Appliance installation person knocked out my internet, what do I ask for
December 5, 2022 3:39 PM Subscribe
A lovely person who was installing my new water heater caught my fiber optic cable with his truck and now I have no internet all week. What do I demand and from whom?
A person working for a private company that contracts with Home Depot came to my home today to replace my water heater. He was friendly, professional, thorough and fast, but when he was leaving he mis-estimated his truck height compared to my fiber optic cable. His truck caught on the cable and damaged it. Now I have no internet service.
I called the fiber internet provider and told them it was an emergency and I needed a tech here asap. They are making me wait six days and offered no strategies or apologies.
I work full time from home. I have a lot of Teams meetings and often have tasks to do that require logging into a klunky VPN, so using a mobile hot spot is possible but very not ideal.
I feel like I should demand something from someone for this, but what and from which entity - the installation company, Home Depot, the cable company, all of them? I usually try very hard not to act entitled and this is creating a barrier here. Help me be uncharacteristically demanding, please!
A person working for a private company that contracts with Home Depot came to my home today to replace my water heater. He was friendly, professional, thorough and fast, but when he was leaving he mis-estimated his truck height compared to my fiber optic cable. His truck caught on the cable and damaged it. Now I have no internet service.
I called the fiber internet provider and told them it was an emergency and I needed a tech here asap. They are making me wait six days and offered no strategies or apologies.
I work full time from home. I have a lot of Teams meetings and often have tasks to do that require logging into a klunky VPN, so using a mobile hot spot is possible but very not ideal.
I feel like I should demand something from someone for this, but what and from which entity - the installation company, Home Depot, the cable company, all of them? I usually try very hard not to act entitled and this is creating a barrier here. Help me be uncharacteristically demanding, please!
This is most likely going to take the form of you paying to remedy the situation, and then billing the repair company, and depending on costs, they'll pass it to their insurance company.
What you have to do now is restore your internet at once. Sorry your fiber company sucks; see if there's anything else they can get you in the meantime; check their website to see what they offer in your area, and then get an explanation why they can't get that to you asap.
Consider a coworking space if that's a possibility.
You're not going to get anything out of your internet provider unless their Terms of Service or Support Agreement or SLA (if you have one) promises otherwise.
Finally, document everything, including calls you've already made to the best of your recollection. Cars, emails, letters, telegrams, location visits, contacts, contracts, etc. Make a big file of you solving this problem, and then tuck it away. If for some reason a lawsuit happens, you'll be glad, whether as plaintiff or witness, that you had this book.
posted by Sunburnt at 3:55 PM on December 5, 2022 [2 favorites]
What you have to do now is restore your internet at once. Sorry your fiber company sucks; see if there's anything else they can get you in the meantime; check their website to see what they offer in your area, and then get an explanation why they can't get that to you asap.
Consider a coworking space if that's a possibility.
You're not going to get anything out of your internet provider unless their Terms of Service or Support Agreement or SLA (if you have one) promises otherwise.
Finally, document everything, including calls you've already made to the best of your recollection. Cars, emails, letters, telegrams, location visits, contacts, contracts, etc. Make a big file of you solving this problem, and then tuck it away. If for some reason a lawsuit happens, you'll be glad, whether as plaintiff or witness, that you had this book.
posted by Sunburnt at 3:55 PM on December 5, 2022 [2 favorites]
Assuming that your fiber internet provider is responsible for everything up to the home, I suspect that your only real option is to pressure for a faster resolution from the fiber internet provider who can assess the damage and then fix it. It is up to them to then bill the company that caused the damage to their equipment and infrastructure.
The Service Level Agreements (SLA) with a non-business account is usually measured in days for the response time to fix a problem with the line when only a single customer is impacted. A business account usually has a much better response time specified (along with a much higher cost to go with that higher SLA). Calling every day for a status update may (if you are nice) result in getting bumped up on the repair schedule.
At least with Comcast, they typically respond within a day or two. But unlike fiber which often requires some specialized and very expensive termination equipment, you can also patch your own coax cable in a pinch with some simple tools. (I had to do this when a fencing installer went right through the line and cut both my link and my neighbors link. I had it fixed with a temp patch for both of us in an hour. Comcast had it permanently fixed the next day. )
Side note: Why was the fiber strung so low? No truck should ever come anywhere close to snagging it.
posted by SegFaultCoreDump at 3:59 PM on December 5, 2022 [2 favorites]
The Service Level Agreements (SLA) with a non-business account is usually measured in days for the response time to fix a problem with the line when only a single customer is impacted. A business account usually has a much better response time specified (along with a much higher cost to go with that higher SLA). Calling every day for a status update may (if you are nice) result in getting bumped up on the repair schedule.
At least with Comcast, they typically respond within a day or two. But unlike fiber which often requires some specialized and very expensive termination equipment, you can also patch your own coax cable in a pinch with some simple tools. (I had to do this when a fencing installer went right through the line and cut both my link and my neighbors link. I had it fixed with a temp patch for both of us in an hour. Comcast had it permanently fixed the next day. )
Side note: Why was the fiber strung so low? No truck should ever come anywhere close to snagging it.
posted by SegFaultCoreDump at 3:59 PM on December 5, 2022 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: Ok, sorry for threadsitting. I am not sure if the low cable was a cable company error or just a confluence of steep driveway and one story house and tall box truck - I suspect the latter.
posted by centrifugal at 4:36 PM on December 5, 2022
posted by centrifugal at 4:36 PM on December 5, 2022
If your ISP tries to charge you for the repair, call the installation company and tell them you expect reimbursement.
As far as your serious inconvenience though, I'm afraid you're just screwed. None of the parties involved are likely to compensate you for being without internet for this period. It sucks, but trying to get something from them is likely to be more frustrating than taking deep breaths and working from the library.
posted by metasarah at 5:42 PM on December 5, 2022 [2 favorites]
As far as your serious inconvenience though, I'm afraid you're just screwed. None of the parties involved are likely to compensate you for being without internet for this period. It sucks, but trying to get something from them is likely to be more frustrating than taking deep breaths and working from the library.
posted by metasarah at 5:42 PM on December 5, 2022 [2 favorites]
30 years ago now but when i did some work with a moving company (IE: maximally large trucks driving in non commercial areas) we used to snag aerial coax cable for cable tv not infrequently. The CATV customers would often be understandably annoyed but despite some angry phone calls / letters the CATV company was 100% responsible for compensating for outages and fixing the line and in fact had to repair our trucks if they were damaged by the low hanging cables.
posted by Mitheral at 6:34 AM on December 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Mitheral at 6:34 AM on December 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by centrifugal at 3:42 PM on December 5, 2022