PRIME SOLUTIONS CONTRACTING TODD ELLIS COMPANY WILL NOT PAY TECHNICIANS ON TIME AND WILL ADD CHARGES TO PAY U LESS temple Texas

i signed up as a subcontractor under Prme Solutions Contracting out of Temple Texas hoping to start a carreer as an installer of DirecTV Satellites. i'm great at customer service as all the customers i serviced in the last month have not called to complain and a few invited me back for a dinner (people are wierd in the country, but nice).

I asked when i signed up about the Pay Schedule and when i would see my 1st paycheck. Todd Ellis the onwer explained that he was losing too many techs when he payed after 2 weeks (1st warning sign i ignored because i needed the money and the work) so now he pays after 4 weeks of work. I accepted his terms after he told me he would hold my pay for 4 weeks and then pay me the amount owed (minus any material parts he supplied and 15% off of backround/piss test $200). i asked for a print out of this information, and he instead offered to hire me on the spot to do A/V and Fiber Optic work @ $25 an hour as a Prime employee. so day 1 i run around with another new hire doing 1 security camera system troubleshoot and a Fiber Optic consult. I informed the customer of the tools i needed and that i would contact my boss to get them over to do testing (i contacted him, he informed us he had the tools and would be on the way). 3 hrs later, still no show so we had to politely bow out of the customer's office (customer was pissed and i should of known to start running too since i've never seen the actual tools todd said he was bringing to us).

I once again asked todd for more info on pay and if training was paid as well. i was told 9am-2pm paid training for 1 week. after 1st week of training i came in to pick up 1st load for full installs. due equipment shortages/technicians quiting all required meters were not available, and todd asked us to pay up front for the meters and he would order them (3rd warning i ignored - when the boss doesnt have the money to order tools to arrive on time for his techs after he said he would handle that and do a payroll deduction). so 1 day wasted and then i went on the path to a future as an install tech.

majore issues with this company are as follows:

1. PAY - 4 week delayed paychecks, regular weekly paychecks rarely excede $400 even when a tech does $1000-1200 worth of installs

2. EQUIPMENT - not enough handheld devices to collect customer signatures/having to share signal meters with other technicians near by therby slowing down install, minimizing chances of being on time to next install job

3. FALSE REPORTS - technicians are on-sited before they even arrive to a site (to keep number on track and hide the technical issues caused by Todd's lack of multi-taksing ability as a manager and contractor

4. FALSE REPORTING - forging customer signatures on the handheld devices/instiling a habit with technicians not to collect signatures and adding additonal equipment charges the customer may not need or want

5. LACK OF TRAINING - traing is conducted on palets and with 1 meter to share, there is no troubleshooting theory and plenty of videos from youtube that are simple to search for and are not MASTEC created (old DirecTV training videos)

6. PAY DELAYS - once it comes time to receive your pay you are told it will be for your 1st week of training only (1 weeks pay after almost 6 weeks of work & its the smallest paycheck), Todd doesn't know what the pay will be for any of the weeks, he is not aware of any jobs anyone does. if questioned about DirecTV issues he'll stat "oh, man i dont handle that side of the house, i dont deal with DirecTV stuff", he has no technicians doing Prime jobs, we all were switched to DirecTV installations so he didn't have to pay us hourly for our time spent at the office waiting on him to "get off the phone meetings".

BOTTOM LINE: get everything in writing word for word. todd lies like its his second skin. when i told him i was quiting he was down to 1 technician out of 7 when i started training. he offered to pay me $500 if i would stick aroun till the new guys were trained.  when i asked if he would pay me that up front he stated he would roll it into my 1st week's pay, WHICH I HAVE STILL NOT RECEIVED. JUST KNOW THAT THIS COMPANY LOSES A LOT OF TECHS.

he did tell me that the turnover rate was real high for technicians in this field. i figured he meant the work exhausted them or the money was so good that you could make enought money to not have to work for a long period and i would be so ahead of my bills i could take a break and search for better work in a few months or a year. WHAT I NOW REALIZE IS THAT HE MEANT "HE HAS A HIGH TURNOVER RATE ON EMPLOYEES" BECAUSE HE SCREWS EVERYONE OVER ON PAY WEEK IN AND WEEK OUT.

JOEY

KILLEEN, TX