I have no idea what's appropriate. I tipped a DISH installer $20. He did a pole mount 1000.4. I dug the hole, mixed the quick-set, sunk and leveled the pole, made the 130' trench for the coax. Therefore, his physical labor was minimal.
My signal strengths were marginal, so a few days later, I called DISH out again for a re-peak. The initial installer had only done 2 1000.4 installs. The second tech got much better signal strengths on all three satellites. I tipped him $10.
I didn't have to pay DISH anything for these jobs as it was a forced upgrade from my hybrid system.
I wonder if my tips were appropriate?
The first guy ($20) accepted it graciously. I can't say how long he was here because he left my house twice: once to make 3 hour round trip back to his home office to pick up the correct dish. He had not been told I needed a 1000.4 dish, therefore all he had was 1000.2. Then when he discovered I needed to take down one more tree to optimize line-of-site, he left for another job since his 3-hour round trip for the correct dish threw off his schedule. It was while he was gone the second time that I mounted the pole (cutting down the tree didn't take long). He'd told me he couldn't dig the hole because "dig test" hadn't been there to approve it, but that I could dig it thereby circumventing their rules. So he left me with 2 bags of quick-set. When he returned the second time, all he had to do was mount and aim and connect the coax which was as simple as taping the new feeds to my old coax and pulling it through the wall (I did the pulling). He was very kind and respectful of my property and was a hard worker.
The second guy ($10) only worked maybe 10 min, but we stood around and talked for another 30 min. He really tried to discourage the tip (beyond the typical polite, "That's not necessary."), citing he only had to repeak and it was quite easy. But ultimately, he accepted it.
