Dog Chewed Through Exterior Cable TV Cable

February 18, 2011 6:22 AM

My dog chewed through my exterior Cable TV cable (provider is Shaw Cable). A service tech is coming this afternoon to repair. Any idea what its going to cost to repair? Thanks.
posted by Minos888 to Pets & Animals (12 answers total)

I wouldn't want to get your hopes up too high, but sometimes this kind of service is offered for free. They want you to stay a paying customer, and spending 5 minutes to patch a cable or 25 to run a new one is worth it to them.
posted by jellywerker at 6:31 AM on February 18, 2011

Call the cable company and ask them.
posted by COD at 6:36 AM on February 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

Did you tell them that it was your dog? How can we know for sure that it wasn't a rabid badger or something of the sort?

I'd go for plausible deniability here, and perhaps ask them how the cable can be protected from future badger attacks.
posted by davey_darling at 6:37 AM on February 18, 2011 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: I would call the cable company this morning but I don't want to spend the next hour on the phone.

I did not tell them it was the dog and... you're right - I don't know that it wasn't a rabid badger as I am assuming it was the dog. I will go for plausible deniability. And I'm going to ask that the cable be somehow protected - is that within their resposibility?
posted by Minos888 at 6:48 AM on February 18, 2011

Even if they don't end up protecting the cable, you can probably get a flexible metal sheath to cover it at Home Depot. Should protect against, erm, rabid badgers.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 6:54 AM on February 18, 2011

Just let Shaw come up and deal with it. It can probably be fixed in 5 minutes with the gear the guy has in his truck. Don't tell him it was your dog - you don't know for sure, and they probably see it all the time. If they're going to charge you, they'll try to charge you. At that point, you can fight them. But to be honest, for a ginormous huge telco, they're usually pretty reasonable, especially if you get a good tech. As for getting the cable protected, you can always ask. If the guy can do it on the spot and he's in a good mood, he probably will. Otherwise, yeah, you'll be calling them and waiting for the callback (which is marginally better than hanging out on hold for an hour, I suppose.)
posted by cgg at 7:37 AM on February 18, 2011

I doubt they'll charge you. We have Shaw in Victoria, and they're pretty reasonable, all things considered. If they do charge you, just give them a call and they'll probably help you out.
posted by KokuRyu at 7:48 AM on February 18, 2011

Given this is not really something the cable company will feel was their fault, I'd expect to be charged for the truck roll and a very small charge for the cable replacement. In the U.S., that'd be $50-$70. However, it sounds like several people on this thread think that they won't charge you. So perhaps you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Alternatively, couldn't you have bought a coax cable and fixed this yourself?
posted by mcstayinskool at 7:54 AM on February 18, 2011

Whether you get charged depends on the friendliness of the tech, what their policy is, and what the statutory policy is. Sometimes (oftentimes?) the various municipalities and state/provinces have rules that limit what can be charged.

If it is anything like the telephone company, there is a clear demarcation point. This is where the wires stop being their problem and become yours. (They still may do it for nothing as a customer service.) Sometimes this is more for you than for them: they may happily fix a wire that is "yours", but they won't be pleased at all if you fix a wire that is "theirs".

I wouldn't jack around with the exterior cables unless you know what you are doing. Sometimes they are different types and using the wrong one can cause issues. Water resistance and UV protection being part of it, and a different type of cable altogether might be another.
posted by gjc at 8:21 AM on February 18, 2011

Either nothing or about $100 is typical for truck rolls from both cable companies and telcos that I've dealt with in Canada in the past. Either the service is included / their responsibility and it is free, or you'll pay about $90-100 for any small job. If you've vastly fucked up your interior wiring and it takes them hours to fix it, it might cost more than that, but that doesn't seem to be the case here.
posted by jacquilynne at 8:41 AM on February 18, 2011

Shaw service calls are free of charge.
posted by baseplate at 1:32 PM on February 18, 2011

Response by poster: Thanks everyone - the technician has replaced the cable free of charge - I was worried for nothing. And he put a PVC pipe around the new cable!
posted by Minos888 at 1:42 PM on February 18, 2011