GB Manchester Corporation's Unhappy Customer

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Now, I'm not the type of guy that complains about bad service. I understand that people can have off days. In general I'm just laid back. In fact, there's only been one other company that I have been so unhappy with that I would actually take time to write a web page about. That company would be QWest.

In case there happens to be other GB Manchester Corporations out there I'm referring to the low voltage wiring company in the Vancouver Washington area. Here is my story:

As any reader of my website probably knows, my wife and I just built a house. Well.. We hired a contractor to build us a house. Anyway, we had up and down days with him but in the end we were very happy with our contractor. I'll be sure to write that page sometime soon. Anyway, our contractor had PrairiElectric do the electrical wiring for the house. Apparently PrairiElectric uses GB Manchester for low voltage wiring.

I would like to state before I get to the bad that the quality of the wiring was excellent. My only problem with GB Manchester is customer service. But once again the quality was great.

So I talked to a gentleman there, for sake of this page we'll call him Ralph, about the data jacks I wanted wired in the house. There were twenty jacks total. I told him I'd like a patch panel and a network switch. Stupid me, I thought this would mean a patch panel and a switch that could accommodate 20 data ports. This will come back up later. As far as I was concerned Ralph and I were on the same page and I was happy.

Skip ahead a few weeks in the building process and I got my first bill for the job being something like 70% complete. I gladly paid that bill. I was happy with what I saw and I could see it being approximately 70% done.

Skip ahead again to about the end of the building process where we were almost done. I finally had all my jacks in place throughout the house. Talk about being a kid in a candy shop. The only thing that was now missing was my network patch panel and a switch. This is when I got my bill saying 100% was complete and the troubles began.

I called GB Manchester, told them my concern. They told me I would get a call back. Time passes... No call... I called GB Manchester again and got a hold of Ralph. He informed me that they were busy wiring schools during summer break and he'd get back to me. Quite a bit of time passes... I call Ralph again and he didn't even remember who I was. I had to explain my whole story to him again and he agreed that things were not 100% complete. It may be important to note that in the long time that passed I had found one wiring problem where a phone line and a data line were switched. Ralph scheduled someone to come out to finish the job and fix the small wiring problem. Rock on... I'm finally able to put this all behind me!!! Or not...

The worker showed up at my house. He went right to work swapping the two jacks that had been swapped. Then it came to finishing the job. He informed me that Ralph said I had only paid for one 5 port patch panel and one 8 port network switch. Whawhawhaaat? I have 20 lines, what good is a 5 port patch panel and an 8 port hub?! I admit, this could very well have been 'my' mistake for not clarifying and assuming what I'd be getting. After a chat with the worker I decided that the patch panel was only for the 'cool' factor and not really needed but I really did need network switches that could accommodate my 20 data lines. He had me call Ralph to verify this was 'OK'. I did so and Ralph said that it wouldn't be a problem we'd just adjust the billing. Fantastic! Lets just put 3 of the 8 port switches in there and call it good. No problem!!! Well... Maybe one problem. The worker had brought ZERO switches with him.

The worker told me he would have to call Ralph and have him order some switches for me. I admit, at this point I was irritated but at least we were making progress right? Time passes... Time passes again... I call Ralph and get his voice mail. I left him a message asking him to call me. Time passes...

I snap. I've been actually LIVING in my house for two months now and I still don't have a fully functional house wide network. (And yes.. I have wireless... but I paid for wired...) Up until this point I've still refused to pay the final payment until they finish the job. However, now I just want to be done with them. I call back and ask for Ralph. Ralph is now apparently out of the country so the receptionist passes me onto a gentleman we'll call Shaggy. I gave Shaggy pretty much a summary of what you just read and he apologized and explained that Ralph was out of the country. I told him that I would like the patch panel wiring and the network switches to be dropped off of my bill and I HOPE they drop off some more for all the bad service I've received. He told me Ralph would be in next week and he would have him call me and verify the amount that is going to be taken off.

That is where it currently stands at 09/06/2006. I'll add more as it comes.

Just updating... It's now 11/02/2006 and I've heard nothing...

Just updating... Again... It's now 03/05/2007 and I've heard nothing... At this point is it safe to assume we now owe them nothing?!

Just updating... Again... It's now 08/22/2007 and I've heard nothing...

Just updating... Again... It's now 10/02/2007 and I've heard nothing...

Just updating... Again... It's now 11/05/2007 and I've heard nothing...