For what it’s worth, both of you got screwed. The question is, “by whom?” A little back ground info; yes BHN uses contractors to do a majority of their installations, (87% or so). In the tampa area they would be Kable Link, CTIS, and Knights Enterprises. (There are a few more, but theese are the primary installers) Now, the part that you may not know, is that these contractors hire independent sub-contractors to do the work. Most of us (yes, I am one) are professional, and knowledgeable about our jobs, BUT there are those that don’t …. have the people skills that the rest of us do. These are the ones that don’t stay in business long. Because we are “independent sub-contractors”, we aren’t as protected as a regular (hourly) employee. If we get negative feedback all we are told is that there is no work for us. We are basicly seperate sole proprieter businesses that hire our services to the contractor.
None of this excuses the attitude about the FIOS drop, it’s meant as information to help see things from our point of view.
The reason that contracting out the work is so popular is that BHN and the contractor have relativly little overhead. The sub-contractor pays for the truck, the tools, the fuel, the commercial auto insurance, the contractors insurance and the upkeep on all of the above. We get paid by the task. Each task has a dollar ammount atatched to it.
As an example; the reconnection of a single family house with 4 outlets 1 digital box, and internet service would pay $34.75 ( $10 for the reconnection of the house to the BHN system, the connection of 3 additional outlets is $6.25per a/o one outlet is included in the reconnect billing, $3.50 for the hook up and demonstration of the digital converter, and $2.50 for the modem install) This install, if done properly, and the house was in BHN spec. should take about an hour and fifteen minutes.
Not bad, right? Keep in mind I said “In Spec”. If the house isn’t in spec we have to make it so, for no additional compensation. Most houses aren’t in spec, due to the fact that specs change continually. We’ll say that the tech averages 2 hrs a job and an average of $150 per day. (this a decent average in this area) That’s $900 for a 6 day week (avg day is 13 hrs totaling 78 hours)
$900 minus overhead ( $150 for fuel, $100 for 1/4 of the truck payment, & $50 for 1/4 of the commercial auto ins. totaling $300.) equals $600 take home divided by 78 hours equals $7.69/ hour. This is befor taxes as we’re 1099 status, no health care, etc.
That breakdown is an example of why we have to move as fast as possible, while meeting specs ( if not in spec, can you say “backcharge”?) in order to be as profitable as possible. I’m personaly sorry to hear that you were treated as you were, it’s not something that I like to hear, as it reiterates the stereotype that contractors are not as good as “regular” employees, when the oposite is generally true for the simple reason if it’s not right, WE DON’T GET PAID! Nor do we get paid by the hour. If I have a task that pays $20 and it takes me and hour to complete that task, great, but if it takes 5 hours (and it does happen)I’ve made $4 dollars an hour, yea.
As for why your drop was cut, I’ve seen a lot of Fios drops that are not burried to depth (8 – 10 inches) and the people that put them in didn’t care about crossing other utilities space in a lot of areas ( I’ve replaces a LOT of Verison damaged drops) Also their fiber optic drop is NOT ARMORED! If you don’t know, fiber optic cable is strands of glass wraped in plastic. Kinda fragile. We use a 13mm plastic armor over our underground cable to help protect it.
As to why the guy didn’t fix your drop…. no tools to do so, fiber splicing equipment is expensive, and one should be trained to do so.
None of this excuses the crappy attitude, but at least you may now understand the contractors in general a little better.
To address the apartment problem, the problem was probably with the tap ( where your unit hooks in with the system. If the Eq. is adjusted wrong, there is simply nothing that a contractor is allowed to do to it. As to why it took 6 contractors before a BHN employee came out, in the event of a tap issue, we make sure that the wiring is good (hence the new line to the apt) and turn it over to a supervisor, who checks the problem and contacts BH (these are BH rules not ours) then it’s supposed to go to the line tech employed by BHN. More times than not the customer calls in about the problem again before the line tech comes out (2-3 wks), starting the process all over again
hope this helps

You guys are so quick to think that Brighthouse Techs know what they are doing and contractors are horrible. Well let me tell you from someone who has worked both as an In-house tech and a contractor. They represent the population. Some are good and some are bad. On both sides. You have Brighthouse paying bottom dollar for topnotch work. Thats like mixing oil and water. Who is going to take the time to do the job outstanding when your being paid like an illegal mexican; pardon my analogy. Brighthouse would rather have someone go to your house 7 times to do the job rather than pay someone what they are worth to do it right the first time.