atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services Cabling Telephones Systems Wiring electricians running voice/data

We too have had bad experiences with the electrician's doing shotty wiring jobs. But you get what you pay for. We just make sure that the customer knows that they will be charged for any extra work that has to be done.

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Call us for Iwatsu in Chicago www.wiilcom.com

I wouldn't mind being that someone else. But I don't know if I could sleep at night. I guess since I would be able to afford one of those fancy beds with all the money I'm taking from customers, it would help me get to sleep regardless of what's on my conscience.

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| Signal Communication Systems - Fresno, CA |

| Telephone Systems, Voicemail Syste... & Data Cabling - Central Valley, CA

I just went through this with a guy who is building a new house.

He wants a panny in the house with 16 drops for v and d. I gave him the price to do the wiring and got the same old story.

I said OK, you have the ec do the wiring,
BUT after that you have 2 choices;

1) I inspect all the wiring before the walls go up and charge $300 per inspection

2) I install the system WITHOUT any warranty from me. If something doesn't work you deal with the ec or the mfg.

I took pictures of all the problems and e-mailed it to the guy. I am on my 3rd inspection!

I may not have made any money on the wiring, but I am making it up on the inspections and I can GUARANTEE that the EC will either NEVER touch telephone and data again or he will learn to do it right!

I am TIRED of being the NICE guy and ALWAYS being the one who has to eat it all.
Besides, it doesn't matter HOW nice you are
if there are problems when you get there the customer NEVER believes that it was wiring. It's the "cheap" phone system you sold them that is the problem. You bust you balls, lose money and you'll be lucky if the guy doesn't bad mouth you or your product in the end.

Corwyn

Calm DOwn and have a Xanax........

Forget him and move on to the next customer......nobody ever said that 5 out of 5 would be smooth sailing.........

Or have the EC furnish hard and disc copies of all tested pairs. I found a local who actually sent his people to installation school, bought the testers (CAT and F O ) and he subs under me when I need wiring. Don't fight 'em, control them. Same for the IT guy. I sub work to them. With a small town like this word gets around. We all make money and more than usual when we work together. I make mine from the telecom work plus a little off the top on the wiring and IT stuff.

Just say charge it (AMEX< VISA< MC). Cash will also do.

My worst experience with EC doing the wiring to date was a small office. He ran a separate data cable to each of the 8 offices, and 1 single stinking 3 pair voice cable was run up and down the hallway, dipping down the wall, half-ass wedged into an insert, then back up and on to the next. I showed up, saw the 66-block with 3 pairs of wire with the ends stripped and twisted onto the terminals, and nothing else. It was difficult to know whether to laugh or cry, and I had a wonderful time explaining to the client how badly his EC had screwed him.

We never do houses, but in my own personal experience I simply have the house builder (EC) have all the locations stubbed in conduit to the basement or central point so I can pull what I want where I want.

yep just looked at a job monday done by ec (all cat5 looks ok) no voice but thats not the prob termination will be a breeze test should be fine. the trouble is I cant verify the cable if I break it out for voice and data so her resolve is an ip phone system which has no use un this app. when I asked the ec why just one wire knowing they needed data and voice his responce was "well at our office we use 8 pin connections for the phone and the data and I couldent see the need for more than one wire" he is using ip phones and he just commited the customer to spending more than they can afford for a phone system (good for me bad for the client) the point is sometimes a little knowledge by an ec goes too far

We have the same problem here with ECs taking away our data & voice cabling business at much less cost to customer about 3 to 4 years ago. Several times they run cables & customer engaged us to do termination & testing. To counter these ECs we took up electrical work as well and competed with them. We formed strong alliance with the SIs & IT staff (they know the difference in expertise involved)and they became our regular & loyal customers. We also started to supply & install phone systems & provide warranty (if a 3rd party were to install the cables the warranty is void). It took some time to win over customers but we are beginning to see results. Some customers know the difference & are willing to pay for our expertise (for those cheapskate customers my thoughts are not to waste too much time with them & move on to customers who can afford - it helps our bottomline). However to this day we are still competing with these ECs and I'm still thinking of other ways to counter them. Any other thougths is much appreciated. Regards.

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https://www.cablemaster.com.sg

Yeah, CoralTech, I agree with you. Unfortunately, Chicago is the only place in the country that I know of where conduit is still required for residental electrical wiring. I wonder what Home Depot does there; are they actually allowed to sell Romex cable and non-metallic boxes?

Around here, it's just about impossible to get a conduit of any kind in residential construction unless we do it ourselves. Our approach has been to run flexible or PVC to our own liking to avoid finnickey customers' mind changes. We ALWAYS run at least a 1" pipe from the basement to the attic for our own convenience, even if we don't get paid for it. $10.00 worth of PVC saves a thousand dollars worth of inconvenience later. Besides, the customer actually doesn't mind paying us on the back side when something new, like network wiring or satellite comes along and we save their butts.

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Ed
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How come there's always enough time to go back and fix it a second time?