DirecTV, Mastec, Advanced Technologies
Tech Pay Targets Change Monthly and Repeat Call Chargebacks

I know a lot of contractors get taken advantage of by DirecTV and Mastec on a regular basis, but it is no better working for Mastec. Mastec has more shady business practices than I have ever seen from a company!

They set unrealistic goals that you have to meet just to keep a higher pay rate. It seems like every month or so Mastec changes the required numbers a tech has to meet, for their benefit. One of my favorites is that all techs have to make a certain hourly rate to be lead tech. We get paid by the job, so hours compared to jobs are how you get your rate. At the same time, I get 4 to 6 hours of drive time every day, 4 or 5 days a week. This pretty much makes it impossible to meet unless you lie about your hours. Funny how all this went into effect after Mastec settled a class action suit for not paying techs overtime, for the sum of a couple million dollars.

Another favorite is repeat service calls. If another tech has to go out to a house after you within 60 days, you get a chargeback for a repeat service call of $17.00. It also goes against your so-called numbers to keep your current pay rate. So for every faulty receiver that goes bad, DirecTV sending software downloads that knock out everyone's local channels, freak lightning storms, customers' dogs chewing cables, kids playing on the dishes, or random acts of God, we as techs not only get charged back hard-earned money for things out of our control, we get demoted! Management's comeback for that one is to leave your number with every customer and take care of it on your own time before another service call is generated. I guess 70 hours a week is not good enough, and I should now go out on my so-called spare time and do more work without getting paid.

Last year I was getting a lot more repeat chargebacks than usual on a couple of checks. I asked my supervisor to pull up each account to see the reasons for the chargebacks. We found that more than half of them had never had another tech go back out behind me.

I could go on and on, but this company already takes most of my time for not much more than nothing. What I and every other tech I work with see is that this company is good at one thing: taking advantage of anyone to get more profit. That is what makes this country great, big business always gets away with it.

Company: DirecTV, Mastec, Advanced Technologies
Country: USA
State: North Carolina
City: New Bern
Site: mastec.com

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