This spring we started to install a new fire alarm system to replace the old Simplex system. The contractor started working on it at our other campus in late spring. Early on, we had the network go down out there, and we found that these idiots had broken the fiber optic cable when they went up in the ceiling to do some work.
FOur months later they were still doing work on this installation, and I went into the telephone MPOE to do some work. They had taken up a lot of the telephone backboard for not just the alarm panel, but conduit and j-boxes. But imagine my surprise when I noticced that they had pulled the half dozen or so 14 gauge alarm wires thru (inside!) the same innerduct that the Pacific Bell fiber optic feed was going thru. The innerduct was clearly marked Pacific Bell fiber feed, and it goes down into a four inch underground conduit, which has plenty of room to put their own cables thru and not use the innerduct. I complained about that to the campus admin, and he said that he'd talk to the contractor about it.
Well it was 4-1/2 months, and those idiots had taken just way too long to do the job, and were just fouling up things way too much. They had cut holes in the walls to put in j-boxes for the screeching blinking lights, and they left messes all over the offices. It just got so bad we finally kicked out this contractor and got a new one. Now the fire alarm pull switches are hanging out of the j-boxes, dangling by their wires, and the wires are still inside the Pac Bell fiber innerduct. I don't know what's going to happen. There's supposed to be a new contractor taking over, but chances are that they will do as little as possible to rectify all the deficiencies left by the original contractor.
To make matters worse, that Pac Bell (now SBC) fiber feed is going to be changed from DS3 to Gigaman, so if it goes down, it's a major outage. Well, I should say that it's already a major outage at 45 Mbs, but it'll be worse.
Man, I have no kind words for these idiots. It's stupid stuff like this that makes everyone's working hours miserable.