I heard that installers can make 900-1100 a week?
If one earned 1000 a week then it turns out to be annual income of 52k, which is a lot more than what lots of Uni graduates who majored in a humanities major get. So how much do Dish installers earn?

So I naturally thought that the competition must be very fierce.

I am a drop out of a Uni (5 semesters) and as a job history have only 2 months of Kroger.

If I were to go back to Uni I wouldn't know what to do except maybe teach English in Korea/Japan, which pays like 20k-40k.

I really like the prospect of installing dish because I guess I would get lots of exercise and fresh air in doing so.

Run, dont just walk away......
$52K a year might be gross, but you'd probably have to be a 1099 "suncontractor," supply your own truck, tools and supplies.

I installed as a subcontractor for 8 years and quit three years, ago, because they were not paying what they used to. I was making twice as mich nefore the HSP's took over.

The companies are under contact to specify their own brand of coax and connectors, as well as their own method of installs, even though there are better methods. Do one out of their specs, and you're not going to be paid.

They lure the young guys into the business, because they don't want to pay for experience that the veteran installers have. And, the quality of the installs show it. Granted, the industry hamoved to the point of giving everything away for free to the customers and taking it off the backs of the local dealers and installers.

Since leaving the install business, I now have my own specialty business based on exclusive products that I manufacture myself for sale.

Well from what I hear working a DNS office or a regional service provider (rsp) will pay pretty decent depending on location and I know for a fact DNS installers don't have to pay for any equipment unless you lose it. Good luck on your endeavours.

Expect an income of 20, maybe. You will get exercise and it will be an experience. For most the job is a throw away no money, lots of headaches and an experience in micro management.

Expect an income of 20, maybe. You will get exercise and it will be an experience. For most the job is a throw away no money, lots of headaches and an experience in micro management.

What causes of the headaches?

Run, dont just walk away......
$52K a year might be gross, but you'd probably have to be a 1099 "suncontractor," supply your own truck, tools and supplies.

I installed as a subcontractor for 8 years and quit three years, ago, because they were not paying what they used to. I was making twice as mich nefore the HSP's took over.

The companies are under contact to specify their own brand of coax and connectors, as well as their own method of installs, even though there are better methods. Do one out of their specs, and you're not going to be paid.

They lure the young guys into the business, because they don't want to pay for experience that the veteran installers have. And, the quality of the installs show it. Granted, the industry hamoved to the point of giving everything away for free to the customers and taking it off the backs of the local dealers and installers.

Since leaving the install business, I now have my own specialty business based on exclusive products that I manufacture myself for sale.


What do you manufacture yourself for sale?

Starting out 50+k. Lol. I know level 4 techs who have been doing this a long time barely making 50k. -And now dish makes it damn near impossible to get promoted.

Good luck in your endeavors.

This topic has been beat to death.

$80 per install afaik, but you supply all your own equipment. not worth it at all with the current price of cable, fittings, and all the other things needed.

it's been far more lucrative selling complete fta systems - installed.

Pay depends on area. I live in one of the highest paid markets ( in house ), we start at 18 an hour. And you reviever a 10% raise every level you go up. 4 day work week at 10 plus hours a day. Im level 3 making 22.86/hr. Soon to be level 4 in 2 weeks. 10% pay inrease to go along with. But then i'm topped put pay wise except gor merit increases every year.

I made 48k before taxes last year and went thru 2 promotions.

You gotta make your own decicion.

Happiness is a factor in any job. Don't expect to be a happy camper everyday, expecially when you start getting 'talked to' for t.c.'s that could of been corrected by a decent CSR agent.

Since when do we diagnose phone line problems? I don't know but thats a Service call i had to resolve the other day.

Nice Dishman. We start at 13/hr and at 16/hr as a FSS 3. (Came back to DNS only a year and a half ago). RSP I worked for paid well and promoted based on productivity, some of us even did good work to go along with the productivity.

I heard that installers can make 900-1100 a week?
If one earned 1000 a week then it turns out to be annual income of 52k, which is a lot more than what lots of Uni graduates who majored in a humanities major get. So how much do Dish installers earn?

So I naturally thought that the competition must be very fierce.

I am a drop out of a Uni (5 semesters) and as a job history have only 2 months of Kroger.

If I were to go back to Uni I wouldn't know what to do except maybe teach English in Korea/Japan, which pays like 20k-40k.

I really like the prospect of installing dish because I guess I would get lots of exercise and fresh air in doing so.

The competition isn't that fierce, if somebody is going to wash out they usually do it in the first 6 months. My original training class was 4 guys, and I was the only one of us still there after 5 months

I heard that installers can make 900-1100 a week?
If one earned 1000 a week then it turns out to be annual income of 52k, which is a lot more than what lots of Uni graduates who majored in a humanities major get. So how much do Dish installers earn?

So I naturally thought that the competition must be very fierce.

I am a drop out of a Uni (5 semesters) and as a job history have only 2 months of Kroger.

If I were to go back to Uni I wouldn't know what to do except maybe teach English in Korea/Japan, which pays like 20k-40k.

I really like the prospect of installing dish because I guess I would get lots of exercise and fresh air in doing so.

The competition isn't that fierce, if somebody is going to wash out they usually do it in the first 6 months. My original training class was 4 guys, and I was the only one of us still there after 5 months

Take home in a pay period (two weeks) here is usually 900-1300. That's good enough for me since I also have only 5 semesters of college under my belt, but I'm not afraid to dive under someone's house.

Unless you can't find anything better I would stay away from the SAT installation business. I was grossing between 32/35K a year as a RSP tech for Dish. Now that may be, or not be a decent living in your locality, but in the central OH area it was just enough to get by on. Headaches are the constant rule changes, constant addition of work load when it's already time to be heading for the house, constant adding you have to do this now on all your installs, but we're not going to pay you any more for taking the time to do it, constant customer was promised that this is what they'll get/how it'll work when in fact it's the exact opposite, and then you're standing there holding the ball trying to convince them not to cancel so you don't loose money for loosing a job, constant spending 45 minutes driving to a job only to find customer isn't home then another 30 minutes trying to find them then after driving an hour in the opposite direction to your next call and they call in and "OH we're home now can you come back?" and your supervisor makes you go back to start a four room install at 6PM. Let me tell you as a former installer of 3 years for DISH it's not worth the headache. Now if you want a real career that pays good, and has one of the best retirements out there try rail roading. I've worked less hours, and made more in 8 months than a year working for Dish! I love it. Really of you're young, and you have an idea what you want to do do it! Don't make the mistake I did and keep putting off the schooling till you're to the point you've forgotten so much you'd have to go back to high shool just to go to collage!

Unless you can't find anything better I would stay away from the SAT installation business. I was grossing between 32/35K a year as a RSP tech for Dish. Now that may be, or not be a decent living in your locality, but in the central OH area it was just enough to get by on. Headaches are the constant rule changes, constant addition of work load when it's already time to be heading for the house, constant adding you have to do this now on all your installs, but we're not going to pay you any more for taking the time to do it, constant customer was promised that this is what they'll get/how it'll work when in fact it's the exact opposite, and then you're standing there holding the ball trying to convince them not to cancel so you don't loose money for loosing a job, constant spending 45 minutes driving to a job only to find customer isn't home then another 30 minutes trying to find them then after driving an hour in the opposite direction to your next call and they call in and "OH we're home now can you come back?" and your supervisor makes you go back to start a four room install at 6PM. Let me tell you as a former installer of 3 years for DISH it's not worth the headache. Now if you want a real career that pays good, and has one of the best retirements out there try rail roading. I've worked less hours, and made more in 8 months than a year working for Dish! I love it. Really of you're young, and you have an idea what you want to do do it! Don't make the mistake I did and keep putting off the schooling till you're to the point you've forgotten so much you'd have to go back to high shool just to go to collage!

And I agree with 100 %.

And I agree with 100 %.

I forgot to add. The only constant at Dish is change.

Promotion with dish today is pure luck, nothing else.

What do you manufacture yourself for sale?

I manufacture small specialty precision machine tool accessories used in the scientific, hobbyist, clock makers, model making and instrumentation prototyping field. I have sold to Boeing, Hughes, NASA, Lawrence Livermore, Sandia and many other organizations.

I've patented a couple of machines over the years. The patents have made me no money. The attorneys and the govenment collected their fees and were the only ones that have gained financially.


The tools are labor saving devices for which I developed production manthod based on my "trade secrets." The secret is to develop methods that ease production cost, making buying them from you less expensive than they making them themselves. Everyone who buys my tools are able to make them for their own use, but when they can get them from me for less than they can do it, it is an easy sale.

The other selling point is exclusivity. Customers seldom complain about the selling price, if it cost them more to make it for their own use and when you are the only source for the tool.

The key is to simplify the tool for ease of manufacturer and minimal cost, while reducing labor cost an expense to the end user.

Since I introduce products in small lots, up front expenses are small If a product fails in the market, I have lost very little. Large manufacturers have large up front expenses and have large production runs. Many times, the product for sale is not the state of the art. The manufacturer cannot always make improvemnts whien there isa need. Wih my capabilities, omprovements are the norm rather than the exception.

Some of my best customers are in Australia, Canada and the UK.

By the way, I retired in 1999 from 35 years in the Aerospace Production business and went into the dbs satellite business. Many of my friends are independent satellite dealers. All have stated their inability to continue to make money on the satellite business. The good years aregone.

Yea, the harder work should be left to us younger guys. Sure, there's always stress with messed up work orders, and horrible installs (*cough* subs *cough*), but it works for me because I'm really good at it.

“He who is humble is confident and wise. He who brags is insecure and lacking.”

“He who is humble is confident and wise. He who brags is insecure and lacking.”

Somewhat vague, was that directed at me? Everybody always talks about this not being the best work for older guys. Personally, I've never been older so I wouldn't know. I don't really care who does the work, if only they could do it better.

Before you guys start on saying, anybody can do a lousy install, it's true. DNS jobs are tagged with who was there last though so we know if it was us or a sub/retailer. I personally average about 4.5 sub jobs and 1.7 DNS jobs needing correction each week. So to everybody, step it up.

I am not going to ague the point of who is good and who is poor, but I am a retailer and our averages are the other way, we see more DNS jobs that need fixing than retailers or independent contractors. You are right we all need to step it up!!

Wow.. I missed this thread yesterday and it's exploding.

DON'T DO IT! The work and annoying junk you put up with just isn't worth the trouble. You can prob make more at a fast food place than doing this line of work. I've not read all through all the posts but it looks like many have covered it by saying RUN AWAY!!

You may want to talk to different retailers too. Some retailers may pay pretty good money for a good tech. We are a retailer and we always believed that if we paid our techs more than the average retailer we would have better service out of them. It's held true for the most part. It can be hard for a retailer to find a good quality tech, it doesn't seem to be a desired job for most people. It can really suck here in Iowa with the unpredictable weather, hell, it's snowing right now!

Promotion with dish today is pure luck, nothing else.

I don't totally agree with you. I believe luck is involved to a degree. But you also have to put in the effort.

But the new incentive program (pi) while somewhat better than the old stack ranking, is also not so great in many ways.

To get the best score in all areas is next to impossible.

Shoot, i havent even taken a look at my pi score since it started getting posted.

Wow.. I missed this thread yesterday and it's exploding.

DON'T DO IT! The work and annoying junk you put up with just isn't worth the trouble. You can prob make more at a fast food place than doing this line of work. I've not read all through all the posts but it looks like many have covered it by saying RUN AWAY!!

Somebodies got to do it!!! Lol

Statistically speaking meeting dish requirements is for most part luck. It is Dependant on the route that you are given. where the route is and the demographics of the route. example connectivity, How many people actually have a phone line, If the community has a large % of elderly that will have problems operating the remote or DVR. the list goes on. But because of the requirements there is no consistency.

As long as there are people willing to do the work cheap, we will continue to see the pay drop and the rules change to benefit the satellite company. The big companies will do what they can get away with and keep pushing the limit until they can't push anymore.

i work for dns fss4 made over 80k installing is easy just dish is a pain to work for but money makes it worth it been with dns over 10 yrs and havent ever made under 40k 4day wrk week 3weeks vac 1 week sick pay i know people with masters degree and dont make what i make or get a 4 day week it is what u make it

I don't totally agree with you. I believe luck is involved to a degree. But you also have to put in the effort.

But the new incentive program (pi) while somewhat better than the old stack ranking, is also not so great in many ways.

To get the best score in all areas is next to impossible.

Shoot, i havent even taken a look at my pi score since it started getting posted.

Yea, I only saw my pi because the I'm emailed it to me. I'm perfectly ok with 9 points

Yea, I only saw my pi because the I'm emailed it to me. I'm perfectly ok with 9 points

Pi is a flat incentive right. So i'd love to compare our incentive out here based on yours out there, especially with the drastic difference in hourly. I think its supposed to be the same nation wide.,

Ours is:

0-5 = 0
6-7 = 80
8-9 = 120
10-11= 160
12-16= 200

Let me know if its the same or adjusted for your market. Thnx.

i work for dns fss4 made over 80k installing is easy just dish is a pain to work for but money makes it worth it been with dns over 10 yrs and havent ever made under 40k 4day wrk week 3weeks vac 1 week sick pay i know people with masters degree and dont make what i make or get a 4 day week it is what u make it

I don't see a lick of truth in this post! The few and I do mean FEW installers that are GROSSING over 35K a year work their butts off long hours and whatever.

I don't see a lick of truth in this post! The few and I do mean FEW installers that are GROSSING over 35K a year work their butts off long hours and whatever.

Fss3 here and I easily gross over 35k!

Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys

Fss3 here and I easily gross over 35k!

Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys

I made 48k where i live as a 1,2 and 3, promoted twice last year.

I made 48k where i live as a 1,2 and 3, promoted twice last year.

What does "as a 1,2, and 3" mean?

i work for dns fss4 made over 80k installing is easy just dish is a pain to work for but money makes it worth it been with dns over 10 yrs and havent ever made under 40k 4day wrk week 3weeks vac 1 week sick pay i know people with masters degree and dont make what i make or get a 4 day week it is what u make it

What is fss4 and could you describe step by step how to get the job you described?

What does "as a 1,2, and 3" mean?

Field Service Specialist 1, FSS 2, FSS 3. Different levels of job titles.

Dishman, $48k in (most of) California is chump change, correct?
Dish pays different location depending. We had a guy transfer from our location to cali and took a huge pay raise. The only part is, his cost of living also went up.

Don't tell this guy (the OP) that he can get into this magical job of installing satellite dishes and become some wealthy sole like its the best kept secret. It's not.

Dishman, $48k in (most of) California is chump change, correct?
Dish pays different location depending. We had a guy transfer from our location to cali and took a huge pay raise. The only part is, his cost of living also went up.

Don't tell this guy (the OP) that he can get into this magical job of installing satellite dishes and become some wealthy sole like its the best kept secret. It's not.

Okay, i just stated what i made in a year. Its not magical. I work in one of the highest paid markets in the country. DNS starts insrallers in my area at 18/hr.

That being said, if you get on with DNS you WILL be working over time. I rarely work less than 10 hours a day, 11-14 is the norm (4 days a week) you will be working atleast half the weekend, if not both saturday and sunday. Like me i work friday to monday. Off tue to thur. You will be working your butt off. This job is not for lazy people.

If you don't like working in the heat, the cold, the rain, snow, wind and dark, do not apply. If you don't want to crawl under people's houses or in thier attics, do not apply. If you don't like dealing with people, do not apply. If you don't want to work hard, do not apply. If you want good health insurance, do not apply DNS has lousy coverage.


If what you are looking for is a stable job in a controlled enviroment with excellent pay, do not apply.

Does that sum it up well enough for ya, Frank? Did i leave anything out?

Feel free to correct me if you tjink im wrong.

Dishman, $48k in (most of) California is chump change, correct?
Dish pays different location depending. We had a guy transfer from our location to cali and took a huge pay raise. The only part is, his cost of living also went up.


A buddy took off to cali when he heard teachers made 80k out there. he was back 1 year later- realized he was actually making less than the 40k he got here.

Okay, i just stated what i made in a year. Its not magical. I work in one of the highest paid markets in the country. DNS starts insrallers in my area at 18/hr.

That being said, if you get on with DNS you WILL be working over time. I rarely work less than 10 hours a day, 11-14 is the norm (4 days a week) you will be working atleast half the weekend, if not both saturday and sunday. Like me i work friday to monday. Off tue to thur. You will be working your butt off. This job is not for lazy people.

If you don't like working in the heat, the cold, the rain, snow, wind and dark, do not apply. If you don't want to crawl under people's houses or in thier attics, do not apply. If you don't like dealing with people, do not apply. If you don't want to work hard, do not apply. If you want good health insurance, do not apply DNS has lousy coverage.

If what you are looking for is a stable job in a controlled enviroment with excellent pay, do not apply.

Does that sum it up well enough for ya, Frank? Did i leave anything out?

Feel free to correct me if you tjink im wrong.

Nope, that about sums it up. I will say:

-It can be enjoyable.
-Every day is different.
-Every customer is different.
-You never know what the day will bring.
-Working by yourself can be very enjoyable.
-As an installer, its a proven "recession proof" job.
-This job is a not a job anyone can do

I think that as an installer, Dish could be a great place to work, long term. (just like att, etc)
I know that only a few years ago, the turn over rate was insane. Today it has slowed down considerably. That said, it has made strides to be a better work place.

If Dish could bring the pay up a bit, offer better benefits and create a more "family friendly" work schedule, I think it would be a huge improvement and would retain employees.

The work environment (peoples homes) will always remain the same. It takes a certain type of person to do this job and that too will never change.

I actually enjoy the job. I wouldn't paint this illusion it is some best kept secret job, however. Things can always be improved on.

Pi is a flat incentive right. So i'd love to compare our incentive out here based on yours out there, especially with the drastic difference in hourly. I think its supposed to be the same nation wide.,

Ours is:

0-5 = 0
6-7 = 80
8-9 = 120
10-11= 160
12-16= 200

Let me know if its the same or adjusted for your market. Thnx.

Same here