When good customers go bad.

[fixthecopier]

If you have done this long enough, I am sure that at some point you have had a run in with someone over a machine. What are some of your worst. I found myself waiting in a parking lot outside the base headquarters for a sergant who had said the wrong thing to me on the phone. I had second thoughts, didn't want to get thrown off base, and called his commander and reported him. I had one location that used to complain that the copier allways jammed and when I show up it runs. So I show up and load the machine, put it in test mode and ran 4,600 test copies without a jam while he was at lunch. When he got back he was not impressed and still demanded I give him a new machine. Not gonna happen bub. We were in each others face yelling at each other and one of his men had to get between us. When the contract got renewed he got a 7255 and for 3 years he was a happy guy. My favorite is the business down the road that pushed his di470 out the door and across the parking lot by the road before the tech could get there. What was your worst?

[djbass]

Fortunately I've been able to defuse most customers when they start getting hot under the collar so I have been lucky not to be in that situation too much. My worst was a customer shouting profanities to me over the phone over an issue that wasn't related to my area (I was just the poor sap that answered the phone at the time), I simply calmly told him that unless he wanted to be civil I would hang up, he continually refused to be nice so I did. I think ultimately keeping your cool is the best way to handle any situation like that, losing it with a customer will only put you at a disadvantage.

Actually when I think about it there was another occasion. I reported to a customer's house to look at his PC because some of his documents had disappeared. From the moment I stepped in the door he kept demanding I make his documents re-appear and I hadn't even had the chance to look at the machine yet. From what I could tell he had managed to create a new profile and delete his old one, meaning short of attempting some time consuming data recovery his documents weren't coming back. When I told him this he kicked me out of his house saying I was the worst technician ever and he refused to pay the callout fee. At the end of the day it didn't bother me much, at worst only my ego was bruised, he however was still missing his documents and with an attitude like that probably wasn't going to get them back either.


If you ever want a laugh (or to cringe in some cases), Computer Stupidities has some good stories.

[Andyrsv]

How about the time when my wifes boss tried to fax a letter....in an envelope? Or the customer demanded a new copier because it kept printing blank copies. They were putting the originals in upside down.

[blackcat4866]

I have never walked out on a customer, but I've come very close....

Many years ago I had a Mita DC142 at a lumber yard. This customer copied a lot of heavy fill documents, and consequently had more fuser jams than the average user.

This guy stood there watching me and ranting while I was rebuilding his fuser. "This machine is the biggest piece of shit..." and so on. Maybe it was, but I wasn't too interested in hearing about it from him. It's best not to get drawn into slamming a machine, even if it's true.

After about 30 minutes of abuse I had decided that I had had enough. The fuser was disassembled on the table and he was still ranting. I started wiping off my tools and putting them away, still listening to his stupidity.

I think he caught on when I closed my toolcase. His eyes got really big, his mouth dropped open, then he stammered something about having a truck to unload. Then he disappeared through the door and I never saw him again. If I had made it to the door first, I wouldn't have come back.

=^..^=

[banginbishop]

Had a call at a plastics factory on a sharp sf-2022 for Jamming. Checked the jam log and 95% were in the right hand side. Reading the engineers log book previous engineer had noted customer had broken right hand side door and told them to have it replaced customer refused. Customer had pushed a table upto the side of the machine to hold the door in place. I informed the customer that he needed the door as i couldn't stop the machine from jamming without the door being replaced - customers response "fuck off you dont what your doing" at this point i picked up my tool case and bid him fare well and left his machine in a jamming condition and then billed him for his courtesy. I reported this to my manager and refused to go again when he re reported it.

Had another call for a sharp ar-205 fuser unit - customer snapped all the pick off fingers. customer denied this after i told them they would have to pay. customer complained to my manager who sent out another engineer to fix it free of charge who then admitted to the engineer that the Director/CEO had done it. Told my manager that he was an prick! I felt better for that

[lkrsardis]

I had to leave a customer one time years ago when he started getting personal. I left his Ricoh FT6085 in a thousand pieces. Fortunitly my boss was on my side and made the man wait two days before he sent out another tech.

[Rudi]

I Also Get Alot These Problems With Customers And One Thing I Could Establish Is That Sales Reps Dont Give A Damn About Who They Sell To Or What They Sell Because They Know For The Rest Of The Time Someone Else (we) Will Take The Rap But What They Do Not Realise Is That We Make Way For Their Next Sale , And I Dont Know About Your Side But Over Here Youngsters Are Not Much Intrerested In Working With Tools Anymore They Rather Want To Go For Pushing Buttons On A Keyboard.

[SGT_Snacks-64]

Gawd I haven't been in the industry long enough to have one of these yet, but I've had some shitty customers I can tell you that! The worst is when you're at a machine for a long time trying to sort something and a customer noses around you, wondering what you're actually doing. Hate it HATE IT!!!

[blackcat4866]

Here are few tricks for that nosey customer that needs to help you.

Start with a statement like "I'll let you know when I'm done." or "Where can I find you when I need to do some testing?" (hopefully not here....)

If they persist you can:

Open up the stinkiest cleaner you've got, and make sure they can smell it.
Ask personal questions in a rapidfire fashion.

For the person that still can't take a hint:

Start handing them things to hold. First tools, covers, towels, then as a last resort something covered with toner like a leaky waste bottle or a drum cleaning roller. This last one always works.

I usually don't mind is a 5 year old asks 5 year old type questions. It's when the adults are asking the 5 year old type questions that it gets bothersome. "Wow, what does that do?"

=^..^=

[laserman06]

I really like it when I get to the account and the customer meets me at the copier. I no longer set my tools down, when I am asked the question? What is wrong with it?

If I was a psychic, I sure wouldn't be there listening to them gripe. I would have won the lottery multiple times