Quality of our coworkers.

[ZOOTECH]

Well CTN suppose to have all the answers, so why the analyzing. There are tons of walking manuals here, so just send a one line post, someone will respond in record time. CTN is great, but the basics in how the machine works must be understood for a tech to achieve a measure of independent analysis.

Your last sentence pretty much says what is wrong with a lot of new (and sometimes older) techs - not knowing the basics. My signature says what is wrong with a lot of young workers, their mind is not paying attention to what they are seeing.

[fixthecopier]

Your last sentence pretty much says what is wrong with a lot of new (and sometimes older) techs - not knowing the basics. My signature says what is wrong with a lot of young workers, their mind is not paying attention to what they are seeing.

I agree. You must have a basic understanding of how a copier works. I used to have a friend who was a real motorhead. Nothing but American muscle cars. He was a Chevy man, but if he had to he could work on them all. He would explain that you needed fuel through the carb, spark in the plug and compression in the cylinders and it should start. If it doesn't, start with that and find out what you are missing. You could apply that same logic to copiers.

.What brought this thread on was another tech was taking a Ricoh training course on line. She starts laughing and has me come look at the question. It is a picture of what appears to be an exit assembly part breakdown. It has numbers next to 4 items, rollers and a shaft and the motor. The question is asking which is the motor. I told her it would blow her mind how many people get it wrong.

[Lance15]

Just recently came across a printer that was swapped (WHOLE printer) because the tray 1 pickup assembly sensor was unplugged. Yup, the TWO techs billed a total of 12.25 hours. Of course, that also includes 3 hours each of drive time, so, still 6.25 hours for an unplugged sensor. I had it fixed in about 15-20 minutes. It just takes a little LOOKING. Some techs don't understand that. Infuriating.

[fixthecopier]

Just recently came across a printer that was swapped (WHOLE printer) because the tray 1 pickup assembly sensor was unplugged. Yup, the TWO techs billed a total of 12.25 hours. Of course, that also includes 3 hours each of drive time, so, still 6.25 hours for an unplugged sensor. I had it fixed in about 15-20 minutes. It just takes a little LOOKING. Some techs don't understand that. Infuriating.

There are two types in this profession. Those who like fixing things and those who needed a job. The later are the ones who go around the shop asking what to do for every call. Then if you help them and your answer seems hard to do, they will ask someone else. The former are people who get a big thrill out of solving a real puzzling problem by discovering something out of the ordinary that nobody else thought of. Only techs on sites like this can relate to that.

[KenB]

Just recently came across a printer that was swapped (WHOLE printer) because the tray 1 pickup assembly sensor was unplugged. Yup, the TWO techs billed a total of 12.25 hours. Of course, that also includes 3 hours each of drive time, so, still 6.25 hours for an unplugged sensor. I had it fixed in about 15-20 minutes. It just takes a little LOOKING. Some techs don't understand that. Infuriating.

Years ago we had a customer who had put some off brand labels in a Canon NP 7550. One came off and sttuck to the drum.

The tech who got the call barely tried to get it off.

He told the customer they would have to pay for a new drum because even though they were under contract, that was violated by the competive supply. Amorphorous silicon drums back then were about $1200.

The service manager asked me to take a look at it. Some alcohol, a little serium dioxide, some elbow grease, and about 200 blank copies later, their copiers were once again perfect.

That tech was not allowed back at the account after that little gem.

[subaro]

When i first started in this line of work, i found it difficult to get help from other techs as to explanation and willingness to help out his co-worker. I was not one to really ask for help untill i hit the wall or pressing for time. These guys had 10 or more years working there and the " i don't know ", or ask this or that one was the replies i got. I had one thing that most of them was not into and that is my previous job was computer repair and know how to use and navigate easily. At that time they used hard copies and the service software cds just sat there. I showed my boss that i can use the computer for lookup and i took matters in my own hands and never looked back. I on the other hand will give my honest answer when asked and sometimes with it's in the service manual which they don't like.
Still in this business, you really can't be a lone ranger, but a team player, and when the team is playing well you hit home runs.
The theme here is to help one another in all honesty and don't be like the chin*** and horde information that you can share.

[NeoMatrix]

The smart phones are great, but I believe techs are dumbing down by not analyzing the problem, and figuring out the repair. I believe we thinking techs will soon be out of work (except to repair those 'monkeys').

.. Aren't you retired ...?

I know where you coming from. I tell my adult kids how to fix something. While at the same time they're on their smart phones looking up the intenet to check that their old-man is not spinning them a yarn/tale.

They usually reply with that is simple. How come it took you so long to find that, figure that out, get the job done. That's because dear buddy(all boys) ,I cleared the way for you to find it easy. I cleared the jungle full of trees with all the confusion, and hand laid down the bitumen road of knowledge, so you cheeky twats can walk down the easy road and laugh at how long it took me to do the job. The corns on my hands are from the school of hard-knocks, not from pressing mobile phone screens.

I tell my boys ,everything is simple once you know how to do it. Give a tad of respect to those who made it simple for you to understand.

[ZOOTECH]

.. Aren't you retired ...?

Thank you, Mat - yes, I am retired, but that won't stop me from commenting when I feel the need.
Unless, I get shamed out of CTN, I will continue stalking, and inputting snarky posts.

[NeoMatrix]

Nothing surprises me anymore, techs who order a buffet of parts with no real idea, then leave another tech to replace them, tech's who don't answer their email for hours, techs who replace the fuser cleaning web, and leave the worn fuser roller, don't or won't reset counters on durables, vague notes to finish calls,no communication regarding problems or accounts. I've went to customers with parts ordered by another tech only to find they weren't required, but required ones skipped. They cause more work for everyone as well. I wonder what some guys are thinking sometimes.

Re: Refit someone else's pull-down job.

Reminds of a new product training coarse. I went to a particular coarse and watched the instructor completely pull down a colour printer, I mean pull down every thing to a bare frame. The instructor(nice bloke) then gets a phone call from someone and decided to leave the room for around 2-3 hours. After the first hour of waiting, getting bored, I decided to put the printer back together. I just get the last of the machine back together and he walks back into the training room. To his suprise he said "oh you got it all back together."

To quote the instructor, "don't ya just hate having to put someone elses machine back together , especially when you didn't pull it down." Except for one board plug in the wrong place the machine worked like a charm.

He turn to me an said I can't see you having any problem working on our products.

Putting someone else machine back together when you didn't disassemble it, is nothing short of a PITA. Especially trying to locate where they put all the screws , clips etc.

[blackcat4866]

Re: Refit someone else's pull-down job...

A couple of years ago (he, he) I went to the main office to pick up a Mita DC-111 (without the C) for a new placement. When I arrived, I was pointed towards three boxes. "It's all there."

And it was all there ... a day later. The drum was a tad light-shocked, but I only had to provide a handful of screws, and entirely re-assemble the machine from the frame up. I was totally surprised that it actually worked. It's hard to imagine that you can get so many parts into a small tabletop copier. =^..^=