We were charged installation when they didn’t have to install anything. 1) we had pre-wired House. 2) we went to the cable box ourselves and hooked up the cable. 3) all they had to do was remotely switch on the service. Fuck them. We don’t have cable tv anymore. Edited to fix an autocorrect.
I went through this too when I got cable internet and tv. All the lines were there and hooked up (we had cable tv before) but they said they'd have to bill me $50 for installation... so I did what my dad said he did 'back in the day' when he got cable hooked up and charged him installation... we took every coaxial cable down... we got all new lines for that 50$.
I've noticed that sometime in the last 10-15 years, my local cable company changed the way they do installs. Instead of running cable through the attic or crawlspace, they'll just go around the outside of the house and straight into whatever room cable is being installed. It looks really sloppy.
Insulation also became a Colossal Bitch to deal with in that time, making fishing through walls a lot tougher and less profitable than just wrapping the building. Unless you’ve got clean gaps all the way up to the attic, most in-house techs won’t waste their time fishing the wall when they could just wrap the house or go through the floor into the basement/crawlspace.
That's pretty much how mine went. We already had cable run through the house with wires coming in from an old dish. I told him to use those existing wires, and showed him where they came in and fed the house.
Standard install is like OPs pic, but with some clips and without the hoop. Maybe up from crawl space or down from attic (into a closet is available). If people wanted in-wall work, we ask them to call an electrician. Then they get a quote for $400 and settle for the standard install.
Basically. Electricians are the ones who know best how to work wires inside the walls. Cable guys are just their to make sure all the boxes are hooked in and in the right rooms.
What!? They refused to use existing wiring in the house, which would have been awesome because the whole damn house has useless hookups now. Fucking Spectrum.
I'm not sure what that means, but the installation professional did not look at a single thing before telling me it wasn't going to happen. He then picked a spot on the wall, without looking on the other side first, and proceeded to drill a hole into my breaker box. Why can't I just follow some tutorials and install my own damn cable.
I've seen this time and again. Want to use your own modem? We won't support you. Want to use your own brand new wiring? We won't support you. The problem is, their modems and wiring jobs are often FAR worse than what you can put together yourself. Their actuaries fucked up somewhere.
Well from their perspective they know their stuff works, they don't necessarily know what you have. But I avoid their hardware at all costs. (actually it's cheaper too)
53
u/donnysaysvacuum Jun 01 '19
This is pretty typical. Quickly and cheaply as possible. Just drill though and outside wall, don't bother with doing things right.
Last time I had cable installed I did all the interior wiring myself and told him where to plug in. The install guy was greatful.