They roll up the slack cable because its pre-made and they don't know what to do with it. And Hal, I am just saying that not all cable companies are like that. The last paragraph in your original post kind of lumps together cable company telephone as a whole. This is a widely used forum and you seem to be badmouthing cable companies in general, rather than just the ones you are familiar with. And by the way, we have had installers throw the modem on the floor like you said and they are fired within a couple of days.
