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Comcast Pays Contractors Peanuts; Poor Workmanship, Bad Behavior Result of Low Pay

Phillip Dampier June 13, 2016 Comcast/Xfinity, Consumer News No Comments

raceComcast has systematically sought to flatten wage rates, drive small contractors out of business and overwork the independent contractors that remain, while paying them less than $20 for many service calls.

Those are some of the accusations leveled against Comcast in a federal lawsuit filed in Scranton, Pa., this month by two former Comcast installation contractors.

Owners of Cable-Line Inc. of Perkasie and McLaughlin Communications Inc. of Moosic argue Comcast deceived them in 2010 when it urged both companies to buy trucks and hire experienced installers while “secretly implementing” a cut throat “national subcontractor reduction plan” that gradually reduced the amount of compensation and time expected to complete installations and repairs.

As a result, the number of independent contracting firms Comcast works with has declined in the northeast from 176 in 2009 to 39 in 2012. Even as the number of available contractors have dropped, those that remain are under pressure to find employees willing and able to finish jobs fast and, as far as customers allege, not always completely.

comcastA veteran telecom supervisor told the Philadelphia Inquirer some installers are saddled with 15-20 service calls a day. That leaves little time to troubleshoot problems and as a result many technicians “hope for a quick, loose cable connection so they can move onto the next job.”

Rushing through service calls makes sense when one realizes those independent technicians are paid by the service call.

“Some calls last 20 minutes, and that’s where you’d pick up some time and quick dollars,” the supervisor told the newspaper.

But even if the installer does get a lot of simple jobs in a row, Comcast is still putting constant pressure on their potential earnings.

Triplett

Triplett

“The money that Comcast pays a contractor for each task they do at a house has gotten lower over the years,” said the supervisor. “A cable drop, running the cable from the pole to the house, used to pay about $20. Then it went down. The contractors tell new hires they can make $400/day, it’s like running your own business. That is virtually impossible because of limited time. Some installers may actually complete eight jobs (in a day) and gross $130. That’s not even $20 a stop. It varies, though, by what has to be done at the job site. Most of these guys use their own truck and pay their own fuel and insurance.”

“Every Woman’s Nightmare”

Comcast also makes sure those contractors are non unionized, which gives the cable company the upper hand on just about everything. As a result, the number of people willing to work long hours for what is often declining pay has become a perennial challenge at many contracting firms. Some are accused of lowering their employment standards long ago to accept more applicants, sometimes with disastrous results.

Last month, a Chicago-area jury took just 40 minutes to convict Anthony Triplett, a Comcast subcontracted cable technician, of the sexual assault and murder of Janice Ordidge. Almost a decade ago, Ordidge was found dead in her bathtub two days after Triplett arrived to fix her cable TV. Police immediately considered Triplett a suspect and questioned him several times while also collecting a sample of his DNA. Despite the prominent investigation, Premier Cable Communications, the company performing service work for Comcast, kept Triplett on the job. Seven weeks later, Triplett strangled, sexually assaulted, robbed and killed 23-year-old Urszula Sakowska during a service call in her home.

Prosecutors argued Triplett used his “house calls for Comcast” as a hunting ground for female victims, calling him a “sociopath and psychopath.” He is now serving double life sentences.

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