ACI Advanced Communications Inc. Contractors for Comcast Cable lower thier employees pay,basically lie to thier employees Canton Michigan

 So hears the deal about ACI/Cablenet Communications, This complaint is in regards to ACI/Cablenet’s Philadelphia and surrounding suburban counties’ operation in Pennsylvania. I currently work for a company who was bought out by ACI (Advanced Communications, Inc). I have been with both companies for approx. 6 years and unfortunately have not yet found the means to find another career. This part of the company is a "fulfillment" service to a certain internet/cable/telecommunication PROVIDER in Philadelphia and its surrounding counties. The company I work for has in the past purposely lied about the amount of employees (installation/service techs) they currently have on their payroll in hopes that their employer (Primary ISP in Phila.) will give them the most amount of work so they can overwork and underpay their employees while maximizing profits. The service provider has recently (past 4 months) changed its method in how they disburse work to their subcontractors mostly eliminating this problem. The company promises "Performance Based Pay" yet the method they use to rate their techs (and their pay) has not been updated in at least 6 months (probably more).

The company uses 3 levels of pay to judge their employees; each level is approx. a 5-8% increase from the previous. The employer uses this system to separate their "good" employees from their "not as good" ones. The company will charge their employer (ISP/cable provider) approx. 500% of what they actually pay their employees for a completed said "installation". They claims that the other 400% covers insurance, equipment, overtime, overhead costs, management (even know there are only about 7 managers for over 200 employees) and travel expenses. The company also has a said "strict discipline policy" but they seem to relax certain policies for employees they know will make the company the most profit and comply with their "don’t ask, don’t tell" approach to safety and performance. They will purposely "write up" or "give corrective action" to employees are "insubordinate" or speak out against their policies. The company will also intentionally "write up" employees that they think will cause legal problems (aka lawsuits) to discredit them in case they ever decide to pursue legal action or bring unwanted attention to the company.

The company also imposes a mandatory 6-day workweek or 12-hour work day. Keep in mind the overtime rate is approx. 50% of your hourly rate (which they determine), for example if your hourly rate comes out to $15 an hour, every hour you work over 40 will earn you a lucrative $7.50 per hour. The company also has approx. 2 HR (human resources) members on payroll (at least for this portion of the company). The company consists of 200 about employees (including 8-10 dispatchers, 7-9 managers, 4-6 safety personal, 10 admin and approx. 150-175 techs). The HR department will purposively attempt to terminate employee who they see as "insubordinate" or "risks" even know their policies and procedures or unfair and biased. Company moral is virtually non-existent from the warehouse guy through to the upper management. Top techs in the company (20% of techs) used to make between $80,000 and $100,000 per year.

After 5-7 years of pay cuts, most top tech make between $50,000 and $65,000 per year after working approx. 50 hours per week and between 60-70 hours during the busy season. Managers are often (not all) under qualified for the position they hold. Promotions and new position opportunities (the far and few in between) are usually given to upper management favorites or close acquaintances. Some managers are so under qualified that the information or instruction they give often conflicts with basic knowledge and understanding about how the job is supposed to be conducted. In conclusion to this so called "rant", my objective is not to see this portion of the business dissolved or dismembered, but to simply change the way things are done in the company. Throughout my experiences in this company I have met many hard-working, intelligent and pleasant people (given the circumstances and conditions they work under), I do not wish to see them treated so poorly and unappreciated. I myself wish to remain anonymous due to the target that may be on my back and the decreased amount of pay I would receive. I am hopefully this will help change things for the better in this company. I am open to rebuttals and invite upper management or ACI executives to attempt to try to discredit my argument.

Jason,

How many time have you cut off a driver to make a call / truck roll ontime?  How many times have you thrown a fellow employee under the bus to make your own position within the company look better? I've been in business over 25 years and have seen companies like ACI come and go.  Most go... and in their wake were people like you who thought they were going to have a job forever. Like you they never had empathy for their fellow workers who often where taken advantage by senior managment. Speaking of Management, Oh yeah, they occasionally give one of the surfs a ladder up the corporate food chain just to prove to the other surfs that one might make some decent money with ....lol... hard work.... This is a tried and true physicallogical ploy to keep order within the worker staff.  Jason, you sound very, very naive about business and about life.  So instead of belittling your fellow exploited workers perhaps you should wise up to reality.  The reality is as soon as this company's ownership finds a finanical exit strategy that pays them off well they will leave you and your fellow workers in the dust.

I worked there.  

It was terrible.

I don't know what else can be added that is not on here already.  

At least there aren't people defending them here anymore.  That has to say something.  Sempre Fudge!

Honestly, you are.  As long as your hubby works for the cable industry, you might as well consider yourself a 'military' wife.  This company is no longer what it once was.  You get up at the crack of dawn, and often don't get home till nearly dark (during the summer), and well after dark in the winter.  When he get's home, he's tired, grumpy and ready for food and bed, just to start again the next day.  

You also get no 'say' in what goes on.  You get to support your old man, and keep your mouth shut, regardless of the situation.  IF you open your mouth, expect repercussions for him.  If you think that his hours are bad now, be thankful that 'Road Warriors' no longer exist, because it's not HOURS, it's WEEKS and MONTHS that you may not see him.  

Before you make judgments on what I have to say, understand this...... 10 years ago, this was a good company to work for.  The changes in the last couple of years have hurt not only the company, but the employees that work for it.  For the record, make sure that your hubby checks his paysheet EVERY week, and doesn't sign it unless it's correct.  Make sure that he keeps his own records as to what he is doing and dbl check everything.  

If he sits for 1 hr (or more, which seems to be the case lately) make sure he claims NPT.  If he's sick, go into the office and puke on the desk and get sent home.  If you want PTO, put it in early and don't take 'NO' for an answer (check the employee handbook for time limits in regards to PTO request times).  Keep ALL correspondence with the company. If hubby get's written up when it wasn't deserved, tell him NOT to sign it. 

Dot your i's and cross your t's on EVERYTHING.  If your hubby has questions, tell him to find a tech that has been there awhile.  They know the ins and outs, and don't like to see ppl get screwed.  Good luck to you in your new marriage, don't let ACI affect a good thing.    

Honestly, you are.  As long as your hubby works for the cable industry, you might as well consider yourself a 'military' wife.  This company is no longer what it once was.  You get up at the crack of dawn, and often don't get home till nearly dark (during the summer), and well after dark in the winter.  When he get's home, he's tired, grumpy and ready for food and bed, just to start again the next day.  

You also get no 'say' in what goes on.  You get to support your old man, and keep your mouth shut, regardless of the situation.  IF you open your mouth, expect repercussions for him.  If you think that his hours are bad now, be thankful that 'Road Warriors' no longer exist, because it's not HOURS, it's WEEKS and MONTHS that you may not see him.  

Before you make judgments on what I have to say, understand this. 10 years ago, this was a good company to work for.  The changes in the last couple of years have hurt not only the company, but the employees that work for it.  For the record, make sure that your hubby checks his paysheet EVERY week, and doesn't sign it unless it's correct.  Make sure that he keeps his own records as to what he is doing and dbl check everything.  If he sits for 1 hr (or more, which seems to be the case lately) make sure he claims NPT.  If he's sick, go into the office and puke on the desk and get sent home.  If you want PTO, put it in early and don't take 'NO' for an answer (check the employee handbook for time limits in regards to PTO request times).  Keep ALL correspondence with the company. If hubby get's written up when it wasn't deserved, tell him NOT to sign it. 

Dot your i's and cross your t's on EVERYTHING.  If your hubby has questions, tell him to find a tech that has been there awhile.  They know the ins and outs, and don't like to see ppl get screwed.  Good luck to you in your new marriage, don't let ACI affect a good thing.    

How is this job NOT dangerous? My husband nearly got electrocuted hooking up someone's cable box a few weeks ago. A spark jumped out of a 220v socket when he thought it was a 120v socket and got shocked (thank God for not grasping onto something metal)...when this happened the homeowner standing there said "You're like the third guy this has happened to." ......Sounds safe to me! Keep in mind they have ZERO electrical training, so what they know before from personal knowledge is all they'll know. They should be required to be trained SOMETHING about electricity seeing as they work right next to electric lines...

How about when they have to work in hoarders homes? Cockroaches, rats, mice, dogs, cats, rabbits, and their feces EVERYWHERE. Old food, dirty clothing, EVERYWHERE. This kind of stuff creates toxic fumes that are harmful to breathe in for those not previously living and used to this crap. Why do you think they wear those masks on the TV show Hoarders? IT IS THAT BAD IN REAL LIFE. Even crawl spaces in a clean person's home can be repulsive. Bat feces, dead animals, you name it.

A couple weeks ago a local ACI employee crawled through a crawl space that a plumber died in last summer from bare wire electrocution....THAT'S SAFE! Please, again, tell me how this overworked and underpaid job is safe?

 I always slightly thought my husband was exaggerating about how bad his job is until they told him he wouldn't be able to get his wedding day off and his supervisor told him to call in sick on this wedding day (asked for day off 60 days before wedding)... Then calling in sick meant getting written up (what is this, high school?). Even if you were legitimately sick and puking your brains out, you'd get written up. Getting written up twice in a month meant losing your job. The harder work you do,  the more money you make for the company, the more hours you work....Shouldn't the harder you work, the more rewards earned? Ex: Days Off?!?! We just got married and I feel like we really are a separated couple, since we never see each other. His 6am-7pm days just don't work for me. This is the worst company in the world to work for.

I am so glad my husband's friend and coworker showed me all this dirt on Ripoff Report about ACI. I couldn't wait to put my two cents in.

Wife of an ACI Employee
Northern MI

Good news, bad news.  One owner is suing the other for cooking the books, racketeering, RICO.  Looks like Falsetti will do some time.   Bad news is lots of jobs lost.  Too bad for the nice people who worked there.

You still missed the point Lori, people CAN'T make a living driving long hours to work to find out there is no route for them--or a route that is not profitable. 

You signed off on your first post as "proud wife of ACI supervisor".  I can't be the only inquiring mind who wants to know are you now:

the proud ex wife of ACI Supervisor the shamed wife of ACI Supervisor the humbled wife of an ex ACI employee
the shamed exwife of an ACI....or some other combination?

In the meantime, do your husband and the world a favor by keeping your mouth shut while the men are talking...of things which you have only a casual understanding.   

Being an expert on everything must be tiring.  Give it a rest.  

After you berate and insult people for years for being lazy complainers on this post, you now just say "oh, never mind, all these people are right once I looked at the facts".

What happened to change your mind?   Seriously, what did you see that you had somehow missed for the last several years?  

I will respectfully and humbly eat crow.  In all due respect, things are NOT the way that they used to be, and most of the changes are NOT for the better. 

For the gentleman that says that the techs 'wine' too much (please use spellcheck, the correct spelling is 'whine'), that is not the case.  They work LONG hours, meet deadlines, and can't even make a decent paycheck after all the deductions are taken out.  They must have the technical knowledge to do the jobs properly, and in all honestly, are not fairly compensated for that knowledge.  Don't get all high on your horse for 'hooking' the poles, or 'setting' poles (um, could you tell me which poles that ACI OWNS that would require resets?  They are a subcontractor, not an owner.)

Honestly, if you can't find a job, this might be a good place to start..... at least you will get through the tough times.  If you're looking for a career in the telecommunications industry, this would give you a good starting point.  IF you're looking for a true, long term career, this isn't the place.  This job isn't going to make you rich, and it's NOT going to take you places.  Take it for what it is, knowing that you are expendable......cause it really doesn't matter how 'good' you are, just how much you're willing to put up with before moving on.  I truly wish that we were back to the days when this was a wonderful company to work for, but time marches on.

I recently logged on to file my own complaint about Comcast Cable, a very major one, and have had ongoing issues with the company, as well as others, fo years. Comcast is known to have a worse customer satisfaction rating than the IRS and has had numerous consumer complaints that have gone to the media (two of which were reported by the Washington Post).

While reading this I am not surprised that Comcast, or any of their associates, would act in this fashion and I am flaberghasted that anyone from the company would take a legal liability in posting a repsonse, accusing people os laziness, etc, on this page considering these postings can be used in a court of law. If I were someone that had a legitimate complaint, and had documentation like this, I would contact an employment law attorney simply because if future employers were to log in, and look at this page, and if an installer lost a job because of something divulged by H/R the employee could claim economic damages, or worse, file a complaint with the Department of Labor.

Also, if you know of anything about Comcast, or any other telecommunications provider, that is unscrupulous, etc, in terms of business practices I would suggest you turn them in to the FCC, FTC, Attorney General, and the BBB. You might even take the time to alert the Washington Post about H/R's, or prior supervisors, willingness to divulge job performance on this site because it isn't legal; a company can not tell job performance all they can say is whether they would rehire you.

I just have to get started by saying installers wine and cry way to much,If you dont work here no more it is because you are lazy.I am a lineman for a.c.i. I climb with hooks,i set poles i deal with power i actually risk my life for this company and would never change nothing about it. I have seen how good hard working employees are treated,and i tell you what a.c.i. treats good employees great and a lot better than most do. And for one i have worked in 14 different states so i have probably seen more companies than most people have in there time. So for all you installers out there that are thinking about starting work for a.c.i. be ready to work and hustle and you will work up the chains just like i did and you will be treated great. And maybe one dat you will be able to call yourself a lineman and be able to make a great living without a degree,but if you aint ready to get out there and work like a hard working man or woman stay in school get a degree and go sit behind a desk,cause you definitely wont make it in my field of work at a.c.i. or anywhere. Have a great day hope i answered the questions you were looking for.

To a previous poster:  No, that manager wasn't a good guy.  Don't be an idiot and pass the buck to corporate--it was not 'corporate's fault'.  It was his responsibility.  Running this sort of business is not rocket science, but it does require a certain amount of effort, which he sorely lacked.  All his Drew Careyness made him seem likeable, but what did he ever do?  Nothing.  Did he ever help on an install?  Did he ever teach you or anyone you worked with anything?

It sounds like Palantine went down and with any luck the Madison Heights office will be next. We just lost 2 systems and they are shuffling us all over the place. The reason is the same as it always is: they pinch pennies and try to do everything ultracheap. They let Comcast cut our pay and demand more in return. As a result they have a bunch of newbie techs that have no idea what they are doing. Its like a revolving door down there. They (the managers and supervisors) stand around every Tuesday morning patting themselves on the back and telling the techs how bad they suck. Never mind that the new guys were never trained right to begin with or that they are demanding so much at each job that most techs are working for minimum wage. Who wants to go through all that hassle for 7.40/hr? ACI is coming apart at the seams and they just keep doing more of the same things that DON'T WORK. They don't get it. They wont get it until there is nothing left of that company. Maybe once the doors are shut someone else will come along that is more in touch with what is going on and understands that you have to treat your employees right to be successful. They need to put away the Blackberrys, put away all the spreadsheets, roll up their sleeves and get their butts back out in the field.

well, a sign of relief. ACI Palatine IL has closed up. all the installers laid off, the brass gone, Mike Falsetti sleeps another night peacefully, but most likely alone after what we have all read about his relationship, dreaming of bags of money and raining coins from the sky. I have heard word that mike daniec, router, took off well before the place closed down, all his cronies left too once they could not get their own special custom tailored gift routes like they did before. I have sympathy for all the brothers that have been now laid off, many of them with kids and families, they now have to try and live on unemployment. Hopefully someone comes along and gives them a job they deserve after all the suffering endured with this company.
 Again, for anyone reading this, and should anybody run across this while checking backgrounds for people they are planning on hiring, they should know this.
-Paul Thon, Manager of ACI Palatine. He was/is a good man. It seems corporate was behind alot of the problems in the shop and changes in protocol, he was just in charge of enforcing it, whether he or anyone else saw it as fair. I hear word he is running some other venture now somewhere else, I hope it works better than ACI.
-Jeff Bandura, also a good man, I've heard guys trash him, I've heard people call him a liar, but he had to sell a product that was doomed, and lets be honest with ourselves, we we're all liars everyday we walked in that place. I remember being told "if customers ask if business is good, tell them it is" among other things. We were always required to keep ourselves up and seem like all was well, I remember tech-trainers would lose the ability to train people if they talked negatively about the operations to their trainees.
-If I remembered the trainers name, I'd put it here, he was a good guy too, he was supervisor when I arrived there, he helped me a few times.
-Eric Lugo was my trainer when I started, he fits in the good guy category.
-Robert Buntin, was a supervisor, but had become a tech, probably better money and hours, my guess, another good guy. goes along with
-Jamie, supervisor, didn't put up with people who wanted to mess around and play games during the day, but when you needed help or you were having trouble, he would be there.
-Kent Chubeck, supervisor, he had the attitude that anything could be done, and there was no need to down a job because an outlet couldn't be run, I've seen some of his miracles in person, like pulling outlets up a finished wall and across a drywall ceiling in a basement, or pulling a new outlet through a finished wall in a basement, between the finished wall and foundation wall, around a corner, and up and over into a closet. Masterpieces.
-Jerry, QC tech, if you screwed up he would tell you, but without the finger-waving in your face you would expect from someone in his position, he would show you what you did wrong, tell you the right way, and ask that you watch it next time. I never was referred to him personally, but I did see him in the lot one day, he thought I was fired because he had nothing come across about me in a long time, I was just doing really well and double-checking my work. classic!
-Dale Ware, warehouse. Everybody knew him, some people hated him, but those who hated him were hated by us themselves, usually because they were out for a fight. If you couldn't get along with dale, you probably couldn't get along with anyone else, a good, easy going guy.

along with these guys, there were a good number of techs there that showed quality and desire to work well and with quality, but unfortunately I have forgotten many names. Its unfortunate, because I feel they should get their recognition. Other than that, it's a shame to see so many good people out of a job, but good to see an operation run off of games and pay schemes from behind the curtain falling apart at the seams.

take a look at this: http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/21975292/detail.html it explains how albertsons supermarkets settled for $8.9 mil due to racial discrimination. It states :
   "Albertsons LLC was accused of creating a hostile work environment based on race, color, and national origin discrimination at its distribution center on Tower Road."

If I'm correct, what the palatine office does is nothing short of "creating a hostile work environment based on race, color, and national origin" by custom tailoring routes specifically to people of polish origin and language, along with the fact that routes are assigned to key techs based on the sex of the customer.

only problem it seems, if management or others hear of a tech complaining of such things, suddenly they disappear, fired and labeled as "misconduct" with made up reasons and evidence to make it seem like a revenge case, along with blacklisting the techs badge so that they can no longer work for comcast anywhere.

luckily the Illinois Department of Employment Services can see right through this layer of BS and award unemployment to the techs, so they aren't completely out. when I worked at ACI I heard many techs at the palatine office had secured attorneys. I think we need to start announcing our stories, writing statements, and doing what ever we can to bring justice to the employees that this company has screwed over.

eventually it should hopefully become a class action lawsuit. (hint hint, lawyers, read this) seeing that they advertise nationwide on sites like careerbuilder and snagajob, touting benefits they no longer offer, advertising outrageous pay rates, I think we should also start writing to the "scam buster" reporters at local TV stations and newspapers, bring the media in as well.

What is even more disgusting is the fact that MSOs like COMCAST love to look the other way when it comes to this sort of thing. What would their customers think if they knew that "Dreaming Big" meant "Racial discrimination"? just a thought...

BY THE WAY: here is a link to the us equal opportunity commission site covering how to file a report: https://eeoc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/eeoc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=334&p_created=1107363591&p_sid=5U1zK8Qj&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPSZwX3NvcnRfYnk9JnBfZ3JpZHNvcnQ9JnBfcm93X2NudD0xNDAsMTQwJnBfcHJvZHM9JnBfY2F0cz0mcF9wdj0mcF9jdj0mcF9zZWFyY2hfdHlwZT1hbnN3ZXJzLnNlYXJjaF9ubCZwX3BhZ2U9MQ**&p_li=&p_topview=1

The only way to get aci to treat us fairly is to go union. better pay, better hours, better benfits AT&T is unioin why shouldnt we be

lori/charlie asked for some clarification on the turnover...At the four chicago area offices, 100% turnover was low.  Well, actually, the south bend office, the turnover was 60%, but they fired/laid off/dismissed that manager (rick must have been too fair to employees, keeping them around that long not in the model) and closed that office.  the romeoville office was over 200% at one time, but i think dropped down to 180 before they closed it and shipped the ever so efficient manager off to st. louis last i heard.

I use to work for ACI three years ago. I work for them one year before I started to see the signs of lies and deceit. My pay check was never right, they charged me new prices for used tools, and when i quit they charged me for $1285.00 for what I have no clue and now this charge is on my credit report which I am fighting to have taking off. ACI is a rip-off and I am writing a letter to my congressman about this company. I am also writing a letter to the Better Business Bureau(BBB)to have this information on file. To everyone who has written a message about ACI on this site needs to also voice your complaints with the BBB. IF the BBB gets enough complaints about a company, they will flag that company to be investigated and seek ex- employees to get their side of things. If we want something done about ACI we have to use all our resources to get it done. Just posting on rippoff.com will not get it done. I too have been taking advantage by ACI and I refuse to let this company continue to do so. TO everyone that has and will post about this company, you are not alone. From Baltimore Maryland to Canton, ACI will never change.

well, I don't know who the other tech that was from algonquin was, but yes, he is right about palatine, 110%. palatine is a scam office. I must first say, there are some good guys working there, whether or not you think so, your supervisors are your friends. Jamie, hes a good guy, hes got lots of experience, same with kent, kent has that attitude that no job has to be downed, and it can be done. just dont piss them off, make good with them, and you will go far. same with the warehouse manager, dale. If you do your paperwork on time, and make sure you aren't losing equipment or messing up his stock, he will gladly help you. all three of these people should be awarded.

as to the others....hmm. where to start. Paul is a bit of a backstabber, but wasn't always that way. he used to be like a father to the techs, used to be supportive, used to be helpful, most likely had a fire lit under him by corporate that turned him right around.

mike daniec, mike mike mike. the previous post about favoritism? 100% true. If you were polish you had run of the office. there are polish techs walking around with keys to the office and warehouse, they are practically management wolves in a blue collar tech sheeps clothing. if you are polish, you will receive the best routes. if you are non-polish tech, ask mike for a route in a specific area, or tell him you are struggling with the way he routes you. he will laugh. he laughs and says "we don't have routes in rolling meadows" or "we don't have routes in dekalb" when in fact, they are being offered only to polish techs. one day, rumor has it that corporate sent this down, but mike was taken away from routing twice and the supervisor Jamie was put in. everyone was routed fairly and easily, no hiccups. once mike was back, hell was back on.

if you are polish, you will also be awarded routes with female names. it has been known in the past for polish techs to be given routes based on not just the area, but the sex of the customer, indicated by names on the work order. so not only racial discrimination, but sexual as well. so far, an A+ operation here!

so what goes best with a short day, either close to the shop or far enough that you won't be picking up jobs left and right from other techs, with routes consisting of gift jobs with female names? of course, china buffet! yes, thats right. if you are a polish tech, you have the luxury of eating lunch, uninterrupted, in a restaurant, a trick I never dared try, as idle time would get another job added to you, completely throwing your timeframes, yep, it was mcdonalds or wendys in the truck on my way to the next job for me! go to the lily garden in lake in the hills, il around lunch time, theres usuallhy about 3-4 ACI vans in the lot there every few days.

so, lets say, you like making the customer happy, you don't give up with a "can't be done", you make sure everything works before you leave, you want no service on installs, you want to know your customer understands everything, and is completely satisfied with their service, before you walk out the door? ha! that'll get you "the talk" from corporate. yes, charlie crowfoot himself will arrive at your office, and give you and about 5 of your closest techs a talk about your numbers, and how you better get your numbers up or your out on your a*s in 30 days. try explaining that you are getting route-raped by daniec, you may get some sympathy, and some relief, but wait until charlie looks away, then daniec is back at it. and now hes mad at you...

so they got you switching trucks do they? bet you are smart, you take all your important items out at night, parts you need to complete your job, remotes, component cables, anything that disappears out of your truck and locked them up in your car to replenish as you need them. or you get a floater truck just to find out all these items have been stripped. well, dont store them in your vehicle. and now, a reading from the gospel according to falsetti:

falsetti 30:5.3 (ACI handbook page 30 section 5.3) "It is the responsibility of the employee, to whom tools and equipment are assigned, to maintain and safeguard these assets as if they were their personal
property. It is the policy of this company to hold the individual responsible for
small tools and equipment lost, stolen, or damaged though negligence. A periodic
inventory of tools and equipment should be made."

or how about

"In reference to employees who have authorization to take Company vehicles home, it is the employees responsibility to assure that ALL company property is secured overnight. ACI supports the removal of valuable equipment from the vehicle, and securing it in the employee home."

hmmmm, SUPPORTS the REMOVAL. apparently not. enter the GPS trick:

picture this: you get into work in the morning after a vacation to discover that your normal truck has been given away to another tech. so you go to dale, as always, dales a good guy and is willing to help. he gets a van from one of the polish techs who I assume is doing office work? maybe? today? anyways, you load the van, carry your box of install supplies you always take with you, as they like to clean the trucks out of these, and load it in. you climb into the cab, the tech has left his GPS in the truck. if you are a d****ebag, you'll steal it, as the company tells any of us minions that the GPS is our problem, don't leave your stuff laying around, they aren't responsible and won't see to it that you get it back. but you don't. you leave it there. you instead load your GPS into the window, and go do your route. go back, unmount your GPS, noting that his is still in the cupholder, take out your things, load your car, lock up, go home to start again tomorrow.

next day: you return equipment, get routed, new truck today, load up your truck as you do each day, never short of materials as you keep yours secured. smart huh? nope. now for act 1. you get on the road, the tech calls you and says "you stole my GPS!" you know you didn't steal it, you saw it as you locked up. you tell him its where he left it, now comes the smoke and mirrors: "no, you stole my 2nd GPS out of my glove box!" what? a second GPS, in the glove box. because I, as a cable installer, are so much of a baller, that I, as well, drive around with 2 GPS'es in my vehicle. obviously, this was a bait. "you will pay for my GPS or I will (hunt? GUN? hard to tell with the accent on the radio) you down for this." now, the handbook specifically has a statement about threats at work, which is why i reported this to my immediate supervisor. big mistake. my jobs for the day disappear from my route, I ask the supervisor what is happening, am I fired? I of course can't get a straight answer, he waits outside the house the whole time, helping me as need be, waiting to escort me back. this, was enough to warrant paul to give me 2 options: search my car himself, trashing my personal posessions in the process, or 2. he calls the cops to search. again, any "minion tech" would not get this search option should their property go missing.

I vote #1. I don't need any more fabrication, I don't need a record, and I was hiding nothing. he picks out remotes, cords, basic supplies I move into my car when they take me out of a truck and put me in a floater, that way my stock levels stay consistent. they claim some garbage I pull out of the DUMPSTER (out of system splitters, some old, out of system remotes, etc) junk that scrappers who come around 3 times daily pick up and take with no legal recourse, are me stealing. I was never notified "dumpster diving" was against company policy, nor is it in the rule book. they claim the remotes I had on me in the truck at the time in my "carry-on box" as stealing as well, along with the splitters and install supplies. I was told I was terminated, on account that I was stealing. didn't argue with paul, didn't feel like it. so what was I fired for? following the rules. following rules outlined on page 30, section 5.3, and page 9, section 2.3, of the handbook. to outline page 9, section 2.3:

2.3 Workplace Violence
ACI is concerned about the increased violence in society, which has also filtered into many workplaces throughout the United States. As a result, it is the policy of ACI to expressly prohibit any acts or threats of violence by any employee, at any time, while on company property or company time. ACI also will not tolerate any acts or threats of violence against ACI employees, customers or visitors, on ACI premises or while engaged in business with or on behalf of ACI, on or off ACI premises. In keeping with the spirit and intent of this policy and to ensure that ACIs objectives in this regard are attained, it is the commitment of ACI:

1. To provide a safe and healthy work environment in accordance with ACIs safety and health policy.

2. To take prompt remedial action up to and including immediate termination of employment against any employee who engages in any threatening behavior or acts of violence or who uses any obscene, abusive or threatening language and/or gestures.

3. To take appropriate action when dealing with customers, former employees or visitors to ACI facilities who engage in such behavior. Such action may include notifying the police or other law enforcement personnel and prosecuting violators of this policy to the fullest extent of the law.

4. To prohibit employees, former employees, customers and/or visitors from carrying any type of a weapon, including firearms (even if the employee is legally authorized by the State to carry a concealed weapon) onto ACI premises, during work hours, or while conducting business on behalf of the Company.

5. To establish viable security measures to ensure that ACIs facilities are safe and secure to the maximum extent possible and to properly handle access to ACI facilities by the public, off-duty employees and former employees.In furtherance of this policy, you are required to immediately advise ACI management of any potentially dangerous situation(s). This includes, for example, threats or acts of violence, aggressive
behavior, offensive acts, threatening or offensive comments or remarks and the like.
ACI will not permit any form of retaliation against any employee for making a report under this policy.

"ACI will not permit any form of retaliation against any employee for making a report under this policy."

seems like accusation of theft and termination would count as retaliation for filing a report with a supervisor. not to mention, the tech making threats was not suspended or punished for the threats.

moral of the story kids, don't set yourself up, for this reason. ACI is a company that likes to write up rules, write up contracts and pay systems that screw you into free labor for them. and if you try to follow their rules, they will terminate you anyway if you complain. hopefully this will help others, hopefully warn potential new hires, and protect the old-timers. I know theres palatine techs out there suffering as well, create a username, you don't need to give anything personal, write your story now.

Look at the loser CEO's facebook and one of the names of friends is Lori and it's spelled exactly the same.ACI is a bad employer ,husband used to work for them, like I said used to.Just because other bad companies abuse their employees doesn't mean you should.And even though he doesn't work for them it mad me mad enough to support unions and their Advocacy groups.They reduce wages,pay a weird salary wage and when you do the math of hours work including driving and over time you make less than $10 an hour that's why they don't do hourly pay and by the way when rich people add up hourly they like to include benefits,some of which they have to pay because of worker laws or because it make their insurance cheaper and covers their butt in case of injury but they will pretend it's for you.They even made employee's show proof of their children birth hoping you wouldn't mail info in and they could  drop your kids as if anyone would pay money out of check for kids that aren't theirs,that was their excuse.They were hoping employee's weren't paying attention.Their a joke of a company but not as much as Comcast who hasn't figured out this company gives them a bad name without much benefit because it would probably be cheaper not to pay a middle man.As a customer we use At&t at least their employees are union like Meijer.I am now trying to find Unions for when I am a Customer.I feel bad for his friends who are having hours increased and wages decreased because company is using recession to get away with it knowing their employees are stuck right now.My guess is they want to expand but can't get loan so are decreasing employee wages to make extra income for company.They think they are so clever.Support afl-cio.ACI is a bad company.Tell Comcast you refuse service because of this company.I do.

Do you know what next Monday is? It's labor day. As Wikipedia describes it "The holiday is often regarded as a day of rest and parades". Well I guess that only applies if you aren't a tech at ACI. We not only came in tonight to a "Labor Day is a mandatory work day for all techs" sign but also most of the techs are going to be working Sunday as well. What it boils down to is this. While our manager is at home getting drunk and enjoying his weekend off the rest of us will be busting our balls so that the little penguin can get a fatter bonus.

If you are thinking of coming to work here then you need to think again. Everything here is all about the management looking out for themselves at the expense of the people doing the real work. They have us sign a sheet saying we attended a safety meeting that never even took place every morning. They make you sign forms agreeing to lowering your pay to keep the upper management guys from taking a hit. If you want to use any of the vacation pay you have built up then they always say that there are already people off that day. Stay away from ACI. It stinks!

They just can't stand success. I'm working in Detroit out of the Madison heights office. They took a bunch of techs from Detroit and moved them to another system. For the past three weeks most of those techs have made minimum wage. They keep throwing all the newbies down here with us so that we are almost sure to get kicked out of Detroit. The guys in the new system are all just about ready to quit. I know if I get stuck out there I'm gone!

I just don't get it. Why would you try to get into a system that cuts your pay in half at the expense of a system that makes you money?

Wow... that's just.. wow.

By all Gods major and minor, accruing vacation pay is sometimes one of the only things that makes some jobs bearable.

Is it even *legal* to not offer vacation pay?? Where I am, vacation pay is mandated by LAW. The employer MUST calculate 4% of your gross pay as vacation pay, paid annually for your first 5 years of employment and that raises to 6% in your 6th year.

In addition, you MUST be given vacation time, 2 weeks in your first 5 years, rising to 3 starting in your 6th, EVERY year... They are NOT allowed to prevent you from taking your rightfully earned vacation time within the year. They are not allowed to carry vacation time over into the next year. If they do, it's a gross violation of the Employment Standards Act, and is punishable by law.

A sub-contractor has the option of having that 4% or 6% paid out on every paycheck, however, this must be agreed to by both the employer and the worker *at the time of hire* and not slipped in when the employee is unaware.

It would seem that there's work to be done, not just on the employee/employer side of the equation, but if there's no legally mandated and enforced holiday time in your state or county, I'd suggest agitating for change from your government as well. People NEED downtime. If they don't get it, bad things can happen.

As an aside, I wonder why it is that all the company flag wavers in this report have such horrendous spelling, diction and grammar... For example Capitalizing Every Word In A Sentence?

I would really like to know how they figure out the production pay.

Thankfully my husband no longer works for them but when he did, he was lucky to make $7.50 an hour. He would leave by 7am & not be home until 9pm some nights, yet his paychecks were barely $300.00. What is wrong with that picture?? They also docked him an hour lunch everyday even though he never took one. After he quit & questioned their practices, mentioning he was going to contact the Labor board, they bent over backwards to find a way to make him happy. They paid him for all of the hour lunches & also paid him for the difference between what the production pay was & the amount he was supposed to be making an hour.....a whopping $9.00 for working his a*s off. Makes me wonder what the labor board would have discovered had they launched an investigation. I kind of feel like he was paid to be quiet.

That's right my friend, you have to take a drug test and have a clean driving record, too. For last three years anyway....and the drug test...yeah, they look at that sometimes, too.

Hello, my name is Chris. I am 33 and have been installing cable since I was 18. I am responding to these comments and complaints because I would like to say something to the spouses of installers.....,"This is not a regular job". I lost my marriage because I CHOSE to work the long hours that these Contracting companies have to work with. If you husbands or wives want normal hours, tell them to work directly for the Cable company and not as a Contractor. Yes, technically ACI is employee based but they are still Contracted by the cable company. I have never worked for ACI but if I have worked with a company that didn't offer a truck, tools, gas card, paid training, benefits........this is where most people fail to see the opportunity they are receiving from such a company. When I first started doing cable, I had to spend $20k just to get started!! I never became a good installer for about a year, yes, it takes that long to become good. I admit there have been times that paychecks were messed up but nothing that my supervisor didn't take care of. If you are a good and reliable installer and stay away from the disgruntled installers you can make a lot of money......with long hours ofcourse, all part of the job!!! ACI in my opinion is a great company that offers job opportunities across the nation and people should respect that. There isn't one set way to resolve the issues that many installers have with this type of work. If you want my opinion, this job is designed for a single person with no other responsibilities in life........for the first year. After that, the company will fight tooth and nail to keep you if you are decent and reliable. If there weren't so many people worried about the time and money that they could make and focus on learning their new skill, the upper management wouldn't have to worry about replacing the installers that honestly never should have been there in the first place. In ending this, I just wanted to say that my average paycheck after the first year of installing cable was atleast $1200 per week, 6 days a week, averaging 8-9 hrs per day with lunches and sometimes 4 hrs of down-time per day.......I love this profession!!!!

It is absolutely correct that techs #1 and #2 wouldnt be pulling in the same kind of money based on their production. When Tech #1 when out with those 2 triple play installs and makes an ok amount of money, and tech #2 goes out with 7 DTA installs, no matter how fast tech #2 completes those 7 jobs, his production rate for the day will be garbage, considering if he was lucky enough to be hired at 33% a DTA would only give him 99 cents, and the trip charges along with those only $3.42, perhaps an outlet or a drop here and there for 7 bucks or so. On the other hand, tech #1 with only those 2 jobs, was pulling in at least 50 bucks per job... Thats usually not how it happens though to be honest, its usually someone going out with 4 CDVs and someone else with a handful of DTAs.

And don't give me that garbage about auto routing.. it is the supervisor's and management's responcability to make sure that some computer at a comcast office isn't screwing over their employees...

When is this litigation going to happen? I have photographic evidence of the double standards and personal biases taking place in the offices that people seem to not want to say exist.

Lets not fool ourselves though, anyone who's been in this business long enough knows that ACI is completely dicking over its employees to cover their higher-ups salaries and keeping their bottom line stable. And at the same time, there will always be a steady stream of people lining up for jobs, because they dont know any better, or they are too desperate to be picky about the d****e bags they work for.

Sure, those of us with experience can work elsewhere, but, who's got time to go to interviews, and actually look for jobs when your working 6 days a week, 12 hours a day, right?

I started my career with ACI in the spring of 04 (yes i did say career) It has not been an easy road and i did not exspect it to be. The hours are long and the stress between managment and the customers is at times hard to handle. I had no prior exsperience when i was hired and was payed to learn the skills needed to provide for my familey in this ever changing and growing industry. I was an installation tech for 4 years and recently have been promoted. I under stand some of the complaints on this blog and will try not to be byas. THIS JOB IS NOT FOR EVERYONE. To be successful in this industry you have to be aggresive, honest, and dedicated. No one is taking money out of my check and ive have never made minimum wage with ACI. There are many installers that i have worked with for years, who have their own homes and live decent lives. No their not driving jags or eating caviar, but theirs steaks on the grill and beer in the fridge. I can also take my experience, any where in the country, with any other company and make a fair wage. Their are ACI policies that i dont aprove of(truck fees, damage deductions, insurance rates) but also understand that its not my company and i have the option and the experience (thanks to ACI) to go else where for employment. We put full effort into the techs that are not making the wages they desire. ACI wants everyone to be successful, when the techs are poductive the company is productive (we are auto routed by time warner so i dont want to here the buddy routing s**t) Lets be real here, tech #1 completes 2 jobs in 10 hours. Tech #2completes 7 jobs in 10 hours/ should tech #1 and #2 make the same wage for that day. We all know going into this that it is a production driven job and if you cant make it than you just cant make it. I hear so many negative things but never the positive. When a tech(with ACI 6 months) house burt down they donated a good bit to his family and put them up in a hotel. When an admins(employed with ACI 8 months) baby was sick and had to take a leave of absence the company and employees pulled together to help her familey in need. They are a family oreinted buisness that has been very generous to there employees. At the end of the day if your a hard worker that wants to be productive and have the drive to be successful you will have no issues with ACI. If show up late for work, call off work because your mom has an ingrown tow nail, or if you would rather hang out at the gas station eating hotdogs your better off working at Mcdonalds. If you do not have enough sence not to drill holes in wood floors or to not break 3rd generation nic naks than this is not the job for you! This job is not for eveyone. Ill stay with ACI for now and you can work at Mcdonalds. Enjoy your free meal.

They have been ripping people off for years. The L2R scam would have been fine if they had not been lying about the actual revenue. They were skimming for years. As far as safe driving. Anyone that has worked in SE MI and quit knows that, that was a donation. They manufacture back charges for failed jobs and missing equipment until it is all gone. I thought that the problem was all local management because the higher ups had always been loyal to their long time employees. Not any more. They laid off one of their first people and told him he would not be called back. Good of them to allow
him to collect unemployment after almost 2 decades wasn't it. They have supervisors, managers and vice presidents coming out of their ears. Yet they try to trim costs by cheating the people on the ground doing the work. There,s more I'll post later
One last comment for the recruiter. Staying up all night trying to undo years of behaving badly is not dedication. It is desperation. Karma sucks don't it.

Complete tool sounds like title I would give to you, though. Or Mr/Mrs Crofoot. No, complete tool works.

How many places have you ever worked where you had to sign something saying you had to pay back 'training expenses' if you didn't get routed to where you could make a living? Is that even legal? you ever show up to work just to be sent home? don't they know the routes the day before? Couldn't they call me in the morning to say "hey, don't bother coming in today". No, they'd rather I burn up half tank of gas--seeing how I am not making any money, why should it matter to them? Can a company take 10 dollars from every check until 500 dollars is built up for a deductible on any accidents? Can they charge you for taking the car home because they dont have enough room in parking lot? Has anyone ever received the 'accident free' bonus which was supposed to pay back the 500 bucks after you didnt have accident for three years? Wait, nobody works there three years. Question: does that money ever get refunded when an accident free person quits or is fired? Is there a class action lawsuit waiting to happen there?

I think a lawyer should get class action suit going on the refunding of their deductible after termination policy (not to mention they self insure property damage, so this is covering a fake deductible that doesn't exist).

Q: What is funnier than watching ACI management try to keep a straight face while explaining everything that has to be done to "properly" get paid for your work?

A: When they run out of techs to foist all this BS on and have to actually do it themselves!

Thats right. In an economy that is as bad as it is they cant even find enough employees to cover the routes. That means the techs that are still there are running 2 and 3 routes each along with anyone else they can stuff into a truck and hand a couple routes to. How bad does a company have to suck to find itself in such a spot? Of course they will reduce the workload, reduce the pay to the techs and lose still MORE money because they cant cover the work that is there. Way to manage a company guys!

I would like to point out somethings that are so true about this company. One this company is so unorganized to the point that they should be shut down. I'm going to be very open and honest about everything that I have to say about this company and put them on straight blast. My "friend" works for this company. This "friend" use to work out in the romeoville,il location. Well romeoville was closed down because their numbers were f'd up. While working there, the supervisors would hold meetings and curse at the employees, I have it all on tape with video and sound. Every body was a m'fer this and m'fer that. Recently this year the owner of the company comes to the building with his diamond watch on being very flashy but also being a straight a*s hole. He acts as if he is so educated and knows squalor about his company, I feel that the visit to the locations was a waste of time for my "friend" and the rest of the company holding them back on their work. While working for this company we have yet to receive any improvement with the work flow and money. Working out in place's were they require COD's and poverty driven areas, techs are likely to get any jobs in for the day. And what about the PTO's? Are they only available to those that kiss a*s? And Leah or Lori the owner's ex-wife, why would you put your business out there like that? I dont feel sorry for you, you work for comcast which you put your husband on thats why he has so many of these hell holes open. Why is it that tech's dont get paid for holidays? Arent they exempt? Sounds like I have built up such a large law suit its not even funny.

I just want to start off by saying, that I have never been so mistreated by a company, like I have been from ACI, in my entire life...

I've worked for other Cable Contracting companies before, and things weren't perfect, but, i could at least know that if i go in to work 6 days a week, and put in 10-12 hours a day, that i would be able to provide for my family, by keeping the basics around them, like a roof over their heads, electricity in their light bulbs, oh, and food on the table..

With ACI, I cannot say for sure whether i'll be able to do any number of those things any given month. I'm going to share my experiences with everyone, so that people will know of the garbage being peddled at ACI.

When i started at ACI, i was told many things, and most of them have been simply ignored, forgotten about, or just denied altogether. The first point was that i would be working a 6 day week for now, and then very soon we would be switching to a 5 day week. Now, i've worked 6 day weeks for other companies, and that wasnt something i wanted to do again. When i voiced my concerns about this, i was assured that it would only be temporary. Its been 10 months, and i'm still working 6 days a week. every time that i bring it up, i'm told more BS, or just completely shot down. Their favorite way to deflate me is to tell me that i should be grateful to even have a job.

I was also told that the average day would be about 10 hours, its more like 13. an 8 hour day would put me home at 3, i'm pushing closer to 8 most days. This really sucks for me and mostly my family whom i get to see maybe a few hours before bed, and then leave before they get up.

I was also told i was being hired on for a commercial CDV project that was starting up soon. My background at the time was mainly commercial and wallfishing work, so this was perfect for me. That projet has simply been forgotten about really, whenever asked about it, again, the subject is sidestepped.

When i first started, of course to keep me baited, i was making good money, with good routes. I was pulling in about 600/750 weekly take home, which isnt bad, its not what i was making at other companies, but it was better than retail wages.. so i stuck it out. these types of checks lasted only a few months. Soon after my wages dipped to almost/below half. that is quite the drop off yes?

In the past 6 months i have only seen ONE check over 700. 12 of these checks were below 350. the others in the 400s, one was 600.

Now, crappy pay aside, I have built up some PTO. GREAT! Now when i try to use it... my requests for time off are denied, every time. I have put in 2 requests, which have been denied, and I have put on in last week, that has yet to be approved. Its quite a pain to plan something nearly a month in advance, and had to re-plan it because it was denied.

These are just a few of my gripes about this company. Trust me there are many many more...

My husband started training with them on April 28, 2009. Since then he has received a total of ~$1700.00 in salary. They apparently kept the first check to take care of the tools & such, as a safety for them in case an employee leaves & takes anything from the truck. Of course then he's also been charged weekly for "Tool purchase 2", whatever the heck that is.

He was told first that he was on probation for 30 days, that after the 30 days, he would be paid on production & the pay would be retro back to the weeks after training. This week's pay, he received 40 hours regular & 17.5 hours overtime. That in itself is a joke because he's been working a minimum of 10 hours a day, 7 days a week. Also, it says his pay rate is $9.00 an hour (whoever said all techs start at $9.50, yeah right), yet he was paid $7.58 an hour. The "powers that be" were conveniently not in the office today, so he couldn't even get any answers. He was also told most techs average out about $35.00 an hour. Where? He has copies of all of his timesheets & work orders so I have no idea where they get off not paying him for the hours he's worked. He's requesting copies of any paperwork that was signed at the time of employment & if things don't jive, we are seeking the advice of an attorney or the labor relations board.

This company is underhanded & these guys work their tails off for nothing. Don't give me the song & dance about getting through the training & then going out on your own & getting paid more, because I am telling you firsthand, it doesn't make a difference.

It's B.S. plain & simple.

Hello everyone!

I would like to thank you all for your words of encouragement. This has really been one big nightmare but I'm doing better. Hopefully I will be divorced within 6 months. I filed in June of 07.
Thankfully the Judge ruled that ACI was a marital asset. So I do have a vested interest here.

I just want to clarify something. My son was never served beans for dinner. lol I'm certain that Dan or Andrea's parents would never allow their family to go hungry either. That's a bunch of "hog wash" lol If anyone would like to chat? or Vent? or whatever? I'm game.

PS Things are not always as the appear. Communication is key ! ALWAYS


Thanks again!
Leah Falsetti.

To Dan In Holly.

I don't believe you understood what i wrote.Maby you should read it again and understand the words you are reading instead of only hearing whats in your mind.

You sound just like all the rest of the guys that i talk to.Every one is feeling sorry for themselves-looking back on what was-exspecting the company to decide for them.

Maby you should read what you wrote again and look at it from a third position.
What i said was the ball is now in your court and it is time for you to make a decision.I Hope you understand that there are a lot of jobs out there in the communications world that are willing to pay you a very handsome amount for your efforts.You Will never know this if you and all the other guys out there sit around feeling sorry for themselves about what has happened.

We hook up the most powerfull tool of our time every single day.The power of communication.There is no limits on it-It's business hours are infinate-Take advantage of it.

I think that if everyone put as much energy in to a positive direction as they do the negativity of there current daily grind, half would already be looking at life in a whole new direction.

There are many things a person can do to take the pressure off if they would just attempt new things.

I always ask everyone who is complaining to me that has been around for a while if they took advantage of the fat times with the company.I am utterly amazed at what there answers are.Almost 100% admit they are and were living beyond there actual means.Never saving-Never investing-Never safeguarding themselves against times like these-No Backup plan to life-No way out if they are put in a corner.

So I ask you the same?????Did you protect your self or did you get caught with your pants down????

Instead of every one discussing how much they hate there jobs -- why not discuss how every one could add to there income and talk about the success of that.

Let me start off.This is a short about my father.Not to bore anyone but to give you some idea of what i am talking about.
10 years befor he passed away he suffered a double heart attack - part of his recovery was to walk to get healthy again. My dad worked for dow a long time and retired and didn't need for anything but he also was a man of no waste.
Every day on his walks he carried a plastic bag and was picking up what i thought was trash.a worthy cause in it's self but was imberrasing to me just the same when my friends ask me about it.So one day i ask him why he had to always pick up trash when he walked?He looked at me astounded,almost mad.Come let me show you the trash i have been picking up all this time.He wasn't picking up trash,he had barrels and 5 gallon buckets full of aluminum,copper,&brass.He Told me that if the doctor was going to make him walk every day he was d**n sure going to get paid for it!

You may think in the last that i wrote that i am just rude - not the case.
I have been on my own since i was 14 - I know what it means to be truly hungry - Have no place to live - Nothing to wear - No place to stay clean - Or a place to sleep - Have people talk to you as if your trash because there too ignorant to not judge.
When i was young i hated and i cried and i cried until there were no more tears.Then i got mad - Then i started fighting for the right to exist in this world the same as every one else - I STOPPED FEELING SORRY FOR MY SELF AND STARTED TO DO THE THINGS THAT WOULD CHANGE MY FUTURE FOR EVER BECAUSE NO ONE ELSE IS GOING TO DO IT FOR ME.

I have no sympathy for a man who has a job and is complaining about how much he gets paid or the way he is treated when he has the power to change what he is doing at any time.

I realize times are getting tough - tougher than a lot of the younger people are use to. It simply requires every one to get tougher than the times to come out on top.I would challenge any one to a simple test and if they are truly honest about it i will prove a easy point.
Take five dollars a day and put it in a jar - 7 days a week -for one year - and don't spend it.At the end of the year you have $1,825.00 - As if your life depends on it don't spend it.I know that everyone can find a way to do this if they truly want to make there life easier during hard times.During this same year i want you to self educate your self with the stock market.I know this can also be done if you truly want change for the good.Starting the second year you need to self invest your $1,825.00 while still putting $5.00 a day in a jar or if times improve $10.00 a day in a jar.
Once this takes ahold of you your priorities start to change-you become self educated-you gain confidence in every day living-you stop wasteing money at convience stores and fast food centers-you are earning your way to a self made success story-your conversations change to the positive-life just starts to come into a simple focus-you start asking your self why you didn't start doing things like this years ago.The creative juices start to flow on how you can make more money to invest because you now are seeing the power of investment - it is huge.
Or you can just sit around wondering why life is so cruel to you and wonder how the guy next door can afford what he affords and is always smileing.

Dan------You may think this is all crazy but i think instead of bickering back and forth on the complaints it would be a lot more interesting if we were all shooting info back and forth about successful trades in the market.

For what ever it is worth i wish you all the best.

David, while I'm happy for you that you think that they think you are happy and therefore you are (or something like that), All the pretty mental games still don't put dollars in your pocket. Maybe you are proud and happy to be wearing the title "Installation Techician", some of us don't have the luxury of being able to just have our paychecks cut and benefits reduced everytime we turn around.

Quite a few of the guys where I work are now working for minimum wage if they bill all the hours they work. It's not that they are lazy, it's that the work isn't there. We sometimes come back with a couple trouble calls completed. Based on PDH that might mean they only took home under $30 for the day! The thing is you can't just do your 2 trouble calls and go home. You still have to wait around for the time frames. Some guys get around it by billing the way the would under L2R and claim a 6 hour lunch.

So wear your title proudly, David. It is as impressive as the title of "Head bus-boy" or "The towel guy" at a carwash. It pays a bit less than either of those jobs now but if you just want a title then knock yourself out.

I will say this for ACI. It's an interesting job because I do appreciate comedy. Watching the management there figure out new and innovative ways to screw the techs is funny. Watching how seriously management takes themselves as they roll out the next round of threats is even funnier. It's almost as if they think people still care about their jobs there.

You got Joe running around trying to find any excuse to pile on the writeups to cover his own butt when they fire someone. I don't know anyone there that hasn't had at least one write up for something in the past 2 months.

Then there is Charlie, demanding a "plan of action" to turn things around. Well Chuckie, it has to come from the top down, not the bottom up. No matter how you spin it, it can't always be the fault of the techs.

I've heard more than one tech express the attitude that they don't care about anything, they just want to get fired so they can collect unemployment until they find a job. They won't run the demos, they don't care about being on time, they don't care if they even come to work...they can always taking their screwing tomorrow.

When the economy picks up, ACI is going to get caught with it's pants down. They will not be able to handle the work because they won't have the techs and won't be able to get them back. Aci long ago lost focus on what made it a great place to work with...I doubt they'll ever find their way back.

I Would Like To Start By Saying That I Am A Current Employee Of ACI.That I Know Greg And His Family Very Well And Was Sorry To Hear That He Has Moved On.They Are All Hard Fought Christians With Hearts The Size Of Texas.His Father Is A Sound Man And Raised And Steared His Entire Family Always In The Right Direction.I For One Will Always Stand Beside Greg Regardless Of What Any Other Man Says Or Thinks.

Which Brings Me To Why I Am Writeing This.The Key Word Being Thinks.The Lost Art Of Common Sence.Something Not Used Much These Days.To Quitely Weigh The Pros And Cons Of A Situation From Both Sides Of The Table Takes A Great Deal Of Patience,Information,And The Complex Insight Of The Opposition,As They See And Understand The Challenges Layed Before Them To Survive.You Can't Play This Game If You Don't Even Know Your Own Limitations.

Every Thing That Happens In Your Life Is For A Reason / Like It Or Not.
Every Time You React To A Situation There Will Be A Counter Reaction / Like It Or Not.
You Are Not Who You Think You Are,You Are Not Who They Think You Are,You Are Who You Think They Think You Are / Like It Or Not.

Or In Other Words , Your Mind Controls Your Actions , Your Actions Create Reactions , So If Your Suffering From Depressed Thoughts Its By Your Own Hand.
You Have Not Used Common Sense Logic As Stated Above Before Reacting To A Situation Which In Turn Generated More Negative Reactions Wich In Turn Keeps Dragging You Further Down A Trail You Don't Want To Walk.

The Company Will Always Do What Ever They Have To Do To Survive - Not Unlike Any Other Business Out There Especially In Todays World.
There Changes Are Passed Down Through The Ranks As They See Fit.
When It Reaches You / Then It Is Your Turn To Decide On What You Want To Do.
You Are Free To Ask Any And All Questions Necessary To Make The Best Educated Move For Your Self Befor You Utter Negative Comments To Others.
The Companies Decisions Are Really None Of Your Business.Your Only Concern Is If There Decisions Fit In To The World You Choose To Live.

Do I Stay Or Do I Leave?

Have I Always Agreed With What This Company Has Done? Absolutely Not!
Has It Ever Made Me Angry? Absolutely!
Have I Taken The Time To Understand Why They Do What They Do?Absolutely!

Every One Is In The Same Initial Boat At The Beginning Of New Policy / It Causes Change / Your Pulled From Comfort And Have To Improvise / Wether It Is With ACI Or Any Other Company Out There.

Forgive And Forget - Smile - Be Happy - The Day Is Yours,Make It What You Will,
Controll Your Destiny.

I Am 52 Years Old - I Love My Job - I Wouldn't Trade It For The World - I Own My Days - I Make My Job What I Choose It To Be .

I Am A Field Instalation Technition For ACI And Am d**n Proud Of Every Earned Minute Of This Exsperience.

Which owner's son shared that inspiring beans story, the bonghead or the imbecile?

Touching, really.

Well Greg I think we've all heard the beans story. It paints a very touching picture but lets see it for what it was. It was a guy that was taking a gamble to become rich. It paid off for him. The attitude that because Mike had some nights eating beans means that it's ok to put his employees in that spot overlooks one point...none of us are going to have a chance to get rich working there. Some of us cant even afford the beans anymore.

In fairness to ACI, most businesses don't put their employees first. They weren't created for the purpose of keeping employees happy, they are created to make money. I totally understand that but at the same time there are things they can do to make a lousy situation somewhat better.

My biggest pet peave right now is them letting you drive all the way to work instead of letting you know that there is no work for you that day. Not only do you not make any money but you still have to be up early and burn up your gas and time. They know a day ahead of time how many routes there are but they have you drive in "just in case".

As techs we are paying the price for lousy decisions like them deciding that they needed that office in Canton. That is the reason they are looked at as bigwigs. They have all the luxury items that have nothing to do with running the business. They have clean bathrooms while we might have toilet paper in a nasty stinky bathroom. Again the attitude is that the techs don't matter. We are replacable cogs in the machine that makes them money. If one won't submit then just replace them with one that will. Its like the old joke that goes "Q: How do you make an ACI tech happy? A: Who cares?"

This is Greg, the former recruiter of ACI. The very first posting that started this blog, that I have checked in on every so often, was started by a man I hired in the Pontiac office. I can tell you that the lady that posted the very first thread was completely mis-informed and her husband did not explain to her what was said in the interview.

I have worked for ACI for almost 7 years. Started as a tech in Sept 2002 and was promoted to a recruiter in Oct 2005. I have seen and worked in just about all areas of the company from crawl spaces and cold days where you can't feel your finger tips to sitting in a board room with the owners talking about ACI's future. I've been in every office in Michigan and also other states as well. In a meeting at the Canton corporate office til 9pm and while I was leaving I see Michael Falsetti sitting in his office with pajama bottoms on settling contract deals with Dan Kannan to keep contract work flowing in so ACI can grow and create new jobs or open new makets.

One of the owners son's told me that he remembered when as a child his dad poured beans on his plate and said that is all we can afford for dinner tonight because they put all their money, house and created unthinkable amounts of debt to start a company that was unsure if it was enough to take care of their families or even survive in 1984. Bad economy then as well! Would any of you make a tough choice like that? If you did and 25 years later became wealthy, would you like it if people looked at you and used the term "bigwig" just laying around collecting fat checks?

Before ACI my family owned a business and I can tell you one thing that is consistant, most people are out to get you and screw you whenever they can and unfortuantly the good and honest one's get caught with the punishments too. One bad apple can spoil the whole bunch.

I know the owners on a personal level. They are not out to screw their employee's. Just so you know, I was called a corporate "bigwig" and before the financial heartaches hit the techs they hit corporate first. Some of the people I hired back in 2005-2006 were making more than me as techs. I traveled and was away from my family too working at times 7 days a week\ 80 hours. I've gotten emails from Charlie Crofoot, Michael Falsetti and Mike Kurcz at 10:30pm then the next morning wake up and get more at 4 or 5am!! When do they sleep? Phone calls from employees drunk wives at 3am because her husband put in 50 hours that week. Then call me back half hour later to tell me sorry because he does make 45K a year with just a G.E.D. This is just a tip of the iceberg. Many times corporate people are defending employees from pissed off customers who demand 1 year free cable, replace siding on their whole house because the tech screwed a ground block to his house and he was threatening to get a lawyer.

Honestly there where times I wanted to just go back and be a tech. Go to work at 7am, get my work, no one breathing down my neck, work hard and finish early and go home! In a corporate world you have to watch your back and what you say to people at all times. Just like how this blog started. I did a group interview with 10 people in the room. Next couple of days I called them back in for a one on one. I asked them individually, explain to me the L2R and I got 4 different versions! All sat in the same room and heard me explain, with a powerpoint, how the L2R works. People hear what they want to hear.

Real quick about the new PDH. That was the original pay that ACI was set toward. Been with ACI for years just in certain states. The L2R was suppose to be a blessing to the tech, a chance to make more money, however, every system has a loop hole. With the L2R techs where lieing about their hours and claiming more work than what they did, MSO catches it and don't pay ACI. ACI pays more hours to the tech but have money taken away, so ACI was losing a boat load of money. You have to understand that ACI has to pay a lot of money to the government just to have an employee. Taxes, work comp, insurance, unemployment, benefits, 401k (50%match), etc. They put in the negative L2R to stop the scammers and it worked for the most part. Then techs said "well screw ACI, if they won't let me cheat then I will claim 20 more hours so even if I get min wage I get time and half off the min wage. ACI now has to pay more to the government for a wage that is not truely earned. To end the madness they decided to go all PDH. You make so much in so many hours this is what you get. Just like sales. The more efficient, more work, more money you make! Supervisors will not give work to those that can not handle it. If you can handle only 5 jobs a day they are not going to give you 8! Customer complaints go through the roof and now they have to go out and fix it or ACI's clients will make ACI pay the customer what they want. If the customer tells Charter, Comcast or Time Warner we want 3 months free cable for tardiness or poor work, ACI pays that not the MSO!

This is Greg, the former recruiter of ACI. The very first posting that started this blog, that I have checked in on every so often, was started by a man I hired in the Pontiac office. I can tell you that the lady that posted the very first thread was completely mis-informed and her husband did not explain to her what was said in the interview.

I have worked for ACI for almost 7 years. Started as a tech in Sept 2002 and was promoted to a recruiter in Oct 2005. I have seen and worked in just about all areas of the company from crawl spaces and cold days where you can't feel your finger tips to sitting in a board room with the owners talking about ACI's future. I've been in every office in Michigan and also other states as well. In a meeting at the Canton corporate office til 9pm and while I was leaving I see Michael Falsetti sitting in his office with pajama bottoms on settling contract deals with Dan Kannan to keep contract work flowing in so ACI can grow and create new jobs or open new makets.

One of the owners son's told me that he remembered when as a child his dad poured beans on his plate and said that is all we can afford for dinner tonight because they put all their money, house and created unthinkable amounts of debt to start a company that was unsure if it was enough to take care of their families or even survive in 1984. Bad economy then as well! Would any of you make a tough choice like that? If you did and 25 years later became wealthy, would you like it if people looked at you and used the term "bigwig" just laying around collecting fat checks?

Before ACI my family owned a business and I can tell you one thing that is consistant, most people are out to get you and screw you whenever they can and unfortuantly the good and honest one's get caught with the punishments too. One bad apple can spoil the whole bunch.

I know the owners on a personal level. They are not out to screw their employee's. Just so you know, I was called a corporate "bigwig" and before the financial heartaches hit the techs they hit corporate first. Some of the people I hired back in 2005-2006 were making more than me as techs. I traveled and was away from my family too working at times 7 days a week\ 80 hours. I've gotten emails from Charlie Crofoot, Michael Falsetti and Mike Kurcz at 10:30pm then the next morning wake up and get more at 4 or 5am!! When do they sleep? Phone calls from employees drunk wives at 3am because her husband put in 50 hours that week. Then call me back half hour later to tell me sorry because he does make 45K a year with just a G.E.D. This is just a tip of the iceberg. Many times corporate people are defending employees from pissed off customers who demand 1 year free cable, replace siding on their whole house because the tech screwed a ground block to his house and he was threatening to get a lawyer.

Honestly there where times I wanted to just go back and be a tech. Go to work at 7am, get my work, no one breathing down my neck, work hard and finish early and go home! In a corporate world you have to watch your back and what you say to people at all times. Just like how this blog started. I did a group interview with 10 people in the room. Next couple of days I called them back in for a one on one. I asked them individually, explain to me the L2R and I got 4 different versions! All sat in the same room and heard me explain, with a powerpoint, how the L2R works. People hear what they want to hear.

Real quick about the new PDH. That was the original pay that ACI was set toward. Been with ACI for years just in certain states. The L2R was suppose to be a blessing to the tech, a chance to make more money, however, every system has a loop hole. With the L2R techs where lieing about their hours and claiming more work than what they did, MSO catches it and don't pay ACI. ACI pays more hours to the tech but have money taken away, so ACI was losing a boat load of money. You have to understand that ACI has to pay a lot of money to the government just to have an employee. Taxes, work comp, insurance, unemployment, benefits, 401k (50%match), etc. They put in the negative L2R to stop the scammers and it worked for the most part. Then techs said "well screw ACI, if they won't let me cheat then I will claim 20 more hours so even if I get min wage I get time and half off the min wage. ACI now has to pay more to the government for a wage that is not truely earned. To end the madness they decided to go all PDH. You make so much in so many hours this is what you get. Just like sales. The more efficient, more work, more money you make! Supervisors will not give work to those that can not handle it. If you can handle only 5 jobs a day they are not going to give you 8! Customer complaints go through the roof and now they have to go out and fix it or ACI's clients will make ACI pay the customer what they want. If the customer tells Charter, Comcast or Time Warner we want 3 months free cable for tardiness or poor work, ACI pays that not the MSO!

This is Greg, the former recruiter of ACI. The very first posting that started this blog, that I have checked in on every so often, was started by a man I hired in the Pontiac office. I can tell you that the lady that posted the very first thread was completely mis-informed and her husband did not explain to her what was said in the interview.

I have worked for ACI for almost 7 years. Started as a tech in Sept 2002 and was promoted to a recruiter in Oct 2005. I have seen and worked in just about all areas of the company from crawl spaces and cold days where you can't feel your finger tips to sitting in a board room with the owners talking about ACI's future. I've been in every office in Michigan and also other states as well. In a meeting at the Canton corporate office til 9pm and while I was leaving I see Michael Falsetti sitting in his office with pajama bottoms on settling contract deals with Dan Kannan to keep contract work flowing in so ACI can grow and create new jobs or open new makets.

One of the owners son's told me that he remembered when as a child his dad poured beans on his plate and said that is all we can afford for dinner tonight because they put all their money, house and created unthinkable amounts of debt to start a company that was unsure if it was enough to take care of their families or even survive in 1984. Bad economy then as well! Would any of you make a tough choice like that? If you did and 25 years later became wealthy, would you like it if people looked at you and used the term "bigwig" just laying around collecting fat checks?

Before ACI my family owned a business and I can tell you one thing that is consistant, most people are out to get you and screw you whenever they can and unfortuantly the good and honest one's get caught with the punishments too. One bad apple can spoil the whole bunch.

I know the owners on a personal level. They are not out to screw their employee's. Just so you know, I was called a corporate "bigwig" and before the financial heartaches hit the techs they hit corporate first. Some of the people I hired back in 2005-2006 were making more than me as techs. I traveled and was away from my family too working at times 7 days a week\ 80 hours. I've gotten emails from Charlie Crofoot, Michael Falsetti and Mike Kurcz at 10:30pm then the next morning wake up and get more at 4 or 5am!! When do they sleep? Phone calls from employees drunk wives at 3am because her husband put in 50 hours that week. Then call me back half hour later to tell me sorry because he does make 45K a year with just a G.E.D. This is just a tip of the iceberg. Many times corporate people are defending employees from pissed off customers who demand 1 year free cable, replace siding on their whole house because the tech screwed a ground block to his house and he was threatening to get a lawyer.

Honestly there where times I wanted to just go back and be a tech. Go to work at 7am, get my work, no one breathing down my neck, work hard and finish early and go home! In a corporate world you have to watch your back and what you say to people at all times. Just like how this blog started. I did a group interview with 10 people in the room. Next couple of days I called them back in for a one on one. I asked them individually, explain to me the L2R and I got 4 different versions! All sat in the same room and heard me explain, with a powerpoint, how the L2R works. People hear what they want to hear.

Real quick about the new PDH. That was the original pay that ACI was set toward. Been with ACI for years just in certain states. The L2R was suppose to be a blessing to the tech, a chance to make more money, however, every system has a loop hole. With the L2R techs where lieing about their hours and claiming more work than what they did, MSO catches it and don't pay ACI. ACI pays more hours to the tech but have money taken away, so ACI was losing a boat load of money. You have to understand that ACI has to pay a lot of money to the government just to have an employee. Taxes, work comp, insurance, unemployment, benefits, 401k (50%match), etc. They put in the negative L2R to stop the scammers and it worked for the most part. Then techs said "well screw ACI, if they won't let me cheat then I will claim 20 more hours so even if I get min wage I get time and half off the min wage. ACI now has to pay more to the government for a wage that is not truely earned. To end the madness they decided to go all PDH. You make so much in so many hours this is what you get. Just like sales. The more efficient, more work, more money you make! Supervisors will not give work to those that can not handle it. If you can handle only 5 jobs a day they are not going to give you 8! Customer complaints go through the roof and now they have to go out and fix it or ACI's clients will make ACI pay the customer what they want. If the customer tells Charter, Comcast or Time Warner we want 3 months free cable for tardiness or poor work, ACI pays that not the MSO!

This is Greg, the former recruiter of ACI. The very first posting that started this blog, that I have checked in on every so often, was started by a man I hired in the Pontiac office. I can tell you that the lady that posted the very first thread was completely mis-informed and her husband did not explain to her what was said in the interview.

I have worked for ACI for almost 7 years. Started as a tech in Sept 2002 and was promoted to a recruiter in Oct 2005. I have seen and worked in just about all areas of the company from crawl spaces and cold days where you can't feel your finger tips to sitting in a board room with the owners talking about ACI's future. I've been in every office in Michigan and also other states as well. In a meeting at the Canton corporate office til 9pm and while I was leaving I see Michael Falsetti sitting in his office with pajama bottoms on settling contract deals with Dan Kannan to keep contract work flowing in so ACI can grow and create new jobs or open new makets.

One of the owners son's told me that he remembered when as a child his dad poured beans on his plate and said that is all we can afford for dinner tonight because they put all their money, house and created unthinkable amounts of debt to start a company that was unsure if it was enough to take care of their families or even survive in 1984. Bad economy then as well! Would any of you make a tough choice like that? If you did and 25 years later became wealthy, would you like it if people looked at you and used the term "bigwig" just laying around collecting fat checks?

Before ACI my family owned a business and I can tell you one thing that is consistant, most people are out to get you and screw you whenever they can and unfortuantly the good and honest one's get caught with the punishments too. One bad apple can spoil the whole bunch.

I know the owners on a personal level. They are not out to screw their employee's. Just so you know, I was called a corporate "bigwig" and before the financial heartaches hit the techs they hit corporate first. Some of the people I hired back in 2005-2006 were making more than me as techs. I traveled and was away from my family too working at times 7 days a week\ 80 hours. I've gotten emails from Charlie Crofoot, Michael Falsetti and Mike Kurcz at 10:30pm then the next morning wake up and get more at 4 or 5am!! When do they sleep? Phone calls from employees drunk wives at 3am because her husband put in 50 hours that week. Then call me back half hour later to tell me sorry because he does make 45K a year with just a G.E.D. This is just a tip of the iceberg. Many times corporate people are defending employees from pissed off customers who demand 1 year free cable, replace siding on their whole house because the tech screwed a ground block to his house and he was threatening to get a lawyer.

Honestly there where times I wanted to just go back and be a tech. Go to work at 7am, get my work, no one breathing down my neck, work hard and finish early and go home! In a corporate world you have to watch your back and what you say to people at all times. Just like how this blog started. I did a group interview with 10 people in the room. Next couple of days I called them back in for a one on one. I asked them individually, explain to me the L2R and I got 4 different versions! All sat in the same room and heard me explain, with a powerpoint, how the L2R works. People hear what they want to hear.

Real quick about the new PDH. That was the original pay that ACI was set toward. Been with ACI for years just in certain states. The L2R was suppose to be a blessing to the tech, a chance to make more money, however, every system has a loop hole. With the L2R techs where lieing about their hours and claiming more work than what they did, MSO catches it and don't pay ACI. ACI pays more hours to the tech but have money taken away, so ACI was losing a boat load of money. You have to understand that ACI has to pay a lot of money to the government just to have an employee. Taxes, work comp, insurance, unemployment, benefits, 401k (50%match), etc. They put in the negative L2R to stop the scammers and it worked for the most part. Then techs said "well screw ACI, if they won't let me cheat then I will claim 20 more hours so even if I get min wage I get time and half off the min wage. ACI now has to pay more to the government for a wage that is not truely earned. To end the madness they decided to go all PDH. You make so much in so many hours this is what you get. Just like sales. The more efficient, more work, more money you make! Supervisors will not give work to those that can not handle it. If you can handle only 5 jobs a day they are not going to give you 8! Customer complaints go through the roof and now they have to go out and fix it or ACI's clients will make ACI pay the customer what they want. If the customer tells Charter, Comcast or Time Warner we want 3 months free cable for tardiness or poor work, ACI pays that not the MSO!

They rolled out another pay scheme this month that is even worse! They call it 'PDH' and it is nothing more than a pay cut. Some examples of what they actually pay you for your work:

A new outlet: 5.74
A new aerial drop to the house: 5.81 (includes any midspans, subpoles)
How about a wallfish? They'll give you 11.70 to go climb up in that attic and risk your safety and take a chance on causing hundreds of dollars worth of damage. They keep the other 29.80 for their 'overhead'.

ACI has stopped holiday pay, they stopped matching the 401K, they jacked up the health insurance while reducing benefits, they have cut our pay twice, they took away the truck drive home plan, and their attitude throughout has been that if you don't like it then go someplace else.

The turnover rate there is the highest I've seen anywhere I've worked. It's like that for a reason. Most people leave after they realize that they are being treated badly. ACI would do well to rethink their strategy. They spend thousands of dollars each year recruiting and training replacement techs. Most techs aren't even good at it for the first 6 months. They cause repeats, damages, QC fails and by the time they get good they have had enough. It would make sense to take all that "tech mill" money and invest it into making the job a job that people want to keep.

Of course the response is ALWAYS the same "We have to change with changing economic and market conditions" and that's true...to a point. Showing your employees some respect and rewarding the producers is just good business. BTW-rewarding good employees and screwing them less than the next guy are not the same thing!

everything jason has stated is true!! Lori, you/your husband may have it good because you are in Michigan, where headquarters is, but the palatine office is a mess. It IS true that there is race discrimination, you receive routes based on your racial background, if you are polish, you will receive easy routes that generate more revenue closer to the shop, so that you may sit around at the shop between jobs and talk and hang out. Certain corporate employees have received video footage of this activity and seems to have made a mediocre attempt at fixing it, as it still happens. Mike Daniec is in charge of routing, and is also polish, which is how the polish speaking techs end up with good routes, regardless of what time they get into the office. there are also a number of techs that make video/internet/phone pay rate, while only pulling video/internet or just internet routes, while other triple techs make less than video rate. as I've seen stated, stay at McDonalds, they pay a lot better for the work you do. Mike Falsetti, I hope you read this and make things better for those techs in palatine, as most of them aren't getting what is rightfully theirs.

Unfortunately I'm still an ACI employee of a whopping 15 months, been looking for other work for almost that long. I moved to the upper peninsula to get married, and when a job didn't pan out I was stuck at McDonalds. The economy here is even poorer than most and jobs are scarce so when an ACI opportunity came along I had to take it, and I've had to stay
Where to start, where to start
Sometimes the money was good, but since times are tough for ACI as well, they find ways to keep their lifestyle, as are many of the big wigs in companies going down all over the country

Most recently, ACI decided to charge me for cell phone overages. "You used a 1000 minutes over!!!" That's $300 coming out of your check" Yeah..... In october I had a "normal" 60 some hr week, followed by a 70 some hr week, followed by an 80hr week, followed by yes a 90 HOUR WEEK!!! No crap sherlock, more than twice as many hours worked, and you don't think cell usage is going to be way above normal? That's 300hrs in a month, that's more than the big wigs work all year lol

Ok next up.... unpaid overtime. Last year I went back and forth to another city 2 hrs away numerous times. The then regional supervisor said "You are only going to get paid for 2 hrs of driving time per day, we're being very generous". Now that I've looked into it, ANY hrs that you have to travel to another city are considered working hrs and therefore required by law to be paid. I have well over 100 hrs of unpaid overtime

Building upon this... Since I've been driving so much and sometimes during winter production can be low, ACI's pocketed revenue goes down. So what have they done? Last week's check measured in at $7.40 per hour.... ..... .... I made 8/hr at McD(had experience) My contracted rate is $10.48 per hr, with production supposedly enabling that to go "way over" that

Oh and by the way, the cell phone thing, they refused to give me an itemized list of overages, AND my supervisor forged my name on the release document....

Hmm, anything else. lol I guess I could include tomorrow is going to be -35 degree wind chills and they said I'm going to get in trouble if I don't show up.... in the city 2 hrs away. I already have 37hrs, and there are 4 or 5 techs that weren't going to be working tomorrow, in that city. LET THEM HAVE THE WORK

OH thought of another one
I signed off for ACI to take out $450 out of my first two months of checks so they would furnish me with top of the line brand new tools..... mm hmm you know it's coming.....
What'd I get? A rusted handsaw... a milwaukee drill charger that didn't work(never gotten a replacement either) and worst of all..... The drill already had someone else's name sharpee'd on it!!!!! $450 for something someone else PROBABLY ALREADY PAID THEM FOR, either way it was definitely used

AND ACI takes $450 from you as well if you quit within 3 months, which many do, and that is illegal based on Michigan law, EVEN IF you've signed off on it. They do it anyway

I'm sure there's plenty more I could go on about, but I'm tired. I've been up and at em since 430am. If any lawyers read this I am going to get around to suing, when I get a day off that isn't a blizzard. Also interested in any class action suits if you guys are

Peace out, stay at McD lol My friend is still a manager there and makes $12.50/hr, and gets free meals. Sucks to work with some of those people but it's not any worse than the managers and bigwigs of ACI wallowing in their own greedy BS

Good day sir

I worked in the Roseville Minnesota system for ACI for just over two years before I left for a new job in July 06. I was told when I was hired that there would be a mandatory 6 day work week and that the hours were long. They weren't kidding. 70 hours a week was pretty normal my first year. The first few months were tough, but I got better at the job and more efficient. My base rate started at $9.50 per hour, but after two years was over $12 per hour and my L2R bonus usually brought me up close to $14. A higher base rate definitley increased my gross pay, but it brought more pressure to increase the number of jobs I did in a day. I made good money with ACI for a guy with no experience coming in; over 40K both years I worked there. A few guys made more, a lot made less and the turn over rate was bad. Of the twelve guys I started with in training only two were still with the company when I left after two years.

I had a two year degree in electronics before I was hired with ACI, but couldn't find a decent job. The degree plus two years of experience with the company allowed me to get a better paying and less physically intense job in another field. I make a lot more money now, but still work 60 hours a week (you can either get used to that kind of lifestyle or you can't).

I would say that any tech at ACI should look around the shop and see how many of the other guys they see are over fourty, or even thirty-five. It is a physically and mentally intense job and the production based pay scale makes it tempting to ignore safety guidelines and make mistakes (i.e. drilling into gas or power). I only know of one guy that was seriously injured on the job while I was working there (broken leg). The normal dangers of the job can be pretty bad. Setting up a ladder on an uneven sometimes icy surface is scary and a hardhat isn't going to help you when a squirrel jumps out of a lockbox at you twenty feet up in the air.

ACI is a good employer for someone who is willing to work long hours and can learn to do the job efficiently. I wouldn't recommend the job as a career.

Lori you know that ACI is a flaming pain in the a**.

And as far as dangerous, how many people are killed every year just driving a normal persons daily route? Now multiply that by 100 and that is a cable installers daily drive. How likely do you think that makes us to be injured or killed in a car wreck? We work within a couple feet of power 20 to 30 feet in the air multiple times a day. I know a lot of guys that have drilled and hit power, a couple that have drilled and hit gas.

ACI is a good living? Wow. Your right if you are of the same quality worker that works at Mc Donalds you can make a better living working for ACI. But if you have half a brain in you head stay away from ACI. You can make a much better living doing most anything.

And as far as knowing a lot of techs that have been with ACI for years? Yeah right. Other than your husband, who else is still around from the start? Not a single tech? How about two years with ACI? I know two or three, and those are subs, other than Rick.

Don't feed these people BS, ACI has screwed you and yours too. Let these new guys go out and find real jobs, instead of getting screwed over and tossed aside by ACI.

First of all, all trainees start out at $9.50 an hour. In this day and age, a pretty good beginning wage (hmmm, what's the min wage in your area?). Finish your training, and get out on your own, and see the increases.

Second, you made several statements that I know to blantantly UNTRUE. Not only do you get your wage, but L2R, meaning more bang for the buck. How many jobs do you know of that get both wages and production pay? And the benefits? Yes, you pay a minimal amount (check out the total cost, and you'll understand!) for those, but they include medical, dental, long AND short term disability. How many employers nowadays carry this array of benefits?

Please explain 'dangerous'. You are given ladder training, basic training to do the job. You have a trainer or a supervisor to go to for advice on those more difficult jobs. You are required to wear safety gear, per OSHA, and trained in the proper procedure for parking your vehicle. The 'danger' that you speak of comes only from NOT FOLLOWING THE GUIDELINES AND PROCEDURES that you are trained in. 100% turnover? Again, I'd like to ask for clarification here. Where are you getting your numbers? I know a LOT of techs that have been with the company for quite sometime. You're either cut out for this job or you're not. Those that leave the company are either those that just couldn't cut it, or that through actions of their own, are cut. ACI has a quality staff of trustworthy, intelligent employees, and tolerates nothing less!

As to your comments about 'good' vs 'bad' routes, c'mon. You are given routes based on the work load for the day. Your supervisor has NO control over what is given, and can only assign those routes that are available. Every day isn't going to be a walk in the park, but neither is every day going to be the route from 'hell'. Yes, you work a lot of hours (everybody wants their MTV), but you make far more than min wage. You earn your way to the top, (a good tech is going to get more and better paying jobs than a poor one), and you can make a lot better money with ACI than with McD's. What would you make at min wage? What benefits are available to you? Are you rewarded for more effort when you flip burgers?

I'm asking that you actually be honest here..... this job isn't for everyone, you work a lot of hours, the work can be difficult (I'm drawing the line at 'dangerous' ) but this job is also well paying, benefit laden (if you chose to participate) and well suited to those that take the time to follow the rules. No job is perfect, and there's always room for improvement, but I think you gave up before giving it a chance.

I'm signing this as the PROUD wife of an ACI employee!