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Comments on news posted 2014-06-30 14:03:52: Previously, we have discussed a number of instances in Kansas City where those installing Google Fiber were "butchering" the homeowner’s property. ..

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newview
Ex .. Ex .. Exactly
Premium Member
join:2001-10-01
Parsonsburg, MD

20 recommendations

newview

Premium Member

Dear Google

Please come butcher my lawn.

I'll help ...

Duramax08
To The Moon
Premium Member
join:2008-08-03
San Antonio, TX

1 recommendation

Duramax08

Premium Member

Contractors

Im sure its the contractors google hires to lay the main fiber causing all these problems. While the problem should be addressed by google, those contractors really need to get their shit together.
wkm001
join:2009-12-14

wkm001

Member

Verizon to the rescue

For the exact same price Verizon could have delivered nothing (NY & Penn) and not had a single construction complaint.
elefante72
join:2010-12-03
East Amherst, NY

3 recommendations

elefante72 to Duramax08

Member

to Duramax08

Re: Contractors

And how is this different from any provider? TWC left a coax cable on my lawn for 6 months while I complained, then it got cut by the lawn guys. They then came and had to fix and eventually trenched it (to a shallow depth). Verizon did the same when they ran my fiber, except they did a better and more professional job.

This isn't wireless. It has to go from point A to point B.

Tearing up a lawn is a totally American problem...

I for one would pay for a full re-sod if Google tore up my lawn to get me gig.

As for boxes, sewers, etc--most people don't understand that believe it or not town drawings for many utilities are not accurate. In my mothers town, they still have wood sewers over 100 years old.

If I had a dollar for every time a PDU or whip drawing were incorrect in a "high tech" datacenter, I'd be retired.

Sure there are idiots, but lets just say nothing is perfect.
Albert71292
join:2004-10-31
West Monroe, LA

2 recommendations

Albert71292 to newview

Member

to newview

Re: Dear Google

^^THIS!!!^^
existenz
join:2014-02-12

existenz to Duramax08

Member

to Duramax08

Re: Contractors

Up to 5% rate of complaints would be expected. Google needs to keep contractors in check but it would be impossible for there to be no disruption. About 75K-100K subs estimated so far... If below 5% complaining, this shouldn't be news.

Soup
@50.182.54.x

1 recommendation

Soup to Duramax08

Anon

to Duramax08
said by Duramax08:

Im sure its the contractors google hires to lay the main fiber causing all these problems. While the problem should be addressed by google, those contractors really need to get their shit together.

Google is no different than any company. They hired the contractor bidding the lowest and that contractor hires sub-contractors who hire the lowest paid incompetent layabouts they can find. Hardly surprising they do a horrible job.
rradina
join:2000-08-08
Chesterfield, MO

1 recommendation

rradina to elefante72

Member

to elefante72
All good points. Nothing is perfect and accidents happen. I don't think most folks expect perfection but when the result is clearly shoddy, it's not unreasonable to expect it to be rectified within a reasonable amount of time. Good customer service would be Google inspecting the installations and self-correcting without the customer having to file a complaint.

chip89
Premium Member
join:2012-07-05
Columbia Station, OH

chip89 to newview

Premium Member

to newview

Re: Dear Google

Google would't need to for me I have a pole in my backyard!

BlueandGold
join:2005-11-26
Go Bears!

1 recommendation

BlueandGold to newview

Member

to newview
Is there an option to order a self installed lawn butchering kit so we don't have to pay for the professional lawn butchering truck roll?

Ganthet
join:2009-08-05
Kansas City, MO

Ganthet

Member

Eye witness account

I live in one of the areas currently under construction and I have to say that while the initial construction is a mess I think the crews are doing a good job. They came through my neighborhood to install the underground conduit and for a few days our streets looked like a missile test range. After that though all the holes they dug were filled in and and covered with grass seed and straw. My lawn shows no signs of the 3 large holes dug in it barely a month ago.

Yes, mistakes happen. They clipped a gas line on my street, but it was fixed in a few hours. Based on the scope of this operation and the speed at which they're working I think their progress is very impressive.
ghosti
join:2014-02-01
united state

1 recommendation

ghosti

Member

You must have been in the evac'd area this past Fri after they opened the line. KCFD said there have been several instances of the g-fiber contractors hitting the gas lines. Can't put all the blame on the contractors though, KC's line maps are a horrendous mess with many reroutes and changes never recorded. Of course the haters will blame google, but a portion of blame lies with the poor records kept over the years by the city and it's utilities.
zoeblast
join:2014-02-20
Tampa, FL

zoeblast

Member

You can't have progress without change...


DeathK
Premium Member
join:2002-06-16
Cincinnati, OH

DeathK to ghosti

Premium Member

to ghosti

Re: Eye witness account

Yep. If records are inaccurate it shouldn't be any surprise when utility location markings are off and subsequent digging results in damaged lines here and there.

tshirt
Premium Member
join:2004-07-11
Snohomish, WA

tshirt

Premium Member

Fairly predictable...

...which is why Google limited their liability and reporting requirements in advance.
so does the city now allow all telecom's to run rampant/supervise their own damage repair/ compensation programs? Will the city step up it's own monitoring of the work/permit compliance? and is there some line they won't allow Google to cross without responding?
It's easy to sit here and say
said by newview:

Please come butcher my lawn.

I'll help ...

when it's not your house and yard being destroyed or something YOU really want, not so much when the sewage IS backing up in YOUR house, for something the neighbor wants.
You kind of expect your city/local gov't to be watching out for YOUR interests.
tshirt

1 recommendation

tshirt to DeathK

Premium Member

to DeathK

Re: Eye witness account

said by DeathK:

Yep. If records are inaccurate it shouldn't be any surprise when utility location markings are off and subsequent digging results in damaged lines here and there.

There are methods for CHECKING the accuracy ie for a road project in front of my house ALL locations are being verified by vacuum potholing at least every 100 feet plus all crossing sevice lines road and driveways (3 mile long project) down to the water- gas and fiber optic/telco conduits everwhere that will be excavated (the entire project length as a ditch become buried drainage, and a paved path covers it)
It's just expensive to do.

battleop
join:2005-09-28
00000

2 recommendations

battleop to Duramax08

Member

to Duramax08

Re: Contractors

LOL... If it's an AT&T/Verizon/Comcast/Cox/Charter contractor it's an evil plot by the before mentioned companies to do some sort of evil. When it's Google, well sucks that's OK, they are just learning as they go and we should just cut them some slack.

As much as I don't care for most of what EPB does I will have to say that they have done a very good job of wiring out Chattanooga without any major problems like this. The most I noticed was you had to wait for the guy with a flag to wave you through.
existenz
join:2014-02-12

1 recommendation

existenz

Member

EPB is an existing utility company that had 80 years head start with laying out infrastructure in Chat. Google had to start from scratch. Either way, up to 5% complaint rate would be expected no matter who is rolling out new infrastructure. For an existing one who already has infrastructure in place, would expect lower rate of issues.

tshirt
Premium Member
join:2004-07-11
Snohomish, WA

1 recommendation

tshirt

Premium Member

As long as no one complains too loud when the repair contractor accidentally "backhoes" the fiber when he's digging.
tshirt

tshirt to existenz

Premium Member

to existenz
so 5000 complaints so far is OK?
Of course if they don't have to report it who knows how many it really is
existenz
join:2014-02-12

existenz

Member

said by tshirt:

so 5000 complaints so far is OK?

Well a complaint of some form, even if not significant. 1 out of 20-30 will complain about any install, with any company that does installs, even if very minor. Would be surprised if yards being severely impacted are 0.1%. Would expect much lower for any utility that already has infrastructure in place.

xirian
Premium Member
join:2003-01-26
Beacon, NY

xirian to battleop

Premium Member

to battleop
They can come ruin my lawn. It looks like crap anyways.
bcltoys
join:2008-07-21

bcltoys

Member

Come on

It won't happen but I would be more then happy for them to butcher my yard. I would be happy for any wired ISP to butcher my yard.
smcallah
join:2004-08-05
Home

2 recommendations

smcallah to existenz

Member

to existenz

Re: Contractors

You know it only takes 1 gas line explosion out of a small number of complaints for quite a lawsuit to spring up.

If they are breaking people's gas lines, this can happen. Explosions have happened before with cut gas lines.

Either 811 is marking lines wrong, or they aren't calling 811 or waiting for all lines to be marked before all of their digs.

It's dangerous and irresponsible. It doesn't matter how many people complain, cutting lines and pipes should not be happening in people's yards, period. Google Fiber might be cool, but it's not worth that hassle. I'd like to keep my water or gas service on without interruption, I can get by without cable or fiber for longer than I can without those.
smcallah

smcallah to existenz

Member

to existenz
It's not like Google is just learning how to trench yards. They hire contractors that are supposed to know how to do it already. It's not the early days of laying infrastructure. There are many, many contractors that have been doing this for a long time.
smcallah

smcallah to zoeblast

Member

to zoeblast

Re: You can't have progress without change...

You can have change without breaking what exists, especially when it's as important as water and as dangerous to break as gas.

If they were just breaking telco or cable lines, then it wouldn't be so bad. But when they're disrupting people's water and gas service, that's scary.

jap
Premium Member
join:2003-08-10
038xx

jap to smcallah

Premium Member

to smcallah

Re: Contractors

said by smcallah:

There are many, many contractors that have been doing this for a long time.

Yeah, but brains and experience cost more. And we're a culture obsessed over initial price-point. (AKA published cost in a form passable to the management layer above me).

alchav
join:2002-05-17
Saint George, UT

alchav to Ganthet

Member

to Ganthet

Re: Eye witness account

said by Ganthet:

I live in one of the areas currently under construction and I have to say that while the initial construction is a mess I think the crews are doing a good job. They came through my neighborhood to install the underground conduit and for a few days our streets looked like a missile test range. After that though all the holes they dug were filled in and and covered with grass seed and straw. My lawn shows no signs of the 3 large holes dug in it barely a month ago.

I'm glad to hear that Google is doing it right, coming in underground with conduit. I think they will stay away from the Pole Loving Cities and Communities, until they can clean up their act. I'm sure with time those Construction Crews will get better at digging in the right places. Most important Lines are marked, but sometimes they aren't. If you want Fiber it has to be done correctly, this is why Google has strict guidelines. So the Cities and Communities have to make sure everything is marked, so no mistakes are made.
BiggA
Premium Member
join:2005-11-23
Central CT
·Frontier FiberOp..
Asus RT-AC68

1 recommendation

BiggA to newview

Premium Member

to newview

Re: Dear Google

Exactly! GF sounded kind of pointless compared to FIOS until the part about not re-compressing the HD channels at all came out. FIOS has to transcode and compress everything to MPEG-2, supposedly GF is passing them through at their original bitrates, which for some big channels can be up to 15mbps MPEG-4!
BiggA

BiggA to elefante72

Premium Member

to elefante72

Re: Contractors

True. Even a shallow depth trench is a pretty crappy way to do it, although in that case, it is really the homeowner's responsibility to provide PVC conduit buried at the appropriate depth for the telcos to use...
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