Cable company trashes satellite coax

[skierrob]

I get my high-speed internet from the local cable company (Charter) and my tv programming from Dish. The internet service comes from a box they have locked up in the garage, and my Dish Network comes through a different box that doesn't have any cable tv programming. This box used to be the cable company's old analog network box, but they abandoned it when they put in their new digital lines (and new box for the digital stuff), so our condo association threw in lines for roof-top TV antennas and also satellite connections for both Dish and DirecTV so that you can have one set of dishes on the roof shared by many homeowners in the same building (just plug your line into the switch and the other end into your receiver and enjoy!)

At any rate, today I get home and have no satellite or off-the-air reception from the roof-top antenna. So, I do a check switch on my 622 and it can't find anything. I eventually go to the box that we have for our satellite and antenna connections and guess what?

Someone had removed my lines from the switch I was plugged into, cut one of the two coax lines, and then put a channel 2-78 cable tv CHANNEL FILTER on the other coax line, complete with protective barrels on each end, and THEN plugged that line into another coax line that goes to a different condo!

Hrmm... I wonder who the heck THAT was. Charter???

Charter, of course, has NO record of anyone visiting our building today and says that they can't be held responsible for anything.

Any ideas on where to proceed with this one? I've already removed the channel filter (cut the coax and put new end piece on) and also put a new end piece onto the other cable and plugged myself back into the Dish Network switch and roof-top antenna... so at least I have tv programming again.

Robert

 

[TheKrell]

Good grief. Well, if anyone in the condo can open and mess with these boxes, then it could have been anyone in the condo association. I'd start with the neighbor who had hooked up your cable to his condo.

 

[Van]

Good grief. Well, if anyone in the condo can open and mess with these boxes, then it could have been anyone in the condo association. I'd start with the neighbor who had hooked up your cable to his condo.

It wont be the neighbor that did it but they will have a copy of the work order for their cable install.

For the OP you should contact the condo association about this and inform them of whats going on and see about getting one of the assoc members down there or rather the president. Get with your neighbor and get a copy of his receipt for the work, you can go to Lowes and get a shield tool for about $20 and some twist on type connectors to make cable ends to try and restore your service but I would call up the local guy thats handling the dish and direct account at the condo's and having him come out in the mean time, be sure to keep your receipt from this and turn it in to charter for a refund.

 

[TheKrell]

It wont be the neighbor that did it but they will have a copy of the work order for their cable install.

But that doesn't make sense. The only datum we have that points to the Charter people is the in-line channel filter. These leads went to satellite antennas on the roof. So if Charter was installing Charter HSI, they didn't accomplish that.

 

[Van]

But that doesn't make sense. The only datum we have that points to the Charter people is the in-line channel filter. These leads went to satellite antennas on the roof. So if Charter was installing Charter HSI, they didn't accomplish that.

Think about it, the neighbor very probably isnt an installer wich means that either a charter tech came out and did it or more likely one of the sub contractors that they farm work out to did and they hadnt updated all of the completed jobs to the computer system at charter at the time the OP called. The neighbor who had cable installed will have a copy of a work order from the charter tech or the sub contractor who did the work and with that bit of information the OP can start ripping some new openings in a few people.

You can get shield tools easily from lowes or home depot but the actual shield itsself I havent seen at either store and most every person isnt going to worry about getting a shield to put in, heck if I was the OP I would cut those lines wich will be the quickest way to get a cable tech back out there to get their screw up fixed.

"Someone had removed my lines from the switch I was plugged into, cut one of the two coax lines, and then put a channel 2-78 cable tv CHANNEL FILTER on the other coax line, complete with protective barrels on each end, and THEN plugged that line into another coax line that goes to a different condo!"

Those filters arent sold at your local hardware, Ive only run across one electronics store that would or could get them and I doubt the neighbor went to Michigan to get one. Im asuming that what he means by protective barrels is a round tube that slips over the connector when its being atached to a port, this keeps the customer from screwin with the cable connections and limits service calls due to customer issues.