My Google fiber installation was completed yesterday. Overall the entire process was impressive. Google did a good job communicating. Before the crews began digging to run fiber cables throughout my neighborhood 6 month ago, they put leaflets on everyone door explaining what they were doing, the process and providing a phone number to call in case of any questions/problems.
There were some problems. When you have dozens of men digging trenches throughout a neighborhood that has all utilities buried, there are bound to be some problems. There were some power outages, some internet outages, a few broken sprinkler lines and at least two busted were pipes that I’m aware of that Google had to repair.
As for my personal install, it was flawless.
Yesterday was the final step. A technician came to do the inside installation. His job is to run a cable from the outside NID box into my home, install a jack, install the modem and wifi device, verify I can get online and verify the speed.
That all happened. It took about 30 minutes.
We had to speak regarding placement of the jack. He also asked about my painting and told me about his girlfriend, who is an artist.
But what was weird was that the entire time he was here, he was on the phone with his girlfriend having a a conversation. Including when he was talking to me!
I had no idea at first because he wore a balaclava that covered his mouth and his ears. At one point we were talking about placing the jack higher to avoid electrical wire in the wall when he suddenly said, “It’s a six speed manual, you have to shift into 6th gear with is like overdrive on an automatic…”
I didn’t know WTF he was talking about. I thought at first he making some kind of metaphor about google fiber speed compared to cable modem speed but he kind of mumbled off into random words before I could mane any sense of it.
I looked at him with a confused look on my face and said “What?“
That’s when he told me he was talking to his girlfriend. He said, “She’s in England.” To him, that was sufficient explanation.
So he completes the installation. He asks about my paintings, tells me his girlfriend is an artist and even shows me a picture she had drawn while continuing his conversation with his girlfriend. Some portion of his sentences are said to me, the other are said to his girlfriend with no distinction who he was talking to.
It was bizarre.
Of course I’ve experienced this before. Sometimes cashiers are on their phone the entire time I am paying them. Many time, I see people walking having full on loud conversations with a speakerphone or via earbuds.
I’ve had other tech workers who talked on their phone the entire time they were doing their jobs, but they always put the phone aside or on mute when they were talking to me.
It’s rude for sure. I make a conscious effort to put my phone away when talking to someone in person. But I am old school. I value giving the person I’m with my full attention.
My tech was young – likely in his 20s. I am sure he saw nothing inappropriate with his call.
Before he left, he to me he really liked one of my paintings. I almost gave it to him. But I didn’t. Because it is one of my favorites too. And he and I barely had a conversation with each other.