Will I be charged for a cut drop line?
rjtatman
Newbie

Hello, my landscaping crew cut the fios line between the road and my house about a week ago (I called 811 and somehow the verizon line didn't get marked). I called Verizon and they sent someone out to fix it. He didn't have a cable long enough to go to the road, so he just spliced the cable in place. He said that contractors will be out in 10 business days to run a full new line and bury it for me. Nowhere in any of this was there mention of possible charges, so I wasn't worried about it. After a conversation with a coworker that got charged an obsurd amount out of the blue, I'm starting to worry. Is there a way to know if I will be charged for the work, and if am, do I have the right to deny service? The internet is working fine with the spliced line and I would bury it myself if I knew I could be paying upwards of $1000 for a new line...

I would rather Verizon answer my question directly, but through some magic, everyone I call has no idea what I'm talking about then my call "drops" while they transfer me... I've called 6 times...

Thanks to anyone that can help me out!

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Re: Will I be charged for a cut drop line?
lasagna
Community Leader
Community Leader

This is a peer to peer support forum, so Verizon's not going to answer here.

I suspect you're going to have to wait and see and if you get billed it will have instructions on how to pay or dispute the bill and that would then be your best router to take.  You can't debate something that doesn't yet exist (and you may not want to kick a hornets nest that so far is not an issue).

I would say that if you did the one-call and Verizon didn't mark their lines, you may have a reasonable case to dispute any repair charge.  I am not a lawyer however nor do I speak for any vendor - so your mileage may vary.  I would save any evidence of the one-call to back up your claim should it be necesary (including photos of your property marked by other utilities for the one call).   At a minimum, I would also save any evidence that the break was the fault of your landscaper.    I would think if you get billed that you'd be wanting to have a discussion with the landscaper since they caused the break -- they (or perhaps their insurance company who covers their property damage liability) can have the argument with Verizon if you get billed as to who should pay.

Re: Will I be charged for a cut drop line?
CRobGauth
Community Leader
Community Leader

There is another twist. depending on how it was out in, it may not have been to code which could give Verizon some liability. A number of people have complained about bills but dont think we have ever heard of the results.

Re: Will I be charged for a cut drop line?
Solar1998
Newbie

Verizon is trying to do the same thing to me. My landscaping company cut a line of one of our customers (that was supposed to be buried but it wasn't) with an Echo "mulch bed redefiner". With a simple google search you will see that the machine only scratches of the ground. Long story short I have some company calling on behalf of Verizon asking where can they send the bill. I pretty much told them to shove it where the sun don't shine. I'd damned if I have to pay for one of their workers lazily buring their cables. Pretty sure Code states that it must be buried below 6".

The icing on the cake was that the guy who came out was rextremely rude to my customer.

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