Originally Posted By sirocco:
Fiber finally came to our area, but the vendor wants a hold harmless agreement signed before installation that states they won't be liable for any damages to basically anything on my property, septic, well, driveway, propane line, fence (!) doing the install. I asked them to revise the statement to be only held harmless for anything that either isn't staked/flagged or included on the install site plan they requested (on which they state they won't be liable for anything not indicated or flagged), but they told me to pound sand. From what I've been able to find on the topic, the hold harmless agreement would absolve them even in the case of negligence (and you'd have to be negligent to drill thru a marked septic tank), so it seems fiber is less attractive than taking the risk, however small, of them damaging everything.

Long-time lurker, first-time poster, and my chili has beans in it cos the wife likes them.

EDIT: Forgot to ask the question: Does this look like a bad risk to take to you?

Originally Posted By ag04blast:
I'll start with...fiber internet I'd fantastic.  BUT the providers are an absolute monopoly and heavily protected.  

I live in a master planned community with utility easements.  So when install came, there was no choice.  The fiber company (ATT) hires nothing but contractors for this work.  Helps build legal layers away from them.  Throughout our 1600 home neighborhood they broke hundreds of fences, gas lines, comm lines, power lines, everything you can thing of.  They killed tons of trees and left mountains of trash and crap all over.  A good amount of the damage was OUTSIDE of easements.  The contractors don't give a fuck.  

People spent well over a year trying to get things fixed, replaced, etc.

Funny enough, now no one's remembers all that shit.

You are smart to be cautious and I would consult an actual attorney.

Originally Posted By sirocco:
I guess that's one point I hadn't considered. The company already had contractors run the line down our road; thankfully on the other side. I didn't hear anyone complain about damage during that and they seemed like they knew what they were doing. I'll bet they have contractors do the end run from the street to the house, and the document wants them to be absolved of all blame should *that* contractor screw up, but of course, no one at the company could say such a thing because it looks stupid to ask for protection from the stupidity of the people you hire. Really confidence inspiring.

A call to them again asking to confirm a contractor is doing the digging, and would still be on the hook even if the fiber company itself isn't, and I might pull the trigger after all, so long as I have someone to sue. Not that I'll be letting them on the property unsupervised, or letting them dig anywhere near the septic field/tank/well/propane/etc.