A Challenging Install - Others said No

[Claude Greiner]

The only reason why I commented on the 44 was that our RSP has gotten b*tch-slapped a zillion times from DNS whenever we, as techs, modified a superdish/D500+/D1000+ workorder to reflect a 44 versus a 34. Personally, I don't see what the problem is. If a customer has the opportunity to have single cable runs feeding a dual tuner, why the hell NOT give it to them?

Because a DP44 Switch costs 3 times more money than a DP34!

 

[Todd Humphrey]

RCDALLAS, do not take this wrong way, but your job is not to make the customer happy. Your job is to make DISH money while making the customer satisfied.
That may, or may not happen on this job. The job of every employee to make a profit for the boss, unless you work for the government. I do not know if you are allowed to charge the customer for non-standard work, but I know DNSC around here does not. I am going to assume DISH did not charge extra for this work.

Your posts said you spent 1.5 hours on the first trip, because of what you told the customer, additional installers were sent. Now knowing the drive times, or hourly rate (which is none of my business anyway) I have to make some assumptions here.

Your 1st trip with drive time = 2 hours
2 more techs @ 1.5 hours each = 3 hours
Your installation time = 7 hours
Total man hours = 12 hours
If you earn $14 hour that means you cost the company at least $20/hour.
$20 and hour x 12 hours = $240 in labor alone.

2 extra dishes, ground post, other materials, including that 44 switch add another $225+ to the job.

How many truck rolls? Gas in expensive. All those trips by you can the others add up.

I do not know what they figure as normal time and material cost for a three room HD install, but I assure you it is far less than what it cost DISH to install this system.
The other factor is the DISH MOVE program. If that customer moves, do you think they will leave those dishes up for the next customer, or that the next customer will want three dishes scattered around the property. At some level, DISH relies on the dishes being left behind.
The last issue is system reliability. With you not able to get a clear LOS for any two satellites only 9 degrees apart, then you have to be threading the needle on at least one satellite. Maybe not, I am not there, you are.

Sometimes working for a company means you have to follow their rules, whether you like it or not.

 

[KE4EST]

Getting back to the orange cable.....Van I use flooded cable for most underground stuff but my cable is black. Hunter Orange is a good idea though. Easy to see if someone starts digging down the road.

 

[Van]

Van- I figure I'm an hourly employee, what do I care how long I spend on a job, I do exactly what DISH tells me to do and leave it at that. You want a job complete and a checklist, here you go. Give me the right tools and good van to work with each and everyday, with all the hardware to go along with it, you can send me out across the country and not hear back from me until I'm done rain or shine. I'm hourly, if they continue to give me everything I need to do my work "One & Done" with the new stack ranking based on 40% completion, 40% tc with in 21 days based on FSS II, 20% How fast you can complete, I can pretty much say screw the points per hour and just take my time do good work and maintain at the top. Everyone else will just continue to cancel or loose it on the T/C putting me ahead.

The ball is in their court, if they want me to do chicken sh*t install that's fine, otherwise don't route me hard, or you'll hate me for working round the clock showing up at 11pm on my last job doing installs finishing by 3 am, wondering why there are so many trouble calls and customers bitching that it's never worked right from day one. That's being real.

As for custom work, nope I've never been told I can and can not do, I just do what the installation manager tells me to do, put it to bed and I avoid at all costs from ever calling her during the day telling her I couldn't do this, or some other lame excuse.

Well it does sound like they have finally cleaned up the stank ranking from what it was last year when it cost several dozen new and existing techs their jobs when I worked out of Ann Arbor and Wixom. I dont know though, I think your basicly in either Rita's good graces or in Big Johns good graces or both, if it had been someone who wasnt in the click spending an hour and half doing a site survey and seven hours doing a three dish three pole mount and three line trench install having to pass on more than one job to other techs one or more managers would have been turning really ugly.

I cant say as I blame the senior tech for being pissed off at you, if its who I think it is then to some degrea it is justified considering that out of our offices for 5 years or close to it we had always been told to keep it simple and get the job done ASAP and that if it was anything that required custom work that it was to be rescheduled for the sub contractors. Maybe now that the GM Jeff has been fired things will get better, he hated me and had no problems singling me out and verbally insulting me if he percieved that I had done something wrong. But still if things are better then it will take time for all of the old stuff to die down, the wixom office has had years of bad management since the firing of Don in 01 ( great GM who treated everyone with serious respect ) and other issues.

Like you I take pride in my work but last year Dish or atleast Wixom and Ann Arbor did not care at all what so ever about doing quality work in the least bit and you came in right when this was at its peak so you do remember what it was like, I hope now with the new stack rankings and with the removal of Jeff that things will get better, it would be nice if Rita were to actually get out there and do some installs and get certified ( you do know that all other than the office manager are supposed to be certified and able to go out on the road to do installs if needed ).

 

[webbydude]

Well it does sound like they have finally cleaned up the stank ranking from what it was last year when it cost several dozen new and existing techs their jobs when I worked out of Ann Arbor and Wixom. I dont know though, I think your basicly in either Rita's good graces or in Big Johns good graces or both, if it had been someone who wasnt in the click spending an hour and half doing a site survey and seven hours doing a three dish three pole mount and three line trench install having to pass on more than one job to other techs one or more managers would have been turning really ugly.

I cant say as I blame the senior tech for being pissed off at you, if its who I think it is then to some degrea it is justified considering that out of our offices for 5 years or close to it we had always been told to keep it simple and get the job done ASAP and that if it was anything that required custom work that it was to be rescheduled for the sub contractors. Maybe now that the GM Jeff has been fired things will get better, he hated me and had no problems singling me out and verbally insulting me if he percieved that I had done something wrong. But still if things are better then it will take time for all of the old stuff to die down, the wixom office has had years of bad management since the firing of Don in 01 ( great GM who treated everyone with serious respect ) and other issues.

Like you I take pride in my work but last year Dish or atleast Wixom and Ann Arbor did not care at all what so ever about doing quality work in the least bit and you came in right when this was at its peak so you do remember what it was like, I hope now with the new stack rankings and with the removal of Jeff that things will get better, it would be nice if Rita were to actually get out there and do some installs and get certified ( you do know that all other than the office manager are supposed to be certified and able to go out on the road to do installs if needed ).

As I'm sitting here...bored as all hell in my Wildblue certification class...I'm re-reading this particular thread. One thought keeps coming back to me; over and over again. Telling Van five words; (1)come (2)back (3)as (4)an (5)installer!!!

It's pretty obvious you're passionate about the work, otherwise you wouldn't be posting on here. Furthermore, you know your stuff. Soooo...either bite the bullet and come back as DNS or pony up a few $1k for a vehicle and some tools and sign onboard with a local retailer/contractor already. Either way, you're not stuck or relegated to one part of the country.

EDIT: with apologies to the OP, I really am not trying to hijack the thread. Just thought I'd put my two cents in to someone who really needs to get back into installing

 

[Van]

As I'm sitting here...bored as all hell in my Wildblue certification class...I'm re-reading this particular thread. One thought keeps coming back to me; over and over again. Telling Van five words; (1)come (2)back (3)as (4)an (5)installer!!!

It's pretty obvious you're passionate about the work, otherwise you wouldn't be posting on here. Furthermore, you know your stuff. Soooo...either bite the bullet and come back as DNS or pony up a few $1k for a vehicle and some tools and sign onboard with a local retailer/contractor already. Either way, you're not stuck or relegated to one part of the country.

EDIT: with apologies to the OP, I really am not trying to hijack the thread. Just thought I'd put my two cents in to someone who really needs to get back into installing

Honestly I would like to get back into the field, I checked through an office down here and found that I had been blacklisted through the Wixom office, wether it was by the now not soon enough removed GM or by the current install manager I dont know and I have no way of finding out. I had thought about getting on with a regional company called Mastech thats got its fingers in D along with a few other things but its all per job pay and I just cant get past the uncertainty of not knowing wether or not Im going to have a pay check come in, per hour pay is a safety I can get my hands on.

 

[dishcomm]

Well, just when satellite installs started to get boring, I finally got to do a install that tested my edurance and skill as a DISH installer.

Here's the scoop, about 6 weeks ago, I roll on a New Connect, 3 room install, 211/622 - 119/110/129 orbital out in the backwoods surrounded by tree cover, as I turn onto the street I start thinking yeah right.

Customer currently has/had DirectTV dish so there must be some hope, so I go onto the roof with my Suunto, checking for LOS to the 110/119, it looks ok, so I then obviously seeing I can't get the 129, so I look for the 61.5, looks like I have the option of putting 61.5 kitty corner of the roof. Cake install - add a wing dish right? Nope.

As I start to unload the van, right as I'm about to start installing the mast for the 110/119, I figured I should double check for LOS before I do any drilling, sure enough my LOS for the 119 looks like it would only last until the trees filled in, so I ruled it out.

I could not get LOS for a Dish 500 on 110/119 on one single dish. So I end up spending 1.5 hours going over the customer's entire property, seeing what all my options where... I finally ended up finding I can get the 110 on the roof of the house, 61.5 kitty corner, 119 other side of his yard, only problem with the 119 is there's a tree branch pointed right dead smack in the middle of the path.

I talk everything over with the customer, advise him about the tree branch, and advised it would have to be a 3 dish install spread everywhere, and this type of install is strictly more or less geared for the "power user", and if I did it, it would work well, and for a very long time -- Customer reschedules, I advise him if it's not me, I'm willing to bet the next tech will laugh and call NLOS and ride off.... time goes by, I hear nothing about it.

A couple of days ago at a team meeting, indirectly I'm being bitched at if I roll onto a job, do not make promises to customers, you cancel a job if its NLOS along with a bunch of other BS. I say nothing, but I am thinking about that particular job in the back of my mind throughout the day.

Sure enough today I look at my work order, look at the notes, and its that job, I'm thinking hell yeah.... I see notes on there about the customer being upset because the last couple of techs out there said it could not be done, customer paid to have tree branch cut off, keep in mind the last tech out there is the one who's installed for years..... I'll end that there.

Anyhow, I roll onto this job this morning, enroute I change the work order for the correct equipment, I spent 30 minutes on the phone, apparently DISH does not have a way to reflect 3 dish installs, apparently noone ever does one, anyhow I line my ducks in a row and plan how I'm going to knock it out. I pull up, get out and check my position for the pole on the 119 in the yard, and sure enough I got it. Customer comes out, I tell them it's going in.

By golly 7.5 hours later it was finished, and I tell you what, it'll work for years upon years provided how the dishes are strategically placed for LOS. Boy where they happy they finally have High Definition, I know DirectTV could not of done it off of there fancy oval looking dish, I know comcrap sucks in that area.

All in all, it's rare where you can find LOS using single dishes on the 119/110/61.5, its usually either of the two.

110, I'm 5 degrees above tree line, 119 I am 5 degrees below tree branches, about 5 feet to the left of the tree trunk, and 61.5 I'm smokin wide open about 12 degrees above.trees period at that I don't see the aging trees growing much more anyhow, there already tall as can be, plus at the distance back I am, I estimate about 15-20' above @ 110 location. The 119 dish is about 60' from the house.

Here's some pics....

I hope you got paid a bunch for that job...No way you could do all that for the standard rate...Truth be told, it's all about the money..That is why we do this job..Anyway,, congrats are in order for using your imagination...I had a similar two dish deal...The original installer unscrupulously pole mounted two dishes one 61.5 and the other d-500...pointed right into trees...The notes stated the tech told the cust that as soon as the leaves popped out, they would lose signal...SO I did a thorough survey and found that a tree in the center of the back yard had to go..That would give me d-500...The wing was good when realocated to the roof....I went back two weeks later and helped the guy drop the tree(I held the rope while he manned the Husqvarna) the 60 foot Hickory came down and away I went..The guy was real nice, the wife wasnt happy about losing the tree but it's a man's world LOL!!!....I got the thing done in about 4hrs..The customer said he would bury the cable...about 250 feet total..Whew..He would have paid us $1.50 per foot for that BTW...But it would have taken several hrs to bury by hand..MY dispatch got Dish to add two reinstall codes so I owuld be properly compensated..Otherwise we would have never done the job...The alternative would have been to refer it back to DNSC...It was their screw up in the first place..

 

[dishcomm]

I had to do the same kind of thing once. VERY tight LOS on everything - 119,110 and 129. I had one hole in the trees. Pretty good size hole, but not enough to fit a single dish solution into. Talked with the customer and ended up setting up three poles several feet away from each other in a row. One for each bird. Used a DP Dual on each one and put them together with a 34 switch. Thankfully he was only hooking up two rooms, so I only had to run a single line of double strand wire to the house. If more techs looked for ways to get things done instead of how NOT to do them, DISH would have a larger customer base.

"If more techs looked for ways to get things done instead of how NOT to do them, DISH would have a larger customer base".[/QUOTE] Correct. But here are limits..As the pay is limited, so is the amount of work I am willing to do for that limited pay..If the cust agrees to pay for non standard work, ok. It's off to the races..if not..sorry. no can do...

 

[dishcomm]

Honestly I would like to get back into the field, I checked through an office down here and found that I had been blacklisted through the Wixom office, wether it was by the now not soon enough removed GM or by the current install manager I dont know and I have no way of finding out. I had thought about getting on with a regional company called Mastech thats got its fingers in D along with a few other things but its all per job pay and I just cant get past the uncertainty of not knowing wether or not Im going to have a pay check come in, per hour pay is a safety I can get my hands on.

Do NOT..I repeat DO NOT work for MASTEC!! Their pay rates suck....I worked for them for about a month. They bought out the company I was employed by and dropped our pay by 25%....I left. Pronto..

 

[Van]

I hope you got paid a bunch for that job...No way you could do all that for the standard rate.....

He's paid hourly so no he didnt get paid enough.

 

[dishcomm]

He's paid hourly so no he didnt get paid enough.

Hourly is fine .But Dish doesn't pay enough....When my trime and expenses are compared to an hourly DNS tech including my tax write offs as a business, that hourly rate has to be abouth $24 per hour for it to balance out..yes, i use my own vehicle, but my materals and tools and pay for my gas....BUT.....I am NEVER on call. I NEVER have to commute to the office everyday to pick up my vehicle..I don't have to wait for soem $8 warehouse guy to give me EQ I should already have. When I am through with my assigned work, I am thorugh for the day.. I don't have to ASK if I can go home..I just go...If I need a day off, I take it..No I don't get paid holidays or vacations...That is what savings accounts are for. I amser to ...me...As long as I do qaulity work, no one bothers me....
It is much better to be a contractor...IMO...

 

[ZandarKoad]

Hourly is fine .But Dish doesn't pay enough....When my trime and expenses are compared to an hourly DNS tech including my tax write offs as a business, that hourly rate has to be abouth $24 per hour for it to balance out..yes, i use my own vehicle, but my materals and tools and pay for my gas....BUT.....I am NEVER on call. I NEVER have to commute to the office everyday to pick up my vehicle..I don't have to wait for soem $8 warehouse guy to give me EQ I should already have. When I am through with my assigned work, I am thorugh for the day.. I don't have to ASK if I can go home..I just go...If I need a day off, I take it..No I don't get paid holidays or vacations...That is what savings accounts are for. I amser to ...me...As long as I do qaulity work, no one bothers me....
It is much better to be a contractor...IMO...

He speaks the truth. But $24/hr is on the low end... Give me 6 new connects a day, and a few customers willing to have a tech at their home till 7-8 PM and I'm happy. I'm a work whore.

TC's? What are those?

To OP: I can't blame you if you're by the hour. Quality work. But I'd probably do everything my superiors wanted, to the letter. It's all about the Benji's. I work to live, I don't live to work.

 

[dishcomm]

He speaks the truth. But $24/hr is on the low end... Give me 6 new connects a day, and a few customers willing to have a tech at their home till 7-8 PM and I'm happy. I'm a work whore.

TC's? What are those?

To OP: I can't blame you if you're by the hour. Quality work. But I'd probably do everything my superiors wanted, to the letter. It's all about the Benji's. I work to live, I don't live to work.

Again the dolar figure is break even....You're a work whore.. I Am not.. I hate long days..Give me three jobs a day and get me home by 5 pm, and I am happy...I work to live. Not the other way around..I used to put in 12-14 days 5-6 per week but no more.The money is crap if you don't have time to enjoy it..I need balance in my life..That's what workaholics are for..To pick up the slack for those of us who like to work a normal day....
TC's are Trouble Calls..These are service calls that DNS deems to be the fault of the install company..TC's are non pay service calls..For example..If a tech screws up an install and cust complains to dish, the CSR opens a Trouble call w/o..The tech m7ust go and fix..That's on him..But DIsh like to issue TC's for just about everything..If the cust is unhappy, tyhe CSR not wanting to hear the cust bitch, will create a TC so as not to charge the cust....It's all Bullsh!t...99 out of 100 TC's are customer caused...Moving receivers from one room to another, buying new tv's and not knowing how to connect them, etc. ad nauseum..

 

[ZandarKoad]

TCs

TC's are Trouble Calls..These are service calls that DNS deems to be the fault of the install company..TC's are non pay service calls..For example..If a tech screws up an install and cust complains to dish, the CSR opens a Trouble call w/o..The tech m7ust go and fix..That's on him..But DIsh like to issue TC's for just about everything..If the cust is unhappy, tyhe CSR not wanting to hear the cust bitch, will create a TC so as not to charge the cust....It's all Bullsh!t...99 out of 100 TC's are customer caused...Moving receivers from one room to another, buying new tv's and not knowing how to connect them, etc. ad nauseum..

Ah, sorry. Sometimes my sarcasm isn't very overt. I apologize. I know what TC's are, I was just acting like I never have any TC's on my work...

I've got a gauntlet set down so that TC's never get generated without my approval. Step one is business cards and looking the customer in the eye when I tell them that I'll kill their entire family if they call Dish network within the next 12 days. The next step is to place florescent stickers everywhere around their house with my phone number. The receivers, the remote controls, the paperwork I give them, the manuals, the bathroom mirrors, the kitchen faucet, the bedroom door knobs... After that I have my office put NOTES on the account warning that if the CSR generates a trouble call when the customer calls in, their entire family will die; along with my phone number.

 

[dishcomm]

Ah, sorry. Sometimes my sarcasm isn't very overt. I apologize. I know what TC's are, I was just acting like I never have any TC's on my work...

I've got a gauntlet set down so that TC's never get generated without my approval. Step one is business cards and looking the customer in the eye when I tell them that I'll kill their entire family if they call Dish network within the next 12 days. The next step is to place florescent stickers everywhere around their house with my phone number. The receivers, the remote controls, the paperwork I give them, the manuals, the bathroom mirrors, the kitchen faucet, the bedroom door knobs... After that I have my office put NOTES on the account warning that if the CSR generates a trouble call when the customer calls in, their entire family will die; along with my phone number.

I tell them, the same friggin thing and the ones that are halfway smart do call us..The ones that just want to lash out at someone over their poor purchase decision want ot call and bitch at Dish. These are the ones that we get most our tc 12's from..These call are invariably changed to regular service changes but as you know statistically they still count against us..It's a racket and game we have to play..Of course that applies to pour DNS work ..Comment I'd like to add..If I NEVER saw another DNS work order, I would never leave this business...But because we have what I consider a weak sales business model(no one out on the street selling) we depend mostly on DNS fulfillment..I hate it..
I had a TC just yesterday..These people are just lokingot get out of their contract...I get there based on the w/o thery ar ehaving signal issues..Go the point dish screen..Everyhting fine here..Channel surf..Okey doke..For theirty mins I am changing channels real fast ..tryongto get the receiver to cut a fart..No good..It keeps working fine..I tell the cust that cannot fix what is not broken...Three weeks ago I was there(same people) for a remote conrtrol issue..They complained that tv 2 was not working..The remote wasn't changing channels and such. Of course when i tried it, the thing worked like a charm...So just to make them happy, I moved the tv 2 antenna to the tv 2 location and RA'd a remote to cover the TC so Dish would pay us...This is the crap we have to put up with...
I would say that 90% of all custs are sastisfied to thrilled with the service...It's that 10% of dickheads I wish had never heard of Dish Network..I have come to the conclusion that God created people who are unhappy about everything just to keep the rest of us on our toes..Even if that is not true I will believe it so that I may keep my sanity.

 

[dishcomm]

He speaks the truth. But $24/hr is on the low end... Give me 6 new connects a day, and a few customers willing to have a tech at their home till 7-8 PM and I'm happy. I'm a work whore.

TC's? What are those?

To OP: I can't blame you if you're by the hour. Quality work. But I'd probably do everything my superiors wanted, to the letter. It's all about the Benji's. I work to live, I don't live to work.

I gotta ask...How can you get 6 nc's done by 8pm?...With a couple of Dish 1000plus installs even our really fast guys are taking a minimum of 3 hrs to get one D-1000plus done...Unfortunately Dish has stuck our HD locals on the 118.7 so the D-1000 plus has to be used....Custs don't like that large antenna and complain about their HOA's and the appearance of the dish..So they limit where we can put them..Plus with all the HD tv's going into homes and the total lack of knowledge on the part of the customers about HD, the satellite system and the new LCD or Plasma they just bought to go with the brand new home theatre system they have no clue how to connect, these jobs are taking longer and longer..BTW, we don't get our work asigned to us before 8 am the day of..So that delays us considerably..I used to be on my first job by then..Now I am loading my truck at my home waiting for the jobs ot be emailed to me...Then I have to precall the customers...I usually don't get to my first job until 9:30..Because I want to be home at a normal hour, I essentially do one less job per day that used to get done. I Am not going to rush thriugh my jobs and do crappy installs(most of my service calls are for exactly that).I just don't want to come rolling into the house at 8 or 9 pm anymore...I want to eat dinner with my family at a reasonable hour..

 

[ZandarKoad]

Ah, well, if I had to deal with the D500+ and D1000+ for HD locals then yes, I'd be taking 2-3 hours too. I do a Plus Dish about once every other week right now. The 6 NC's a day is assuming I can roll to my first job at 7:45AM. My office is pretty good about sending us our routes at about 7:15AM or so. Getting the equipment is always an issue... But usually I have a few spare receivers and dishes that I smuggle from my retailer so that I can have an efficient day, and get equipment when it is closest to my route. Oh, and I eat lunch on the road.

Not counting drive time:
Alone, a two tuner NC takes me on average 1:15 and a four tuner takes me about 2 hours. So 6 NCs in one day is doable, but harsh. But right now my brother in law is working with me, and we can finish a two tuner in under an hour and a four tuner in 1:30 flat (baring wall fishes, etc). So I'm kinda starving on only 4 NCs a day... I'd love 5-6. That would be an 8-10 hour day which will still let me have a family life. I'm newly married, and want to work my arse off now so that I can be set when the children start popping out. This is NOT a career for me. I hope to be long gone in 5 years... Here's to hoping.

 

[dishcomm]

Ah, well, if I had to deal with the D500+ and D1000+ for HD locals then yes, I'd be taking 2-3 hours too. I do a Plus Dish about once every other week right now. The 6 NC's a day is assuming I can roll to my first job at 7:45AM. My office is pretty good about sending us our routes at about 7:15AM or so. Getting the equipment is always an issue... But usually I have a few spare receivers and dishes that I smuggle from my retailer so that I can have an efficient day, and get equipment when it is closest to my route. Oh, and I eat lunch on the road.

Not counting drive time:
Alone, a two tuner NC takes me on average 1:15 and a four tuner takes me about 2 hours. So 6 NCs in one day is doable, but harsh. But right now my brother in law is working with me, and we can finish a two tuner in under an hour and a four tuner in 1:30 flat (baring wall fishes, etc). So I'm kinda starving on only 4 NCs a day... I'd love 5-6. That would be an 8-10 hour day which will still let me have a family life. I'm newly married, and want to work my arse off now so that I can be set when the children start popping out. This is NOT a career for me. I hope to be long gone in 5 years... Here's to hoping.

That's quick..I have issues with demos..I admitedly take too much time..I have admeanor that is inviting and people tend to want to ask me questions that they normally would not..This takes time..I can do a prewired dual in about 1.5 hrs and a quad takes abiout an houir or so longer..Thing is I take the customer service thing a bit far and that adds a lot of time. I usually will go over the entire job with the customer before starting work. The nicer the house the more picky the customer and the more time it takes. Every question answered sem to generate 5 more questions. I get questions about how much the prograaming will be when the bill will get there..Those wquestions I tell the customer to call dish and askthem..I get this crap all the time....."How come so and so channel isn't in the package I ordered?" The bottom line is most , I mean it, MOST customers have no clue what they bought. I had a thing wiht a customer who got all spun up over the frigin tennis channel..He insisted the sales partner told him the Tennis Channel was part of the top 200....He would n't let me activateuntil he go tthis straightened out..He looke dme right in the eye and said, if I don't get the Tennis Channel with this package I am canceling the job and you can hook my Diretv back up...I wanted to drop this bastard right where he stood..Anyway 90 mins(No kidding) later i finall go the guy to sign..I run inotthe is garbage all the time..This and other reasons are why I am getting the hell out of this sh!tty business..I wish I could just put my head down and do the work. But I have been told "you care too much"..So yeah partly my fault for being too nice..What are ya gona do
Oh well...We are very slow right now..Been that way for a month...We have 15 techs and we're getting about 25 to thirty jobs per day...Half are NC's the rest are service changes and other company's TC's..The DNS office here has a goal for NC's so they keep most of them for their techs...It's so stupid...get this..In order to get their NC nuimber the DNS office will send their trucks out to jobs that are two hrs from their office..In fact these people have to drive by our(literally) office to get to these jobs..And we are 30 milers closer to the work..The DNS office GM thinks it's stupid too. But he says he is a victim of the same silly numbers game..anyway in about two months or so when my new venture hopefully gets going, I will defer all satellite work to the next crop of guys.....Or I am goning to get into doing structured wiring only..No more DNS contract work..I am at the end of my rope...

 

[dodge]

3 dish install

No los for 110 at the same spot that 119 is on??? Never seen that!!!

 

[gernskin]

If I'm not mistaken the orange direct burial cable is not solid copper center, is it still an approved use cable.