Prices per cable pull or per location?

Hello,

I'm looking for some input here. I was tasked w\ looking into something we were invoiced and stumbed upon another invoice where we were billed around $14,000 for cable / phone drops. They billed a flat rate of around $115 per drop and they priced it out on a per cable basis.

Looking at the bill it looks like a huge ripoff considering that all of the drop locations have at least 2 cables there, so it's not as if they dropped at 100+ different locations.

Can anybody tell me if this is normal pricing for this sort of thing?

I'm still considering it a ripoff because the people who did it for us got the job w\out it being bid out because they'd worked with us before and had some favor w\ the owner.

especially w\ my office which shares a wall w\ the server room where the cables all terminate... i have 3 jacks, so they billed $345 for dropping 3 ethernet cables down the wall of the server room !

I could have done the job myself... that would have afforded me 3-4 months off ^^

Unfortunately most people are very eager to shun someones work and point out they can do it better or for less. This is possibly true if you are doing it as a one time job for 3 cables, but it seems like the company came in to do more then just 3 cables.

In that case, if you have ever done cabling yourself for larger jobs, you would understand that the companies that come in are task with not only cabling, but also keeping up to code and regulations the drops that they do. Items such as making sure the correct distance from items (lighting or motors) that cause RF (radio frequency) or other interference factors. They also have to be up to par on regulations of building code on how they put items through places such as firewalls. That is just two of many items that a company must be sure about when they take up a cabling job.

These companies are usually certified and the same with the people who do the cabling for the company are also certified. (meaning they took classes or training to verify the cable drops integrity).

Face it.. anyone can drop a cable of CAT5e or CAT6 in a building from one location to another (assuming you have the correct tools). But if the person does not follow protocol and regulation you could have in worse case OSHA or Fire Marshal on the door step for not cabling correctly. In not so worse case you could have network issues due to RF which is like fixing a ghost in the machine issue and can be very time consuming to fix.

Usually drops, depending on your geographic location can run from $100 - $125. I have seen some outfits charge even as much as $200 per drop (I think this is bit much, but it's not my company).

Good companies do a walk through to verify cabling and verify the difficulties of the drops they will encounter (this could also add to the price depending on the difficulty of the drop and if anything extra is need to make the drop work or be accomplished).

You have to remember that you are not only paying for the cable (Plenum & Non-Plenum), the jack, the plate, the backplate, but also the cable pullers time to get your task completed. Sometimes this will include other items such as patch panel, patch panel brackets, plate fillers, firewall putty, pull string, pvc piping, conduit, racks (open or closed, small or big), switches, routers and so on.

Sounds like the company who did the job charge around the correct price.