I'm relatively new to rack wire management. I really tried to keep this small rack neat and tidy. They even scrambled wires that had dick all to do with their service.

I reloomed the cat, phone and speaker but I really don't have time budgeted in the bid to put it back the way it was before they got in there.

The guy even said "we cut off the service loops, no one really does service loops anymore".

argh

WHy didnt you have the Coax all Terminated in the first place? inviting someone else into your rack is never a good idea.

double post

The coax was terminated in a snug service loop afixed to the back pan. All the coax was spaced/cut to length to drop onto the splitters without doing much of anything besides screw the coax onto the blocks.

You basically have to wire everything inside the rack yourself. Give them a place to "jack in" thats outside of your rack.

It doesn't matter though. When the client calls them instead of you in the future they will rip it all apart anyway.

"Hey, idiot, did you notice that the name of the thing is "SERVICE loop"? That's a built of slack built into the installation that allows someone -- some day it will be you -- to do service on the system!

The only people who don't do service loops are the people who are too ignorant to know that nothing in the world will live out its days without either a)needing service or b)dying outright.

I first ran across service loops as a college student, disassembling outdated military equipment. Hey, idiot cable installer, equipment that has to work right OR PEOPLE CAN DIE always has service loops.

They even cut some of them too short and ended up using f barrel connectors.

I could move the blocks up to the top of the can and have plenty of slack to restore the service loops and get it pretty again. But, that's time/money straight out of my pocket to do it.

I imagine thats exactly what I will do should I find a hole in my schedule to fill.

That's not the only rack charter porked for us last week though. I'll have to take a picture of this other rack.

I got a call from the GC this morning. Charter had to do tv/internet on saturday and the Charter guys couldn't get any Tivo's or the internet to work. They said that the internet and tv were not going to work because we "messed up the wiring in the walls" and that they couldn't "tone the wires out". Homeowner said Charter was there for 7 hours trying to make it work.

There's a friggen panel map hanging on the side of the rack. Took a few minutes to get the TV's using internal tuners up and I left the house with all of the Tivo boxes taking updates. Charter didn't even go through the Tivo setup menus as they were all still on the provider selection screen.

So next time you'll put the $30 worth of Coax splitters in as well?

I have had comcast cut my fittings off and replace them with theirs. The problematic part is WE USE THE SAME FITTINGS! They then remove our splitters and install their own. The contractors get paid by the fitting and it is easy money for them. (so I'm told) It seems like one trainer told someone to do it one time and it has now been adopted as standard practice. No one knows why they do it, they just do.

That's standard operating procedure for a lot of the providers. I have had Comcast, DirecTV and Dish installers tell me that they are required to cut off the ends, even if they are brand new, and install their own to ensure it is "done correctly."

First of all, I love wall racks. Really love them. had a customers home flood in the basement and his electronics was safe and sound in the rack on the wall! Love them.

I have actually tried a different approach to the cable company. We have Cox Communications in our area and we regularly have issues with the tech in our area.
I decided to meet the Supervisor and take him to lunch. I built a really good business relationship with him and we have actually been contracted to fix some jobs for him. Anyways, the problem we always have is even when we terminate all the ends for the cable guy, He will cut our ends off and replace them with his cheap ones.

I even had a cable guy tell my customer the other day that we did not wire the home correctly because there was only phone lines running to the TV and they would never be able to get HD! She called me crying! I wanted to punch him in the face.

Anyways, because of our relationship with the supervisor, We can now go pick up all the boxes we need for our racks before the install and not be waiting on the cable company to do the install. We pretty much have it all done for them.
I am scheduled to do training at the cox company next month to show the tech's what is out there in the real world and work along side of them to help them do it right!

Hope it continues to go well.

Use your own splitters. Wire everything up. Put a wallplate on the back wall that feeds your splitters. Tell the cable guy to connect his feed there. Don't let him be there alone. Don't let him cut anything. Have tv's and computers installed so he can get his crap activated.

You can even go a step further and have him only work outside at his box. I do this all the time.

This is the correct answer and the key sentence is:

"Don't let him be there alone".

Oh, the damage they will do ...

Sadly there is very little we can do to keep the cable guy out of our stuff. Eventually the client will call the provider and some dumbass will be out cutting off every end just as the even dumber dumbass has taught him to do. As said, they get paid to put new ends on. They get paid less when no ends are replaced...

I wish I worked in that perfect world where nobody would schedule the cable guy without me knowing first.

Awesome!

The builder of our house pulled RG6 to every wall in the house; so we had about 60 odd cables unterminated going to the utility room.
Our cable guy came to our house to install one outlet in our basement.
He started terminated each and every cable until he found the right cable going to the location we asked for.
I didn't have the heart to watch him strip and terminate every cable.
I grabbed my toner and toned it out for him in about 30 seconds.
He didn't even carry a toner with him.
No wonder these guys charge so much!