TexasCHLforum.com

http://weaponsman.com/?p=20133

This happened in Florida, but the advice is still good:

A cable company in Florida “economized” on installation by hiring drug addicts, ex-cons, criminal aliens and thieves for installers. And now, customers have been getting something extra with their cable service — stolen jewelry, money, other valuables and at least one S&W Sigma handgun.

The Hotwire employees seem to do this routinely: work as a team, where one distracts the customer, and the other (or others) commits the actual burglary. Indeed, given the complaints we’re hearing of service quality and interruptions, they may be significantly more skilled at burglary than they are at cable installation.

The company is providing only minimal and grudging cooperation to the police. For example, they have claimed that they have no documentation of, or means of discovering, which worker was assigned to which residence on any given day.

The name of the company may be more appropriate than its customers imagine.

Penny wise and pound foolish. I hope this drives Hotwire into bankruptcy and out of business.

I work for a large well known cable company, they're very strict on who they hire background checks and what not. I can also tell you they're not gun friendly one of the biggest on 30.06 website

We in the air conditioning business have had to register our technicians that go into residenses for several years now. Part of the registration process is the state does (or supposed to do) background checks. Electricians are the same way I think as they are classified by the state.

Why dont they require this for cable companies or any other service provider

rp_photo wrote:Penny wise and pound foolish. I hope this drives Hotwire into bankruptcy and out of business.

The best advice may be to keep an eye on anyone allowed into your home or office, regardless of what trade they practice. There are usually a few bad apples in any barrel.

LDB415 wrote:The best advice may be to keep an eye on anyone allowed into your home or office, regardless of what trade they practice. There are usually a few bad apples in any barrel.

It's a rare stranger of any trade that get's into my home. I'll often do the work myself to keep a stranger out.

That's best I'm sure and you are fortunate to be capable of doing that. For those of us with two left thumbs it isn't as often an option.

LDB415 wrote:The best advice may be to keep an eye on anyone allowed into your home or office, regardless of what trade they practice. There are usually a few bad apples in any barrel.

This....I pretty much always try to be there and watch what is being done. If it is something I already have an idea of how to do, I may learn something new, usually seeing it done by someone who does it for a living. A few times, it has been a thought of....oh...so that is how they do that....

Either way, I just usually tell the person I want to watch what they are doing so I can learn. It also allows me to see if they are (in my mind) cutting corners on something. I can then "innocently" ask why they are doing something a certain way.

Bottom line, they know I am watching them the whole time.

gthaustex wrote:

LDB415 wrote:The best advice may be to keep an eye on anyone allowed into your home or office, regardless of what trade they practice. There are usually a few bad apples in any barrel.

This....I pretty much always try to be there and watch what is being done. If it is something I already have an idea of how to do, I may learn something new, usually seeing it done by someone who does it for a living. A few times, it has been a thought of....oh...so that is how they do that....

Either way, I just usually tell the person I want to watch what they are doing so I can learn. It also allows me to see if they are (in my mind) cutting corners on something. I can then "innocently" ask why they are doing something a certain way.

Bottom line, they know I am watching them the whole time.

And that's what I can rarely do, since 99% of the time that kind of work would be done I'd be at work, and my wife would be home alone (well, alone with four big dogs).

And, there is always the "Armed Repairman" debate.
http://texaschlforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=64506" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Several years ago I gave some thought to going to work as a cable installer. The major national cable company I interviewed with revealed that I would not actually be an employee, but a "contractor" required to drive a company labeled vehicle and wear a company labeled shirt. Did a little research on the subject and found out that, at that time, that company and several others hired most of their installers and repairmen that way.

And no background checks.

Which could lead to a scenario similar to the one that Wendy Davis kept trying to use against Greg Abbott.