What to know before you hire a D2D vendor.

Commission triggers at activation, when the ONT lights up, never at the signature. Sale, install, activation, and cleared-of-chargeback are four separate events, sometimes separated by weeks or months.

Two payment models are standard: pay-then-clawback (paid up front, 100% chargeback if the customer cancels inside a 30 to 180-day window) and hold-then-release (payout waits 30, 60, or 90 days). Whichever model a vendor runs changes how their invoices should reconcile against your own activation data.

Carrier statements, master-agent remittances, and internal books should rarely disagree, and constantly do. Address-format mismatches between a vendor's records and a carrier's are the most common cause of commissions going unmatched and quietly missed.

The invoice hygiene that avoids this: capture the carrier order ID and a normalized address at the point of sale, invoice only after activation is confirmed, and reconcile every carrier statement line monthly.

67% of sales reps say they'd stay longer at a company that paid commissions within 24 hours; 41% report waiting 30 or more days for a check. A vendor's own pay discipline toward its reps is a leading indicator of how consistent your field coverage will be.

A crew that turns over mid-deployment costs you retrained territory, not just a line item. Ask any vendor how they pay their own reps before you ask what they charge you.

CPNI rules (47 CFR 64 Subpart U) make carriers responsible for how their contractors handle customer data in the field, not just how the carrier itself handles it. Municipal solicitation regimes typically require a company-level permit plus per-rep badges, and requirements vary by city.

A vendor that can't produce its own background-check standard, insurance certificate, and permit process on request is asking you to take those on faith.