Request to Customers from a Tech

[DJSADERS]

Just a quick request and explanation, hopefully other techs will agree with this statement

If you choose to leave Virgin Media than please leave the boxes on the wall inside and out (Telephone and DTV Outlets) (This also includes CableTel / ComTel / Telewest / NTL / Cable and Wireless etc...) and please don't cut the cables, when we leave the yards at 7.30am with 6 / 7 sometimes 8 jobs, it causes stress beyond belief, it also causes us not to get home until gone 6pm / 7pm sometimes even later having to recable houses, 9 times out of 10 i would say the cables end up being exactly where they were before!

I understand sometimes they get accidentally broken, thats fine, but choosing to remove the cables puts us techs behind by hours, and just 1 house needing rewiring can add 1- 2 hours onto our day, but imagine 3 or more (Like my route today ¬__¬).

It does no harm leaving them and it means when you choose to rejoin or move installation is quicker and you have a happier tech on your hands.

Thats all

[Chris]

I'm curious how often you're able to determine that the person who has just ordered VM services is the same person who previously ripped the wires out whilst redecorating or whatever?

Your appeal is likely to fall on dead ears, unfortunately. I don't imagine anyone who intended to re-use their omnibox or isolator would deliberately remove them. It's more likely that they are removed by people who never intend to use them or don't know what they are.

Sorry to hear you had a frustrating day at work though ...

[DJSADERS]

i usually start a conversation with the customer about it, and i would say it's 50/50, but with redecorating it's not hard to unscrew them and then rescrew then on to the wall after like what is done with plug sockets.

and if people don't know what they are why touch them, you wouldn't see people removing other devices attached to the wall without knowing what they are...

alot of people i have found do it in anger, they were p****d off with virgin (or a prevous company) and decided to remove it all, then after hearing good feedback want it all back.

builders are the worst though... going straight through drop cables without looking.

[Telly_]

What you're saying is just unfortunate for the installers. Customers are paying upto £50 for an install so its more than acceptable they get at least 1hour 30mins from the installer.

Paying £50 for some guy to turn up and screw a connector into the back of a modem and Tv STB is not acceptable.

[DJSADERS]

Do bare in mind that we don't get paid £50 we see barely any most jobs £10 if that.

And hardly anyone pays the £50 fee, as most people argue it.

It is totally acceptable for us to turn up and get the equipment running without cabling, as we have to check signal levels, set the box frequency's, do the telco (which is a 2 stage pain in the ass process), with the tivo it takes 30mins at least to get it going, the broadband takes 10ish mins due to the activation process and then there is the talk through with the customer on how to use everything.

[Telly_]

Originally Posted by DJSADERS

Do bare in mind that we don't get paid £50 we see barely any most jobs £10 if that.

And hardly anyone pays the £50 fee, as most people argue it.

It is totally acceptable for us to turn up and get the equipment running without cabling, as we have to check signal levels, set the box frequency's, do the telco (which is a 2 stage pain in the ass process), with the tivo it takes 30mins at least to get it going, the broadband takes 10ish mins due to the activation process and then there is the talk through with the customer on how to use everything.

Do bare in mind I don't care how much you get per job, just like you're not to interested in the quality of the job. I just care I am paying £50.

You're really not painting a picture of a guy who is interested in the quality of his work, or who is interested in leaving behind a happy customer.You should of known what was required in the role before you applied for it, it is also very obviously a customer facing role which will involve some demonstration of the products/services.

Sometimes I think better installations in the first instance would probably reduce fault call outs by 20-30% for Virginmedia. Perhaps they should up the job rate. VM installers always look like they had a very hard paper round as a kid, Sky installers just go with the flow and look pretty relaxed.

This is not a dig at installers by the way.

[DJSADERS]

where do you get i don't care in the quality of the job... it wouldn't take hours to rerun cables if that was the case!

[Telly_]

Originally Posted by DJSADERS

where do you get i don't care in the quality of the job... it wouldn't take hours to rerun cables if that was the case!

Ok maybe you do care about the job, I apologise.

[Maggy J]

Originally Posted by Telly Bear

Do bare in mind I don't care how much you get per job, just like you're not to interested in the quality of the job. I just care I am paying £50.

You're really not painting a picture of a guy who is interested in the quality of his work, or who is interested in leaving behind a happy customer.You should of known what was required in the role before you applied for it, it is also very obviously a customer facing role which will involve some demonstration of the products/services.

I don't think he saying any such thing when he originally posted.I think he was merely asking for people not to destroy the equipment and cabling left when services are terminated in case anyone else who may buy or rent the house in future are not inconvenienced unduly and the installers don't have to take twice as long to install said equipment/cabling.

It didn't seem like a particularly contentious request to me..Why this thread has developed into conflict bemuses me..

[jb66]

I care about the job, but I care about getting home on time more


I hate when they cut the cable at the isolator and it's 4 floors up, can't put a new cable in so have to do a botch DIY join outside the window.

[Telly_]

Originally Posted by Maggy J

I don't think he saying any such thing when he originally posted.I think he was merely asking for people not to destroy the equipment and cabling left when services are terminated in case anyone else who may buy or rent the house in future are not inconvenienced unduly and the installers don't have to take twice as long to install said equipment/cabling.

It didn't seem like a particularly contentious request to me..Why this thread has developed into conflict bemuses me..

Obviously your idea of conflict is different to mine,

[Maggy J]

Originally Posted by Telly Bear

Obviously your idea of conflict is different to mine,

Oh I've become quite expert on what constitutes conflict on Cable Forum across the last 10 years.

[DJSADERS]

Sky techs haven't got quite as much to do per job though, Virgin techs as mentioned have the broadband, tv and phone to setup as well as any cabling, whereas sky techs only have the tv to set up and possibly a dish, as the telephone and broadband (if you can call it that) is done through openreach / BT.

---------- Post added at 09:48 ---------- Previous post was at 09:47 ----------

And with more and more people having more than one tv box installed it a fairly big jop per customer, sometimes huge (3 or more tv boxes)

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by DJSADERS

Do bare in mind that we don't get paid £50 we see barely any most jobs £10 if that.

And hardly anyone pays the £50 fee, as most people argue it.

It is totally acceptable for us to turn up and get the equipment running without cabling, as we have to check signal levels, set the box frequency's, do the telco (which is a 2 stage pain in the ass process), with the tivo it takes 30mins at least to get it going, the broadband takes 10ish mins due to the activation process and then there is the talk through with the customer on how to use everything.

While I actually sympathise with you, the average customer doesn't care what you get paid. They just see that they paid £50. In some cases, they paid £50 for a technician who did a half arsed job and vanished after 20 minutes.

I realise that not all technicians do that, but it has been my experience every time I have had a VM install.

Even when I had the Tivo installed, the technician vanished before the service activated.

And no, I have never done anything to the cable. I've never touched the omnibox either.

[Rob]

I think the problem here is one of time allocated to the installer, not the actually payment. It doesn't matter what walk of life you are in, you pay one company for something, they will take a big cut and so on down the line until the poor sod at the bottom of the pile actually doing the job gets a pittance.

VM's databases show which properties have once had a cable connection. If you want a service, the database says you already have cable, just needs reactivation. It might allow to run additional internal cable to the new installation location, but certainly they expect an intact cable feed from the street jut to be reconnected perhaps at the cabinet. The installer's time slot is allocated accordingly. If a cable the database says is there isn't then something is going to take a lot longer than allocated and that means delays to customers (especially those later in the day as the installer runs behind) as well as a frustrated installer.