How a 50p cable can cost you £112

Cables are unloved by most, hated by some but they are a necessary evil in your networks, after all you can’t have wireless with out some wires.

As it happens we have to a bit of a thing for cables, a nicely ‘dressed’ data cabinet can be a thing of beauty. It’s not just about looking nice though. Things break, technology is rarely perfect and becomes out of date and needs replacing. Looking nice should also mean its well documented so you know which cables from where to where.

Now, these cables (patch leads) that go in the data cabinet and, at the other end, from the wall to your PC/Phone/TV/Washing Machine or whatever else needs to be connected to the internet need to be of top quality. Regardless on how much you’ve spent on the cabling in the walls, be that £1,000 or £50,000 cheeping out at the ends to save a few pence is never worth it.

Yes you may be able to find (what appears to be) a bargain online and get a bunch of patch leads for 50p a pop BUT, you do not know if they are any good. It might be that they stand the test of time… or it could be in 6 months time those bargain cables fail on you… what if your bargain bucket cable is the one that connects the kitchen and restaurant… mid service?

Your team pick up the phone and say “help, we’ve lost connection to the kitchen, it is urgent we need someone asap” an urgent call out will be a minimum of 2 hours, £110.

Meanwhile, the kitchen printers aren’t working, your serving team are taking longer to get hand written notes to the kitchen. Their tablets aren’t working, service is delayed, patrons are getting a subpar service, stress levels are rising.

Your purple savior arrives and starts to diagnose the fault. If we assume the cabling and network is labelled and documented it will be quick and easy to find the bargain bucket culprit. If it’s not, well, now we’ve got even more down time whilst we work out what is connected to where and which bit has failed. Either way, we swap the cable out for a proper patch lead.

Ahh calm and serenity return just in time for dinner service to get underway.

Your 50p cable has just cost you £112, because you’ve still had to buy a proper patch lead for £2 and pay for a call out fee. You’ve saved £1.50 but paid out more and stressed your team out… we won’t tell if you don’t.

We only use Ultima cabling and patch leads for out networks, it’s high quality and designed for 25 years of un-interrupted service dinner services.

Have you got any bargain bucket patch leads hiding in your network? Maybe its time we came to take them out before they take you out?