atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services Cabling Telephones Systems Wiring Verizon/Time Warner techs

I would just like to vent about the installations I have seen lately in some commercial and residential buildings. Is it just me or has the quality of work and pride of installation sunk to an all-time low? I know that TW uses a lot of subs that don't care and don't know anything, but my friends and neighbors always ask me about their home theater and internet, cable modems, hi-def and DSL, and I advise them. Inevitably, the install requires call-backs, hours on hold, and every order is screwed up. Today I went to a jobsite that was a high-end residential pre-wire which we wired into a smart house. Every precaution was made for Time Warner and Verizon so it would be a no-brainer and they would just have to heat up the lines. When I saw their NIU, I almost puked - an extra 40 feet of PVC 4-wire for the dial tone, wrapped around the entrance box, broken test modules, jellybeans everywhere, when all they had to do was a cross-connect. There is already a shortage of skilled electricians, plumbers and anyone who actually "works" for a living. It's going to get worse. What's happening to the American worker?

That happend because we are, the parents, spoild our childrens with good life and we teached them that if they want continue that way they have to make big bucks. So all young guys learn to see a green color in front of any deal. Nobody cares about pride, quality, knowlage, responsibilities, honesty anymore: FIRST MONEY!!! That makes me mad and I see how we loosing our positions.

I think the problem lies with the 1st line foremen who never fired these techs the second time they did crappy work like this.

Warn them the first time, show them the right way to do it and then fire them the 2nd time.

If Senior Management is not giving the 1st line time to go out & check the jobs because "we're all lean & mean now" or because "checking on craft is so '90s" or because "quality work is so 1960's"

Then Senior Management deserves to be fired....after they're horsewhipped through the company.

Sam

The "American worker" coming out of high school goes straight into a $60K job working in IT. It's the ones who never applied themselves in (or even showed up for) school who end up making these messes. They are inexpensive to hire and these service providers are looking to save a buck anywhere they can.

We have gone as far as to print written instructions and include photos of where we want service terminated on the utility room door and they still manage to install it at the wrong address. All we can do is take pictures, document their messes and then clean them up after they leave.

Maybe someday, a class-action lawsuit will come about against these service providers, but don't hold your breath. It's not against the law to be ignorant, nor is it against the law to hire these people.

These companies are so big that they know customers will sooner pay someone else to fix their messes than to sit on hold for two hours while listening to Kenny G's greatest hits and occasionally hearing the pacifier message in both Spanish and English.

Sam, I am absolutely not aware of anyone leaving HS and walking into a 60K IT job. If they get hired at all it is for 12 bucks an hour. Don't beat up on yourself thinking we are second fiddle to IT because it just ain't so. The salaries for the best IT people hardly reach that range. IT was never so lucrative and I've been in it for 25 years now. I made more than that at one time but it was highly skilled programming work and it was absolutely nothing a kid could ever have even considered without 10 years of real experience.

Perfect example: a guy hired one of those teen "consultants" to recover files off a 1991 era IDE drive. The kid couldn't do squat with it but got paid for the time after calling it a DOA. I take the drive, plug it into my system (using the correct 40 wire cable - the kid undoubtedly used an 80) and voila! I can read the drive just fine. I'm not even charging for the 5 minutes that took, the satisfaction is plenty.

All we have do do is to keep cleaining up after bozos and we'll at least attract the kind of customers who know good from bad.