sarah_fox•14d agoProlific Poster

Property manager pushed me to reuse bad coax to cut costs

I was wiring a bunch of apartments for a new service. The manager showed me a box of old, damaged coaxial cables and said to just use those. He argued it would save a lot of money on materials. I knew the picture would be terrible and it was against good practice. I bought new cable myself to do the job right, but it stung.

2 comments

2 Comments

sage_fox14d ago

Coax cables from like 2005 often still work fine. Was the damage really that bad? A few scratches won't ruin the signal. Property managers always try to save a buck, it's normal. You might have overreacted buying all new stuff.

jasonkim14d ago

You mentioned scratches not ruining the signal, but my old cable had a cut that let in static. I had constant dropouts and fuzzy channels until I changed it out. The property manager argued it was fine, but a cable guy found corrosion inside the damaged section. Once I put in a new line, my tv and internet worked perfectly. It taught me that unseen damage can cause big problems.