The day my toner wand left a customer's cable dead in Jackson

I've been doing residential installs for about 11 years now, and last Tuesday in Jackson I had a real wake-up call. I always used my toner wand to verify the drop before terminating, but I never actually checked the far end connection at the pedestal. This customer's modem kept losing sync, and after three service calls, a senior tech came out and found my barrel connector was loose and corroded from 2019. He showed me how to re-seat everything and test from both ends, and I felt like a fool for missing something so basic. Now I carry a small wrench set just for those ped locks and I test twice on every job. Has anyone else had that moment where an old habit turned out to be the culprit? What did you change first?

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coleman.hannah1d agoMost Upvoted

Ugh, that corroded barrel got me too once. Test both ends now, always.