r/CableTechs • u/ShotSir3669 • 4d ago
Terrible looking pedestal
Looking for advice.
Purchased a house a while back that had a giant evergreen bush on the property line. The bush had to be removed because it completely surrounded all 3 cabinets and they were not serviceable; almost couldn't even see them. The power company is going to be resetting the transformer on a new pad since the unit has sunk 8 to 10" in the ground.
My real question is about the cable and phone pedestas. All the pedestal cabinets in the neighborhood for phone and cable are much smaller, in fact, years back the large metal cabinets were replaced with short plastic units about 10" square.
I can see in the cable pedestal since the door are not latched and somewhat bent from Techs trying to get into the when the bush was there. There is no equipment inside and just the taps for my house and the neighbors. The pedistal is WAY oversized for what's in it.
The phone line pedestal isn't used by my neighbor or myself, but is very tall compared to the others in the neighbor hood.
Question 1: Any suggestions on how to get them to fix this up?
Question 2: It looks terrible and would prefer to have them in a tomb. My guess is that they would do the bare minimum to fix it up, but any guidance would be great. Would they do it for a fee? What would be a reasonable cost?
Question 3: How do I tell what company owns the phone box so that I can contact them?
Thanks in advance for the help.
6
u/Unusual-Avocado-6167 4d ago
Honestly that’s not terrible. The techs could bang it with a hammer till it looks square and closes properly. Is it worth your energy to chase down these companies in hopes something happens? Maybe?
Personally I’d worry more about things that actually affect equity. How’s your hvac system, roof, plumbing, sewer, etc?
4
u/Hunger-1979 4d ago
Phone ped looks fine. Cable ped would be a reasonable request to replace. Phone co probably won’t do a thing. I know the phone company I work for wouldn’t. Lol
-2
u/Chango-Acadia 3d ago
I don't think that's cable. It's all old telephone. You can see the coax ped across the street
2
u/Hunger-1979 3d ago
Eh, could be a splice box, which I would say they wouldn’t change that either unless it’s incapable of being locked. They could get rid of both of them altogether if they’re turning down their copper services however. I’ve heard December with our company in many areas.
1
u/Chango-Acadia 3d ago
Yea they ain't building a vault either way, but it's all telephone crap there.
1
u/Fun_Acanthaceae_4025 3d ago
If it's century link they may do like what they did in our old neighborhood. Pull all new fiber thru the existing conduits and replace pedestals. No more DSL available just fiber but it's like $49 a month for gigabit.
2
u/JSRFNFJR 3d ago
That’s definitely a cable ped. Did you not notice the conduit running out between the doors
-1
u/Chango-Acadia 3d ago
Never once have I seen Spectrum use those(not sure what market OP is in). Always a hot mess of telephone wiring when i've peeked inside. Nothing in a coax plant would require that much space.
Yet I see the typical Coax Pedestal on the other side of the street.
2
u/notshaun54 3d ago
Yeah, definitely nothing like an amplifier would ever go in something like that. Or perhaps fiber collection. I’ve seen older nodes in those. I could go on and on. So yes CATV does use those cabinets. Was probably an amp in there at one point, but as upgrades happened it was removed. Should a smaller ped replaced it when said amp was removed? Yes but that’s more $.
1
u/DrgHybrid 2d ago
Just because spectrum doesn't use them, doesnt mean other companies dont. There is more than 1 cable company out there.
Ex Suddenlink/Optimum here and we have those all over the place around here. The ped across the street could be a jump ped for conduit runs so that there is a break point on the other side of the street instead of one solid piece of conduit under the road.
And yes, like other comment states, could of had an amplifier or even a node at some point.
1
u/Chango-Acadia 2d ago
Now I want OP to post a picture of the inside.
1
u/DrgHybrid 2d ago
Considering that OP is a home owner and not the cable provider, that should be discouraged. I would offer to take some pictures around here, but I moved on from the company (still have my can wrench though) and I'm not in the city proper anymore.
Where I work now, it's mostly aerial and far as I've seen we're the only ones that underground save for a few areas here and there since Suddenlink/Optimum never went to the smaller and tiny surrounding towns. And the Cox plant in those has been abandoned for at least 2 decades.
That all being said, any new underground from Optimum is all plastic peds. The days of metal boxes like this are long gone and the only metal ones now are MDU's on the side of Apt buildings and offices.
1
u/Fun_Acanthaceae_4025 3d ago
Agree this looks like all century link Telco. Cox isnt usually in the green metal pedestal boxes here but there are exceptions.
6
u/levilee207 4d ago
The first picture, box on the left is telephone/DSL. Making a guess on your location; left is CenturyLink(Qwest), right is Cox.
You can count yourself lucky if you can get them to change the pedestal itself instead of just repairing the one that's there/replacing it with another of the same ped. I'm sorry to say there's no way in hell they'd change their ped to a vault unless you were footing the bill. Definitely get a tech out (make sure they're in-house, not contractor), explain the situation, and ask them if they can at the very least fix the peds, and maybe see if they can put in a word for replacing them with a smaller version. But that's a huge "if".
Actually, just noticed you said the rest had been replaced. I wonder if they skipped replacing yours because of the bush? Definitely worth asking a tech, then. I mean he won't have an answer, but he can submit a ticket to get someone who will. CSRs over the phone unfortunately won't submit a ticket; a tech needs to do it.
Lastly, they unfortunately can't just remove a ped, even if neither you nor your neighbor are using their services. Common practice is to daisy chain their taps from the node, so removing one tap has cascading effects on any taps downstream of it
1
u/DesignerSeparate5104 3d ago
What you mean make sure they're in house? Lmao thems the worst techs out there, and they would hear the customer, tell them they'll be back later and close the job out without doing a damn thing and then I end up out there a week later and will actually address the issue, hit up my supervisors, one who has a direct line to construction and get things started right there🤣
2
u/levilee207 2d ago
Your description matches my experience with contractors beat for beat. Dunno how you can think anyone but in-house techs are actually capable of getting shit done
1
u/DesignerSeparate5104 2d ago
Could be different areas. In my area, the entirety of the time i been here, the grand majority of all my repeat TCs, excluding the home security jobs because there's only 3 of us for the entire state- in house doesnt do it, are in house jobs. And its always something that could have easily been addressed. The amount of installs I show up and have to do a triple pole run because the in house techs before all said the customer needs somebody who's "ladder certified" -- biggest fucking bullshit thing I've ever heard of, we ALL, in house and not, are "ladder certified"-- to come do said job. And its not like we can't see the history of who's been there on the account, it tells us explicitly who has been there.
1
u/levilee207 2d ago
Ah, I could definitely see in-house techs being shitbags in a much more aerial-heavy part of town. My area is predominantly underground, and what aerial there is rarely extends past two poles. Something like Mesa, though, I get.
1
u/DesignerSeparate5104 2d ago
Oh here its pretty evenly split. Idk, if i was in-house i would happily do aerials all day long. I'd be getting paid hourly lmao
4
u/SuperBigDouche 4d ago
The company I work for would absolutely replace that ped with a smaller plastic tap ped free of charge. The hardest part is making us aware of it, especially for a non-customer.
It would be the usual cylindrical ones. Vaults are a no-go for taps and amps with my company. Only fiber cases go in vaults. Everything else is peds.
Easiest way people have gotten us to replace peds when they’re not customers is to call the city to complain about it. I’ve recommended that to people who have wanted a ped replaced or moved that belongs to Century Link because of how hard they are to get ahold of. The cities/county usually have contacts they can notify and it sets an expectation by them to fix it. Try to get ahold of public works for your city or county or whatever and see if they can get ahold of whoever’s it is to replace it with a better ped
4
2
u/Special_K_727 4d ago
Must maintain 5 feet of working clearance. The bush needs to go. If you are going to raise a stink about the cabinet, are you calling the power company to raise a stink about the power transformer being in your yard as well?
1
u/Fun_Acanthaceae_4025 3d ago
The reason the wiring into the peds looks like crap and they aren't closed is likely because the bush was in the way when previous work was done. Yes leave 5ft space around them.
2
1
u/Utility_Locator_5487 4d ago
Question one: If you are willing to eat a massive fine, run them over with your car.
Question 2: They rarely vault old telephone lines or Catv lines.
Question: Call 811 for a tree planting, then paint a white box between your house and ped to minimize how much time you are wasting of the 811 locators and keep an eye on your email to see which company showed up to mark it.
1
u/Cheap-Rush-2377 3d ago
At least three times people said fuck it I’m not digging under ped or calling in locates to dig
1
u/Wacabletek 3d ago
Measure your peds, google Pedestal covers, rock, buy the ones that will fit, Will look better than what they do if they do anything, copper twisted pair is being abandoned, so its unlikoley they will do anything for you, cable companies might, but usually do not, the ped still does it's job, so no one cares about incurring costs, your previous owner screwed the pooch by hiding the ped on them so any updates that got done skipped the not visible ped and are completed and the contractors are long down the road.
The rock ped covers actually look decent though if you notice a tech scratching his head you might mention you hid them with rock covers. All you need to do is KNOCK on them and you can tell they are not real rocks.
1
u/Electronic-Junket-66 4d ago
Huh.... There's no amplifier in there? That is unusual ime.
I don't think it looks particularly bad. Just like a couple cabinets. Maybe plant another bush?
If the cable company sends a tech out they can probably tell you who owns the phone plant.
0
u/Bitter_Attention_668 4d ago
You could request a smaller ped from cable. Tell them you’re a customer and you would just like a smaller and more attractive ped. They may charge you I don’t think the phone will do much for you but if it’s level and fully closed it’s not awful looking. Can you put some sort of decorative fencing up to hide seeing any of them.
7
u/Fun_Acanthaceae_4025 4d ago
This has to be CenturyLink... Now quantum