Mr. E-Manual... Do you know him?

[jmaister]

I think you guys are just stroking your egos, let's here some examples of these stupid questions co-workers ask you.

My boss doesn't give a crap if I solve the Da Vinci code, but only how long it took me.

I can't afford to spin my wheels on a problem, if just picking up the phone to another tech could get me the answer.

The point is to fix it right the first time, and move on.

if you had invested time on a problem no matter how long it took, it will be fixed right the next occurence without guesstimating nor phone calls.

If the colleague on the other end has your philosophy, what then? If a shop is run by a philosophy like that, how would it even run.
So you rely on others to resolve issues for you? You cant afford to spin your wheels?

sorry bud, if that's not ego I dont know what is.

on the other hand.. your boss is an aasshole, forcing his guys to do fast work, which is never quality work.

[vigour]

I think you guys are just stroking your egos, let's here some examples of these stupid questions co-workers ask you.

My boss doesn't give a crap if I solve the Da Vinci code, but only how long it took me.

I can't afford to spin my wheels on a problem, if just picking up the phone to another tech could get me the answer.

The point is to fix it right the first time, and move on.

So you get the praise for your numbers, and the raise
And the guy who spent time finding the fix first, gets chewed out.

[michaelc]

Just to add to this again. I feel better after fixing the fault myself. I find it improves my ability/skill in the long run. I am fortunate as my manager allows me the time to do this and does not throw targets at me. I do call other techs when I am genuinely puzzled by a fault but as I try everything I think of before calling sometimes they do not have an answer.

I think the original post referred to people just being lazy and not spending a few minutes to check manuals, previous posts (on here) or even attempting to fix the fault before calling another tech or posting here.

[blaze2000]

Isn't he that little kid on the early eightys shows that said "watchu talkin bout willis?"

[fixthecopier]

I will play devils advocate on this one. In my case, I am not allowed to carry my laptop into any of my customers, for security reasons. No phones either. I just picked up a customer this week that will not allow a laptop to be in my truck, in the parking lot. So , I do not carry one. I am always the exception to the rule.

As far as asking as opposed to looking it up, when I started in this business I had a Minolta Di 520 that coded for the atdc sensor. I called tech support. The guy at tech support was reading from the field service manual, that I was holding a paper copy of. He pretty much ran me through the "by the book" procedure and had me change developer and do all kinds of other things. Nothing fixed it. Then my service manager found a sheet of paper stuck in the cleaning section. For the next 6 years whenever I would have a cof24 code, it would always be a piece of paper in the cleaning section, and never anything else. That was never covered in the manual.

If you own a Bizhub 250/350, and have false jams from tray 1, I can tell you all the things it could be, and then I could tell you the thing that fixes it 99 per cent of the time. The manual does not mention the fix that works most of the time.

I do have an advantage in that my shop is usually no more than 15 or 20 minutes away. Since I sometimes get to work on stuff I have never seen before, asking a quick "have you seen this before?" can save a lot of unnecessary wasted time. Most of the time when I ask, including here, I get no answers, and have to do it myself anyway.


Now don't get me wrong. I have had the techs who are lazy and want you to tell them everything, as long as it is easy. If your answer sounds too hard, they will ask others looking for an easy fix. I quit talking to them. Usually I reserve my questions for 1 other senior tech, and she will call and ask me some things.

Remember, there are no stupid questions, just stupid people.

[nmfaxman]

I don't have problems helping other techs with weird / difficult symptoms and talking through the troubleshooting.
I do have problems with techs that call me to ask what a code is, how do I get into service mode, what is this part number and worse of all operator settings that they can find in the OP manual that is either with the machine or a FREE download. Look it up!
I actually enjoy solving problems no one else can figure out, so phone help is available in these situations.
I don't have time for the simple stuff that you can sit in front of a computer and do a simple search.
When charging a beer per solution, it was for my knowing the simple fix for difficult problems and techs were more than happy to buy me a beer.
It got them out of the call. Techs that always called me for things they could look up in a manual were wasting my time. I stopped taking their calls until they came to ask why. I would tell them to look simple things up for themselves. If a call took more than an hour, then call me.
If I had to stop and look up simple things all the time, I couldn't devote my time for the difficult problems that take more time and the call is unresolved after 2 days.
Nobody is going to ask for a loaner because a tech can't do simple operation settings, they will just ask for a better tech.
That is where I tend to come in and the lazy tech looks bad because he doesn't know the equipment.

[jmaister]

Its all good, just raising awareness thats all. There are times when answers are just a phone call away. But y'all cool dudes know what I meant in the big picture.

cheers.

[mrwho]

My 2 cents:

Lazy questions also annoy me ("Can you tell me the feeding roller part number?" when they have a laptop with all the necessary manuals inside and can't be bothered to boot it up) but if I'm trying to fix a problem I've never saw before, with more customers to visit that day, and I know a colleague that already faced this problem and knows how to fix it, I'll call him - just for him to give me a general idea of what the solution might be, not a step-by-step procedure (which is another kind of lazy question, unless it is a totally alien machine to me, which already happened to me by the way, so I'm not immune to those kind of questions).

[Techman1000]

I will play devils advocate on this one. In my case, I am not allowed to carry my laptop into any of my customers, for security reasons. No phones either. I just picked up a customer this week that will not allow a laptop to be in my truck, in the parking lot. So , I do not carry one. I am always the exception to the rule.

As far as asking as opposed to looking it up, when I started in this business I had a Minolta Di 520 that coded for the atdc sensor. I called tech support. The guy at tech support was reading from the field service manual, that I was holding a paper copy of. He pretty much ran me through the "by the book" procedure and had me change developer and do all kinds of other things. Nothing fixed it. Then my service manager found a sheet of paper stuck in the cleaning section. For the next 6 years whenever I would have a cof24 code, it would always be a piece of paper in the cleaning section, and never anything else. That was never covered in the manual.

If you own a Bizhub 250/350, and have false jams from tray 1, I can tell you all the things it could be, and then I could tell you the thing that fixes it 99 per cent of the time. The manual does not mention the fix that works most of the time.

I do have an advantage in that my shop is usually no more than 15 or 20 minutes away. Since I sometimes get to work on stuff I have never seen before, asking a quick "have you seen this before?" can save a lot of unnecessary wasted time. Most of the time when I ask, including here, I get no answers, and have to do it myself anyway.


Now don't get me wrong. I have had the techs who are lazy and want you to tell them everything, as long as it is easy. If your answer sounds too hard, they will ask others looking for an easy fix. I quit talking to them. Usually I reserve my questions for 1 other senior tech, and she will call and ask me some things.

Remember, there are no stupid questions, just stupid people.

I Can-not imagine not being able to carry a Laptop.
In my Case 30 years ago I use to service 1 or two brands, today I service 4 different brands with many different models within these brands Toshiba, Ricoh/Savin, Kyocera Mita, Konica Minolta.
These models range in age 1 to 12 years old. In the old days, I had to carry a truck load of Manuals.
Today so much to remember including how to enter the service mode for all these brands & Models!

[fixthecopier]

I Can-not imagine not being able to carry a Laptop.
In my Case 30 years ago I use to service 1 or two brands, today I service 4 different brands with many different models within these brands Toshiba, Ricoh/Savin, Kyocera Mita, Konica Minolta.
These models range in age 1 to 12 years old. In the old days, I had to carry a truck load of Manuals.
Today so much to remember including how to enter the service mode for all these brands & Models!

To be honest, there are very few times that I need it real bad. If I know in advance I need info, I will print part of a manual. Sometimes I tell the customer that I will be back tomorrow with more info. When I did ride around with a laptop, I very rarely opened it. I am not claiming to be a wizard or genius with a copier. Sometimes I do things the hard way because I did not have a manual, but in the end it is not rocket science. I worked my first 300 machine contract for 1 and a half years before they sent me to school to learn how to fix copiers.