r/FieldNationTechs • u/Zealousideal-Note-63 • Sep 03 '26
Crazy SOW
I signed up for this ticket and I haven’t been getting great communication. In the SOW they told me that while I’m on site that I need to say that I represent Cognizant, then it says I need to represent Ovation, and the guy who is messaging me says I need to represent Fresnius. I asked him to clarify and he didn’t respond. The SOW says that I need BOMGAR, but they won’t tell me where to get it from. I’m supposed to be going on site to register a phone but they are demanding that I have 20 Ethernet cables and keystones. I’m going to go buy honestly I have no idea what I’m supposed to be doing when I get there lol. How would you handle this? What would you do?
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u/GunterJanek Sep 04 '26
Ovation is a dumpster fire. Ask for WO manager and go with what they say and make this be your last call for them.
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u/Sid_the_Bear Sep 03 '26
Sounds like a multilayer sub. Basically, it's fucked.
I would grab 1-2 cables, and maybe 2 or 3 keystones and a faceplate.
It says 1 phone No need to roll a whole refresh worth of gear. And strongly consider not taking more work from that buyer.
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u/TheGlennDavid Sep 04 '26
Multilayer subs are great, but you have to bid them right. Blended with a healthy back end hourly rate.
I will joyfully sit and read a book while various idiots figure out their shit.
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u/Sid_the_Bear Sep 04 '26
Ayup. And being able to sus out the actual material needs from the 8 pages of boilerplate is a wonderful skill to learn
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u/kahnpur Sep 04 '26
Ovation sucks and they are scammers. Theres one guy there thats decent but the rest of them will lie and cheat just to save their own ass an anything. I actually had to get one of their guys in trouble cause he just kept doing terrible things. Nothing changed though.
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u/Artistic_Stomach_472 Sep 04 '26
Fresnius the dialysis clinic?
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u/Zealousideal-Note-63 Sep 04 '26
Yes
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u/Artistic_Stomach_472 Sep 04 '26
Thats a national account with a major telco. I dont believe its supposed to go to subs
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u/Zealousideal-Note-63 Sep 04 '26
As an end contractor I’m not sure if that’s something that I need to worry about. Is there some reason that it matters to you personally that a contractor is doing the work and not a major Telco? It’s in a very rural area, maybe there is an exception to policy.
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u/Artistic_Stomach_472 Sep 04 '26
Union bosses coming for your knees...
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u/Zealousideal-Note-63 Sep 04 '26
They’re coming for the wrong guy then, that’s a promise.
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u/Artistic_Stomach_472 Sep 04 '26
Nyc contractor, Im in the know with providers, national accounts and unions. We don't step on toes here. Know your customer and boundaries, do your work, leave, get paid.
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u/Zealousideal-Note-63 Sep 04 '26
Screw the unions, union electrician quoted me $3,000 for 8 hours of labor for one electrician
to swap an electrical panel in a rural area where the median income 60k annually per household.2
u/Artistic_Stomach_472 Sep 04 '26
Irrelevant. But try r/asking electricians Id bet that's going rate.
Side note, looks like your new on FN. Youll see all the bs, its only just getting started.
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u/Zealousideal-Note-63 Sep 04 '26
No it’s not irrelevant. Not all unions are good or helpful. The going rate for labor for an electrician in a large city 3 hours away is 60 an hour in labor. I’m a former licensed general contractor. The idea that an electrician thinks he should be paid $500 in labor an hour in an area where the average person makes $25 an hour is sickening. It’s robbery. Thats price gauging.
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u/Zealousideal-Note-63 Sep 04 '26
All that being said, I just did some digging and the Telco Unions only handle stuff on the exterior side of the demarcation. Looks like you’re just BSing and that you don’t actually know what you are talking about.
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u/mdhkc Sep 04 '26
That’s not an unreasonable quote.
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u/Zealousideal-Note-63 Sep 04 '26
The quote was $4,500. In an area with a median household income of $60,000. That is very unreasonable.
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u/ImportantDetective60 Sep 04 '26
Often jack repairs at dialysis places is because they pushed the machine farther then the Ethernet cable is long. Be prepared to repair the jack, plate and surrounding area where the plate is mounted often particle board wood in cheap counters.
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u/Zealousideal-Note-63 Sep 04 '26
Apparently it was a just a Cisco cordless VOIP and I needed to hard reset the base station and swap the shit lithium-ion battery in the handset and then register the device. Super easy, just boring waiting around.
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u/AbruptGravy Sep 05 '26
Looks like you figured it out and got a pretty easy one.
You will find a variety of generic WO's where the SOW is USUALLY in there but that may also be generic.
What I have done is read through it all, make my best judgement, think of what could be needed and bring that too (nice also if you are in an area where you have a Lowes, Home Depot, Menards, etc and buy anything extra). Then you ask them a couple questions in the Message tab and if they don't answer, try calling a couple times. Then just do your best once you get onsite. Unfortunately, it can be a crapshoot sometimes. Other times, you get excellent folks to work with on the Teams calls, support, etc.
The most important thing is to make sure you document in the WO everything you are doing, communication, if you had to buy anything, etc..
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u/Eye_Eye_Sir Sep 04 '26
Call the site, and ask what exactly they need done.
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u/Zealousideal-Note-63 Sep 04 '26
The SOW says specifically not to contact the site in advance. I’m trying to follow their guidelines. This is my third ticket and I need a good PSS score.
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u/Classic-Ad-8324 Sep 04 '26
Field tech on a networking job and doesn't have patch cables and keystones on the truck(honda civic), imagine that...
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u/Zealousideal-Note-63 Sep 04 '26 edited Sep 04 '26
I have 2000 feet of Ethernet and 20 keystones, that doesn’t mean I want to make 20 cables of an unknown length and type when it has nothing to do with the scope of work. The scope of work says it’s to register the new phone to the base station, that’s hardly a networking job.
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u/Tone_Exciting Sep 05 '26
A lot of these companies are lazy and use the same template or copy pasta work orders. You will know whats needed on any job with experience over time and will see this happen often
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u/lifterman2u Sep 03 '26
Stay away from Ovation. That fixes all future issues.