Bit of advice needed from telewest/cable people..

Tracy99 · 10-07-2006, 12:41

Hiya guys,

I was pointed to this forum by a friend as i have a bit of a question needs answering

Ok, we had a massive thunder storm 2 sundays ago, and our house was struck by lightening.

It knocked out the internet,phone and cable tv (everything telewest) all other power stayed on.

Now this knocked out the telewest services in our whole postal area, but they are now back on but we are not.

Reason being is because our cable line runs up the side of our house and all the way over the top

surely this is wrong and dangerous??? This cable must of been what the lightening hit.

When the lightening struck my fiance had the PC keyboard in his hand the thing sparked and gave him a shock, and the cable box smelled burnt obviously, the telewest veiwing card is burnt too. so its knackered the box wont even turn on.

we have an engineer coming tommorrow, now my question is, do we tell them the house was hit? as im not sure they would cover natural disasters so to speak?
Or should we tell them cos they should not have run the cable over the roof so its their fault and they have caused a danger?#

cheers for helping a newbie

brundles · 10-07-2006, 13:35

Someone might contradict me but I would tell them - it's possible the cable itself is damaged so they will need to look at that. Otherwise you might be in for a world of pain (so to speak) after the go when you have bad signal to noise ratios.

At the end of the day, while TW can't be held accountable for natural events I'd say that applies to having a green cabinet blowing up from lightening but not from a cable carrying the lightening because it goes over the house.

Why does the cable take such a bizarre route anyway? Usually they go round the side because it's much simpler.

Paul K · 10-07-2006, 14:09

Act of God are normally out of the hands of most people and are not covered in any way shape or form. Most companies have AOD (for BT read MBORC... matters beyond our reasonable control) built into their Ts and Cs so you cannot really do much apart from contact them and see how nice they are feeling about maybe compensating you.
As to over the top cable runs... are you in a terrace?

Tracy99 · 10-07-2006, 15:31

Thanks guys, yeah it is kind of a terrace. But i still think its dangerous to have those cables over the house.

Nugget · 11-07-2006, 00:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tracy99

Thanks guys, yeah it is kind of a terrace. But i still think its dangerous to have those cables over the house.

I wouldn't say that it's dangerous per se; more a case of logistics - was the cable installed prior to you moving in (by a former owner)? If so, they may not have wanted cable running through the house

Tracy99 · 11-07-2006, 09:42

Nugget - Yeah the cable was installed prior to us moving in. Well they are coming this afternoon, shall see whats happens fingers crossed!!!

thanks for your replies

Kryton · 12-07-2006, 19:36

Probably cable damage. I don't like cables over roofs myself.

thelem · 13-07-2006, 00:51

You are not to blame, so I can't see them having any problem just fixing it.

"Acts of god" clauses tend to be in insurance policies, because the insurance companies can't afford to rebuild an entire town because a massive storm has flattened it. (and even then, as an atheist do you think I can get out of those clauses?

)

Blade · 13-07-2006, 21:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tracy99

Nugget - Yeah the cable was installed prior to us moving in. Well they are coming this afternoon, shall see whats happens fingers crossed!!!

thanks for your replies

What happened then?