We had a sign to do for a company, outside, (2) 4" x 4" posts. Called and had the area marked for utilities. Got to the job site, no markings where we planned to dig. Cool. Started digging the first hole, uh oh. Not good. 250 pair phone line cut. Crap.
Where's the mark? No mark.
Called the emergency line for this, reported it and waited. Heard nothing.
Went to the job site, took tons of photos, measured it all out, requested the original request. Original request was for marking 100 feet radius from a landmark there. Measure the lines, they stop at 27 feet.
Call it in, tell them the reason we hit the line was because they didn't mark it to the requested 100 feet. They tell me that I should have known it wasn't marked right. Huh? I go round and round and round and I get no where. I ask the people "If I'm looking at dirt and it has no paint on it, does that mean that it was checked and there are no utilities under it, or does that mean someone forgot to mark it?". They tell me that it's my fault because I should have known. I inform them that if I should know where the utilities are, then why would I need to call them to have it marked. I feel like I'm in a Laurel and Hardy movie. The inspector tried to tell me that (2) 50 foot radii added up to be a 100 foot radius. I had to explain to him that a 100 foot radius was a 200 foot diameter.
So the phone company inspector calls. Same conversation. They are convinced that I was supposed to know that the company who marked it stopped short of the request, rather than there not being any utilities to mark.
Anyone else had any dealings with this comedy?
No matter how many times I ask, they can't tell me how I'm supposed to know the difference between not marked and not marked properly. I think I'm making headway on it, but for the life of me, I can't believe that I'm even having this conversation with rational human beings.
It's like me saying "Okay, start drawing a line........now stop drawing. Okay, now look at that line and tell me if it's the length I wanted it to be or half the length I wanted it to be".
See, you thought you were having a bad week. Hit an underground 250 pair phone line and I think you win some sort of award for having a crappy week