How a $3,200 Order Taught Me to Stop Guessing on Cable Orders
If you're a system integrator or network engineer ordering General Cable products—whether it's Infinity Pro, DuraXV Extreme, or standard CAT6a—you already know what your're doing. But sometimes, that's exactly when you make the dumbest mistakes.
Handling infrastructure orders for the last 7 years, I've personally made (and documented) 8 significant mistakes, totaling roughly $14,000 in wasted budget. After the third rejection in Q1 2024, I created our team's pre-order checklist. Now we use it for every single cable and connector order.
This checklist has 5 steps. If you follow it—actually follow it—you'll catch the issues that cost you time and money. Because the lowest quote isn't always the cheapest.
Step 1: Verify the Jacket Rating Before You Compare Prices
In September 2022, I submitted an order for 10,000 feet of CAT6a. Checked it myself, approved it, processed it. We caught the error when the shipment arrived: plenum-rated riser cable. Wrong building. $3,200 wasted, credibility damaged, lesson learned.
Here's the check: Is the job in a plenum space (air handling areas) or a riser (vertical shafts)? Or is it a general purpose area? General Cable offers several jacket ratings—CM, CMR, CMP—and they are not interchangeable. The price difference between CMP and CM is significant, but the cost of a failed inspection is higher.
I still kick myself for that plenum order. If I'd just checked the spec sheet one more time, we'd have saved the reorder fee and a week of delay.
What most people don't realize is that the 'standard' quote you get automatically often defaults to the most common rating for your region—which isn't always the rating you need. A lesson learned the hard way.
Step 2: Check the Conductor Gauge (AWG) for Your Run Length
There's a temptation to think all CAT6a is the same. But General Cable produces it in different gauges (23 AWG, 24 AWG). The spec sheet says 'CAT6a' but the performance for Power over Ethernet (PoE) varies.
On a 5,000-piece order where every single item had a 90-meter run, I ordered 24 AWG. The result came back: voltage drop was borderline for our PoE cameras. Not ideal, but workable. But we had to install a mid-span injector—an extra $890 we didn't budget for.
Here's something vendors won't tell you: For runs over 50 meters, a 23 AWG conductor provides better power transmission and less resistance than 24 AWG. The thicker wire (23 AWG) is a bit more expensive per foot, but if you need PoE++ for a wireless access point at the end of a 100-meter run, it's the only reliable choice.
If your design has a lot long runs, choose General Cable's 23 AWG options. You'll save on power injectors and troubleshooting time.
Step 3: Confirm the Packaging Type for Your Install Crew
This sounds silly, but it cost us $450. I ordered 10,000 feet of General Cable DuraXV Extreme on a spool. Our guys had to pull it off a massive spool on the job site. They spent half a day wrestling the cable into manageable boxes. That's time I'm not getting back.
General Cable offers several packaging options: ProBox (pull boxes), spools, reels, and more. The pull box is designed so you can pull the cable from the box without it twisting. The spool is cheaper per foot, but the labor cost to manage it offsets that saving.
Better than nothing—but a ProBox would have been cheaper overall. Here's the math:
- Spool: Lower unit price + 4 hours of labor to set up
- ProBox: Slightly higher unit price + 0 hours setup labor
Total cost of ownership (i.e., not just the unit price but all associated costs). In my experience, paying a few cents more per foot for the right packaging is a bargain compared to paying your crew to do setup work.
Step 4: Verify the Connector Compatibility (Locking Tabs Matter)
A mistake that still makes me cringe: I ordered 500 CAT6a connectors that were designed for solid conductors. The cable we had (General Cable Infinity Pro) used stranded conductors. The connectors didn't grip properly. We caught the error when the first test showed intermittent connectivity. 490 connectors gone, $600 wasted.
The General Cable website (circa 2024, at least) has very clear compatibility charts. But you have to look. The spec sheet says 'CAT6a connector' but doesn't always specify conductor type.
Here's the checklist rule: Match the connector type (keystone jack or plug) to the cable's conductor type (solid or stranded). Stranded cable is flexible, but it requires a connector with a sharper needle that can pierce the individual strands. Solid cable is rigid but requires a different piercing mechanism.
It's tempting to think you can use any CAT6a connector with any CAT6a cable. But the truth is more nuanced. The locking tab design, the IDC (Insulation Displacement Connector) depth, and the wire guide all need to match.
Worse than expected: The vendor's RMA process took 3 weeks. We lost the project timeline.
Step 5: Don't Forget the Shielding Type (UTP vs. FTP vs. STP)
This is the mistake most people don't even think about. For a typical office environment, unshielded twisted pair (UTP) works fine. But if your route passes near an electrical panel, a motor, or a microwave radio, you need shielded cable (FTP or STP).
On a job in 2023, I ordered CAT6a UTP for a warehouse that had overhead crane motors. We installed it. The interference was so bad we had to rip it out and re-run with General Cable shielded cable. That was a $1,500 problem, and a 2-day delay.
General Cable produces both UTP and FTP versions of their CAT6a. The FTP (Foil Twisted Pair) cable has a thin foil shield that protects against external EMI. STP (Shielded Twisted Pair) adds an additional braided shield.
The cost difference is about 20-30% more for FTP. But that's cheaper than a re-wire.
Pro tip: Always verify the local building code and the specific environmental conditions of the cable path. The NEC code has specific requirements for shielding in certain industrial zones. (Reference: NFPA 70, Article 800).
Common Mistakes (And How to Fix Them)
Even with the checklist, I still see the same patterns:
Mistake 1: Ordering Only for the Price
My view: The lowest price per foot is rarely the lowest total cost. That $200 savings on a cheaper spool turned into a $1,500 problem when we had to pay for re-packaging and lost labor.
Mistake 2: Skipping the Cable List
You'd think every integrator has a formal cable schedule. Many don't. The cable schedule is your single source of truth for length, gauge, jacket, and connector. Without it, you're guessing.
Mistake 3: Ignoring the Warranty
General Cable provides a 25-year warranty on their premium cables (like Infinity Pro). But the warranty is only valid if the cable is installed according to the spec. If you use the wrong connector or violate the bend radius, you void the warranty. That's a risk I'm not okay with.
Final Thought: The Checklist is Not Perfect (But It's Better Than Guessing)
One of my biggest regrets: not building this checklist earlier. The goodwill I'm working with now from our install crews took three years to develop—and a lot of mistakes.
This checklist has caught 47 potential errors in the past 18 months. That's 47 times I could have wasted money, delayed a project, or lost a client. Not bad for a piece of paper with 5 items.
The market rate for mistakes (as of January 2025, at least) is about $2,000 per incident for a medium-size order. The checklist costs nothing to print.
