Comments on: Comcast Sets Pennsylvania Woman’s House on Fire – Verizon ‘Enjoys’ the Irony

By: Uncle Ken

Uncle Ken — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 03:33:45 +0000

Joe I have a question where are you located? In all the years of doing electrical work on the side from an entire house to running a single inside line I have never seen a breaker box outside. That would be crazy. Here its pole to the header pipe meter may be outside or inside then off to the breaker box inside. Anybody with half a brain would look inside to see where the main enters the house and what direction their running then drill about a foot away. Here the phone wires were installed first and years later the cable guys used the same hole as the phone wires. Just remove caulk insert wires apply new caulk. The bone head Frontier last time around attached the ground wire to the natural gas meter vent. TWC ran a ground to the inlet water pipe and I asked if they could splice the phone ground to their ground. No problem. I always said TW has top notch service people.

Phil you really got to do something about word wrap in this column. About
a third of this message I cant see but im sure it should post ok but it
makes writing spelling and grammer a real pain while writing. I can send
picture if necessary.

By: Joe Blow

Joe Blow — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 00:41:34 +0000

I think you guys are missing the point. Read what the quote says, electric box next to meter, scorch up to roof. Thats the outside main electrical distribution fusebox/breaker box. They just took a drill to the thing. A stud finder isn’t going to help much if you just take a drill and randomly drill into the main 150 amp distribution box. Even if they drilled from inside the house, IMHO they should have at least checked where the main electrical supply for the house was on the outside.

By: Uncle Ken

Uncle Ken — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 18:31:49 +0000

Thanks for the comment Phil. I was not being critical in anyway how it was presented but peoples lives are in danger with this battle and they have nothing to say about it. You have to admit it is getting nasty out there.

By: Phillip Dampier

Phillip Dampier — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 17:58:57 +0000

I think you missed the point, Ken. The ‘enjoys’ in the headline was in quotes because it was facetious headline writing, not because Verizon was literally laughing that Comcast set a woman’s house on fire.

Comcast’s ability to run these ads attacking Verizon FiOS installers lose cachet after an incident like this.

They also have a history of controversial labor relations, as Broadband Reports documented:

“Much of the angst directed toward Comcast is directed at low quality sloppy subcontracted labor. In the past few years, Comcast subcontractors have been in the news for falling asleep, murder, digging in the wrong yard, blowing up laptops, dishwashers and homes (with people in them), driving vans into children, and even kitten torture.”

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/98638

By: BrionS

BrionS — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 13:48:21 +0000

Seems to me the installers could at least be provided with a density detector (i.e. stud finder) and make a pass over the area they intend to drill. If it’s solid for much wider than a simple beam that should be a clue that maybe something besides empty space is in the wall.

I understand and can sympathize with overworked installers and I’m not blaming him per se, simply that a modicum of common sense could have prevented this and other accidents like it.

If I were installing this on my own house, would I just start randomly drilling holes into the wall? Probably not, but most installers I’ve seen for cable companies do just that.

By: Uncle Ken

Uncle Ken — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 13:07:40 +0000

Verizon should not be enjoying the irony. It is one thing to advertise a provider tearing up a neighborhood another to know they all have made mistakes before and drilling into an electric box on a nice wet day could have been this installers final resting place. I don’t see the irony in that. Logic would dictate an installer takes a good look from the inside where he plans to drill but training and the strain of having to do 25 installs a day to keep their job gets in the way and no matter what there is always a chance of hitting an in wall electric line or pipe. You never know where they are. There is no humor in this and the battles are getting nasty to the point of dangerous and should be stopped. I really wonder how Verizon would feel if that person had died? It could have been one of their own.

By: Smith6612

Smith6612 — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 12:34:09 +0000

No clue, really.

By: Brion

Brion — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 11:05:31 +0000

Then again….drilling into an electrical box? Don’t these installers have ANY training, or at the very least common sense?

By: Smith6612

Smith6612 — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 02:49:34 +0000

Heh a two year old commercial and it still has it’s uses.

Though in the past didn’t Verizon or Verizon Contractors “blow up” a few homes? I guess with new services coming in these days problems are bound to happen (as is with technology), and of course the negatives always stand out more than the positives unfortunately.