atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services T1's, CSU's and DSU's Adtran 908E and Comcast

There is no phone room or closet. They ran the coax under the receptionist's desk and plugged in a few modems/"boxes" and then plugged everything into there.

I weep.

Sam

We had a very reputable BAD tech for Comcast in our area that even our competitors had to deal with. He would do just as was mentioned above about installing and leaving and not letting any documentation of IP's and/or labeling the numbers. Well he caught me in a bad mood one day when I was on my way to do a cutover with them the client called and said that they didn't have any service and the Comcast tech was there.

I arrive a few minutes later and he was there and as soon as I saw him I asked for his tech ID and he gave it to me. I grabbed my tools walked into the the comm closet and there were his two shiny new used modems (looked like they rolled around in the back of his van) and nothing was labeled. I asked him if he could label it and he said it was not his job, so I smirked walked out of the room and called Comcast and reported an outage. They said well we have a tech onsite and i said "yep and im not sure what he is doing he has been sitting here on his phone all morning, and gave them his tech ID". I then walk in and he is on the phone and said "Did you report an outage" I reply " yep" and he says "Their lines are working" and I say no there not test it yourself, your support doesn't even see the modems" He was on the phone for another hour until a regional manager showed up and was helping him and then they realized that the cable feed to the splitter feeding everything was disconnected outside in the box (I had nothing to do with !!). Manager was giving him grief asking him how the modems even came online to begin with!! They get everything back up and working and manager comes and tell us they are good to go I walk back and nothing is still labeled, me "are you going to label the 9 telephone numbers?" Tech just glared at me and then they labeled everything. And on his way out the door with his manager standing beside him I say, "now let this be a lesson to always label your lines and give the customer proper documentation of the service you are installing, because if you want to make my job a pain in the ass I will make yours even more"

Fast forward a day and I get a call from a sales rep that we deal with there and he was dying laughing because that regional manager that was out onsite was telling him this story about this tech that caused a big issue because nothing was labeled and he said "I bet I know who this was"

Yes, of course, I did ANI all the lines, but that's not the point. I have NEVER had a situation with Bell Telephone, Bell Atlantic, Verizon, Winstream, Armstrong, AT&T, US LEC or Consolidated where their equipment was installed and the circuits were not labeled. Sure, some of the labeling leaves a lot to be desired, but, still, the techs make an effort to identify the circuits.

This particular situation was frustrating. The devices they installed were behind a data rack which was all of 10" away from the wall. There is, virtually, no light in the room and they installed their devices 6" above the floor. I'm 6'4" and bending over is an Olympic sport for me, anymore. With no circuit ID, I had to ANI all of the installed lines, run a jumper and then connect. That took a while.

Any more, when a client says Comcast, I roll my eyes and say "Be prepared for a bumpy ride." They don't understand, at first, but, everyone, no exceptions, fully realize exactly what I mean.

Rcaman

That's why I always try to be there (on the customer's dime) when the cable tech arrives. More than once I took the modems from him and told him I would install them while he ran the coax. But I understand that it doesn't always work out that way.

-Hal

LOL...That happened to me on Monday. The tech had two MTAs to install and he had to run a new drop from the pole. When I offered to install the MTA's for him, I thought he was going to ask me for a date. He was comfortable with the coax end of things, but was shaking in his boots when it came time to work with the MTAs. I told him he had to call his office to have the MTAs activated and get the numbers ported. "Oh, is that why they said to call when I got the coax connected?" I said "Well...yeah. The MTAs don't come activated." His initial idea was to mount the MTA's 250' on the other end of the building. I walked him over to the corner of the building and showed him his pole span amplifier and multiple splitters. That was all of 10' away from the building and 3' inside where the telephone system was. Of course, he had to call and get someone's permission. According to the tech, they "forgot" that big amp was in the span.

"Forgot?" Really? How does a company "forget" about a piece of equipment about the size of a VW on the span? I guess that could be a possible reason they are clueless when it comes to properly connecting equipment and porting telephone lines.

Rcaman