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Ugly exterior cable installation
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Old 20-09-2011, 16:12   #1
Kizza
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Ugly exterior cable installation

Our block of flats was the only one on our street not connected to Virgin fibre optic, so we requested a communal connection.

18 months later the work has just been completed, but the final cabling was done while I was on holiday (and no, I didn't know when they were doing the work, they just turn up randomly).

The problem is, our building is an attractive Georgian mansion, painted white, converted into flats, and all the cables are black. They run up the front of the building and horizontally across the front, sides and rear. Added to this, to the side of a window ledge to each flat is a large coil of black wire, 6 inches in diameter, which I assume is excess wiring that would run into the flat should anyone sign up to Virgin.

It looks horrendous. Do they not have white cables? Has no-one ever complained before about thick black cables running all over the outside of the building?

Plus, we're in a conservation area, so I supect we're breaking some kind of law or bylaw. Even if we're not, it look terrible..

The other residents agree and want it removed or replaced with white cables.

I called customer support and got some confused bloke in India who said he'd pass my number to the installation team. I'm waiting to hear back from them. I intend to ask for either white cables or for it to be removed.

I'd be interested in anyone else's opinion or advice on this. Is this normal installation practice?!

Oh and in the meantime, BT Infinity has arrived in our street, which is cheaper and hopefully can just be run to my ground floor flat without destroying the image of the building.

Thanks.
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Old 20-09-2011, 16:56   #2
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Re: Ugly exterior cable installation

I'm afraid they are well known for this. Even when connecting to houses they leave the cables onthe surface half the time.
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Old 20-09-2011, 16:58   #3
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Re: Ugly exterior cable installation

Blacks the normal, have a look at other flats
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Old 20-09-2011, 17:05   #4
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Re: Ugly exterior cable installation

Thanks for your replies.

By "normal" do you mean black is the only colour they have?

I would've thought it more normal to apply common sense and use white cabling against a white building.

And what about the icing on the cake... le piece de resistance.. le coup de maître: the 8 black coils of thick wire adjacent to each window ledge?
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Old 20-09-2011, 17:12   #5
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Re: Ugly exterior cable installation

I can only order black siameese and the coils are there ready to be hooked up, again normal
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Old 20-09-2011, 17:21   #6
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Re: Ugly exterior cable installation

Your building was pre-wired by the sounds of it. The coiled cable will be because the contractors couldnt drill every apartment and will leave that to the install teams that come to connect customers.

Unfortunately there is no white cable, external cable is black but theres nothing stopping the cable being painted.

Want to drop me the details of your building and I will pass this on to the local field team to look at again?
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Old 20-09-2011, 17:25   #7
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Re: Ugly exterior cable installation

jb66,

As someone not working in, or familiar with, the cable installation business, I was not aware of this normality. And my crystal ball is broken so I failed to predict it.

Perhaps it would've been more professional of Virgin to point out the unavailibility of white cable prior to ruining the appearance of our building, and now creating a situation where it's all going to have to be removed?

Whereas I haven't come across this situation before, I assume Virgin would have.

On the plus side, no-one here has subscribed to Virgin yet so it's not our time and money being wasted.

---------- Post added at 15:25 ---------- Previous post was at 15:23 ----------

Quote:
Originally Posted by weesteev View Post
Your building was pre-wired by the sounds of it. The coiled cable will be because the contractors couldnt drill every apartment and will leave that to the install teams that come to connect customers.

Unfortunately there is no white cable, external cable is black but theres nothing stopping the cable being painted.

Want to drop me the details of your building and I will pass this on to the local field team to look at again?
Yes please, thanks. I'll PM you if that's possible on here.

P.S re painting the cable white: the cabling is very high in places, inaccessible to anyone without ladders and safety equipment, or scaffolding.
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Old 20-09-2011, 17:26   #8
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Re: Ugly exterior cable installation

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kizza View Post
As someone not working in, or familiar with, the cable installation business, I was not aware of this normality. And my crystal ball is broken so I failed to predict it.

Perhaps it would've been more professional of Virgin to point out the unavailibility of white cable prior to ruining the appearance of our building, and now creating a situation where it's all going to have to be removed?

Whereas I haven't come across this situation before, I assume Virgin would have.

On the plus side, no-one here has subscribed to Virgin yet so it's not our time and money being wasted.

---------- Post added at 15:25 ---------- Previous post was at 15:23 ----------



Yes please, thanks. I'll PM you if that's possible on here.
I'm sure that if you had asked what colour cable they used then they would have told you that it was black.

All you need to do is paint over it.
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Old 20-09-2011, 17:40   #9
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Re: Ugly exterior cable installation

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tim Deegan View Post
I'm sure that if you had asked what colour cable they used then they would have told you that it was black.

All you need to do is paint over it.
I didn't know to ask.

Plus I didn't realise the whole building would be wired. I thought they'd just extend the fibre optic to a box in our front garden, and then anyone subscribing would be wired up thereafter.

I'm a customer, not an expert, so it would've been nice if Virgin had discussed these matters with me and fully explained what installation involves.

And like I said, we can't paint the cables without paying someone to do it. it's a 4-storey building. I'm not sure how Virgin got that high up but a lot of painters won't go that high without some kind of scaffolding = £££
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Old 20-09-2011, 18:06   #10
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Re: Ugly exterior cable installation

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kizza View Post
I didn't know to ask.

Plus I didn't realise the whole building would be wired. I thought they'd just extend the fibre optic to a box in our front garden, and then anyone subscribing would be wired up thereafter.

I'm a customer, not an expert, so it would've been nice if Virgin had discussed these matters with me and fully explained what installation involves.

And like I said, we can't paint the cables without paying someone to do it. it's a 4-storey building. I'm not sure how Virgin got that high up but a lot of painters won't go that high without some kind of scaffolding = £££
Well to be honest it's not really Virgin's fault. You can't expect them to have all different colours of cable for different houses. From what I understand it's the black cable that us the most UV resistant. They actually use white cable inside your property. If it was going to cause any problems with the appearance of the building, then you should have brought up these concerns with Virgin. After all they don't have a crystal ball either.

It's just the same as I'm in the bed trade, and if someone has a very narrow staircase with a low ceiling, and they want to buy a superking size mattress, then they need to ask us if it is likely to be a problem. After all we don't know anything about their house.
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Old 20-09-2011, 18:42   #11
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Re: Ugly exterior cable installation

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tim Deegan View Post
Well to be honest it's not really Virgin's fault. You can't expect them to have all different colours of cable for different houses. From what I understand it's the black cable that us the most UV resistant. They actually use white cable inside your property. If it was going to cause any problems with the appearance of the building, then you should have brought up these concerns with Virgin. After all they don't have a crystal ball either.

It's just the same as I'm in the bed trade, and if someone has a very narrow staircase with a low ceiling, and they want to buy a superking size mattress, then they need to ask us if it is likely to be a problem. After all we don't know anything about their house.
I'm not demanding cables in all the colours of the rainbow

Just white as well as black.

Besides, like I said: I didn't realise the whole building would be wired. I thought they'd just extend the fibre optic to a box in our front garden, and then anyone subscribing would be wired up thereafter.

I'm a customer, not an expert, so it would've been nice if Virgin had discussed these matters with me and fully explained what installation involves.


Virgin Media should anticipate these problems because it is their business.

My friend installs sliding doors and one of his customers wanted a grey one. My friend looked at the block and saw that all the other doors and windows were white and advised the customer to check the covenants of the building. Turned out, all the doors had to be white.

So my friend, using his expertise, advised the customer, and the correct solution was arrived at.

According to your logic, if my mate worked for Virgin Doors, or whatever, he could've just stuck in the grey doors and if the customer complained, said: "I don't have a crystal ball.. paint it white" lol.

It's their business to anticipate these things!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Old 20-09-2011, 20:20   #12
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Re: Ugly exterior cable installation

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kizza View Post
I'm not demanding cables in all the colours of the rainbow

Just white as well as black.

Besides, like I said: I didn't realise the whole building would be wired. I thought they'd just extend the fibre optic to a box in our front garden, and then anyone subscribing would be wired up thereafter.

I'm a customer, not an expert, so it would've been nice if Virgin had discussed these matters with me and fully explained what installation involves.


Virgin Media should anticipate these problems because it is their business.

My friend installs sliding doors and one of his customers wanted a grey one. My friend looked at the block and saw that all the other doors and windows were white and advised the customer to check the covenants of the building. Turned out, all the doors had to be white.

So my friend, using his expertise, advised the customer, and the correct solution was arrived at.

According to your logic, if my mate worked for Virgin Doors, or whatever, he could've just stuck in the grey doors and if the customer complained, said: "I don't have a crystal ball.. paint it white" lol.

It's their business to anticipate these things!!!!!!!!!!!!
All houses and customers are different, so they can't anticipate every possible scenario. You know your scenario, so it is up to you to ask.

If you were ordering a door, then you would specify the colour. It's not up to the company to guess.

I'm afraid this is all down to you not asking enough questions, but you are trying to blame someone else.
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Old 20-09-2011, 21:18   #13
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Re: Ugly exterior cable installation

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Originally Posted by Tim Deegan View Post
All houses and customers are different, so they can't anticipate every possible scenario. You know your scenario, so it is up to you to ask.

If you were ordering a door, then you would specify the colour. It's not up to the company to guess.

I'm afraid this is all down to you not asking enough questions, but you are trying to blame someone else.
Someone needs to go back to business school.
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Old 20-09-2011, 21:40   #14
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Smile Re: Ugly exterior cable installation

Black is used as it does not rot like white cable does after it been in the sun after a while .I take it all the cables run in the same direction and it looks neatish .If they put a box in the garden or on the wall and everytime someone wants cable they run a cable from this box to the house each installer would run it a different way and it would look awfull seen this before .What we have done here a long time ago we used capping / trunking on the outside of the flats .This can be bought in differet colours .This is how we did the mdus in this area to keep the council happy
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Old 20-09-2011, 22:00   #15
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Re: Ugly exterior cable installation

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Originally Posted by Kizza View Post
Someone needs to go back to business school.
Someone forgot his own question.....

Quote:
I'd be interested in anyone else's opinion or advice on this. Is this normal installation practice?!
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