Anyone else get dropped as a subcontractor?

[digitaldogger]

Our office after 4 years of being a subcontractor, received a call from the state DNSC office that they are eliminating sub's due to not enough dnsc corporate jobs versus the corporate staff they carry. So, he basically said most or all sub's would be eliminated because their guys come first.
We are wondering who they pick on? We have some sub's around here that they may just be DishNetwork retailers, and willing to work everyday of the week, but are doing POOR, Very Poor installs. Even the DNSC inspector says they have issues with them, yet we know they'll be the last to go.
We have been very respectful to selling Directv and Dishnetwork both, we don't bait and switch, we are honest, hardworking, and get things done. Yes, we make mistakes, but they are always corrected the first time around, not the 5th or the 6th like others around us.
The sad this is DNSC inspectors only check out dnsc work orders, they don't even care if there's a bad retailer out there doing poor work! I am really losing faith in this company that I have stuck up for, for sooo long.
Bottom line is, if you are not a big franchise like Best Buy or (sorry to pick on you) satellite guys.com, you will be eliminated eventually. The writing is on the wall that Dish wants to go all corporate and do away with dealers/retailers all together.
Anyone else feeling our pain!! It is a sad day for us, going on 7 years of good customer service, and this is what we get. Don't get me wrong, we are still in business, and do our own sales, but we were proud to be able to help ANYONE that called our office, whether they were our org. customer or not. They (customer's) don't know the difference from tom's satellite (example) to Radio Shack, all they see is the Dish logo and think you can help. Now, that we are not a subcontractor, we have to refer them to 1-800 number, if they are not our org. or charge them a service call....

This is just poor judgement on DishNetwork, shame on them!!

 

[chadzx11]

Dish has been hogging all the work here, too. I don't know if they are hogging it so much as cutting down. The are scheduling ~100 jobs a day and doing ~75, leaving the rest to be spread out amongst the contractors. When they started, the people I slave for had 14 installers here. We are down to 6 or so now. If I could get a call back on one of my applications, they'd have 5. I don't know how much is due to the lack of work, but at least some of that is gonna be due to the folks we work for.

I feel sorry for the DNSC techs. Here they put in 12 hours a day for ~$9/hr, with no shot at overtime. My wife makes more than that working at the library in the AC all day!

I am not going to work for DNSC or DirecTech Southwest--my only 2 real alternatives, besides cable. I won't shed a tear if the people I work for go down, unless they owe me money and I don't have enough of their gear on hand to cover it. We got a good crew, but they treat us like step children, because we are off away from their offices. Properly motivated, we could pWn DNSC, but its hard to stay motivated when the people you work for screw you over continueously.

 

[digitaldogger]

chadzx11, are you a person that works for a subcontractor?? I was a little confused by reading your response. I really appreciate the feedback though. Our business is a direct subcontractor, all of our techs work for us, have company vehicles and get paid over time. They don't pay for their inventory, as they check in with us everyday, and log out everyday. So, I was concerned when you said you won't shed a tear for the business you work for if they go down,yet you won't work for corporate either?? I guess for all people, grass may not be greener on the otherside, we just didn't like the way the manager of our state DNSC, called and worded it to us... kind of tacky!! If anyone else has something to share that would be great, we want feed back!

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Dish seems like it could care less about its retailers. Hell look at our front page, look whos spending money to meet with retailers at the SatelliteExpo and look whos not.

Here in Connecticut the guys seem to be working illegally from Rhode Island and Mass license plates on their vans, I have quized a few DNSC guys doing commercial work here in Connecticut and they don't even hold licences to install satellite here in the State of Connecticut.

Dish Network is about to get bit in the ass, and I am going to laugh like hell when it happens.

Dish use to stand for quality, but now the S in Dish Network is really a $.

 

[digitaldogger]

Hi Scott, thanks for your honest feedback, I don't mean to pick on anyone, just was a little heated at first!
I am glad to see other's think the same thing though about how DishNetwork treats their retailers etc....

 

[chadzx11]

chadzx11, are you a person that works for a subcontractor?? I was a little confused by reading your response. I really appreciate the feedback though. Our business is a direct subcontractor, all of our techs work for us, have company vehicles and get paid over time. They don't pay for their inventory, as they check in with us everyday, and log out everyday. So, I was concerned when you said you won't shed a tear for the business you work for if they go down,yet you won't work for corporate either?? I guess for all people, grass may not be greener on the otherside, we just didn't like the way the manager of our state DNSC, called and worded it to us... kind of tacky!! If anyone else has something to share that would be great, we want feed back!

AFAIK, I am a subcontractor and the people I work for are the contractors.

Work comes from dish (I've done 2(!) inhouse sales in a year).

Equipment comes from the people that pay me.

Cable/connectors/groundblocks/bolts/poles, ect come from me. Its my truck. I get a 1099. I have no benefits. I am paid the same if the job takes 10 minutes or 10 hours. All this adds up to make me a sub, I think.

Not wanting to work for dnsc has nothing to do with me not liking them. Its just a circumstance. I COULD go to work for dish for their $9-10/hr. That would mean driving 1 hour+ to the shop each day (directech southwest is farther off) in MEMPHIS traffic. No thanks. I can get a job at one of the casinos here for close to the same money and only have to drive 5 minutes and deal with NO traffic.
I don't mind putting in work for $9/10 hr. Its not a pride thing. I just won't drive an hour+ for the "privelege".

 

[WiCkeDuDe]

DNSC is in a big push here to keep the jobs inhouse it seems as well. Dont know what the big change was caused by, but do know they didnt like to see all the vans and equipment hardly been used. Right now even the new hires earn more than 9-10 and we have no problem at all with overtime. Its getting to be the norm but also starting to burn us out.

 

[volkodav]

the way it works now with dish is corporate people breathing down on LLC offices that they can't sub out more then 25% of the jobs. and it is slowest time of the year until late spring then it will pick up hopefully. they are watching the calendars very closely so they wont go over on the jobs or they going to answer to corporate office. OT is only on weekend. and dish wants every single van be out every day they do some reports and it's killing our number so as trainees also.

 

[Jared Twomey]

the retailer i work for has never really done a whole LOT of work through Dish, but the amount that they still are doing hasn"t really changed. Its been pretty steady for a while now. Most of our work is our own sales though so maybe we just aren't feeling it as much

 

[chadzx11]

DNSC is in a big push here to keep the jobs inhouse it seems as well. Dont know what the big change was caused by, but do know they didnt like to see all the vans and equipment hardly been used. Right now even the new hires earn more than 9-10 and we have no problem at all with overtime. Its getting to be the norm but also starting to burn us out.

Really? These jokers here are running 2 shifts, 4 days each, IIRC. We got some inside scoop from a former DNSC tech that came to work for us. I had customer get mad. It was a service call, and she said "wow, you guys must be really busy". I told her that some installers might be, but I had been pretty much sitting around for a couple days. She was like "WTF?!?!? I've been waiting 10 days for a service call!" Hell, I gave her my number and told her to call me if something came up. I couldn't promise her instant service, but there is no need to have customers sitting without TV for nearly 2 weeks, either.


Has anyone ever had DNSC pull a job back and not tell them? I had it happen twice. Once cost me, but the other time I beat the DNSC guy. The one I didn't get to do---they called me and said dish dropped a service call on us, would I go do it. So I said OK, and headed out. An hour and a half later, I get to the customer's house, and the dish guy is already there. I called dispatch and said "WTF?!?!?" I mean, they make us call in 3x for every job, and they can't call us when one drops out of the cue? DNSC called me later and apologized. I said "Thanks." But sorry doesn't cover gas, now does it?

 

[digitaldogger]

update: So far we have received 2-3 emails from 3rd party DNSC manager, State DNSC manager, and DNSRecon (payment support) all about clarification on if we would still get referral trouble calls from our own retail sales, and also issue with nonpayment of DNSC labor, and Ra parts. We asked them now that they took us off as a contractor/subcontractor, if we would still see that money they owe us, still haven't received a response back after that. Anyone else as a retailer or contracter having issues with getting paid by DNS payment support?? Just curious, we ran into a guy from down south at the Dish Summitt meeting in Nashville last April, and he said DNSC payment support owed him 130,000!!! That is a scary thought, just wondering if anyone else is feeling it??
I did read comments from my org thread (anyone else dropped as a sub/contractor) and I understand DNS corporate being slow, but they deleted us altogether of being a sub/contractor. We already knew it was slow, we went through that every year for 2-3 years, that after January and until March things were slow, but they said they were cutting back on DNS sub's. So, we didn't know if it was personal or not. We haven't been written up or expected by DNSC, we just spoke to the guy that handles it, nothing was wrong... I think they hate us because we won't take no for an answer when they won't pay us for the labor or parts on their DNSC jobs... Warning to any other retailer looking to be a sub.... payment process is slow!!!!!!

 

[JohnTenn]

update: So far we have received 2-3 emails from 3rd party DNSC manager, State DNSC manager, and DNSRecon (payment support) all about clarification on if we would still get referral trouble calls from our own retail sales, and also issue with nonpayment of DNSC labor, and Ra parts. We asked them now that they took us off as a contractor/subcontractor, if we would still see that money they owe us, still haven't received a response back after that. Anyone else as a retailer or contracter having issues with getting paid by DNS payment support?? Just curious, we ran into a guy from down south at the Dish Summitt meeting in Nashville last April, and he said DNSC payment support owed him 130,000!!! That is a scary thought, just wondering if anyone else is feeling it??
I did read comments from my org thread (anyone else dropped as a sub/contractor) and I understand DNS corporate being slow, but they deleted us altogether of being a sub/contractor. We already knew it was slow, we went through that every year for 2-3 years, that after January and until March things were slow, but they said they were cutting back on DNS sub's. So, we didn't know if it was personal or not. We haven't been written up or expected by DNSC, we just spoke to the guy that handles it, nothing was wrong... I think they hate us because we won't take no for an answer when they won't pay us for the labor or parts on their DNSC jobs... Warning to any other retailer looking to be a sub.... payment process is slow!!!!!!

I was actually with the guy that said he was owed 130,000 from dns. What he neglected to tell you is that he doesn't have procedures in place to track equipment being returned to DNS for RA, nor does he understand the modification process, followed by a proper Recon if unpaid. I left this employer, ( I was the manager of one of his local areas near the Summit), because he constantly wanted to cut contractors payments because he felt he was losing money. He was losing money because 7 of his 8 offices weren't following up with Notes because he didn't enforce it. It's my opinion they simply didn't care because he pays his managers barely more the minimum wage once you break down the hours work for the salary/week.

Since then, I have left his company and started my own. I haven't had 1 single payment declined since beginning business last year. It's simply a matter of tracking what is owed, and properly wording it when you do recon.

With regard to the amount of work. In this area, work has always been up and down. It slowed down enough that the DNS LLC closed 2 days/week here. They used to run 2 4 day shifts, now they run one larger 5 day shift. It is finally picking up some now that March has began but we were never closed not even for 1 day during the slow period.

 

[mikethedishguy]

Had an interesting conversation with a person I know who deals in corporate accounting. His coment was that it sound like the company is being readied for sale. Not being an accountant I realy did't understand how this relates but he said that when a service company begins to bring many services in house it changes the financial picture and will make the company more inviting to the potential suiter.

As a contractor I have seen the lack of work being sent to the subs. I have also heard the customer complants concerning the lengh of time the had to wait befor someone came out and repaired their dish. For a company that used to pride itself on customer service it is a shame that they have chosen this route.

 

[SimpleSimon]

You guys that can prove you are retailers need to join dishretailer.com. :up