Let's see if any readers can predict the punchline to this story:
A steady customer of mine, whose real estate business office phone and data systems I have moved twice before, called me on Thursday.
"Arthur, can you come over to our new office, and tell us how we should proceed with our telephone and computers? We had an electrician do the wiring, but we're not sure how it's going to work."
Here's what I found:
1. One blue Cat5e to each of ten locations.
2. One white RG6 coax to each location.
3. All wires fastened to the underside of the floor joists in the basement, and coiled up at the front of the basement, near the electrical panel.
4. All wires crimped, because he used electrician's staples to fasten the wires.
The phone/data closet is in the rear of the ground floor. So all the wires are run to the wrong place. The electrician's explanation of why he ran coax to each desk? We're waiting for that answer. Probably because in HIS home office, there's a coax feeding his lone computer, so that's the way it's done if you have ten computers.
I was asked to fax them a proposal explaining what was wrong with the work so far, and how much it will cost to do it right. I assumed the crimped Cat5e's can be used for the key system (one pair out of each will probably be serviceable). The coax's? Leave them there, I suppose.
The thing that irks me the most is that the owner's husband is the "GC" and is running the job as cheaply as possible, and in the past, I have had this same conversation with him, about "call me first." I bailed them out the last time this happened, too.
I faxed the explanation and proposal on Thursday. So far, no communication from them. I suppose they're trying to get a refund from the EC, or trying to get him to redo the wires. It will be interesting to see what he does next. My wife says I ought not to obsess over it, and "if they call, they call, if they don't, they don't."
My new motto: "Call me first, or don't call me at all."
