he was even in her life and eventually, I got a call saying that the WiFi & hard wired network in the Master Bedroom as well as most of the house, wasn't working- he was convinced that it was caused by a mouse chewing through a cable in a wall. Right. OK, I went there one evening, but it was too dark and they were going out, so I went back the next day and checked into it. I found that he had unplugged EVERY ethernet jumper in the enclosure between the switch and punch down modules, located in the basement- he even unplugged the power cord for the switch. I reconnected everything and went upstairs to check the WiFi- it was limited to the space covered by the router, so I looked at that- he had bought an Asus gaming router just before the wheels fell off and before I left the previous time, I got the model number so I could check into it. It has a fallback WAN port- guess where he connected the ethernet cable that feeds the network switch in the basement......

I told my customer and she said "Typical".

Three cable guys had come and gone to one of our new build installs, unable to get the TV’s going, each claiming “bad wiring” in the house. We were close enough to get on site as the fourth cable guy was running out, claiming “bad wiring”. We insisted that he check the cable vault in the sidewalk. He was incredulous, but in the interest of good customer relations, grumbling, popped the vault. “Gimme five minutes” was his comment from the vault. Bing!! Picture!! I wonder if he bragged about being a hero to his boss or invented some sort of customer blunder.