My Mother hired a licensed electrician to install 1 ethernet drop in her home office. She already had a preexisting tp-link setup in the basement. She showed me the invoice today which totaled $958.00! I’m shocked and disgusted. Feels like they took advantage of my Mother.

I told my Mother to call them first thing tomorrow morning to see if they possibly made a mistake. If not, I advised her to never do business with that company again. This seems like highway robbery. Is there anything else she can do?

https://preview.redd.it/bcwk77klz63c1.jpg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e5867d3241e035638a0504562ca5027488e6cf71

https://preview.redd.it/ulaih3klz63c1.jpg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5b76a5d053ec93120dff1e68755478034954f27e

  • jashow@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    Field nation seems like it’s geared towards commercial? Maybe can find someone on there to do a residential job though.

    • justintroubleshooter@alien.topB
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      1 year ago

      It’s definitely a commercial driven platform, but you might be surprised as to how many commercial companies outsource residential work on here 💫

  • SelectionOk7702@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    Outrageously overpriced, but I don’t think they were being dishonest about it. It really isn’t worth it to do a dinky LV job installing a single drop. It would have cost 60 bucks and a YouTube video of you DIYd it.

  • divakerAM@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    Looks cost seems excessively high for a simple Ethernet drop installation, and it might be worth seeking a detailed breakdown of the charges

  • Polodude@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    LV guy here. Sorry,but your mom got F’d by that sparky. Show a pic of the actual cable he ran. A clear shot of the jack at the wall and the end at the rack.

    CAT5e thru drop ceiling, no certification just working test, $150 - $200 tops depending on area.

    Did she already pay him ?

  • Taskr36@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    The problem is that there’s a minimum amount someone like that will charge to do a job. She probably would have paid the same amount if she’d had him put 4 drops in that room. He just wasn’t going to waste his time going out there without making a certain amount of money.

  • maxwelldoug@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    I did ethernet myself earlier this month. 2 60 foot cat6 runs, through a wall, down outside the house, then back up and in at the other end, cable running through the crawl space. It was about 40$ in material and took me and my father an hour with full termination on both ends and so far stable gigabit. Ethernet is not something that needs an electrician (no notable current) to install, although some of the same skills apply.

    Overall, a single ~25 foot cat5e run? Based on information in the posts and comments, if you paid more than 100$ you got ripped off, and I would probably have done it for 75.

  • F1DNA@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    Before I even saw the price, I said 1k per run in my head. Learn how to pull cable yourself if you don’t like it. Shit can be challenging sometimes. You charge 1k per run because some runs should cost 2k and some should be 500. When you only want 1 run done, you pay the premium then. Having said that, probably should have adjusted this one after the fact and said “Hey that was a pretty easy one, here’s 30% back”.

  • what-the-hack@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    While its overpriced, I’d love for someone to point me to someone that can do this for less, NC Durham area. I need two drops done for access points that I dont feel like doing myself. A little more complex and longer but yeah 1k a visit minimum is the best ive gotten so far.

  • PokeT3ch@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    Look on the bright side. It works! I’ve run into many many many electricians, licensed and not, who have no idea how data works. They’d splice stuff together all day long, leave twisted pairs exposed for like a foot and so on and so forth.