Unhappy cable customer

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gregsparky1

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Has anyone experienced this? I got this call from a new customer that his phones and cable in his house has not working properly. It had been this way for three or four months.
When I arrived, sure enough it was all jacked up. Phone lines were crossed and the cable connectors were installed terribly. There are nine TVs in the house. I changed all the splitters also. After all was said and done I sent him the bill. About four weeks later I decided to call him. Now he tells me that the TV in his bedroom doesn't get channel 4. I asked him to swap that TV with another that he knew received channel 4. After another three weeks of calling him he said he finally did and the problem is still the same. Is this possible? Is there something I may have done to cause this.
 
gregsparky1 said:
Has anyone experienced this? I got this call from a new customer that his phones and cable in his house has not working properly. It had been this way for three or four months.
When I arrived, sure enough it was all jacked up. Phone lines were crossed and the cable connectors were installed terribly. There are nine TVs in the house. I changed all the splitters also. After all was said and done I sent him the bill. About four weeks later I decided to call him. Now he tells me that the TV in his bedroom doesn't get channel 4. I asked him to swap that TV with another that he knew received channel 4. After another three weeks of calling him he said he finally did and the problem is still the same. Is this possible? Is there something I may have done to cause this.
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First, did you get paid yet?
 
I have a feeling they are just trying to keep from paying you, why didnt they complain right off the bat? you should have collected as soon as the job was done, most residential customers cannot be trusted to send a check....
 
The customer was on vacation and gave me the house. Should I have thought something was up? This customer was a referral from a very good customer. This new customer is also a lawyer. Was that a red flag? Still, do you think this a real situation or something else?
 
you need to go and see for yourself, if you have a small television, take it with you. If they do really have a problem, it is probably in how they programmed the channels in the t.v. or dvd player, anything beyond that would be a cable provider issue, I cannot think of anything you could have done that would only effect one channel.
 
There is quiet a few threads and one was refreshed in the last 24 hours talking, about QA'n and install technic's, tips, tricks, P.O. and just about touched ever fascet of running TV cable.

Frankly I found it and was amazed as to the deep subject material obtained from the posters, but I had to go to work today and left it.

A constant theme of this thread was to have the correct install tools and test equipement, low channels and high channel lose was due to crimped wires.

You inheritated this work and serviced it, but I didn't read that you QA'd it.

Not that I deal in this World, not that I tally a Bill, and surely not to say that you don't know what to do, But I just wanted to say ...
 
FWIW, in case anyone brings it up, I just checked a couple of the main vendors, and it doesn't even look like anyone makes a notch filter for just channel 4.
 
This is very discouraging. I do not like a dissatisfied customer. Yet I feel I am being had. Anyone been there? Yah right. The worst part is that I call and leave messages every week and yet receive very little response if any. All I want to do is go there and resolve the problem. If it's my fault then I'll take care of it. If it's not my fault then I'll take care of that also. Legally!
 
i would keep calling him so you can schedual a time to go out and check it. if he is hard to reach or is avoiding then i would suspect he doesnt want to pay the remainder of the bill
 
greg, the only thing I would do in that situation is verify the cabling you pulled is working properly, and then its up to the customer to call the serving utility. oh, and demand payment on the work you've already done.
 
There's part of the problem. I did not install the cable. Someone else installed the job. I just came in to fix the boched work. I told the customer that the first thing I can see to do would be to replace the low grade splitters and redo the cable ends. The original ones were the screw-on type. Oh My G_ _! What a mess. How can such a little job get so messed up? Fellows, this is how we get a bad rap. That's why I've got to get to the bottom of this. It's not just the money.
 
Send him a registered letter including a invoice for the balance.
Also state that you've called him numerous times to try to schedule a appointment to identify and repair any problems that you may have caused with your work.

That way, you've documented all that you've said here, and he can't deny that he got the letter.

It'll help you if you have to try and collect.

steve
 
Is it possible that CH 4 was deleted from the TV thru programming? I know I can delete the channels that I do not watch and they do not show up when using the channel up or down buttons.
 
My first response to this thread is why in the world did they call you and not the cable company? That should send have sent up red flags right there. The cable company doesn't charge for repairs unless the customer is on their s*** list- or maybe the customer is illegal.

So you now did something you weren't supposed to do and you are not getting paid on top of it. Next time do the right thing and tell them to call the cable company then stay out of it. This is what happens when you get greedy.

-Hal
 
hbiss said:
My first response to this thread is why in the world did they call you and not the cable company? That should send have sent up red flags right there. The cable company doesn't charge for repairs unless the customer is on their s*** list- or maybe the customer is illegal.

So you now did something you weren't supposed to do and you are not getting paid on top of it. Next time do the right thing and tell them to call the cable company then stay out of it. This is what happens when you get greedy.

-Hal
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why are you saying hes greedy? if he has a license to perform electrical work why cant he fix cable tv inside a persons house? if someone is capable of running a piece of coax cable and terminating it properly i think he is qualified to do the work. obviously the customer just doesnt want to pay. maybe he thought he paid enough. how much was the bill for anyway? 2 - 300 dollars to change splitters and ends? even if the customer calls the cable company now they will come out and say the electrician used crappy products just to sell them what they used. thats the way they do it around here. as an electrician i install splitters and connectors all the time. they even taught it to us in high school. only time i let comcast on my property is to do whatever they have to do on the outside of the house.
 
hbiss said:
My first response to this thread is why in the world did they call you and not the cable company? That should send have sent up red flags right there. The cable company doesn't charge for repairs unless the customer is on their s*** list- or maybe the customer is illegal.

So you now did something you weren't supposed to do and you are not getting paid on top of it. Next time do the right thing and tell them to call the cable company then stay out of it. This is what happens when you get greedy.

-Hal
Click to expand...

what the heck are you talking about?
 
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