Frogfoot in Garsfontein = big mess

[ebendl]

Frogfoot dropped flyers last week announcing that they were going to start digging up the neighbourhood this week to install fibre.

Initially I was fairly excited -- having two fibre providers (we already have Openserve) is pretty awesome. Of course they promised that it would be microtrenching mostly and some trenching here and there.

Come this Monday they started digging up sidewalks and goodness, what a mess. Day 1 they hit a critical water pipe, rendering half the area without water for a couple of hours and messing up the site they were working on.

Day 2 (today) they hit an electrical cable and cut power to more than half of the neighbourhood. Of course with the municipality striking as well (not even sure about what -- who cares) it has now been 12 hours without repairs. Frogfoot supposedly got a private contractor to come in and repair it yet nothing has been done.

Does anybody know if this is the same in other areas where Frogfoot works?

 

[Cowboy619]

Frogfoot dropped flyers last week announcing that they were going to start digging up the neighbourhood this week to install fibre.

Initially I was fairly excited -- having two fibre providers (we already have Openserve) is pretty awesome. Of course they promised that it would be microtrenching mostly and some trenching here and there.

Come this Monday they started digging up sidewalks and goodness, what a mess. Day 1 they hit a critical water pipe, rendering half the area without water for a couple of hours and messing up the site they were working on.

Day 2 (today) they hit an electrical cable and cut power to more than half of the neighbourhood. Of course with the municipality striking as well (not even sure about what -- who cares) it has now been 12 hours without repairs. Frogfoot supposedly got a private contractor to come in and repair it yet nothing has been done.

Does anybody know if this is the same in other areas where Frogfoot works?

Yip they stuffed up Lakeside in Cape Town

 

[Johnatan56]

Frogfoot dropped flyers last week announcing that they were going to start digging up the neighbourhood this week to install fibre.

Initially I was fairly excited -- having two fibre providers (we already have Openserve) is pretty awesome. Of course they promised that it would be microtrenching mostly and some trenching here and there.

Come this Monday they started digging up sidewalks and goodness, what a mess. Day 1 they hit a critical water pipe, rendering half the area without water for a couple of hours and messing up the site they were working on.

Day 2 (today) they hit an electrical cable and cut power to more than half of the neighbourhood. Of course with the municipality striking as well (not even sure about what -- who cares) it has now been 12 hours without repairs. Frogfoot supposedly got a private contractor to come in and repair it yet nothing has been done.

Does anybody know if this is the same in other areas where Frogfoot works?

Pick an area they've worked in, guaranteed they messed it up. They hit multiple water pipes in Parklands when they were rolling out, they messed up my driveway badly enough that I couldn't park the car on it, and I know of multiple cases where they just dug in front of people's driveways with the cars still inside and left the hole there for days, so people couldn't take their car to work.

They do fix it, it just takes time.

In regards to microtrenching, I highly doubt it, they were supposed to do some trial run in the CBD that was supposed to last for some time, and after that it would be allowed in other places; I highly doubt your area will be microtrenched.
The one advantage of FF over OpenServe was that FF was a lot faster when rolling out (once they actually did it), since OpenServe does one step per large area at a time while FF had all running concurrently.
Of course that might have changed by now.

Had a nice discussion with a friend who helps with installs, he says he has heard the most complaints with FF of all the providers in regards to the actual installs.

 

[Tacet]

Is it Frogfoot doing the digging in the dog name area?

Last I heard was that whoever it was had their wayleave in Garsfontein was retracted, though I'm not sure if they managed to get it reinstated. They hit the incoming line to the electrical street distribution box feeding my parents'- and a few other houses. The fool of a supervisor instructed his workers to dig the wires open; was just a mercy that nobody was electrocuted. They claim that they stuck strictly to the depth specified by their wayleave, but even so, letting a worker dig open electrical wiring without knowing whether it was disconnected upstream says nothing good about them.

 

[ebendl]

Is it Frogfoot doing the digging in the dog name area?

Last I heard was that whoever it was had their wayleave in Garsfontein was retracted, though I'm not sure if they managed to get it reinstated. They hit the incoming line to the electrical street distribution box feeding my parents'- and a few other houses. The fool of a supervisor instructed his workers to dig the wires open; was just a mercy that nobody was electrocuted. They claim that they stuck strictly to the depth specified by their wayleave, but even so, letting a worker dig open electrical wiring without knowing whether it was disconnected upstream says nothing good about them.

It's in GSP (Secura Park).

I also heard that supposedly their wayleaves were retracted, but that was literally somebody on Facebook saying as such with no proof or further information.

I'm guessing I'm too hopeful that Tshwane actually publishes their wayleaves somewhere, right?

 

[AJMartin64]

Sorry to say and I say it with empathy, everything up in Gauteng is mostly a mess. Good luck.

Yip they stuffed up Lakeside in Cape Town

Wtf, it's sounds like Frogfoot is acting like a bunch of frogs for real, firs Garsfontein and now Lakeside, wow lol?

 

[AJMartin64]

Pick an area they've worked in, guaranteed they messed it up. They hit multiple water pipes in Parklands when they were rolling out, they messed up my driveway badly enough that I couldn't park the car on it, and I know of multiple cases where they just dug in front of people's driveways with the cars still inside and left the hole there for days, so people couldn't take their car to work.

They do fix it, it just takes time.

In regards to microtrenching, I highly doubt it, they were supposed to do some trial run in the CBD that was supposed to last for some time, and after that it would be allowed in other places; I highly doubt your area will be microtrenched.
The one advantage of FF over OpenServe was that FF was a lot faster when rolling out (once they actually did it), since OpenServe does one step per large area at a time while FF had all running concurrently.
Of course that might have changed by now.

Had a nice discussion with a friend who helps with installs, he says he has heard the most complaints with FF of all the providers in regards to the actual installs.

Wtf, I will show you how I fill that hole with sht in order to get my car out, easy lol.

 

[ProfA]

Frogfoot dropped flyers last week announcing that they were going to start digging up the neighbourhood this week to install fibre.

Initially I was fairly excited -- having two fibre providers (we already have Openserve) is pretty awesome. Of course they promised that it would be microtrenching mostly and some trenching here and there.

Come this Monday they started digging up sidewalks and goodness, what a mess. Day 1 they hit a critical water pipe, rendering half the area without water for a couple of hours and messing up the site they were working on.

Day 2 (today) they hit an electrical cable and cut power to more than half of the neighbourhood. Of course with the municipality striking as well (not even sure about what -- who cares) it has now been 12 hours without repairs. Frogfoot supposedly got a private contractor to come in and repair it yet nothing has been done.

Does anybody know if this is the same in other areas where Frogfoot works?

They have done the same in Bloem in two suburbs I know of. And then have the audacity to stick signs on people's now ruined driveways and lawns that reads "we dig it here"

 

[AJMartin64]

They have done the same in Bloem in two suburbs I know of. And then have the audacity to stick signs on people's now ruined driveways and lawns that reads "we dig it here"

In response one should counter with a sign that says: "we hit you here if u mess up again" lololol

 

[RedViking]

AND this is why Municipalities must charge a massive deposit before these companies start damaging properties.

Only Tswane and the DA gets it.

https://mybroadband.co.za/news/fibre/314623-how-the-da-is-hurting-fibre-to-the-home-in-pretoria.html

Besides being a lot of money to put up for a job that could cost R10,000 or less to complete

Which it doesn't!! Who is paying for the lost in income businesses and surrounding experience?

 

[RedViking]

Another one for you @Jan .

 

[Luke7777]

Yip.... ^^^^^^^ Frogfoot doing what Frogfoot is doing best... shoving contractors into a neighbourhood with a pick and shovel.

 

[APoc184]

On dear!! This is TCT all over again. Garsfontein X10 was a mess for so long with the water meters they replaced.

They screwed up our water and/or electricity at least once a week. Mostly 2 or 3 times.
Our poor neighbours had the nicest paving and garden in front of their yard. It was fcked up numerous times. Every time just as they get it back to looking nice again.

Please don't let it be this bad again!

 

[Jan]

Does anybody know if this is the same in other areas where Frogfoot works?

They rolled out our fibre in Centurion and we had minimal issues. In fairness, most of the backhaul was already in place (AFAIK most fibre providers in the area use DFA and MFN for backhaul), so they didn't need to dig up many sidewalks.

Another one for you @Jan .

Thanks for the tag. It'd be great to check in on this thread every so often.

You're making the same argument, so my same rebuttals hold.

• Are there bad contractors who cause damage to city infrastructure which could be avoided? Yes. Of course.
• Are there good contractors who are more careful and are better at avoiding causing such damage? Yes. Of course.
• Are the contractors maliciously causing this damage? No, of course not.
• Are there contractors who are being careless? Yes.
• Are there contractors who are being careful, but the city plans are so poor that they hit pipes that aren't supposed to be there? Also yes.

Punishing the whole industry---and the residents of Tshwane---for the sins of a handful of careless contractors (or shocking municipal record-keeping) is not the answer.

As I've said three times now: fine the perpetrators, and if they plead poverty sanction the FNO and/or ban the contractor from ever working in Tshwane again.

Another thing: The Tshwane wayleave security deposits have been in place since last year, so it is entirely possible that Frogfoot caughed up the R250k+ to do the work in Garsfontein.

Where is Tshwane with that R250k to repair the electricity and water supply that was damaged? Isn't that what the deposit is for? They should easily be able to pay a private contractor with that amount of money to execute the repairs, even during the strike.

 

[ebendl]

@Jan yeah, we're quite interested in whether Frogfoot will continue. The community straight up do not want them to continue, but if they paid the deposit then I guess they will want to.

To be fair, this was a perfect storm as they manage to hit two critical pieces of infrastructure in 2 days and then Tshwane wasn't available due to the strike. Our councillor in the area was on the job but literally couldn't find anybody to come out to switch off and on the electricity feeder so that the private contractor could repair. It might have gone down very differently were there not a strike.