Overheard a homeowner say we 'just plug stuff in'

Was at a job on Elm Street yesterday and the lady told her friend on the phone that cable installers just plug things in for a living. I wanted to hand her the fish tape and tell her to try pulling coax through a 1920s wall with knob and tube wiring. Anyone else get this kind of disrespect on the regular?

3 comments

3 Comments

charles6401mo ago

Right, because 90 degree heat in an attic crawling through fiberglass insulation is "just plugging stuff in." I'd love to see her try to terminate a connector on a ladder with a 15 foot drop on one side and a wasp nest on the other. Maybe we should start charging by the hour for "looking at the problem" and see how easy they think it is then.

mark_ward1mo ago

I feel you on the wasp nests and ladder work, that part is legit dangerous. But "just plugging stuff in" is still how a lot of people outside the trade see it, right? They don't see the crawl spaces or the heat or the bees. They just see you show up, plug a coax into a modem, and leave in 10 minutes. I get that the actual job is way harder than that, but the complaint about people not understanding the difficulty kinda proves the point. Charging by the hour might change their minds, but it won't make them respect the work more. They'll just think you're slow.

drew_jones311mo ago

Did you ever think this job was easy before you actually had to do it? I'll be honest, I used to joke that cable guys had it made until I helped a buddy run lines in an old house. That changed my mind real quick.