I get a call from an old customer who tells me that they are renovating the reception and office area of one of their health clubs. The wanted me to go there and see about getting the phones back at the front counter and offices.

So I get there and I get the same old story from a kid (well not really a kid, probably 30) that is "in charge" and works for the GC- "the wiring is installed, all you have to do is put the jacks and phones in".

Fortunately the sheet rock hasn't been installed yet on one side of the knee wall that will hold up the front counter so I could see what this guy called wiring. I see a bunch of blue Carlon plastic boxes with a blue and a white CAT5 in each one. Cables run around the knee wall and disappear into a hole in the existing wall which the knee wall runs into.

The first red flag was the boxes and CAT5. I ask the kid where the cables were run to. Keep in mind that we installed the system and wired the place a few years ago. The KSU is down on the first floor in the electrical room. It took the kid a few seconds to process what I was asking and he replies "oh, they all go to that office over there". Sure enough, all 12 inches of each run was hanging out of a hole in the sheetrock about outlet height.

So now I'm at the end of my rope with this crap and I can feel my blood start to boil. I can't believe anybody could be that stupid. I ask the kid who did this and if it didn't occur to him that maybe he should have checked with the company that handles the phone system to see what was required? He says he thinks it was some IT guy.

Now I feel like I'm about to stroke out and figure I better get out of there. I try to calm down on my way to the door and tell him that nothing can be used, we will have to run everything new back to our equipment. Tell your boss that they may want to back charge him for it, that's up to the owner.

Now back at the office I call the owner. No problem she says, do what you have to do. The GC threw the wiring in for nothing. :bang:

-Hal

CALIFORNIA PROPOSITION 65 WARNING: Some comments made by me are known to the State of California to cause irreversible brain damage and serious mental disorders leading to confinement.