dishcomm said:
I don't know who trained you ..A word of advice...ALL SYSTEMS MUST BE GROUNDED....NO exceptions..It is a DN spec violation to not ground a system..Their QC sheet has a point system that gauges severity of violations ..Ungrounded systems are an automatic failure...Word to the wise....
I am a DNSC Tech. I am little different though. I am a remote tech which means I have the van at home, get my work emailed, have equipment at home. Kinda like a contactor, but not. I get paid from the time I leave home to the time I get home plus maybe an hour for paperwork or inventory count. I work sun, mon, tue and wed. usually 10 hour days with an occasional sat for over time. I have been with the company for over 4 years. I make $18.00 an hour. Last year with my overtime I made over $40,000 probably closer to $45,000. I like being a tech and have turned down a position for FSM because it would be a big pay cut for me. They are salaried.
Don't get my wrong I ground when I can. I have never failed a job because of grounding. I don't make runs around the house. If it's less than 10 feet away I usually ground to it. I try to place the dish near a ground, but it means I'm going to have to wrap the house in cable then I place the dish in a spot that easier for me and looks good for the customer. I tell the customers about when i don't ground. If the customer does not have visible ground, there's nothing I can do about that. We are not allowed to install ground rods (I asked about that one at the office). I do have a little tester I plug into the outlets to test the outlet then if there is a problem I talk to the customer about it.
That's fine...
I don't know what the deal is in your area but we were told that if a tech does not ground a system, they will have to fix it at their expense or get charged back for the ENTIRE job....From what the past and present regional mgrs from Dish have told us, grounding is the number one issue that Dish looks at...
Personally I believe an ungrounded system to be incomplete..I consider not grounding a system to be a shortcut taken by many techs to make the job convenient for themselves..Sorry but that's my opinion.... Dish puts a lot of pressure on us to make numbers but they also are a pain in the ass about quality...you can't quality work and be in a hurry.We get penalized for getting trouble calls even if it so much as a cust inquiry over their inability to operate their remote control...So if Cust is a mental midget, it's our fault..Most of us are speedy enough to get 4 jobs or more in a day..But we have to spend so much time covering our asses with grounding issues, letters of permission, customers who haven't a clue as to what they are getting..Each time a cust picks up the phone and calls dish, it counts against us and they pull work away. here's another issue, we are supposed to pre call every cust the night before. If the cust isn't home, we leave a message. If the cust misses their appointment, is renter and can't get a letter of permission it counts against US as an incomplete job....It's a friggin battle..I have to go back on a job tomorrow because the cust THINKS a tree may produce leaves and block LOS...He also whined about a cover on an old interface box that I put my GND bock in..He thinks that if the GND block gets wet he will lose signal. This is what is in the notes.This is the crap we have to deal with..I can't to see the look on this idiot's face when I tell him the parts in question are designed to be out in the elements.
I have been at this for 8 years..I am getting to the point where I just want to tell them to shove it..
This once was a fun job. But somebody or somebodys along the way screwed the whole thing up and now it's just another way to get a paycheck....