Tipping the cable guy...

[dartworth]

Originally posted by: FDF12389

Originally posted by: dartworth

Originally posted by: ConstipatedVigilante
Cable guys are usually electricians with degrees, right?

LOL

Actually around here all the tier II technicians do.

what is a tier II job description?

 

[grohl]

You can laugh, but I gave my Dish guy a $20 since he did a really clean install and mounted the dish and cables on a very tall, steep roof. Those guys get paid by the install and not quality - guy went the extra mile and I wanted to give him a little somethin' for the effort.

 

[Bulk Beef]

Originally posted by: Arcadio
Do I tip the cable guy?

Did he give you a BJ?

 

[SSSnail]

Originally posted by: Bulk Beef

Originally posted by: Arcadio
Do I tip the cable guy?

Did you give him a BJ?

Fixt.

 

[FDF12389]

Originally posted by: The Boston Dangler

Originally posted by: FDF12389

Originally posted by: dartworth

Originally posted by: ConstipatedVigilante
Cable guys are usually electricians with degrees, right?

LOL

Actually around here all the tier II technicians do.

do your tier ii techs perform installs?

Rarely, they usually do support for existing large apartment units or engineering constructing units.

 

[rh71]

tipping is so fuct up in this country.

 

[chuckywang]

Say you slip the cable guy a $100 bill for some "extras". Does this actually work? Anybody do this before?

 

[The Boston Dangler]

Originally posted by: FDF12389

Originally posted by: The Boston Dangler

Originally posted by: FDF12389

Originally posted by: dartworth

Originally posted by: ConstipatedVigilante
Cable guys are usually electricians with degrees, right?

LOL

Actually around here all the tier II technicians do.

do your tier ii techs perform installs?

Rarely, they usually do support for existing large apartment units or engineering constructing units.

so they might have associates' in telecom, not bachelor's in electrical engineering. nor are they likely licensed electricians (most cable systems run on 89 VAC, 90 VAC means i'd get paid twice as much).

at my place, tier ii techs sit at their desks trying decide if a switch is misconfigured (escalate the call) or if the wrong firmware was pushed (escalate the call), or if the field tech screwed up (ticket closed).

 

[jeffrey]

Nay. They might not get paid an "assload", but their salary does not fall below minimum wage with the expectation that tips would make up the difference.

 

[Skeeedunt]

Originally posted by: grohl
You can laugh, but I gave my Dish guy a $20 since he did a really clean install and mounted the dish and cables on a very tall, steep roof. Those guys get paid by the install and not quality - guy went the extra mile and I wanted to give him a little somethin' for the effort.

Tipping someone for doing an exceptional good job is one thing. As long as it's not inappropriate, I'm all for it. I'd agree that there's no de facto need to tip a cable guy however.

 

[FDF12389]

Originally posted by: The Boston Dangler

Originally posted by: FDF12389

Originally posted by: The Boston Dangler

Originally posted by: FDF12389

Originally posted by: dartworth

Originally posted by: ConstipatedVigilante
Cable guys are usually electricians with degrees, right?

LOL

Actually around here all the tier II technicians do.

do your tier ii techs perform installs?

Rarely, they usually do support for existing large apartment units or engineering constructing units.

so they might have associates' in telecom, not bachelor's in electrical engineering. nor are they likely licensed electricians (most cable systems run on 89 VAC, 90 VAC means i'd get paid twice as much).

at my place, tier ii techs sit at their desks trying decide if a switch is misconfigured (escalate the call) or if the wrong firmware was pushed (escalate the call), or if the field tech screwed up (ticket closed).

No there definitely aren't licensed electricians. per my roommate that works for them they have associates in EE. I just meant by my initial post that they have degrees.

 

[JDub02]

Just had satellite tv set up. I figure since I'm already paying an install fee, I'm not tipping. Screw that.

 

[yinan]

I dont tip people that require me to stay at home all day and lose a days pay due to their crappy scheduling practices.

 

[Gibson486]

Originally posted by: us3rnotfound

Originally posted by: ConstipatedVigilante
Um, no. He should be making more than minimum wage anyway. Cable guys are usually electricians with degrees, right?

I don't think most of them have degrees.

NOt a BS, but an Associates. Most went to a 2 year tech school.

Also, they get paid massive overtime too...some are even in a union.

 

[Gibson486]

Originally posted by: FDF12389

Originally posted by: The Boston Dangler

Originally posted by: FDF12389

Originally posted by: The Boston Dangler

Originally posted by: FDF12389

Originally posted by: dartworth

Originally posted by: ConstipatedVigilante
Cable guys are usually electricians with degrees, right?

LOL

Actually around here all the tier II technicians do.

do your tier ii techs perform installs?

Rarely, they usually do support for existing large apartment units or engineering constructing units.

so they might have associates' in telecom, not bachelor's in electrical engineering. nor are they likely licensed electricians (most cable systems run on 89 VAC, 90 VAC means i'd get paid twice as much).

at my place, tier ii techs sit at their desks trying decide if a switch is misconfigured (escalate the call) or if the wrong firmware was pushed (escalate the call), or if the field tech screwed up (ticket closed).

No there definitely aren't licensed electricians. per my roommate that works for them they have associates in EE. I just meant by my initial post that they have degrees.

If they were licensed electricians, they would not be working for the cable company.

 

[TallBill]

Originally posted by: yinan
I dont tip people that require me to stay at home all day and lose a days pay due to their crappy scheduling practices.

When do you want them to install cable? Just on saturdays?

 

[CptCrunch]

Originally posted by: chuckywang
Say you slip the cable guy a $100 bill for some "extras". Does this actually work? Anybody do this before?

no, they can't do that. My friend said that they come by and they audit every install and if they find he gave the customer free cable or free hbo (etc), he will get warned, and too many warnings he will be fired on the spot.

He did say that people tried that all the time tho, and it got real old real quick.

 

[amdskip]

The guy that installed my cable makes more doing installs than what I make so no tip for him. He was a private contractor for comcast.

 

[Gibson486]

Originally posted by: CptCrunch

Originally posted by: chuckywang
Say you slip the cable guy a $100 bill for some "extras". Does this actually work? Anybody do this before?

no, they can't do that. My friend said that they come by and they audit every install and if they find he gave the customer free cable or free hbo (etc), he will get warned, and too many warnings he will be fired on the spot.

He did say that people tried that all the time tho, and it got real old real quick.

It was possible before, but everything is now digital and controlled at the office now. Before, the box was programmed on site...now it is programmed remotely from the office.

 

[CptCrunch]

Originally posted by: Gibson486

Originally posted by: CptCrunch

Originally posted by: chuckywang
Say you slip the cable guy a $100 bill for some "extras". Does this actually work? Anybody do this before?

no, they can't do that. My friend said that they come by and they audit every install and if they find he gave the customer free cable or free hbo (etc), he will get warned, and too many warnings he will be fired on the spot.

He did say that people tried that all the time tho, and it got real old real quick.

It was possible before, but everything is now digital and controlled at the office now. Before, the box was programmed on site...now it is programmed remotely from the office.

thats true for the HD/DVR cable boxes, but not true for the standard coax cables

 

[Gibson486]

Originally posted by: CptCrunch

Originally posted by: Gibson486

Originally posted by: CptCrunch

Originally posted by: chuckywang
Say you slip the cable guy a $100 bill for some "extras". Does this actually work? Anybody do this before?

no, they can't do that. My friend said that they come by and they audit every install and if they find he gave the customer free cable or free hbo (etc), he will get warned, and too many warnings he will be fired on the spot.

He did say that people tried that all the time tho, and it got real old real quick.

It was possible before, but everything is now digital and controlled at the office now. Before, the box was programmed on site...now it is programmed remotely from the office.

thats true for the HD/DVR cable boxes, but not true for the standard coax cables

Well, for the analog stuff, you just need to descramable it, but cable compoanies do not do this anymore. Without the box, you can usually only get around 14 channels. Other than those 14 or so odd chaneels, it will all come in digital. That's why channels like FX come in as static and no longer comes in as scrambled without the box.

 

[CptCrunch]

Originally posted by: Gibson486

Originally posted by: CptCrunch

Originally posted by: Gibson486

Originally posted by: CptCrunch

Originally posted by: chuckywang
Say you slip the cable guy a $100 bill for some "extras". Does this actually work? Anybody do this before?

no, they can't do that. My friend said that they come by and they audit every install and if they find he gave the customer free cable or free hbo (etc), he will get warned, and too many warnings he will be fired on the spot.

He did say that people tried that all the time tho, and it got real old real quick.

It was possible before, but everything is now digital and controlled at the office now. Before, the box was programmed on site...now it is programmed remotely from the office.

thats true for the HD/DVR cable boxes, but not true for the standard coax cables

Well, for the analog stuff, you just need to descramable it, but cable compoanies do not do this anymore. Without the box, you can usually only get around 14 channels. Other than those 14 or so odd chaneels, it will all come in digital. That's why channels like FX come in as static and no longer comes in as scrambled without the box.

I always wanted to build one of those descramble boxes, but never did. Always thought it would be a neat thing to build and great experience.

 

[Gibson486]

Originally posted by: CptCrunch

Originally posted by: Gibson486

Originally posted by: CptCrunch

Originally posted by: Gibson486

Originally posted by: CptCrunch

Originally posted by: chuckywang
Say you slip the cable guy a $100 bill for some "extras". Does this actually work? Anybody do this before?

no, they can't do that. My friend said that they come by and they audit every install and if they find he gave the customer free cable or free hbo (etc), he will get warned, and too many warnings he will be fired on the spot.

He did say that people tried that all the time tho, and it got real old real quick.

It was possible before, but everything is now digital and controlled at the office now. Before, the box was programmed on site...now it is programmed remotely from the office.

thats true for the HD/DVR cable boxes, but not true for the standard coax cables

Well, for the analog stuff, you just need to descramable it, but cable compoanies do not do this anymore. Without the box, you can usually only get around 14 channels. Other than those 14 or so odd chaneels, it will all come in digital. That's why channels like FX come in as static and no longer comes in as scrambled without the box.

I always wanted to build one of those descramble boxes, but never did. Always thought it would be a neat thing to build and great experience.

I always wanted to do that too....it just seemed like a daunting task though....

 

[nakedfrog]

Originally posted by: Gibson486

Originally posted by: us3rnotfound

Originally posted by: ConstipatedVigilante
Um, no. He should be making more than minimum wage anyway. Cable guys are usually electricians with degrees, right?

I don't think most of them have degrees.

NOt a BS, but an Associates. Most went to a 2 year tech school.

Also, they get paid massive overtime too...some are even in a union.

Neither of the cable guys I knew had degrees. I guess YMMV.
They said they'd get tips once in a while.

 

[WaTaGuMp]

Hell fucking NO 100000x.