Has anyone ever done a call and made things worse than the original problem???

[Kidaver]

Oh another I must add....since I knew printers and such while we were deployed over in Iraq...we got some new big HP printer for our TOC....I got to set it up....So spent time unpacking it...setting up all the trays and cart that came with it...and just plugged it right up with no converter....the 110 didn't like the 220 over there...so had to load it up and carry it to the base tech for a new power supply....I should have known better but just lost train of thought and plugged it in...the worst thing about it all is when your boss is also a infantry First Sargent and you just fried his brand new printer.....

[wfinn]

I was working on duplex jams on a Ricoh MPC6000. During my troubleshooting I had to pull out the entire unit to check connections and put back into machine. At that time another tech came in and I was describing what was going on and I went to pull the duplex unit out to the resting point and didn't realize I forgot to put the rollers back in that prevent the unit from coming all the way out. Unit fell to the floor and bent the frame on it. Had to replace the whole duplex unit and the machine was down because not even the entrance to the inverter part would work.

[Lagonda]

We've got a couple of tech who can make matters worse just walking through the customers front door.

[KenB]

You know you're having a bad day when you consider getting back to the original problem to be progress.

[blackcat4866]

You know you're having a bad day when you consider getting back to the original problem to be progress.

I've been there.

I can think of two with real fireworks.

The first was a Mita DC-142re that was stretching out lens springs about once a week. So here I am. I've got the glass off, top cover off, light source #1 off, & lens cover off and powered up. I'm running the lens through the pre-sets 64% > 78% > 100% > 129% > 144% > 129% > 100% ... etc. The whole time the lamp wires are just hanging there in mid-air. As I'm engrossed with the motion of the lens & solenoid the wires come in contact with the frame, and weld one of the terminals right to the frame. Lots of lovely sparks, and I knocked out the power in half of this huge room. We're all standing there with that lamp terminal still glowing/smoldering bright orange in the dark. It takes 15 minutes for the maintenance man to find the breaker and reset it. At this point I've completely forgotten about those stretched out lens springs. Once the copier is back together, there is no power of course. The 15A breaker by the main power cord has exploded into small pieces, some stuck in the wall. With some quick thinking (and a 15A in-line fuse), the poor copier was ... almost as good as it started.

The second was a Mita DC-152Z. Occasionally The lamp voltage needs to be adjusted with a VR on the lamp regulator. There were two terminals on the lamp regulator to measure the lamp voltage on your meter. So I accidentally slip off one of the terminals, shorting across them. Again fireworks, and a 3" long trace vaporizes off the lamp regulator board. Mostly out of curiosity if it would work, I bridged together the solder points with a stripped piece of #14 copper wire. To my surprise it actually worked. That day I bought a set of insulated clamping leads for my meter.

There were plenty more, but those were the best fireworks. =^..^=

[jonezy999]

Delivering some toner the other day to a site which has an e-3510c. New office lady asked what to do when the copier says time for main charger cleaning. So I showed her and snapped the pin off the charger end block. Had nice black copies after that. Turned out the whole EPU was due for replacement. Fitted new EPU and and left. Customer sent me an apologetic email about an hour later saying they had labels stuck inside the machine. One was trapped on the belt cleaner, the other 2, yep around the new black drum.

[D_L_P]

I once broke the copyboard glass on a courtesy call. "Just here to check the copier out....OOPS!!"

[Cogz]

Hi, everyone..... One of the many times things got worse.... I can rember one of the best was when I was working in the "FAO" biulding in NY. Me and a another tech were just moving copiers from one floor to another. We could not find a outlet to test the copiers after the move... We found one outlet in a small closest and pluged it in and of coarse we turned the copier "ON", we heard a big spark and a flame from the outlet..... Not knowing what was attached to the outlet..... We took out five floors and two elevator's in one split second..... Needless to say we took the plug out and found another outlet quick.... What makes it funny is my buddy was hiding behind a copier laughing and I was stuck with out a hiding spot.......lol

[MR Bill]

Getting machines ready in the shop to sell.

Took A.D.F off a Mita 2310 and installed it on a Mita 2030. Took a break for a couple of days on working on this machine.

Feeders look the same. Have same connectoers. Etc.

Well they are not the same. Took hours of screwing around before I got that one fixed.

Installed the RIGHT ADF for the machine and fixed. Glad I was working in the shop.

[Masterchief]

A couple of months ago i was sent to a call regarding jamming constantly, Assuming it was the schools main copier a Ricoh MP 5500 i started to service it, Almost finished the School Principal notifies me that it was the small machine with the problem, All units in, optics cleaned etc!! I started on the outside, quick blast of AS foam cleaner and a burst of Glass Cleaner on the platen and Op panel for Shine, I was done or so i taught,

Plug in, red switch clicked to on and sissle noise = no power

So the SM hits the roof as expected, school completely down as the other machine is not fusing properly and ive destoyed the other machine. To this day i never got to the bottom of that problem, we swapped boards etc and never got it running again, so new MC for a very happy principal :-(

But this will make you piss yourself - i still giggle when i hear it.

All techies busy one friday afternoon around 4pm, A youth service for kids 65km away call in desperate for help due to exams, There MP4500 machine wont work due to waste toner full, Our Service manager kindly offers to help :-) He instructs the customer to " pull down the front cover remove the screw, look for a black cap and shake all the powder out". The customer agrees to follow instructions and will call back if any further problems......... :-)

Monday morning:

Customer Rings in complaining of sc 3 codes and is not happy. So our SM sends up our supervisor to fix the problem or so he taught.... Shortly after arriving my supervisor called the SM and asked WTF he told the customer to do, to which the SM replied " i told them nothing just empty the WTB" so my supervisor put the customer on and the customer argued that he had followed the SM's instructions and made matters worse.... The supervisor then got back on the phone and told my SM That the customer had followed his instructions and pulled out all the black caps and emptied out all the developer...

When my supervisor told me this i cried laughing, all four devs cost a small fortune and we joked about it for weeks