xj31
join:2005-09-25
Lake Villa, IL | Sounds Like A Plan Comcast left my neighbors cable laying across my yard for over a year.I kept calling ,they would send someone out,they would look at it and say another crew would have to bury it.I finally had an"accident" with the lawn mower.It was buried the next day. |
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3 edits | said by xj31:Comcast left my neighbors cable laying across my yard for over a year.I kept calling ,they would send someone out,they would look at it and say another crew would have to bury it.I finally had an"accident" with the lawn mower.It was buried the next day. Thats the response I was reading for. Or how about these...
Grass grew over the cable and it got cut with the mower.
Bushes grew over the cable and it cut cut when the bushes were pruned.
Snow blow the driveway and the cable got cut.
And if your neighbors service is coming over your property, that is called a "trespassing line drop" in many areas. And the neighbors service should not be buried under your lawn(property) to make a shortcut to the neighbors house.
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 FBGuyyippee ki yayPremium
join:2005-03-19 | reply to xj31
i applaud your patience. i would've cut it the day it landed in my yard.
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 MadMANNPremium
join:2005-08-19
kudos:2 | said by xj31:Comcast left my neighbors cable laying across my yard for over a year.I kept calling ,they would send someone out,they would look at it and say another crew would have to bury it.I finally had an"accident" with the lawn mower.It was buried the next day. That would be a legit complaint and a fine would be in order. However, this law is obviously proposed by people who have no clue about their own ordinances nor are they well educated on the process of burying utilities. Either that or it is another money maker scheme for the local government.
I would be more in favor of this law if the magic number of 15 calender days did not exist. Maybe 30 days? It definitely shouldn't take more than that, but 15 is cutting it close. A whole year is obviously ridiculous. Of course, to be fair, the law should take the winter months into consideration. Unless you have a very mild winter, you sometimes can't bury a line for a couple months between November and March because the ground is frozen solid.
The whole idea of a temp line is to give the customer working service until a permanent line can be buried in the ground. The procedure is designed for good customer service. It is not a "lazy" way of doing things at all. Those who call it laziness are ignorant of the procedure and the good intention behind it. If anything, the "lazy" install would be telling the customer "tough s---" and make them wait.
This law puts the provider in a precarious situation. They either forgo the temp drop and make the customer wait to get working service once the permits and procedures are completed or they take the chance and hope that the variables that are out of their control do not prevent them from making the deadline. If too many customers are involved in the first option, the provider could face fines for too many degraded service complaints.
My cynicism tells me that this is driven more by money for the local government in these desperate economic times rather than said government giving a crap about temp drops.
said by FBGuy:i applaud your patience. i would've cut it the day it landed in my yard. . . .and if the easements and right of way were in favor of the cable company, to cut the line before the proper procedure can be carried out would be considered vandalism. |
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FBGuyyippee ki yayPremium
join:2005-03-19 Reviews:
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1 edit | this is why i said "in my yard".
easement is not mine, therefore not my yard.
and laying a cable on the ground is not good customer service. it is increasing their costs and therefore will increase the cost of my service. now if they would just bury the line the first time they are there and be done with it then the costs involved would be manageable.
15 days is plenty of time to get service installed. if not, then i suggest the cable co's that feel they could be in trouble get out there and start burying a lot of lines.
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MadMANNPremium
join:2005-08-19
kudos:2
1 edit | said by FBGuy:and laying a cable on the ground is not good customer service. it is increasing their costs and therefore will increase the cost of my service. now if they would just bury the line the first time they are there and be done with it then the costs involved would be manageable. Can I ask? Is ignorance really bliss? I am assuming so, since you didn't bother to read/comprehend the posts of those who do this for a living and know how the process works. |
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FBGuyyippee ki yayPremium
join:2005-03-19 Reviews:
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| do you understand that my yard, is my yard. i have the right to throw your stuff off my yard if i want. you never have the right to put your stuff on my yard. so i fail to see your logic how i would be in the wrong by doing this.
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MadMANNPremium
join:2005-08-19
kudos:2 | said by FBGuy:do you understand that my yard, is my yard. i have the right to throw your stuff off my yard if i want. you never have the right to put your stuff on my yard. so i fail to see your logic how i would be in the wrong by doing this. Right because you do not understand easement laws. Your yard is your yard, but we are not talking about someone throwing garbage in it for no reason. If you live in an area where the utilities have underground facilities on your property, the easement laws prevail. That means that if your property contains a utility easement, then they do have the right to "put their stuff in your yard."
Here's a situation: You have a cable pedestal in your backyard. These are usually right on the edge of the property line (3-5ft). Sometimes, however, they could be more than the 3-5' off the edge of the property. In either case, the cable company has the right to place temp cables and then dig later on within that easement to provide service to your neighbor. That means that the temp cable could end up in your yard, but as long as it is within the easement, you have no rights to remove it or cut it.
Now, again, if they leave it there for an unreasonable amount of time (say 2 months or a year like the OP's example) you then have the right to complain to the authorities. However, you still do not have the right to cut it. When you buy property with easements built into them, you and the utilities have to abide by the easement laws. Plain and simple. If you willingly destroy a line within that easement, the utility has the right to press charges. Especially if you "cut it on the first day."
As for your statements about burying cable on the first visit, you wouldn't make those statements if you knew why they layed temps to begin with. A good example of that situation would be that a line that has been in the ground and buried directly without conduit for 20 years is now bad and needs replaced. The only way they know that is because the customer was experiencing trouble and called to have a tech visit and the tech found the cable to be the cause of the issues. The service techs do not carry burying equipment in their trucks because it is against the law to dig in an underground development with utility locates. Now, the company is in a situation where they have to go through the drop bury procedures: calling for other utilities like phone, power and gas to locate their lines, possibly having to obtain permits, and scheduling the bury after all of that is done. A lot can happen to hold those processes up, which are out of the company's control. So, according to your logic, they should leave the customer with their trouble or lack of good working service for another 2 weeks while the background work is happening.
You wanna talk customer service and cost? I can guarantee that if you were the customer that was having the issues, you would be complaining your head off because your service was sub par and would be cursing your neighbor for having a stick up his ass. Either that, or it would be your cable company's fault in your mind for not being able to magically make all of the legal stuff happen in one day.
If anything the temp cable is a customer saving tool. It costs more to lose a customer because you say, "Oh well. Nothing we can do for 2 weeks. Sorry for you luck." than to lay a temp and follow the law while saving your customer.
There are so many other situations where cable companies and other utilities have to lay temps as well. I won't babble on about them because it's obvious you don't care and I really don't care to take hours listing them all. If you still fail to see the logic behind my words, then there is nothing else I can do. |
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FBGuyyippee ki yayPremium
join:2005-03-19 Reviews:
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| i understand easements. i am willing to live with that scenario.
I would be willing to work with them if I am given notice. Otherwise I am not going to stop the neighborhood vandal from damaging the pretty wire.
quote:
You wanna talk customer service and cost? I can guarantee that if you were the customer that was having the issues, you would be complaining your head off because your service was sub par and would be cursing your neighbor for having a stick up his ass. Either that, or it would be your cable company's fault in your mind for not being able to magically make all of the legal stuff happen in one day.
If I was the customer I would blame the company straight up. I would not let them install it that way. I would cancel my service, I don't pay for crap and I would never blame anyone else for that either. I would tell them that if they want my service they will schedule a time to bury it or put in an appropriate drop. I'm one of those people that does not let the installer drill through my floor to run a cable line. That is not professional installation.
lets talk alternatives to laying a temporary cable. (for various utilities)
cable tv: unless you live in a cave you can/should be able to get satellite service or OTA. I hope people can live without their cable tv for a few weeks. maybe get outside and see the world a little or visit some friends...
phone: the phone company can give you a cell phone for the time that it takes to get the new line in.
power: i'd imagine this is a trump and would get a bump in urgency over the other 2.
gas: if this needs replaced you probably already dug up the ground anyways.
water: same as gas.
what else is there?
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MadMANNPremium
join:2005-08-19
kudos:2 | said by FBGuy:lets talk alternatives to laying a temporary cable. (for various utilities) cable tv: unless you live in a cave you can/should be able to get satellite service or OTA. I hope people can live without their cable tv for a few weeks. maybe get outside and see the world a little or visit some friends... phone: the phone company can give you a cell phone for the time that it takes to get the new line in. power: i'd imagine this is a trump and would get a bump in urgency over the other 2. I can tell where your mindset comes from just by reading this. It seems you think that everyone lives in an area exactly like yours and thinks exactly like you think. You have to realize that there are thousands of scenarios out there. Every communications company tries to accomodate them all as best and as cost effective as they can.
First, you forget that cable companies do not only offer TV anymore. While I agree that people could live without TV for a little while, there is voice and internet flowing through that cable. That is voice that people rely on to call 911 in emergencies and internet that people need to communicate and do business. Not to mention they all pay their bill a month in advance and expect working service for their money. It costs the company money to credit that money back and it is more convenient to the customer to have a temporary way of receiving their services rather than making changes to their lifestyle and business practices.
Not everyone has cell phones and not everyone who does have cell phones can get service in their home. I certainly do not live in cave and I have that very problem. If my phone isn't working, I have to make low-quality cell calls with a half of a bar of service from the end of my yard. If it wasn't for that I wouldn't have a landline to begin with. I also have no OTA stations strong enough to hit my home and many people are not willing to mount a dish on their home or cut down their trees to do so.
Second, to expect phone companies to hand out cell phones in lieu of placing a temp is ridiculous. They are responsible for the service they are paid to provide. That doesn't include providing a different service in place of repairing their own. A service like that would cost a lot more than a temp.
Third, power companies have to abide by the same laws as cable and phone. If a temp power line needs to placed, then it needs to be protected (usually in conduit) and marked clearly. That said, power companies have priority over low voltage services. If something happens to a buried power line, the other utilities are required to respond to an emergency locate the same day within a couple of hours of the call. Same with water and gas. Cable and phone does not have that same luxury unless there is a major safety issue involved.
There is nothing wrong with you having high standards, but you should also see the other side of these situations as well instead of condemning the way they are handled right off the bat. Cutting a cable that is legally placed in an easement for a reasonable amount of time is simply against the law. That was the only point of my original post.
Quite frankly, Karl chose to headline this story as "lazy installs" out of the same ignorance. A lazy install is when a tech cuts corners and makes a mess even when he had the means to do it right. There is a big difference between laying a temp line to provide a temporary means of working service until a permanent line can be buried and a lazy installation. Techs don't place a line on top of the ground because they are looking to cut corners. In fact, it takes longer for them to run a temp than to use the line that is already in the ground. They do it out of necessity to please their customers. It is only when those lines are not promptly replaced and out of sight in a reasonable amount of time that they become a legal issue, and I agree that it is a problem when that happens. Even then, it is not the tech's fault unless he failed to fill out the necessary paperwork to notify his company of what he did. |
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FBGuyyippee ki yayPremium
join:2005-03-19 Reviews:
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| reply to xj31
I get the temporary line thing now I really do. I just see too much possible abuse with it.
I pay my utilities after I use them. I never pay for the upcoming month. But if cable companies start charging based on usage for TV, then I'm all for it. The U.S. would be a tad bit slimmer.
Ok, so cable co's offer more than TV. I get that. People like triple and quadruple plays, etc. so how long do they have to get a cable line repaired once its cut? Now what about the phone company? Last I knew the phone company has x # of hours to get the job done. Is the same true for the cable company? If so, then I see your point. They need to make that deadline. In this case the temporary line is fine. They better have a follow up plan to get rid of the temporary fix. If they can put it in a contract, that would be stellar.
I'm only a hard ass about installations because of these shortcuts that never go unchecked. Not to mention the horribly trained installers out there that could start a fire, etc. it's just the way I am.
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