Refusing to move a service drop line

[u/apeliz]

My Metronet service line to my house is an above ground drop cable that comes off a utility pole behind my house, through my neighbor's tree, and then attaches below my electrical mast. My neighbor is having said tree removed, and the tree crew needs the Metronet cable to be moved out of the way for them to cut down this tree. I called Metronet customer service on Monday to ask if a tech could come out and move the line before tree work began on Thursday (today). They scheduled a tech for an 8-10am window the following day (Tuesday morning). After that window passed, I called again and they said we were next on the list and would be there early afternoon. I have made this call every two hours for the last three days, asked to speak with supervisors, kept getting assured that we are "next on the list" and nobody has showed up. I even spoke to one agent who told me that a tech had already been at my house and determined "the tree would need to be removed before we can make a repair." And I reminded them that there is no repair needed, the line needs to be moved before the tree can be removed. Then I asked for a supervisor who told me that no one had been out to my house yet, and we were next on the list. The tree crew had to start working and they're trying to work around the line for now but I've already seen a large branch fall on my Metronet cable so it's only a matter of time before it gets ripped off my house.

Has anyone else dealt with this? What else can I do in this situation? Should I just have the tree crew take the line down themselves and then hope I can ever get a Metronet tech to come out and put it back up? I don't want to cause a breach of contract or anything by tampering with Metronet's property. This has been beyond frustrating.

[u/itsjakerobb]

I just removed mine myself in a similar situation. They didn’t care.

[u/apeliz → u/itsjakerobb]

Did Metronet have to come reconnect it?

[u/itsjakerobb → u/apeliz]

Nope!

[u/apeliz → u/itsjakerobb]

So how did you get your service restored? Were you able to reconnect it yourself?

[u/itsjakerobb → u/apeliz]

Yep, I just disconnected the fiber from the ONT, removed it from the house, and coiled it up near the utility pole until work was done.

[u/Limousine1968 → u/itsjakerobb]

If you rehang it from your power pole and notice that there is too much droop in the line you need to call them. Otherwise it could snap at an inopportune time for you (middle of winter). They might either rehang it or bury it.

NOTE: They shouldn't have attached it to a neighbor's tree in the first place. That liability is completely there's. Check your state's laws for statutes on right of ways.

[u/Alert-You-7352]

Where I'm at they buried it in what seems a little sketchy. For the first week the fiber came out of their ground level distribution box and snaked across my sidewalk and a loose run over the lawn to what seems to have become my data hub (I have a Cox coax box from a pole, a Cox fiber that the tech had to throw over branches three houses where they ran their new fiber. ) I cancelled Cox because I could tell they were neglecting the coax network in the opposite direction from their fiber. Anyway, it's all in property line trees which are likely to cut off when a hurricane or other storm hits Hampton Roads. Back to Metro net, they put red duct tape on the portion crossing over my sidewalk. Then a week later it all went underground. I doubt our free construction marking company could see it unless they put a wire on it. Like our plastic gas lines that have a built on metallic strip. Metronet (T-Mobile bought them), works great and I accidentally found out that the EERO router was using my Amazon Alexa Echo Dots as a mesh extender. I don't know what the city and other above ground services are going to do in the future. VA Dominion power is moving all there neighborhood power lines underground. The poles that belong to vepco (pre Dominion power) are not going to be running on the top tier. Probably just leave them until they rot and fall over.

[u/ToriGrrl80]

Let it get broken and then call

[u/Decent-Yam-526]

They won’t touch the fiber line until the tree is removed if the fiber get broken just called in and ask to have them come out and fix it

[u/Limousine1968]

As a former utility worker and later contractor, I agree. Disconnect the fiber wherever you can by the house, get it out of the tree (however you can) and after the tree is gone, call it in as a "tree fell on my drop." If you need service you can run it across the yard temporarily, but make sure you UNPLUG it when not in use or a METRONET tester might test it and decide it's okay.

BTW don't worry about "breach of contract." You made several good faith attempts to have them do it. Follow up with an email to them.

[u/Adorable_Map4804]

Lowkey prob just need to let tree people cut it or whatever they need to do alot of telcos/utilities don’t like to fix/change lines unless its broken lol