Any Funny Stories from working on Copiers

[Baphomet]

I back up the quality of my work by doing something not a lot of techs do, which is give my cell number to my customers.

I do not give all customers my cell number, but if the account warrants it for some reason I do. I have had a few customers simply get my cell number from their caller ID. It is no big deal. If I am too busy I let voice mail handle it anyway no matter who is calling. My voice mail's greeting gives the number of our dispatch in case the caller needs to place a service call. Actually, I get more email request from customers than phone calls.

I have gone behind neglectful techs, but on the same token I have had techs come up to me and tell me I should have done this or that on one of my machines they have worked on. I think we all can tell when a machine have been neglected out of laziness or expedience. I can understand being in a hurry to complete a call on occasion, but a lazy tech I have little patience with. This forum gets quite a few lazy techs posting on it. You can tell because the questions will be just a matter of looking up an error code or part number which anyone can simply Google and get an instant answer. Or they have a simple problem which basic troubleshooting will solve in a matter of seconds. I feel if a person is too lazy to give a complete description of their problem and what they have tried up to this point, then why should I spend my time trying to help someone to lazy to help themselves. (yet I find myself doing it anyway)

[claudioterrible]

wow men ! and you work in the usa! come and try to work here in south america! is akind of bizarre world ,come on and try!!!

[claudioterrible]

one little detail,we import ,re built and rent used machines that come from the usa,anything else?

[fixthecopier]

one little detail,we import ,re built and rent used machines that come from the usa,anything else?

I know, I have a 600 machine contract ending next month and about 550 of them are headed your way. And they are not mine, they have been serviced by the other tech. Good Luck, Believe me I do not take for granted where I live and work, although some do. It is hard to believe how some techs goals are to get through the day as quick as possible and help to turn that nice new machine into the piece of junk we all talk about on forums.


Just because you own a screwdriver and your company sent you to training class, does not mean you are a tech. Being a tech is the curiosity to want to know how something works and how to fix it and make it work better. I was at Radio Shack the other day and I bought 2 small robot bugs on clearance for $5 each because I was fascinated with how they worked. I am dissecting one while watching the other work. My cheap thrill was finding that the bugs antenna works by coiling wire around a hot post so when it touches something and makes contact with the post, it switches one side of the bugs legs off for about 3 seconds to make the bug turn. It also reacts to loud noise. What is my point?? A regular person will see it and think it is cool, A tech will see it and have this instant desire to know what makes it work. Am I wrong??

[claudioterrible]

i m agreee with you fixthecopier,you began to be a tech ,when you are a little boy and begin to dissambly your toys ,only to see how its works

[ZeusGT]

"fixthecopier". You remind me of a person that I used to work with named Daryl. Nobody liked him because he would run and snitch to anybody who would listen if they didn't do things HIS way. There where a lot of good techs that had come and gone because of his wrath and persistance to eleminate everybody who didn't do things HIS way.

This exact person didn't bother to further educate himself nor would he do many service calls because he thought that playing detective was a much better game instead of his job that he was suppose to be getting paid for... funny how that all worked out.

Monkeys? That one comment shows an incredible amount of disrespect and a lack of integrity to weigh yourself better than a person who delivers copiers. It's not a wonder that you got along with a person who was so negative and disrepectful in that office enviorment....way to go!

Without those "monkeys" you would'nt have a job. You NEED them to deliver a machine from point a to point b or are you one of those people who feel you could do it better... yeah, just like Daryl.

I agree though, lazy techs cannot be tolorated and should be let go if they persist.
I don't know... I've learned a lot from being a sale manager and a tech and I know that first, that customer would not be tolorated nor would the persistant disrespect to others who you need to complete the business cycle.. Good luck man...

[fixthecopier]

To ZeusGT
I do not think I would remind you of anybody you ever worked with.
I base that on you saying that this person I remind you of did not do a lot of work while running around checking on others. The problem with your comparison is that every year at my company I manage to end the year with a lot more completed service calls than any one else that works for my company, and I have held that record since the first month I started working there. It is not uncommon for me to turn in as many as 125 completed tickets in a month. In addition to that, for the last 4 years I have hustled enough paid work on printers and shredders to pay my wages again for my boss.
The other mistake you made in judging me was to assume that I actually care what anyone else at my shop does, unless it happens in my area and I have to clean up the mess. I have one person I have to clean up behind and I am not "ratting him out" because my manager does not give a ratts ass about it.
I am not ranting about someone who does not do perfect work to my standards. Let me list some examples and see what you think, O.K.
How about putting drum and developer in a 65 page a minute machine, and not resetting the counters and running the adjustments.
Would you go to a jam call on a machine that is worn out, everything in it needs to be rebuilt, and just clear the jam and leave? The guy I have to work with does it every day.
Would you just change the top roller on the feed system and not the worn out one under it, because you have to take two screws out to get to the bottom roller, and let the customer call back to say it is doing it again? Happens all the time where I work.
How about take the finisher off a copier you can not fix and tape a box to the end to catch the paper. I have pictures.
How about taking the time to explain to your coworker how to take something apart and fix it the proper way, only to find out the next week when you get the callback that he just reset it again because it was to hard to take it apart.
Try to trouble shoot a machine when you can not believe any of the counters because they have never been reset. I must admit that it keeps me on my toes and helps me think out of the box. You may start trouble shooting a machine by checking all of the settings and counters, I may start by making sure all of the screws are in the important places.
I do not think that anyone reading this can defend any of the things I have described.
Now I will say I am sorry for using the term "Monkey" because I had no right to insult monkeys like that. Monkeys have never done anything to make my job harder. And most of the monkeys I have seen at the zoo , I am sure are smarter than the two ass wipes I was describing. Neither of the two delivery people work for us anymore, in both cases because they were dumb as a box of rocks. I have shown up where rental machines were being delivered and noticed broken and missing parts on the equipment and pointed it out to them only to be told that they did not have time to check the machine at the shop, but since it is in the field it is my problem now. In the interest of being pro active, I took the time to make a checklist to help people prepping machines so they would work to a set standard no matter who was doing the work. The list sets in a file cabinet having never been used.
My insult was not to everyone who has done the warehouse work, because I have done it in the past and I am sure I will at some point do it again in the future when my shop is shorthanded. I have prepped and delivered many of my own machines in my territory. Everyone reading this knows that there is a difference between someone who is just labor and someone who is a real professional, and we have had both in our warehouse.
So you see, I do not think that you really have a grasp as to who I am.
My customers love me and despite your image of me as someone who is complaining and in others business, I am quiet as a mouse when I am at the shop, I get my tickets, get my parts and leave. Aside from insulting the monkeys, I am not sorry for anything else I said.
Best wishes to you sir.

[prntrfxr]

This is the venting site boys...so let fixthecopier rant a little. We've all had to go behind "monkey's". If you have to do it everyday, you'd be a little PO'd about it too. I understand stuff happening because of lack of experience (I've done dumb stuff too), but there is no excuse for laziness. I was a service manager at a printer repair company. I had techs that never reach customer site, because our shop was next door to stripper clubs, techs who would drive 2 hours to a long distance call without parts & TOOLS, techs who blew toner out with their mouth instead of using their company provided vaccuum (in front of the customer - part of our contract), techs who didnt put screws back in covers (customer tried to move it and dropped it because the covers came off in their hands), tech put a printer on a corporate boardroom table and scratched the table, tech would come in with a hangover, go to sleep on a pallet in the back and begin his first call after lunch, tech used company credit card to pay for a hotel room with his girlfriend (guess he never heard of statements), tech getting in argument with security guard at cable TV station and got permanently banned from the building, and lastly (my personal favorite) the owner of the company hired a delivery driver and never checked his licence, proof of insurance or tags. He picked up a customer printer, was pulled over by the police with expired tags, and a suspended licence. The van (which was his uncle's) was impounded with company toner cartridges and the customer's printer inside. The guy didnt have money for bail or to get the van out of impound, but after a week the customer was screaming for their printer, so the boss had to pay it. I could write a book with the crazy crap that happened there. I always said if I hadn't witnessed it myself I would have never believed it.

Oh and by the way every last one were fired except the guy that fought the security guard. He was a good tech, became service manager, but he quit after I left.

[fixthecopier]

Thanks for the support prntrfxr, I knew someone else had worked with these kind of people before. I did not even mention
Falling asleep at the wheel of the delivery truck and running into another car head on
Doing a doughnut in the front yard of an old lady in a neighborhood, in the company delivery truck while going to your buddies house to smoke pot.
Clipping the front off of a car while changing lanes in the delivery truck
Having customers call and say you are asleep outside their building
Getting calls to say the company truck is in front of a liquor store
Having the sheriff waiting for you when you get back from a delivery, and then locking yourself in the truck trying to avoid arrest
Selling company property at the flea market
Calling in an hour after start of work day to say you just quit drinking an hour ago and are too drunk to deliver machines
Smoking pot in a bathroom on an army base
Picking up hitchhikers in the company car
Showing up late for work 4 out of 5 days every week
Tipping a $10,000 copier over and bending the frame
Sleeping the last hour of each day in the back of the shop
Getting arrested at an Air Force Base check point for outstanding warrants

Problem is , these people are everywhere, not just in our biz so watch your back and trust no one!

[Mr Spock]

Smoking pot in a bathroom on an army base

Problem is , these people are everywhere, not just in our biz so watch your back and trust no one!

Try smoking it in a police station bathroom while "fixing" their copier....
Or passing the MP's on a military base while in a company van. (crumbling X on the side). And have the nerve to ask WHY you are being singled out!

I have also seen this people in the auto insurance biz and the survey biz....