Are you really the cable guy?

[Flying Grype]

Okay, I live in an apartment building. Four units, tiny little thing. In the basement we have lovely huge storage lockers. I use mine for a workshop and may be brewing beer in there later. But anyways.

A guy knocked on my door a few minutes ago and said he was doing a cable installation for an upstairs neighbour, but the wires ran through my storage unit and could I please open it up. I did, showed him where stuff was. There genuinely are cables running through there for other units, I knew that already.

So far I think he's legit. He's not running out the door putting my bike or my toolbox in his van. The van is marked with the name of a known cable installation contractor in my area. (He's installing for a cable provider who shall be known here as Crime Corner.) He's not sucky, he's a nice enough guy.

But christ on a crutch, could these companies come up with some kind of verification process? If they have to knock on someone's door unexpectedly and say "hey, I need to get into your storage room/apartment/whatever", that would be nice. I'm a woman home by myself. I could have said no. I have half a mind to call the company whose name is on his van, and make sure they actually did send someone to this property today to do this work.

I'm not sure how this process would work. I asked him if he had business cards and he said no. Of course, in a real scam/robbery situation he could set that all up, and give me a card with a number for someone who is in on it. Ditto if legitimate companies had to call people in the building in advance and warn them about work to be done. Give me some time and I'll come up with something foolproof. I just wish they'd at least try.

ETA: Because I'm home alone, not trusting the guy means I won't go hang out in my basement while he's there to make sure he doesn't take my stuff. I'll stay in my apartment until he's gone. But as soon as he pulls out of the driveway I am going downstairs to make sure everything's where I left it, and if anything's missing I have a full description of his van, written at leisure from my front window.

[gremcint]

Same thing for when they phone your house, My cell provider will call me trying to sell me stuff, they don't confirm any of my info at all just take my word for it. What if my roommate is an asshole.

[PepperElf]

i don't know if you can do that there, but here... our maintenance gives over a week notice for entry. granted that's for apartments - we don't have storage lockers. but even if it was a contractor hired, i could still confirm it with the apartment manager if i wanted to.

[Flying Grype]

Pepper -- this wasn't building-wide maintenance, though, or I assume that's what the neighbour thought. We set up and pay for that stuff ourselves rather than through the landlady.

[scruff]

Around here, official visitors (water board, electric etc) have id cards, wih a photo on it, and a phone number you can call. The idea is, if you're worried about them, they give you the card, you leave them on the doorstep while you call their office. And that an official caller will be cool with waiting for 5 mins on your step. Not a perfect system, but it helps.

[Flying Grype]

That's a good idea, but as I said, easily faked. A system where you call a number that you already have on hand would be better than one where you call the number given to you by the guy on your step.

Anyways, all's well that ends well. All my stuff is where I left it, and I actually bumped into the neighbour whose cable was being set up, and she said thanks for letting the guy in and she didn't realize he'd have to do that.

[kpzra]

You can always call the number for that company, get it out of the phone book not the side of the vehicle.

[Kittish]

Pretty much what kpzra said. In a similar position I think I'd have asked the guy politely to give me his name and employee number (if needed) and then to please wait while I verify with his employer. Then either pull up the company phone number on the internet or look it up in a phone book, call, and indeed verify that the guy in question is in fact an employee and also in fact doing a legitimate install at the property. If both answers came back affirmative, then return to the guy and give him the go ahead. Elapsed time shouldn't be more than 10 minutes or so. And if the guy kicks up any fuss at all about waiting while you verify his story, then the immediate answer is 'no you may not have access to my space'.

[Zellie Crescent]

Did anyone else besides me think something dirty when they read the thread title?

[sms001]

Did anyone else besides me think something dirty when they read the thread title?

[Cue porno music] Bow-chikki-wa-wa, chikki-wa-wa..."I'm here to lay some cable ma'am."

Er, uhm, no. Why do you ask?

[LillFilly]

There was a warning of a scam in a town near mine, of people/persons impersonating city water officials. They'd go to people's houses, tell them they had to investigate an issue with water, ask the person to go upstairs/downstairs/somewhere to turn off and on the water while they monitored it, and rob the house. So they showed what an actual city worker would be wearing, driving and what the ID would look like.

Kind of funny that the next day in my town, a city water guy came to replace our water meter He was legit, and it was on the outside of the house anyway.

[Seshat]

That's a good idea, but as I said, easily faked. A system where you call a number that you already have on hand would be better than one where you call the number given to you by the guy on your step.

I'd like such places to have a prominent 'verify that the guy on your doorstep is really one of ours' number in the phone book and on their website.

[Catwoman2965]

I know in my complex, if the cable guy needs to get into somwhere that tenant doesn't have access to, maintenance will accompany them. The way my complex is set up is there is one outside door that only me and my downstairs neighbor have access to. And the complex, of course. I'm on the second floor, and have a crawl space opening at the top of my stairs. when the people upstairs next to me moved in, maintenance knocked on my door to let me know at some point, the cable company needed to access that crawl space, and that someone from the complex would come with them. I said fine, no problem, but i don't know if they just did it while i wasn't home or at all.