Bell Installer's Bad Workmanship resulted in $500 in damages

  • Thread starter Thread starter lecoyte
  • Start date Start date
L

lecoyte

Guest
I am in a bit of a sticky situation.

I persuaded by ageing in-laws to ditch Star choice in favour of Bell Expressvu.

They were not big on the idea, but I thought they would benefit from various factors.

Anyhow.... to cut a long story short. A month after the install, the plumber was called in twice to trouble shoot a blocked sink. On the third time, he found that problem was that Bell had drilled directly through the drain pipe for the coax.

The total bill is around $500. Bell are telling them to go away.

Anyone have any advice in the matter. On the back of the contract there is apparently a disclaimer clause.

Has anyone had any similar experiences ?

Is small claims court the way to go ?

Thanks.
 
The drain serves the waste disposal unit, so a good deal of gunk goes down there.

The basement is not finished.

Other than this.... they would go back to Star Choice in a heart beat.

They are oldish (81 and 76). They don't like change.


Thanks.
 
I don't doubt that he did a bad job, but was just wondering how an additional hole in a drain pipe, whould result in a backed up sink? I would expect there to be water damage in the basement due to the improved flow?
Unless he ran the cable through the drain, I guess that could cause a back up
 
If he calls EV they would fill an installation complain form (a e-mail to the installation co) and whithin 24-72 buisness hours they will copntact him

Agents at EV don't even have a contact number for the different installation co, they communicate wth them only throught e-mail
 
I was wondering the same thing!

My advice is to send a detailed and polite letter (not email) to Bell explaining what happened and include a photocopy of the bill.

Before mailing, contact Bell and ask who specifically you should send the letter to so there is no confusion.

If in 4 weeks, you don't have a response then you could look at small claims.
 


He should call back an insist to have an installer complaint form filled (lots of agents unfortunatly for the client are unaware of that procedure). If agent refuses to do it, or says nothing could be done I woul ask for a supervisor. Supervisor would do the form and the installation compagny will all back
 
If it's not too late, I would suggest taking some pictures of the damage as well, so that it's clear how the install and damage are related.

-Mike
 
If that drain was connected to a waste disposal unit as lecoyte mentioned, I can see that happening.

I can even see something similar happening to a regular drain pipe that's connected to a tub or sink. I have a small strainer in the drain hole of my bath tube, and I/we have to clean it out every couple of days because of hair mostly (my wife has very long hair and a few stands are bound to break and get caught in that screen). If I had a coax cable running smack dab in the drain, I can easily see all that hair getting caught/wraped around the cable and eventually causing a blockage without that screen in place.
 
Yes, the chap put the cable smack bang centre through the pipe. This resulted the blockage.

I have taken pictures of the damage.

I had phoned Bell and they sent me a letter back saying that they were not responsible.

Thanks.
 
Bell have sent round an inspector and subsequently, without admitting liability, agreed to pay up the whole bill.

All is well that ends well.

Thanks for all the comments and help.
 
Bell can say whatever they want but in Canada no contract clause can absolve a party of their responsibility when they're negligent. Drilling through a drain pipe to install a coax cable is obvious negligence.

Unfortunately your in-laws will likely have to go to small claims court against the installer and BEV to get their money.
 
Thats what I was thinking too. Getting the RG6 to exit the drain pipe through the hole he drilled is amazing. I would buy a 649 ticket if I did it. (Hmmm, I wouldn't know I did it, oh well)
 
Great news!
Although stopping short of admitting liability, I'm sure you're happy with the end result, them paying for the mistake
See, ExpressVu isn't that bad...:D
 
Let me know your area, I will then attempt to put you in touch with the Correct Installation Co.

PLease PM me with the details, if you still get no joy from them, I will attempt to put you in touch with the correct person at Express Vu.
 
Just get a ticket anyway, I am.....lol

Then I might just head under the sink with the DeWalt.......
 
when my installer came, I had an idea, he persuaded me to go thru the basement, (WOOD) and come upstairs thru (WOOD) and we had the dish and receiver working in about 25 minutes, I helped alot....lol:)h
 
Had they promised to pay, or have you already got a check ?

Admitting their mistake is a good point
Promising to pay the damage even better...
But until you actually get the money you can not scream victory
 
Call EV and ask them to fill an installor complaint (lots of agents don't know about that procedure, so you might have to insist to get it done)

Ideally have the paper he gave you in hand as information on the tech's compagny and tech ID might be missing or hard to find (espacially if installation is over a month)

In the next 24 hours somebody from the installation compagny will call you and try to "negociate" an arrangement

In some cases it does work, I've seen a client getting a 300$ check to replace a table that the tech drilled in, in some other it doesn't, like in the case of a member of this forum I helped that got that note in his file : CLient is just trying to ge some credits...when he really had a tech issue. He had 3or 4 techs in and still didn't had a good signal. I think that, to this date he still have issues. Also tech had drilled a huge hole on the house
 
I would like to chime in here with my $0.02. I happen to be a plumbing contractor and have seen these things happen many times. While it is indeed very unfortunate that the installer happened to hit the pipe dead center and feed the cable through it, I can see no way of him knowing this happened. If one were to insist that he should have taken proper precautions etc, at what point would you not even allow the install to happen?

Feeding a drill bit into a wall by the very nature of it is a risky thing to do. Should he cut the wall open first to see if there may be wires, water lines or any number of other things in the way? Now who is going to fix all the exploration holes this creates?

I think you will find as long as due diligence was taken, it will be extremely difficult to win in a court room. Does this make it right? Probably not. Should the installer offer to perhaps pay partial compensation?

I know there are lots of clauses written into contracts stating you are not responsible for the unforeseen on jobs ranging from a few hundred dollars and into the millions. I unfortunately side with the installer and Expressvu. WOW, I thought I would never ever hear myself say that!
 
Back
Top