Had to pick between running RG6 or fiber to a new home build last month

Customer wanted the cheapest option. I told them RG6 would work for now but fiber gives them room later. They picked RG6. 3 weeks after I finished, they called saying their internet company requires fiber for gig speeds. Had to go back and re-run everything. Whole job took twice as long and cost them $400 more in labor. Has anyone else dealt with homeowners not wanting to spend upfront?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_max27d ago

Honestly, three weeks? That's brutal. Ngl, I thought they'd at least last a few months before realizing their mistake but THREE WEEKS? That's like, they barely even moved in before needing you to rip everything out. Tbh it's wild how people will drop thousands on granite countertops and then cheap out on the literal pipe that makes their house livable in 2024. I had a buddy who did the same thing last year with Cat6, homeowner saved $50 and ended up paying $300 later when his whole home office setup couldn't handle Zoom calls.

blair_martin27d ago

Tbh it's wild how people will drop thousands on granite countertops." Yeah that sums it up. They'll pay for what they can see and cheap out on everything else.

lunag3027d ago

My neighbor's son is an electrician and he ran into this same thing twice last year on new builds. The problem I see is that homeowners often don't understand how fast internet technology moves - they think what works today will work in five years. When I had my house wired for Ethernet back in 2018, the guy told me to spend the extra on Cat6a instead of Cat5e, and I'm glad I listened because now my TV and gaming setups use way more bandwidth than I ever thought. It's hard to convince people to spend now on something they can't see the value of yet.