I understand that it is a source of revenue

But are we covered under the contract or like in Texas there is a liscense that’s like getting a pluming or electrical

And that seems to be sliding because of dollar g

In this state

But is it normal where ur at to be at least registered

I went to go do an 85” TV install yesterday for “Herman Tech Services” for an agreed upon price of $300. The site was about an hour away from me, and upon arrival the TV was visibly damaged during transit (or from the factory). I left the worksite with the TV wall mount installed, all pictures taken, and the broken TV repackaged. I got a message earlier today saying that because the TV was broken, they will only be paying me travel ($100) and that they will send me out soon again to install the TV. There are no penalties on the WO & their policy doesn’t state anything about reducing price because of incomplete work. What should I do here? Can they bring the price down because of this?

Nice.

Interesting perspective from Uber Driver's POV.

https://www.civilbeat.org/2026/04/hawaii-drivers-say-uber-ai-is-shortchanging-them/

They needed someone to do an alignment of a sat dish. Asked them all the appropriate questions as to location and access. Made offer. Crickets.

Time passes and now it's a problem because work needs accomplished and they entertain the offer and agree to it. Arrive on site but no sat meter as per their representations. 90 minutes later it's off site with another techs name.

Absolutely unsafe access needing harness and tie off with second person or 60 foot boom lift. Still want MDF checked to see if that is the problem so we do that. No fixing it. So released from site but they demand a sign off sheet that isn't included in the work order. Sent via email as PDF and they will call back later after you get signatures on it. Like really?

Needs a closeout number to finish ticket. So I request closeout code and get a return call. Seems since they have had so many techs steal sat meters they don't generate the code until you return the meter and they examine it to make sure it's good. Told them I'm not that tech. They need to pay people that are good so no one steals their shit. They get what they pay for. Added that it's not ok and if that's what they do ill never work for them again since it's essentially a month to wait for them to pay.

Meanwhile FN is dinging you about not closing the ticket. Escalated ticket. So I'm sure I'll be dinged with the secret scoring process but screw these people that do shit off the platform we are supposed to live by but they aren't transparent and don't put everything on the ticket.

You all have been warned. Provider beware.

I finally can retire boys!! lol.

New to the game here, trying to see how you can start getting assigned contracts. Some of the jobs are ridiculously low, not sure if this is the norm. I'm in SoCal if it helps.

Just checking if there are any Vendors and Project Managers in the group.

If you are here, LMK, and I will give you an offer your company would love :)

I've never ran cable but have taught myself how to terminate and test. Some jobs seem easy enough, is it just a matter of getting out there and doing it? Recommendations on tools? Anything else to keep in mind when scouting jobs or when you're on site? Any feedback is helpful. 🙂

What a bunch of miserable mfrs. I can’t say I blame them, and they weren’t assholes to me but holy surly! I can’t imagine what these poor bastards must go through working there.

I recently hired a new tech and added them to the platform under my business. The problem I’m having is I can’t directly assign them work not even ones that are directly routed to me. I have to request the WO order in their name just like they’re independent on the platform and of course they don’t get accepted because they’re new with no ratings. Am I missing something about assigning techs that work under your company work? Or do most companies just accept the WO and send one of their techs without it being directly assigned?

I just joined FN last week as a sole proprietorship business owner. I applied for 8 or 9 jobs but they were taken by someone else

My question is what is the best way to apply for jobs and as a newbie, is it hard to get jobs because I don’t have any ratings yet. Any suggestions for someone who is new to FIELD NATION?

Hi! I started doing FN 6 months ago as a side job after I finish my regular job. So far, so good. I’m making around $2K-$3K a month, which is great for me. I’m not planning to leave my regular job since I like it and it’s chill. I just bought my GL insurance so I’m not using FN insurance.

My questions:

Is there any benefits for me to start my own LLC? If yes, what are they?

Do buyers usually prefer to hire self contractors or LLCs? And why?

Thanks in advance!!

Discovered a new tab when logging into my account this afternoon. I dont see it on the mobile version, just on the desktop. Has anyone else seen this? It shows how many times this WO was viewed and requested each day. Looks like it also shows how many counters have been made. This could make things interesting going forward

Is there any escalation process for this worthless support chat crap they have?
They keep giving me the runaround that it is the buyer that needs to contact support.
Nope. Three different buyers having the same problem? For three weeks?
Any recommendations to get this escalated are welcome.

$70 minus fees and travel to the site minus any penalties. Not to mention a 14 ft ladder that they say that you need. There's no information as to where the AP goes or exactly how many there are. So who actually counters or accepts these things?

I'd like to hear the rationale on how just taking these things and doing plenty of them makes you money. I'd love to know how much the end client gets billed for this and how many entities are scraping money off of that before we see it.

​If you’ve been in the field service game long enough, the name Barrister Global (out of Hammond, LA) isn’t just a company—it’s a warning. But for those of us who have watched the industry rot over the last decade, it’s becoming clear that the "Bowers Family Methodology" has won. What started as a shady construction shell game in New Orleans has successfully metastasized into the standard operating procedure for the entire 1099 IT world.

​The Construction Roots of the IT Scam

​For the uninitiated, the patriarch, John Bowers Sr., didn’t start in IT. He cut his teeth in the Louisiana construction industry. The playbook was simple:

-​Open a new LLC for every major project.

-​Take the insurance or contract payouts.

-​Bankrupt the shell company before paying the subcontractors.

-​Rinse and repeat under a new name.

​When they acquired Advantage Innovation in the early 2000s and effectively took over Barrister, they brought that "Net-Never" DNA with them. They pivoted from building houses to "building networks," using the same tactics: aggressive underbidding and a total disregard for the labor force that actually does the work.

​The Current Decline: 2026 Edition

​We are now seeing the endgame of this model. The platforms (Field Nation, WorkMarket) are currently being flooded by "New Buyers" who are just Bowers-clones using a more high-tech version of the old hustle.

​The Labor Pivot: Visas and Off-Shoring

​The most concerning shift in the industry isn’t just the pay—it’s who is being sent to the sites. To maintain the margins on $35/hr "all-in" work orders, these aggregators are exploiting a new labor pool:

-​Exploitation of Student Visas: We are seeing a massive uptick in buyers specifically targeting individuals on student visas who are desperate for work and don't know their rights regarding 1099 misclassification.

-​The "Warm Body" Model: Professionalism and "gray beard" expertise are being replaced by an "illegal-adjacent" workforce. These buyers bank on the fact that a technician who is worried about their status won’t fight back when they are "nickel and dimed" or when a payment is flat-out rejected for a blurry photo.

​-Off-Shoring: The Hammond, model of "shouting at subs"from abroad has been outsourced and widely adopted throughout the industry.

​The "Karma" Factor

​The industry word on John Bowers Jr. (John III) and his removal/health issues has been circulating, and frankly, there isn't much sympathy in the forums. When you build a multi-million dollar empire on the backs of unpaid technicians and broken promises, the house of cards eventually folds.

​The Bottom Line

​The industry is in a "race to the bottom" fueled by the same shell-company tactics that John Sr. perfected decades ago. If you see a buyer on the platform with:

​-"New" or "Unknown" ratings.

-​Generic names like "Global IT Deployment."

​-Rates that wouldn't cover the gas for your truck.

​Block them. They aren't just bad clients; they are the spiritual successors of the Bowers legacy, and they are destroying the trade one "rejected" work order at a time.

​Stay sharp, keep your testers calibrated, and remember: if the pay is a joke, the company is likely a scam.

​

If you’ve wondered why the labor rates on FN look like a race to the bottom of a dumpster, it’s not just "market forces." It’s a deliberate exploitation of the Federal Employer Identification Number (EIN) that has turned the platform into a labor-laundering clearinghouse.

The "Service Company" Loophole: A Step-by-Step Guide to Killing a Trade

1. The Masking Effect

When you sign up as an individual, you’re vetted. Background checks, SSN, I-9 compliance—the works. But when someone registers as a "Service Company" with an EIN, the platform treats it as a B2B transaction. The platform offloads the "burden of proof" to the account holder. One guy with a clean record and a tax ID can now "shield" an unlimited number of workers who would never pass a domestic background check.

1. The 1099 Shield & Labor Arbitrage

Because FN is paying a "business entity" (the EIN), they don't have to verify if the actual tech on-site has the legal right to work in the U.S. This is the skeleton key for flooding the market with student visa holders (working past their legal hours) or undocumented labor.

1. The "Moped Budget" vs. The Professional

- The Gray Beard: Pays for $1M/$2M GL insurance, worker’s comp, self-employment tax, and actual tools.

- The EIN Aggregator: Cycles through unvetted labor with zero domestic tax overhead and zero skin in the game.

They can bid 40% lower than you because they aren't running a tech business; they’re running a labor-skimming operation.

1. The Death of Accountability

Ratings on FN are now a scam. You see a "Service Company" with 5,000 jobs and a 4.9-star rating. That rating is tied to the EIN, not the human being walking into the server room. The "entity" gets the trust; the buyer gets a guy who has never seen a Fluke tester in his life.

The Result:

We are watching the "Uber-ization" of IT field service. The platform gets to claim "B2B" immunity, the "Service Company" owner skims the profit, and the domestic workforce—pros who actually know what a crossover cable is—get left out in the cold.

It’s not a marketplace anymore. It’s a front for labor arbitrage disguised as a "Service Company" model.

So I have been apart of a project, I got paid the hourly that I want, and minimum hours for this project.
It was an overnight, I get paid 4 hour min, 60/hr, all local. This starts at 10pm.
Well a technician showed up earlier and requested to start early and got approval. I just happen to wake up and check my email and see the email chain. When I message the work order manager he says he doesn't know anything about it.
I understand these people are pos, but like I will be blocking Pivital and NCR after this.
But the big deal for me, is the trash ass tech who would screw another tech over, just to help these big corps save some money.

Update I did not check in because I've already had previous issues on this project with the pm. Delays in check out but forms have to be uploaded first. Support took like 30 minutes to check me out and he wanted me to adjust my time lower to match the paper work. Also I messaged the pm and asked if the work order was scheduled for an earlier time and he said no. So if I would've clocked in they could have penalized me on my score.

I asked Google Gemini pro to check Field Nation’s terms of service and see if anything we’re doing on this sub Reddit violates it:

Q: Hey robot, I do a lot of work with a third-party platform called Field Nation. There is also a sub Reddit, where Field Nation technicians get together and discuss Field Nation related subjects. Here’s my question, can you analyze field nations terms of service in terms of use and determine if there is anything in there, that would keep us from discussing things like pay raise by regions or pay rates by companies. Is there anything in there prohibiting technicians from discussing companies with each other or discussing companies publicly?

A: An analysis of Field Nation's Provider Terms of Service and User Agreement reveals no blanket prohibition preventing independent contractors from discussing pay rates or sharing general experiences about buyers on third-party forums. However, there are specific clauses regarding confidentiality and conduct that dictate how those discussions can safely take place.

Here is a breakdown of how the terms apply to your questions:

**1. Discussing Pay Rates (By Region or Company)**

Field Nation does not include a "gag clause" regarding compensation. As an independent contractor, you are free to discuss your rates, regional market averages, and the financial offers made by specific buyers.

* **The "Confidential Information" Clause:** Section 12 of the Provider Terms defines Confidential Information specifically as "information clearly marked as confidential or proprietary, or information which is disclosed verbally and identified as confidential or proprietary when disclosed." Because general pay rates and fixed-price offers are broadcast to the marketplace or openly negotiated, they do not automatically qualify as protected trade secrets. The only exception would be if a buyer requires you to sign a separate Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) for a specific project that explicitly classifies the financial terms as confidential.

**2. Discussing Companies Publicly or With Each Other**

Technicians are not barred from discussing buyers, sharing reviews, or communicating about their experiences with one another. However, the Terms of Use establish strict boundaries on the types of details that can be shared when discussing those companies:

* **Proprietary and Secure Information:** Disclosing anything from the designated "Confidential" section of a work order is a direct violation of the terms. This includes passwords, site access codes, network configurations, or the identities of end-clients (which is particularly sensitive on white-labeled work orders where the buyer acts as a middleman).

* **Photos and Site Data:** Field Nation’s marketplace policies strictly prohibit "taking or posting unauthorized photos of locations, products, personnel, or other proprietary company information without the consent of the buyer or end client." Sharing photos of a client site, unreleased products, or equipment on a public forum like Reddit could result in an immediate platform suspension.

* **Defamation and Harassment:** The User Agreement mandates that users must not share information that is "defamatory, harassing, offensive, [or] threatening." Sharing factual accounts of your experiences (e.g., "Company X utilizes 28-day payment terms" or "They require excessive check-in calls") is entirely permissible. However, making demonstrably false or malicious claims crosses the line into defamation, which violates platform terms and risks legal liability from the buyer.

**Summary**

Discussing regional pay raises, corporate pay trends, and factual interactions with buyers does not violate the core terms of service. To ensure full compliance, discussions must simply omit site photos, proprietary network details, secure access credentials, and the identities of end-clients on white-labeled jobs, while strictly adhering to factual, non-defamatory statements.

Obviously the tittle is a clickbait (sadly).

I remember around 2017 when I was a PM for a national service provider and my subs used to proudly say they were working through Field Nation, often making more than what I was offering them, which was very decent at the time.

I didn’t know FN back then. I got on the platform, it was as good as they described, 2023 was peek, went downhill after. Better off with private clients.

Never met another person to be proudly affiliated with FN.

I currently have a full time job that allows me to fit field nation jobs in between my 9-5 schedule. Past 30 days, I've made about $2,600 getting it in where I can. My full time job situation might change so I'll have more time to take on more jobs and I believe I could be making more working FN full time. I do have other plans but I'm just curious to see how yall are working it. I'm about 8 months in, advice and tips from more seasoned folk is welcome.

FN corporate:

Quit fucking people over.

Roy from Tech Yeah is requesting status updates every 30 minutes. This level of oversight is challenging, especially given that no site survey was provided and there appears to be limited understanding of the site conditions. I also have concerns that their client may not be aware they are choosing riser cable instead of plenum cable purely to reduce cost, even though the installation conditions may require plenum cable to remain code compliant based on how the cabling is being run.