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And then there are days I wanna kick the daylights....
I went to a service call today, customer complaining about image shifting problem, and that they did not want a specific tech there anymore, to send someone else.
I go talk to the two girls who made the service call and find out from them what the problems were. Image shifting, front side to back was somewhat a strange one on a Konica Minolta C451. That particular problem is intermittent, and is currently on a watch and see if the machine exhibits the problem again after all of what I did to it. However, this was not the only problem on the machine, and was not the cause of the ire these girls had with the other tech.
They complained about copy quality, and jamming issues.
Copy quality, was lines in the prints. Basically uneven density in any solids across the page, as well as fuser line marking (which was not as easily seen because of the other lines). This other tech had told them that there was nothing he could do about the lines.
When I saw the sample prints they were having, I was dumbfounded, unable to comprehend what possessed this other tech to say that. I queried them on specifics. Such as, did he mention that he needed parts but the parts were unavailable today and that he would return when those parts came in? No, was the answer. Can't do anything about this problem.
What I found was a transfer belt that had been reset at least twice. The belt had severe worn lines in the surface, which would affect the image, uneven density. The fuser, after I replaced the belt, had paper edge marks worn into the surface that couldn't be seen in the printed image because of the uneven density.
The jamming, had to do with the finisher. Anyone familiar with the FS519 (514/517) will know these finishers are not flawless, but with some adjustments and such, they can be fixed so they work fairly reliably. The problem in this case was paper exiting onto either exit tray. A 30 page document, corner stapled, 5 copies. Typically in this case, the third document would not exit the machine properly because the previous two copies wouldn't stack correctly and the 4th copy would butt up against the trailing edge of the third as it stacked for the corner staple operation. End result would be a jam in this section.
A few fixes available for this. In the case I was dealing with, firmware was the fix. The firmware on the machine was at 6M. This is almost factory release level, something that should have been dealt with at some point in the past couple years this machine was at the customer's site. R6 is the most current. Our office has a policy of updating the firmware to the latest level (we test each in the shop to look for possible issues before we make it final to the customer). R6 is trusted by us to be reliable and has many fixes, such as fixing the jam issue above. Customer complained this problem since last fall.
Long story short, in one or two trips to the customer's site, the other tech could have resolved ALL the problems with a firmware update and replace the transfer belt and fusing unit. Instead, he chose to give the customer a bs line "nothing he could do about those problems".
I passed this on to the supervisor, who is a pretty non-confrontational kind of guy, because the customer was livid that I was able to fix what the other tech said could not be fixed.
I heard through a co-worker that this other tech was pretty upset with me about what I passed on, he got shit from the supervisor.
Most situations, I would have talked to a fellow tech without involving the boss. I would expect no less from them if there was anything they might have found I missed on a previous call. It is how we learn and improve our performance.
This guy, this problem is constant and has been for going on 3 years. This is not an isolated issue. I've lost count of how many customers do not want him back, I've lost count on how many calls I had to go to that he supposedly went to fix and never did, finding easy things that would have taken a few minutes time to do. I've lost count on how many times he's been talked to on such issues as this...it's like talking to a brick wall. I've pretty much crossed that line of "I really do not give a shit what he thinks". There are too many other issues I have with him, but those are issues the boss sees. When it comes to customers, many do not voice their dissent beyond the dispatch or another tech, or worse, diss the company, costing us potentially in customers.
There....
Got that all off my chest....
I feel a "little" less agitated....
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Originally Posted by TonerMunkeh
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