My area is served by Verizon and Comcast Cable.
> I've noticed plain white trucks bearing a stick-on sign saying
> "Verizon Authorized Contractor" or "Comcast Authorized Contractor".
> I am not very impressed with the people in such trucks. Compared to
> regular crews they seem, quite frankly, to be rather scuzzy. They
> don't seem to be as proficient in their work habits or job skills;
> that is, when I see them working on lines they seem confused in
> tracking down junction boxes or knowing what to do. In the case of
> fixing broken cableTV dome junctions, they never seem to do it right,
> or do it extremely sloppy (letting coax lay across the lawn or even > sidewalks).
> My own experience with a Verizon Contractor was very negative and I
> complained to the company. They waived the charges for his services.
> My guess is that the carriers are trying to save money by outsourcing.
> They regular employees (particulary Verizon) get a salary and benefits
> and may be union, while contractors get zilch.
> I think we the public are the ones hurt by this practice; an example
> of cheap outsourcing results in cheap services.
> For Comcast Cable, whose predecessor local cable companies were rather
> threadbare already*, subcontracting is scary. If I lose my TV picture
> my life isn't over, but nowadays many people have the 'net hookup via
> cable and even their telephone service. That's "mission critical" > service.
> I had them out on a service call once and their man blamed me for a
> problem in the wiring that _they_ installed, although I was not
> charged for the call.
> *Their intitial wire stringing was extremely low budget, done very
> fast on the cheap. It eventually had to be redone.
> Comments anyone?
> [R#2]
You can't say that about all contractors, many are retired company people. I retired from GTE in 1997 and over the years have done contract work for Verizon and others. I always get called back and in one case was brought in to train Verizon employees in the CO; by the way some of this companies are union, like Volt Telecom, don't know much about them though.
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