jmellc
Senior Member
- Location
- Durham, NC
- Occupation
- Facility Maintenance Tech. Licensed Electrician
A scenario I am witnessing that makes me cringe for the customer.
Customer is Tom, he built a new structure across parking lot from main building. Has Dick who manages the phone/data systems. Dick advised Tom to get someone else to run cables to new building, that his co. would have to charge a fortune. He gave a list of needed cables, CAT 5 among them. Tom gets Harry to run the cables. Harry thought CAT 5 was boring, asked "why not run fiber optics?" They called Dick, who wasn't sure about that. After consulting with his boss, he said OK. So Harry ran fiber & various other needed cables. He provided a terminal board & phone switch box, etc. Now, it turns out that some of the terminals & switches in the main phone room are not compatible, so new ones have to be ordered.
I stayed out of that dispute, as I know little detail on data/com eqpmt, but I had a thought that something like this could happen. I ignored it, figured I was inviting trouble. Now I wish I had simply suggested sticking to the plan. Whether Dick's co was on the cutting edge or not, they would be the ones to maintain the system. If they specified a certain cable, that's what should have been installed. Now Tom, the customer, is faced with new delays and further expense. Harry meant well but I think he got too ambitious. He did work very cheap, so Tom won't push him to cover expense of extra stuff.
At any rate, I hope I remember that well enough to put in my 2 cents on a similar situation in the future.
Customer is Tom, he built a new structure across parking lot from main building. Has Dick who manages the phone/data systems. Dick advised Tom to get someone else to run cables to new building, that his co. would have to charge a fortune. He gave a list of needed cables, CAT 5 among them. Tom gets Harry to run the cables. Harry thought CAT 5 was boring, asked "why not run fiber optics?" They called Dick, who wasn't sure about that. After consulting with his boss, he said OK. So Harry ran fiber & various other needed cables. He provided a terminal board & phone switch box, etc. Now, it turns out that some of the terminals & switches in the main phone room are not compatible, so new ones have to be ordered.
I stayed out of that dispute, as I know little detail on data/com eqpmt, but I had a thought that something like this could happen. I ignored it, figured I was inviting trouble. Now I wish I had simply suggested sticking to the plan. Whether Dick's co was on the cutting edge or not, they would be the ones to maintain the system. If they specified a certain cable, that's what should have been installed. Now Tom, the customer, is faced with new delays and further expense. Harry meant well but I think he got too ambitious. He did work very cheap, so Tom won't push him to cover expense of extra stuff.
At any rate, I hope I remember that well enough to put in my 2 cents on a similar situation in the future.
