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I'm a cable technician for a large cable company. I do residential cable TV and internet installation. I also troubleshoot TV and internet problems. Iv been a comtech for about 2 years, don't know everything but ask away 
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Mar 30, 2017 19:45
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You enter people's homes, and as we know people are weird. Got any good stories?
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Mar 30, 2017 20:20
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I gotta ask, how are your customers? Are most relatively patient while you work on their issue, or do you get a lot of abuse /snarky comments? Much as I dislike Comcast, coming from a customer-facing IT background as well, I honestly do feel bad for their service reps.
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Mar 30, 2017 20:28
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Technical question: What do you do with unterminated splits? For example, if a premise is already wired for (or previously had) cable service to multiple outlets, but the customer has fewer televisions than outlets, do you wire the extra outlets and terminate them? Do you wire them and leave the unterminated? Leave them unwired and downsize the splitter, or terminate unused ports at the splitter? Last time I had cable installed the technician reused existing splitters/wiring which left unused outlets unterminated, which I later determined to be the cause of signal reflections (ringing/ghosting) that was messing up my television service and regularly knocking my modem offline. I put some terminators on them and problem solved. I also told the technician exactly how many televisions I was planning to hook up and where, and he checked signal levels in those locations, but not the others that were left wired. The signal levels were fine, but they wouldn't indicate if there's ringing going on. Same thing happened to my parents. Seems like it would be a common problem. ExcessBLarg! fucked around with this message at 21:57 on Mar 30, 2017 |
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Mar 30, 2017 21:51
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BloodThirster posted:You enter people's homes, and as we know people are weird. Got any good stories? You kind of see it all, from the mansions that the super rich live in, to the crack houses. Everyone needs cable. Nothing too crazy, some really trashy/smell houses, drug houses. They always seem to say "sorry, its not usually this messy", when it we both know its always trashed. Honestly I don't care, as long as I can work safely its fine. You get a hoarders house though it can be a pain sometimes, cause you cant get to anything. I'v been in some house where every room is packed full of junk, theres just little pathways from room to room. Sometimes you see weed, drugs, syringes, bags of dope laying around. People get weird about it sometimes, like you are going to report them or something, but it against company policy for me to report or talk about customers drugs, criminal activity, ect. They are our customers too. We only have to report things we are legally obligated to, like child abuse or witnessing a violent felony. If I don't feel safe working in the house I will leave, but nothing else will come of it. Solaris 2.0 posted:I gotta ask, how are your customers? Are most relatively patient while you work on their issue, or do you get a lot of abuse /snarky comments? Much as I dislike Comcast, coming from a customer-facing IT background as well, I honestly do feel bad for their service reps. Most people are pretty good honesty, a lot of people don't like Comcast but I don't think the techs get it nearly as bad as the service reps. You always hear about the high prices but most understand we are the bottom of the totem pole lol. I'm a pretty chill guy so that always helps with my angry customers. Some people are just angry the moment they open the door, there having a bad day or they got a beef with comcast and you are the physical person they can unleash there grievances on. Nothing you can do but get the job done and get out as fast as you can. Most people are pretty patient, a lot of frustration comes from them not understanding the technical stuff, like why I have to change some of the wiring in the house or install a unity gain amp, when everything is working fine right now. But its right at the low or high end of the spec, the network bounces, the levels will change, so when it does your going to have problems. neorex007 fucked around with this message at 05:10 on Mar 31, 2017 |
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Mar 31, 2017 04:52
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neorex007 posted:You kind of see it all, from the mansions that the super rich live in, to the crack houses. Everyone needs cable. Nothing too crazy, some really trashy/smell houses, drug houses. They always seem to say "sorry, its not usually this messy", when it we both know its always trashed. Honestly I don't care, as long as I can work safely its fine. You get a hoarders house though it can be a pain sometimes, cause you cant get to anything. I'v been in some house where every room is packed full of junk, theres just little pathways from room to room. Sometimes you see weed, drugs, syringes, bags of dope laying around. People get weird about it sometimes, like you are going to report them or something, but it against company policy for me to report or talk about customers drugs, criminal activity, ect. They are our customers too. We only have to report things we are legally obligated to, like child abuse or witnessing a violent felony. If I don't feel safe working in the house I will leave, but nothing else will come of it. ExcessBLarg! posted:Technical question: What do you do with unterminated splits? When I do a new install I only hook up the outlets they are going to use. If i have any extra ports on a splitters, say I used a 4 way splitter for 2 lines to cut down the signal db and raise the upstream level I would terminate the extra ports. I usually just use a cable simulation or attenuator for that though, instead of a splitter. Open splitter ports is whats gonna cause the signal reflections 99 percent of the time cause they tend to be exposed to the environment more and get water or moister into the splitter. I always replace the old splitters, using the existing wiring is fine, as long as its the right coax and scans clean, no ingress. Leaving unused wall outlets hooked up is fine, as long as the line is clean (no ingress) and the f-connecter is good. neorex007 fucked around with this message at 05:28 on Mar 31, 2017 |
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Mar 31, 2017 05:25
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When I was living in San Diego the cable guy asked to pray with me when he was done installing my cable and I was too timid to say no. Do you do this?
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Mar 31, 2017 06:03
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To what degree does your company support wireless routers? What do people expect as far as speed/performance?
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Apr 1, 2017 21:50
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Can cable guys still hook you up with all the channels for some under the table money?
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Apr 3, 2017 15:51
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Missus Dill posted:When I was living in San Diego the cable guy asked to pray with me when he was done installing my cable and I was too timid to say no. Do you do this? bitch move right here
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Apr 4, 2017 07:45
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Ever been thrown under the bus by the service reps?
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Apr 5, 2017 07:47
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Ever been thrown under the bus in general?
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Apr 5, 2017 13:04
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Please confirm/deny the accuracy of Logjammin' from The Big Lebowski For reference... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZ-oafGPkqg
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Apr 5, 2017 13:22
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RCarr posted:Can cable guys still hook you up with all the channels for some under the table money? Not really but it depends on where you live. In southwestern Ontario analogue channels were killed earlier last year, a digital adaptor is required to get anything now. Septic Knothead posted:To what degree does your company support wireless routers? What do people expect as far as speed/performance? Our modems come as modem router combos, we have an idiot proof setup now for setting up peoples SSID and password. We try to place things in the most optimal location (never where the customer wants it 70% of the time). We don't do any sort of setup for thirdparty customers. Check the riser to make sure signal is good remove gold splits and install a ground if needed. People expect all sorts of weird poo poo when it comes to speed. These people are often running windows vista on some lovely rear end laptop they got from Uncle Steve. If everything is perfect people should be getting 90-120% of what their package is hardwired, wifi trouble calls can be horrible sometimes in older homes depending on the building materials and large apartment complexes. Shooting Blanks posted:Ever been thrown under the bus by the service reps? They will do this all the time to save little old ladies from being billed on a repeat call (another technician being called back to an address within 30 days affects stats negatively if it is not billed as customers fault) for turning their TV to the wrong input or something similar. They love trying to burn contractors. Sixfools fucked around with this message at 01:06 on Apr 18, 2017 |
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Apr 18, 2017 00:55
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Are you a contractor or an employee of the cable company?
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Apr 18, 2017 02:35
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contractor, but so is pretty much everyone else at our level. Most inhouse techs were contractors at some point because it's a lot cheaper to train that way. For our ISP they use about 3 different companies, ours is considered the top of the group because our compliance levels are very high and document the hell out everything we do. Pretty much every aspect of the job is measured in someway, from customer NPS scores which are heavily weighted against us (only 9 and 10 count as positive points 1-6 double negative points). An ideal tech is supposed to be around 3% for new install and reconnect repeats and 7% for service order repeats. Bad techs from the other contracting companies keep me busy and make me money. I'll see an ID on orders for a couple months and then never a gain. There's only about 9 of us who work in my main city, 5 from my company 3 from other contractors and 1 inhouse guy who does mainly commercial calls downtown.
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Apr 18, 2017 19:45
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Is it a law that you can ask for a staff installer or is that just a policy at some utilities? I asked for a staff guy, they said they couldn't guarantee it, when the contract guy showed up I turned him around and sent him away, and voila! The staff guy showed up the next day.
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Apr 19, 2017 08:40
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photomikey posted:Is it a law that you can ask for a staff installer or is that just a policy at some utilities? I asked for a staff guy, they said they couldn't guarantee it, when the contract guy showed up I turned him around and sent him away, and voila! The staff guy showed up the next day. It depends on your service provider. When I worked cable we used contractors for installs and in house for service/repair near the end of my work there before I left for the military they added in house install positions. It is hit or miss on techs, I have met good inhouse techs, good contractors... and lovely contractors and lovely in house techs. Shooting Blanks posted:Ever been thrown under the bus by the service reps? Service reps routinely lie over the phone, they'll say "Oh it has to be a bad box" - "Oh he will replace your drop (the line from pole to the house) "He'll replace the line in the wall etc." This creates a false representation for the customer and makes it hard to build rapport and trust when you tell them their problem was something different than what they said on the phone (alot of customers think whatever the phone rep says is the word of god because they have a NSA super computer that can find all the problems in their house) When I worked for the cable company we were able to report back customer service reps for promising equipment replacement or line replacement. The problem can't be truly diagnosed until the tech gets there. The CSR rep should be solely looking for account problems and getting the customer to hard reboot their modems (99% of all internet calls) Fuck My Ass fucked around with this message at 20:30 on Apr 20, 2017 |
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Apr 20, 2017 20:26
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Why do I have to hard reboot my modem every 2 to 3 weeks?
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Apr 20, 2017 20:34
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Ceiling fan posted:Why do I have to hard reboot my modem every 2 to 3 weeks? Their could be intermittent interference in your house or on your street or the modem could be going bad depending on what brand and how old it is.
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Apr 20, 2017 20:36
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gently caress My rear end posted:Service reps routinely lie over the phone, they'll say "Oh it has to be a bad box" - "Oh he will replace your drop (the line from pole to the house) "He'll replace the line in the wall etc." Anecdotal, but I found that AT&T phone reps are loving useless. The only bad installer experience I had was with Comcast and it was just the one guy, but at least their phone reps were reasonable (even to the point of "We can't diagnose it, let me schedule a visit")
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Apr 20, 2017 20:43
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I've had to reset it every few weeks with 8 different modems in 6 different locations across 4 different providers since I last had to use dial up about 17 years ago. Some streaks are longer than others, but I've never gone longer than 3 months without a cable modem losing track of where the internet is. I accept it as regular maintenance. I understand it could be a lot of things. I was hoping someone had come up with some more firm answers by now.
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Apr 20, 2017 20:54
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I have to reset mine once a week or so. As long as turning the thing off and back on solves the problem, I don't really dwell into why. I keep it and all the other internet paraphernalia in the attic, and I've installed a lightswitch in a closet such that I can power cycle the whole bit every Saturday night when I wind my clock. Flip the switch off, count to ten, flip it back on. It's reduced my connectivity problems by a lot.
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Apr 20, 2017 21:47
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Ceiling fan posted:I've had to reset it every few weeks with 8 different modems in 6 different locations across 4 different providers since I last had to use dial up about 17 years ago. Some streaks are longer than others, but I've never gone longer than 3 months without a cable modem losing track of where the internet is. I accept it as regular maintenance. I understand it could be a lot of things. I was hoping someone had come up with some more firm answers by now. Do you use a modem/router combo? Those things suck, stop renting, buy your own.
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Apr 20, 2017 23:05
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In the last 10 years, I've had to change my cable modem (I buy my own) three times because Comcast claims the last one can't keep up with their service. Is this true or am I I being bullshitted? On a hilarious related note: about three years ago, I got a letter from them apologizing for NOT charging me $7/month for my modem lease. When I looked at my bill, they had actually charged me $8. After 5-6 incorrect transfers and an hour, I was able to convince that I had never leased a modem from them. When I first got the service, they had a deal where they would refund me $70 on the purchase of a cable modem. I bought the modem (RIP Radio Shack) for $80 and sent in the paperwork. They ended up sending me a check for $80. Since then I have replaced it twice (not including that one got hit by lightning - which itself took three hours to register). For what they charge for leasing their modem, I can buy a new one every six months and toss it in the trash).
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Apr 20, 2017 23:13
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Mister Kingdom posted:In the last 10 years, I've had to change my cable modem (I buy my own) three times because Comcast claims the last one can't keep up with their service. Is this true or am I I being bullshitted? Probably some truth and some bullshit, it's hard to tell because I don't know which modems you owned, when you owned them, and when comcast upgraded their infra. Right now, you should be buying a DOCSIS3.0 or DOCSIS3.1 modem, if you had something that was DOCSIS2.0 despite the fact that (I think) their infra can still use them, they did you a favor by telling you to buy a 3.0 modem. They also could be dropping support for the modem you had and instead telling you a different reason.
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Apr 21, 2017 00:25
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you know what really grinds my gears back when we had analog cable it always worked fine now that we got the digital cable and we have to have digital boxes the boxes always break and we've had to replace them a couple times and it always says "we've detected an interruption in your service" the cable guy said we have too much interference in our house. but the old analog signals would work well even with the interference it's the same with antenna TV. with the old signal you could watch the show even if it came it badly, but the picture would be snowy and unclear now if you're not getting a great signal with digital, it's completely unwatchable this is "progress"
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Apr 22, 2017 11:48
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I'm confused if you're joking or not. I have an understanding of what's going on, but I don't want to go all crazy. There may be charts.
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Apr 24, 2017 17:27
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and in the good old days when you changed the channel it changed instantly now with digital you have to wait a second every time you change the channel it ruins channel surfing
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Apr 24, 2017 19:01
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Ein cooler Typ posted:and in the good old days when you changed the channel it changed instantly You joke, but the input lag on my Comcast X1 box is insufferable. 1-3 seconds, just long enough to think you didn't hit it, then suddenly you're bouncing around all over. Streaming something not on your DVR? 10 second lag while your pause command meanders to the servers and back. Ridiculous.
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Apr 24, 2017 21:26
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It's even worse with X1 or whatever they call it. You swap channels, first it loads the channel icon/name, then it loads the channel.
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Apr 24, 2017 22:19
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another thing that's bullshit is that when time warner cable introduced the new digital boxes, they gave them to everyone for free. but now they are charging $5 per box to your bill. and you can't even get cable without them does it bother your conscience knowing you're working for an evil company? (doesn't matter if it's time warner or not, all the telecommunications companies are evil)
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Apr 26, 2017 10:36
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gently caress My rear end posted:When I worked for the cable company we were able to report back customer service reps for promising equipment replacement or line replacement. The problem can't be truly diagnosed until the tech gets there. The CSR rep should be solely looking for account problems and getting the customer to hard reboot their modems (99% of all internet calls) When I moved into my apartment I had an issue where at the start of below freezing temperatures at night every fall my connection would go to poo poo when the sun went down. By the third year I had the routine down and called and had them send someone out to shuffle me to the head of the drop instead of behind who knows how many splits, but this time the online rep promised they'd put a service call in to do a new drop or a second drop. When the tech came out he was pretty much "hah hah the reps can't do that" and indicating the conflicting information on the survey afterwards actually got someone out to fix it for good.
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Apr 26, 2017 22:42
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I got Comcast hooked up once and the only thing that was annoying was the contractor guy trying to shove a CD into my PC to run some Comcast Setup Tool or something. I was like "Look dude, I'm a huge nerd if you can't already tell, please just make sure the physical connection works and I'll set up DNS however the mood strikes me." He was persistent and didn't want to leave without running that poo poo, but I refused and eventually he gave up. As he left my house and crossed the yard to his van, he called out in kind of a lilting, haunted voice, "Okay but your internet isn't going to woooooooooooorrrrrk..."
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Apr 28, 2017 00:18
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