Why ECs shouldn't do voice and data wiring.

[hbiss]

Ok, maybe we have some sharp guys here who actually know what they are doing but I have said it before, most ECs have no clue. They only do voice and data because they have a "foot in the door" and see it as an easy way to make a few extra bucks. Believe me, this happens all the time.

The following story was related to me by a good friend and fellow telephone interconnect company owner. He is spitting mad because the incompetance of the EC on this job cost him a long time customer and made his company look bad.

If I were the homeowner I would be in touch with my attorney and sue the butt off of the EC and that stupid GC. Make them do whatever is necessary to rewire and do the job properly. Maybe when it hits them in the wallet big time they will learn to mind their business.

Here's the story:

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An existing customer near my office calls and asks if we will move the system we sold them to their new house in Richmond, Va. That's about 2 hours away, but since we have quite a few other customers in that area, we agree to do it. While we are at it, they want us to add three more phones and a wireless keyset, so we'll be making a little bit of money to cover the distance.

The customer has just purchased a brand-new 6,000 square foot custom home in the suburbs of Richmond. Nice place for sure. They assure us that the builder had cabling for voice and data installed in every room and that it was done properly. It sure should be at the rates they charged for it. The total cost from the EC was about three times what we would have charged.

So we get there bright and early this morning. First bad sign: The customer is standing in the kitchen talking on a standard single-line set. He yells upstairs to his wife to pick up the phone. OK, can you tell where I am going with this?

You guessed it. ONE CAT5e cable looped between twenty total locations for voice. TWO CAT5e's were looped to the same locations for data, one for the first floor outlets and one for the second. Both were left hanging outside by the NID and Verizon kindly hooked both of them up for them to the dial tone. Even "Bocephus" the Verizon technician left his card inside the NID and wrote "wiring doesn't look right" on the back!

In the unfinished area of the basement, we could see the wiring and how it was fastened; using a T-50 staple gun that's normally used for attaching fabric or insulation. For a good part of the way, the cables were run through the same joist holes containing the 240 volt, 50 amp cable for the range.

We pull open some of the jacks (the cheap oriental screw-terminal ones) and find that they had devised their own color code (orange/white=red, green/white=green, etc.) and in some places, there were as many as four cables branching out from a single point. Oh, and one of them went to the door box location.

We explain to the customer that this wiring cannot be used for the phone system or for their data. Not knowing what the hell he's talking about, he immediately bursts into a rage, implying that we are just trying to rip him off to cover for our travel time. We try to explain the electrical reasoning, but he doesn't want to hear it.

He calls the custom builder, who happens to be working on another house up the street. "Homer" comes over with a dazed look on his face, not understanding what we are talking about. He grabs the line cord from one of the phones and says "look, the phone only uses four wires and we installed eight, what's the problem?" He then proceeds to explain that he's been building houses for twenty years, has used the same electrician and has never had a complaint. He then takes the homeowner into another room to have a private conversation with him. Of course, in a completely empty house with hardwood floors and high ceilings, we could hear every word they said to each other. Homer convinces the customer that we don't know what we are talking about and that maybe he should hire the sparky who wired the house to install the system.

The customer sends us away, refusing to pay a dime for our time. Two men wasted over half a day and a tank of gas to go there for absolutely nothing. Knowing how he treated us, I seriously doubt that he'll call us back when he finds out that we were right and Homer was wrong.

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-Hal

[iwire]

Originally Posted by hbiss

They only do voice and data because they have a "foot in the door" and see it as an easy way to make a few extra bucks.

That may well be true sometimes but for the companies I have worked for I can tell you that many more times we don't want the V&D but are asked/forced/pressured to do it while we are doing the line volt wiring.

[ptonsparky]

Did some training in this a number of years ago. Opted not to follow up. I cringe when I see the way some of the "pros" do it around here. Others are perfectionists. No different than any other field.

[LawnGuyLandSparky]

All voice & Data wiring should be done by electricians, since it is electrical work. There should be no such thing as "Data-com" shops. In the example you gave, it's clear the homeowner never communicated the system requirements to the EC or the GC.

[hbiss]

In the example you gave, it's clear the homeowner never communicated the system requirements to the EC or the GC.

What??? Are you trying to tell me that SOMEBODY has to tell an EC that telephone and data wiring DOESN'T get looped?? Are you trying to tell me that the homeowner needs to tell the EC that there is a color code??

All voice & Data wiring should be done by electricians, since it is electrical work.

Yup, that's exactly the attitude that contributed to this mess. "I'm supposed to do it so I'm doing it". Doesn't matter that the EC doesn't have any idea how. Hey, if something goes wrong I'll just spin it and say nobody communicated the system requirements to me. Yeah right.


-Hal

[celtic]

When did the HO give any indication that wanted more than just a phone...as opposed to a "system"?
To whom did they make this request?

There is more to the story than we (and possibly even you) are being told.

[celtic]

Originally Posted by LawnGuyLandSparky

]In the example you gave, it's clear the homeowner never communicated the system requirements to the EC or the GC.

I wouldn't go as far as to say it's "clear" the HO never communicated their desire.

I also fail to see what the problem is with "looping" (although that is NOT the method I use).

[hbiss]

Do you also see no problem with looping the data?

-Hal

[emahler]

there definitely is more to this story....the customer is an idiot, they are no loss. in this day and age, any ec worth their salt knows to hr everything. looping was fine when a house only had 1 line....today, you might as well install tin cans and string if you're gonna loop it...

the first sentence in "data wiring for dummies" states "do not under any circumstances loop data wiring....no daisy chains allowed"

[celtic]

Originally Posted by hbiss

Do you also see no problem with looping the data?

-Hal

Who's definition of "data are we using...the HO's or the EC's?
A HO may be clueless as to what "data" is ...they may not have even used the term, but rather asked for tele/cable/internet in everyroom? ...or we "sold" tele/cable/internet in every room?

I maintain we are not getting the entire story...and we may never.