Job grumbles and gripes

[leo34staffs]

This is the rants and raves section so here goes.

What most annoys you about your job? (copier tech)

Heres mine:

:A+ and N+ are pre requisites to do the ricoh training on the connectivity
:New machines (do you ever get the chance to get trained on all of them?)
:Software issues, connectivity issues and obviously copier issues(firmware!!)
:Looking after really old kit
:One off machines you rarely see
:Customer saying "here again?"
:The job requires more and more knowledge and yet gets less respect

A friend of mine did a weeks course on telescopic forklifts, after that one week course, he earns more £ than me

Odd thing is, i like coming in forums such as this and also the job(i do really), but whats going on with the pay?

Theres my rant, now its time to rave!!

[CanonHPTech]

Oooo... time to vent...

1. "I say lets bring back the copier scene in 'Office Space'" (you know, the one where they blow it up? if I had a knickel for every time I heard that one.)
2. "You're here again?"
3. "Can you just recomend a new one?"
4. "Is it a lemon?"
5. "Copier Dude!" or "Copy Guy!" (like from the movie Cable Guy), or the worst, "Copy Boy!" (I have never been so close to murder!)
6. Pay is not great, but this not a get rich industry anymore and outside of hard labor/construction, where can you make decent money without a college degree and without breaking your back, or bricks, or working outside all day?
7. Learning is all on your feet, in front of customer.... biggest complaint is that most on-line training is worthless outside of theory, and most on-line or in classroom is taught by guys who don't have much field experience.... maybe one day, I will get hired to write training... the kind where I unplug connectors one by one, and record the errors and symptoms and I put known bad parts in good machines and record the havoc that ensues!!! Only then can you know the quirks, short comings and deviant minds of engineers with very small fingers....

[unisys12]

My biggest grip... as of right now, would be with myself!

I take my job waaaay too seriously. Not sure if it's in my nature, or if it was some sorta subconscious switch that went off in my head when I realized I didn't want to be an auto mechanic anymore. It might be a little of both, but either way - I can get really riled up over stuff that the other techs in our shop just shrug off or don't have the guts to say anything about or, at the very least, ask about. Bottom line though - as a tech, I should have the ability to separate myself from most situations, but I sometimes can't. And that tends to make things rougher for me, when it really shouldn't.

1 - Me
2 - Pampered customers (I mean, for Gods sake, load the toner yourself!)
3 - Us pampering customers (Sure! I'll be glad to put the toner in for you.)
4 - Customers not paying their bills and expecting us to still fix their machines
5 - Us fixing their machines!!
6 - Parts not getting ordered
7 - Parts getting ordered, but Ricoh screwed it up because of their parts restructuring.
8 - Not being able to go to more classes
9 - That emergency call that comes in... at 4:45pm... the day before a holiday
10 - Me... again... loving this job so damn much!

But seriously, I really do love this job. There is this one thought that I have, that I can always call up when things are just at their crappiest and it never fails to pick me back up. It was the day that I drove 200 miles to take the competency exam for the job as a Xerox agent. After taking the test, I had to watch a training video on what it meant to work for them as a tech. Given that I didn't know anything about copiers, I was blown away by what I saw in that video. There was one point in the video though, not sure which one, but something in my head clicked. Or poped, not sure which. But it was then that I knew I wanted to do this more than anything.

After the video, I found out that I failed the test because of a really low score on the electrical section. The guy actually told me good day and to have a safe trip back. I refused to leave and ended up sitting there for almost another 3 hours talking to the guy about all sorts of different stuff. Finally, he says that he will think about "giving me a shot". A week and a half later, I had a job! But I had to do a lot of electrical study on top of all the Xerox new hire stuff. And for anyone that has been through that knows it can be a lot!

Anyway... That's about all I have to say about that.

[CMB]

bitching,moaning,groaning,pissy, whining customers!

here's you a box of clean ex. your breaking my heart.
its a damn copier. a machine. it has no feelings or conscience. here's my tool kit. everything is in there you need to fix the copier. whats that? you don't know how?
well, shut up and get out of my way and let me do this. go beat up a light pole if you must vent your frustration over a fking copier machine.

this has been happening a lot lately. can't explain it, but i'm getting quite sick of it. to the point i almost quit-twice.

the other day i'm working on a copier and a fella walks by and says,"oh, its you again." i told him without missing a beat. i said the same thing when i got this call. oh its them again. they say well if you knwe how to fix the copier- i said if you knew how to use it......

10 years of dealing with customers is starting to wear thin.

[CanonHPTech]

Ditto on the take this too seriously thing. I wish I had the power to leave it at work, and at the stuborn machine. But no, I always have to call other techs./supers/ and get opinions, or go home and dig through forums for possible solutions. Needless to say my hair is going grey. I just hate it when I don't know something, or why somethings happening on a machine. I take it to heart, where other techs just shrug it off and make up creative theories, excuses, and distract the customer from the core of the issue (that their $20k copier is still not working right after the 5th service visit, and their is no resolve insight.) At my previous post, I actually managed other people and was in charge of a dept. so that came with a little weight- but field service tech.? I need a hobby outside of drinking to distract me from this kind of stuff (even despite the fact that my company handbook strictly forbids that I pertake in any activity unless its governed non-competitive by the council of Jedi elders.)

[Cipher]

Colleague's that cannot be arsed to go back and replace parts they noticed were worn out.
And then decide in their ultimate wisdom it's not even worth mentioning on the service call history because that would be a admission they saw a problem and did nothing about it.

That REALLY ticks me off (and I make it known when I know who the culprit is) because it can mean a return call for me as well.
Since I won't know about it till I'm standing there in front of the machine thinking to myself...

'Ah bollocks I have not brought one of those with me, but hey wait just a mintre why didn't the dickhead who was here a week ago pick up on this... arghhhhhhhh lazy bastard'.

But that's about it really I don't seem to suffer to badly from customers moaning and whining at me.
Over the years most our customers have come to know me pretty well, they know I'm there to help and not to take crap.
I think I've only ever walked out on one customer and he never kept up regular payments anyway so we ended up cancelling his service agreement (LOL wanker).

[tonyd]

im a technical specialist for a nrg dealer and the amount of calls i go to for lines on copies and the engineer cant fix and they havent cleaned the optics!!! we have one old engineer who doesnt believe in PMs and then whinges when I put all the PMs in his name!! I did work for a Canon dealer in Wolverhampton years ago and they had one 'supervisor' who constantly just couldnt be arsed changing parts. he always used to write in the book 'gamma 0' to indicate he had checked the drum life even if a 80k drum had done 120k!!!!! another favourite of his was writing 'red day; in the book so engineers would think he had too many calls to do so didnt have time to fit parts!!!

[kyoceradude]

Hmmmmmm.

1. Constant emergency toner deliveries because the customer is too stupid to order when they put the last one in. (usually after 4:00 pm)

2. Going out on network installs with no site survey. The boss won't even fill one out so why should the sales people.

3. Sales trying to slam in a machine that you know darn well they can't aford, let alone pay for it. (hello, look at the building, rat and cockroach infested crack house) One never paid and we picked it up 4 months later and the machine was litterly destroyed with rat urine and droppings. That reminds me... FOR SALE: KM-C3232 FULLY OPTIONED, LOW COPIES, DEMO MODEL REAL CHEAP.. NO CHARGE FOR THE FUNKY SMELLS.

4. Machines left out on demo over a week. We have some out on demo for over 9 months. (they can't get them funded)

5. Techs having to go out to demo or train on a machine. Hey I'll do it if I get the commission, but that never happens.

6. Selling old obsolete equipment. ie: 2310 with print system H and expecting it to work as a network printer.

7. Paying sales for contract renewals. They keep 2355's under a Goldstar only because they get a commission for the renewal.

I could go on and on, but someone has to turn the screwdriver......

[CMB]

i forgot one. traffic where i live sucks.

[Ctl-Alt-Del]

"You here again" - Yes lady, I'm here to fix your 13 year old copier again. But it's OK because your paying me 4.5 cents per click for 40,000 pages you don't need under your current Maintenance Agreement. I tried explaining to your boss that we can get you a brand new 20ppm box with print/scan and 1 year of service for about the same cost as the service contract on your old 45ppm piece of shit. The machine would be a good fit in your office since you only run about 1500 pages per month. The boss doesn't want to upgrade because he paid $10,000 for the 45ppm box back in the day and he still thinks it has a few years to go before it dies.

So yes lady, "I'm here again" and I'm making so much money off of your old piece of shit copier that I almost feel bad about it. Don't worry I will try to get your machine running with some parts from the graveyard and some super glue, I always do. Maybe while I'm working, you could explain math to your boss.