commision or hourly??

**maxac** · 03-10-2005, 01:36 PM

I work hourly now and was offered another job that pays
commision. Seems risky, can i get feedback from other techs. Thanks.

**frank shelley** · 03-10-2005, 02:53 PM

Advantage is if it's a reputable company with a decent scale. A good productive employee or just a flat out valuable tech you can earn more dollars than hourly. You get that perverbial pay me what Im worth.

The slugs who come in late, need someone to motivate them and then follow them around to clean up their messes, they wont be able to buy their next cold beer they're waiting on when they punch out. In essense they will earn exactly what they are deserve. Those are also the ones that scream loudest against commission pay.

It can be a hot topic.

**dec** · 03-10-2005, 04:13 PM

I guess the only problem I have seen with commission only was from a friend I ran into at lunch one day that I asked how things were going. He was telling me how they were on commisson and that he could make real good money that way. After chatting for a while he said , I had better get back to the shop and see if they had come up with anthing to do that he could make some money being he had not made a dime all day being it was slow. At that point I was thinking hummmm now who is getting the good deal if you dont make anything if it is slow. There must be something in there if it is slow or you would have to be looking for another shop all the time. I know I hate paying employees to be doing things around the shop to just be keeping busy and not making the business money but having them setting around waiting for something to come in so they can make anything? NOW THAT I WOULD NOT EXPECT. Thats like trying to get away with calling a employee a subcontractor to try to get out of unemployment or workmans comp. Not ethical or legal in my mind.

[Edited by dec on 03-10-2005 at 04:19 PM]

**beenthere** · 03-10-2005, 06:00 PM

You might be able to make out better on commision, if the company is always busy, and you have a low call back rate.

**Spidy** · 03-10-2005, 06:32 PM

I made some real good coin on it.....One week i pulled in like $2500g's with about only 70 hourss worked...Talk about uncle sam getting his cut, but that was on a great week where i ran into alot of big fast repairs..Anyway what i dont like about it is it promotes "parts selling" and getting in and out fast...Faster your in and out the more coin you make, so you tend to blow through calls and not go that extra mile for the customer.Then I got to the point where C+C's werent even worht my time..And when it was slow or during "maintence season" I made less than minuim wage......Then you get into how do you make coin on other techs callbacks? or warrenty work? It was great cause out of 7 techs only 2 of us were on comm. So the boss helped us by keeping our calls close together and making sure we had all the COD's..But then someone blabbed and everyone wanted comm and the comm guys were no longer "feed" the cods only and my pay radicly declined..Then I become Lead tech and all my time was spent doing callbacks and helping installers and other techs and didnt make anything.....ANd they wonder why i got upset.........opps i rambled just some of my exp...

But the main reason i am against it......I seen it make an honest man,dishonest and the High selling newbie tech thats sells everything and changes alot of parts cause he cant fix nothing his held in higher regrad than a knowledgable honest tech....

Services techs should get paid a salary with consistant pay IMO but it will never happen.........

**oloenneker** · 03-11-2005, 12:33 AM

I worked for commission for a few years, and I have this to say about it: It's great for the employer, not always so good for the employee. Turns Techs into Salesmen. You are alway trying to make the sale. If you dont, you dont eat. The only people that make alot of money in this are usually crooks. I have seen guys over charge and sell stuff that was not needed in order to make it. Sure, you could make good coin selling lots of service related stuff, and pick apart systems and peoples houses. I just cannot sleep at night selling little old ladies $1200 water heaters. You kinda turn into a used car salesman trying to sell people parts and stuff rather than trying to figure out what is actually wrong with the system.

Plus how do you split commission when you need a helper or you made the wrong bid on an estimate you gave? Plus most commission places advertise "you know the cost before the work is done" type of claims. What happens when you run into problems? Try upselling the customer then? You have 30 min to make a complete diagnosis and give a price for the solution....Talk about pressure.

I gave it up, I make more working hourly, and I keep my sanity as well. Plus I only do new construction now anyways...Much better, less stress..

**Irascible** · 03-11-2005, 01:16 AM

Basic psychology says that the type of personality that sells well is usually not the type that fixes well. The best techs are rarely the best salesmen. Paying your techs on commissions means punishing the most technically superior of them. They WILL resent it and you will lose them - that is, if you ever even had them.

Watching con-artist “techs” with half the experience and 1/4 the skills making twenty grand a year more than their elite troubleshooting counterparts is just plain wrong.

**fat eddy** · 03-11-2005, 06:45 AM

Are you a salesman or a service tech ?

Answer that and you will have your answer as to whether or not you should take the job.

Could you honestly work on commission and not sell things that people don't need or don't want ? No way, it will never happen.!!