Install question....tipping?

mnassour

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Nov 1, 2004
178
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It's been a while since this came up, so I thought I'd raise it again. I just went through a nice install for Dish. Local company, a man and his son. The man was supposed to do the install but got tied up and his son came out. Relatively straightforward install, remove old DirecTV dish, drop on Dish, hook up Hopper3 and wireless Joey. On the other hand, it was 105 degrees(!), the alignment was a bit tricky, and the Joey turned into a bit of a pain.

I wanted to tip him...and forgot. Given the heat and finess he had to show on aiming the dish, I was thinking $20? Or am I being cheap? And I forgot? I was going to go their shop in the morning and drop off an envelope for him. Someone please let me know if this is an appropriate amount.

thanks! Mike Nassour / Austin TX
 
When we went to HD years ago, a Dish contractor came. He was a royal pain, and kept trying to take my old equipment that we had purchased, not leased. He did a temporary install on a tripod in the yard. He said they would be back in a few days after the underground utilities were marked. Unknown to me at the time, he climbed my tower, took the LNB that I bought and left.

A week goes by with no activity. I finally called the Dish contractor to get the ball rolling. The same day, a guy from utility locating services came out. The next day, the guy that did the permanent install of the dish in our yard came out with his 12-year-old daughter. She did a lot of the digging for cable burial while he installed the dish. He was very pleasant as was his daughter. It was a warm day, so we gave them both some iced tea. I tipped him $20 when they were done, which he promptly gave to his daughter for her work. It was nice to see dad and daughter working together.
 
Why is a Dish contractor bringing a 12 year old on an install?
Maybe because he would like to instill a work ethic in his daughter. My father was a carpet layer at one point of his life. He would take me out to a job or two on weekends when I was 12 or 13. I got to learn what he did for a living and realized that you need to do a job to get paid. Easy lesson...
 
It's been a while since this came up, so I thought I'd raise it again. I just went through a nice install for Dish. Local company, a man and his son. The man was supposed to do the install but got tied up and his son came out. Relatively straightforward install, remove old DirecTV dish, drop on Dish, hook up Hopper3 and wireless Joey. On the other hand, it was 105 degrees(!), the alignment was a bit tricky, and the Joey turned into a bit of a pain.

I wanted to tip him...and forgot. Given the heat and finess he had to show on aiming the dish, I was thinking $20? Or am I being cheap? And I forgot? I was going to go their shop in the morning and drop off an envelope for him. Someone please let me know if this is an appropriate amount.

thanks! Mike Nassour / Austin TX
I have had 2 great experiences with 2 different Dish tech's when I asked them to go above and beyond what the service call was for. I made sure to tip them both and I told them I also would give them a great review when the email from Dish comes about how the experience was. They both were appreciative.
 
Maybe because he would like to instill a work ethic in his daughter. My father was a carpet layer at one point of his life. He would take me out to a job or two on weekends when I was 12 or 13. I got to learn what he did for a living and realized that you need to do a job to get paid. Easy lesson...
Anyone who has grown up on a farm or ranch knows that hard work begins at an early age. In this situation the installer gets to spend time with his daughter and teach her about hard work.
 
Anyone who has grown up on a farm or ranch knows that hard work begins at an early age. In this situation the installer gets to spend time with his daughter and teach her about hard work.

Until she gets injured by a falling ladder, picking up a drill or even tripping and falling. As a homeowner, if someone brought their 12 year old daughter to do work on my house, they'd be turned away. I'm not accepting that liability.
 
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Until she gets injured by a falling ladder, picking up a drill or even tripping and falling. As a homeowner, if someone brought their 12 year old daughter to do work on my house, they'd be turned away. I'm not accepting that liability.
That's what the other posters are missing. You retained services of a company. Any injury falls back on Dish. You don't bring anyone to a worksite unless they are employees of the company.
 
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That's what the other posters are missing. You retained services of a company. Any injury falls back on Dish. You don't bring anyone to a worksite unless they are employees of the company.
The injury doesn't fall back on Dish if it's a retailer, which this obviously was since Dish would vehemently prohibit anyone riding with a tech, especially a child
 
Until she gets injured by a falling ladder, picking up a drill or even tripping and falling. As a homeowner, if someone brought their 12 year old daughter to do work on my house, they'd be turned away. I'm not accepting that liability.
This HAD to be a side job, not a Contractor for Dish ....

At my previous job, trying to bring a family member to work and out on the job would be huge No Go.

Insurance reason for one,, many others as well.
 
I don’t blame him, taking those trenches is the worst part of this job. Particularly if it’s a long trench
Tell me about it. The last two times my Hispanic neighbors cut through the coax in the ground for my internet cables I had the Spectrum Cable people come out and lay more coax and he would do that part but not dig the trench. He said someone else would come by in the week and do the trench. I ended up doing the trench myself both times because the neighbors couldn't mow their lot going to the canal behind our houses. The cable junction box is in their yard behind their house in the common utilities property. I didn't want to risk them cutting it again. It took a long time doing that in the heat of summer and we have clay soil that we call gumbo down here in southeast Texas. The crap sticks to your shovel and is hard to get out of the ground.
 
Tell me about it. The last two times my Hispanic neighbors cut through the coax in the ground for my internet cables I had the Spectrum Cable people come out and lay more coax and he would do that part but not dig the trench. He said someone else would come by in the week and do the trench. I ended up doing the trench myself both times because the neighbors couldn't mow their lot going to the canal behind our houses. The cable junction box is in their yard behind their house in the common utilities property. I didn't want to risk them cutting it again. It took a long time doing that in the heat of summer and we have clay soil that we call gumbo down here in southeast Texas. The crap sticks to your shovel and is hard to get out of the ground.
We have that same type of soil here in some places. It’s just terrible to work with. The worst is trying to dig a hole with a post hole digger for Hughesnet which has to be 3 feet and that stuff just sticks every time you pull your postal digger out you got a scrape it off
 
Some of you guys are way too paranoid. Do you ever hire a kid to mow your lawn or paint a fence? Do you ever hire a young girl to babysit your kids? What about the paperboy who delivers your newspaper?
I cut my own lawn, I would never let someone babysit my kids that I didn’t personally know and who the hell gets newspapers anymore? There’s this new thing now called the Internet? Maybe you’ve heard of it? Lol
 

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