I would have to agree about the machines being a tad more reliable now a days. I have contracted with some companies that put the carrot to high for the techs. Example I was contracted to work on all vendors except Canon for a Canon company. My travel radius was 275 miles while thier techs were in a 10 mile radius only working on thier Canons. When expense time would come at the end of the month and thier techs get a flat $125 and I would turn in $700 - $900 and have the same amount if not more calls then thier techs, I was questioned. After 6 months we sat down and discussed financials to find out that I had brought in an average of $9,000 per month on billable customers and they scored a very large hospital contract due to my work.

Bottom line for Owners
Take care of your techs or your techs will not take care of you. Your tech is the one that stays late to get the job done while your sitting at home with your family. You can sell a machine and make a few thousand dollars and not see the customer for a while. When it breaks your tech is the one that go out in front of the customer on a regular basis and the reason the contract pays risiduals year after year. You send your sock puppet in there to sell another machine as they have never even met the customer and the YOUR customer is now relying on the word of the tech not your sales puppet. I have done both sides of the house and I was always in contact with my techs, take care of them on birthdays, Veterans Day, Christmas and just a good ol' fashion Thank You goes along way. Certifications are a big point as well, want to excell in the service industry get very familiar with the machines from a sales and service standpoint. I have aborted many installs due to "Well my sales rep said it can do that"