hsp employee getting ripped off

[uboatcmdr]

Argh... I used to work for those jerks during the P* conversions. I'd have to drive 50 miles just to reprogram someone's remote! They eventually made some crap up and fired me.

The people running the Bruister offices are a bunch of idiots. While I was working there they often routed two techs for the same job and also had a problem notifying techs of job cancellations (if a customer cancelled their install or service call the day before the appointment they sent the tech out anyway).
After they brought in the company vehicles (COV's) and the hourly rate techs, Bruister actually tried making the POV (personally owned vehicle) piece rate techs work a full 40 hour week whether or not they had been assigned 40 hours worth of work. The managers said that if you finished your jobs early that you had to drive to where another tech was doing a job and help them so you could get in your 40 hours (they rarely allowed overtime). Trouble with that idea was that they wouldn't pay the POV piece rate techs anything for the extra work they put in, but the hourly tech would get paid. Typical Bruister bullchit, which the they naturally assumed the techs would just eat up with great joy!:

 

[HCI]

I have a nice story about a B&A tech. I don't know which office you worked out of uboatcmdr I see you are in Alabama. A B&A office covers about 60% of the area I work in North Mississippi. Anyway when I first started for the company I am at now a guy worked there that started about 3 or 4 weeks before me. I already had experience and went right to work but this guy road along for a good 2 months before he went out on his own. He failed @ Directv and my boss tried to teach him Direcway " I have no idea why" and of course failed at that. Next he went to outside sales because he was a salesman for a long time. Well that did not last too long and he was soon sent on his way.

I have not seen him in a couple of months but this morning he showed up at the gas station I us to fill up. Another tech and I were talking and he came pulling up in his shiny B&A Directv van. I left soon after but did not say anything to him. I got down the road about 5 mins and the other tech called me almost crying laughing. He told me the guy came out of the store, got in his van, pulled up beside the other tech gave him a big smile and pointed to the van as if to say look at me. As he pulled away the other tech noticed the gas pump hose was still in his van!!!! He pulled it right out of the pump. The woman working in the store ran out and caught him at a redlight beside the store.

If you knew the guy this would have been a hell of a lot funnier.

 

[stevo/65]

I have a nice story about a B&A tech. I don't know which office you worked out of uboatcmdr I see you are in Alabama. A B&A office covers about 60% of the area I work in North Mississippi. Anyway when I first started for the company I am at now a guy worked there that started about 3 or 4 weeks before me. I already had experience and went right to work but this guy road along for a good 2 months before he went out on his own. He failed @ Directv and my boss tried to teach him Direcway " I have no idea why" and of course failed at that. Next he went to outside sales because he was a salesman for a long time. Well that did not last too long and he was soon sent on his way.

I have not seen him in a couple of months but this morning he showed up at the gas station I us to fill up. Another tech and I were talking and he came pulling up in his shiny B&A Directv van. I left soon after but did not say anything to him. I got down the road about 5 mins and the other tech called me almost crying laughing. He told me the guy came out of the store, got in his van, pulled up beside the other tech gave him a big smile and pointed to the van as if to say look at me. As he pulled away the other tech noticed the gas pump hose was still in his van!!!! He pulled it right out of the pump. The woman working in the store ran out and caught him at a redlight beside the store.

If you knew the guy this would have been a hell of a lot funnier.

Those are the knuckleheads that make us look bad,
it seems funny how those seem to be the kind of tecs that will be left doing installs at the price HSP wants.
Customers be afraid, be very afraid.

 

[colofan]

As a long time customer before installs were offered I have done my own and a few other friends looks like my weekends will be full with the lunacy described above. Kind of like the geek squad at BB clueless.

 

[uboatcmdr]

I have a nice story about a B&A tech. I don't know which office you worked out of uboatcmdr I see you are in Alabama. A B&A office covers about 60% of the area I work in North Mississippi. Anyway when I first started for the company I am at now a guy worked there that started about 3 or 4 weeks before me. I already had experience and went right to work but this guy road along for a good 2 months before he went out on his own. He failed @ Directv and my boss tried to teach him Direcway " I have no idea why" and of course failed at that. Next he went to outside sales because he was a salesman for a long time. Well that did not last too long and he was soon sent on his way.

I have not seen him in a couple of months but this morning he showed up at the gas station I us to fill up. Another tech and I were talking and he came pulling up in his shiny B&A Directv van. I left soon after but did not say anything to him. I got down the road about 5 mins and the other tech called me almost crying laughing. He told me the guy came out of the store, got in his van, pulled up beside the other tech gave him a big smile and pointed to the van as if to say look at me. As he pulled away the other tech noticed the gas pump hose was still in his van!!!! He pulled it right out of the pump. The woman working in the store ran out and caught him at a redlight beside the store.

If you knew the guy this would have been a hell of a lot funnier.

Well that's a $10 per hour FNG (f*cking new guy) Bruister hack for you! Bruister now has an office in Vardaman, MS not too far from you. I worked out of the Florence, AL office.
Last summer they started bringing all the FNG hourly hacks. I had to do a number of service calls on their work and even go out to finish their installs for them because they were so stupid. and these were guys who had to go through two weeks of training at Bruister's Tennessee training center and then did another two weeks of ride-a-longs.
When I started I had already done installs for myself, family & friends. I rode along with three different techs over a three day period before I got turned out on my own. And because I had work for an electrician for two years I was the one everyone called when an electrical problem arose (even the lead tech called to get answers to some problems). That's one of the reasons they offered me a Field Trainer position (which I turned down because I didn't want to get stuck in a COV at an hourly rate or have to travel to work at other offices for 2-3 weeks at a time when they were really busy without being paid any per deim).

 

[chadzx11]

beat that...oh wait traveled....360 miles this day also...

Way back in the day (1997 or 1998), I rolled out on a primestar disconnect (they paid $25). It was a mexican, and he was getting deported. The whole trailer park was getting deported, and they all had primestar, so 1 disconnect turned into 6, and they all brought their recievers and remotes to my truck, all I had to do was give my clipboard to a little girl who spoke english and have her get names and phone numbers on everybody while I loaded the dishes up.

I was there a half hour MAYBE, and made $150. The best part is, even though I only had the one work order, I got paid for all of it. But that was before D* showed up and f'd it all up. At least primestar took care of us.....

Wild blue is about to go down the toilet. I work for a E* HSP who thinks they are the shiznit, and they are always down for the chargeback. They got a contract with DSI.........they've got us all signed up for WBU, but most of these jackasses I work with don't have laptops, AND the corporate douchebags have not sent so much as a memo regarding wild blue.

 

[chadzx11]

A senior POV tech (a tech with more than 2 years experience)

senior? after 2 years? that's f'd up! Our lead tech is a crook, and a major ass kisser, IMO. He always caves to management, buys his cable from his "wire man" at one of the cable co's, and claims to have not paid or filed taxes in 7 or 8 years. As soon as I get a new gig, I'm zapping the IRS a fraud form on his ass, and filing for employee status with the IRS (against the HSP I work for).

News flash: If they tell you where to go and when, and keep you from taking side jobs, you are an employee, not a contractor.

 

[chadzx11]

(even the lead tech called to get answers to some problems).

One day my lead tech called, just after he got promoted. He wanted to know how to turn on PIP for a E* 510! I sh*t you not!

 

[HCI]

Well that's a $10 per hour FNG (f*cking new guy) Bruister hack for you! Bruister now has an office in Vardaman, MS not too far from you. I worked out of the Florence, AL office.
Last summer they started bringing all the FNG hourly hacks. I had to do a number of service calls on their work and even go out to finish their installs for them because they were so stupid. and these were guys who had to go through two weeks of training at Bruister's Tennessee training center and then did another two weeks of ride-a-longs.
When I started I had already done installs for myself, family & friends. I rode along with three different techs over a three day period before I got turned out on my own. And because I had work for an electrician for two years I was the one everyone called when an electrical problem arose (even the lead tech called to get answers to some problems). That's one of the reasons they offered me a Field Trainer position (which I turned down because I didn't want to get stuck in a COV at an hourly rate or have to travel to work at other offices for 2-3 weeks at a time when they were really busy without being paid any per deim).

Yhea the Vardaman office is only about 30 mins from me. I pass by there often. We are also doing service calls behind this guy and he has been gone for about 2 months now. When I left my office this morning I saw a B&A van at the Win Job center. It was more than likley his so he must not be doing so hot with B&A right now.

 

[uboatcmdr]

senior? after 2 years? that's f'd up! Our lead tech is a crook, and a major ass kisser, IMO. He always caves to management, buys his cable from his "wire man" at one of the cable co's, and claims to have not paid or filed taxes in 7 or 8 years. As soon as I get a new gig, I'm zapping the IRS a fraud form on his ass, and filing for employee status with the IRS (against the HSP I work for).

News flash: If they tell you where to go and when, and keep you from taking side jobs, you are an employee, not a contractor.

Yep, actally any tech who had over 1½ years was considered a senior tech due to the high turn over rate Bruister had. Out of 60 techs we only had about 12 who had been there longer the 1½ years and of those 12 only 7 or 8 had been there more than 2 years.
So many FNG's get hired on during the winter when it is slow, this gives the company more time to training them before turning them out on their own. But a number those techs who were POV piece rate (before the COV's and hourly rates came along) just couldn't get by on the low work levels that winter always brings on. I looked at the winter as being a time to relax and recoop, spring and summer here always seemed to be the time we got the more work than we could handle.

 

[ChrisPC]

senior? after 2 years? that's f'd up! Our lead tech is a crook, and a major ass kisser, IMO. He always caves to management, buys his cable from his "wire man" at one of the cable co's, and claims to have not paid or filed taxes in 7 or 8 years.

When I worked for them, I must have been the only tech who didn't have a hacked system. Our lead tech reprogrammed cards!

 

[chadzx11]

I understand what you are saying, however, what I meant by cable was not service, but actual spools of cable, stolen from the cable co or one of their contractors by an employee, who sells it to crooked satellite installers. I don't know the who's involved on the other end, or I'd drop a dime on them all. Take out the competition, as they say. Maybe I will email Andy Wise.

 

[sdmyers77]

anyone here work for ironwood?

 

[uboatcmdr]

BRUISTER SCREWS THE TECHS AGAIN!

Just got word from a Bruister tech that Bruister is planning to screw the techs yet again. If last year's move from mostly piece rate POV (personally owned vehicle) techs to a majority of hourly rate COV (company owned vehicle) techs wasn't bad enough, Bruister has decided to further change things. Now they are planning to make all the techs hourly and cut out piece rates altogether. They will be paying the same hourly rates whether you are a POV or COV tech. POV techs will get a mileage fee of $.44 per mile, to cover fuel, vehicle, insurance and repair costs and a extra $12-$15 per week to cover cell phone usage. So now a tech who was able to make upwards of $300+ per day doing installs will get a max of about $150 per day. They have yet to mention whether mileage will be paid for the drive to the office to pickup equipment (when I worked for Bruister I had to drive 160+ miles round trip once or twice a week for equipment and staff meetings, then go work a full day) or to attend staff meetings.
It seems that Bruister does not value it's veteran employees. They prefer to run off the good techs in favor of $10 per hour hacks who went from flipping burgers at Micky D's to installing satellite equipment in customers' homes after a week or two of so called training (if the customers only knew how truly poor these new techs are trained they would never allow them in their homes). Yes folks it's true, companies like Bruister do not want the customers to be served by a staff of seasoned professionals who can think for themselves and who take pride in their work, they'd prefer to send out some newbie "would you like fires with that?", "do just enough to get by" robots that their fast food industry, "here watch this video and you'll be fully trained" style training turns out. That is just a plain sorry a$$ way to treat the techs and the customers, very sorry indeed.

 

[edchuckndoug]

no but when ever i call an hsp I am please to see ironwood is handling it, I can actually talk to some one who is intelligent and fair, mastec sux ass you call them at any time you get a busy signal aslo bruister and ass. sux ass also