End Users asking advice

[michaelc]

Just wondering on other poeples thoughts on the amount of (i am assuming) end users asking for advice to fix there machines and the frustration that can be caused by trying to explain things which a trained tech takes for granted. I am all for helping people but sometimes get the impression some take the advice and help for granted. I check some of the other posts from the member and all are asking for something with not much ever given in return. Some have a few posts and a lot of rep which makes them stick out (just al little).

Also is it taking money out of the hands of people who would usually do fix these machines or is there more money to be made when the end user pretty much kills a machine.

I am not intending to get at people if anyone takes offence. Just basically wondering is it worth the trained techs time on here to help them.

Here is an example of what I mean e studio 255 tray 1 over driving/grinding. Why would the paper keep lifting even when it hits the rollers. I can guess the fault/cause and fix from the post title.

Just my little rant for the day after getting beat by an es6530.

[Kidaver]

I wish end users would learn to clean the slit glass with something other than mud if they even put in the damn effort to clean it at all......even after the dispatcher has asked them if they cleaned it and I've asked them....

[mojorolla]

I wish end users would learn to clean the slit glass with something other than mud if they even put in the damn effort to clean it at all......even after the dispatcher has asked them if they cleaned it and I've asked them....

We have the dispatcher run the customer through the following setup BEFORE a tech is dispatched for lines:

1. With the ADF closed, press the start button. This will copy the white cushion above the platen. If the rendered page has lines, a tech is sent. If not, proceed to step 2.
2. Take the blank sheet we just produced and run it through the ADF. If this comes out with lines, 100% lines on the glass.
3. If they are being a$%^oles, have them print something. No lines, engine is fine. A sheet of 8.5 x 11 with a dab of isoprpyl will get most anything off the glass, with the exclusion of white out.
4. As a last resort, they can lay the page with lines face up on the platen. They can then match the lines up on the slit glass to the left.

If I has a dollar......

[Ianizer]

I doubt that assisting end users is taking money out of anyone's pocket, in any real sense of the term. Others may disagree. That said, I am not in the business of guiding all the DIYers thorough a blow-by-blow major repair.

As far as taking advice for granted, it's hard to know for sure on a text based forum like this. I would imagine many seekers of advice are desperate, in a hurry and just don't have time for the pleasantries.

As for those who just can't follow instructions -- as is often the case -- they get what they deserve.

Best,
I

[Akitu]

We have the dispatcher run the customer through the following setup BEFORE a tech is dispatched for lines:

1. With the ADF closed, press the start button. This will copy the white cushion above the platen. If the rendered page has lines, a tech is sent. If not, proceed to step 2.
2. Take the blank sheet we just produced and run it through the ADF. If this comes out with lines, 100% lines on the glass.
3. If they are being a$%^oles, have them print something. No lines, engine is fine. A sheet of 8.5 x 11 with a dab of isoprpyl will get most anything off the glass, with the exclusion of white out.
4. As a last resort, they can lay the page with lines face up on the platen. They can then match the lines up on the slit glass to the left.

If I has a dollar......

I'm shamelessly stealing this to force it upon my many out of town customers. I'll gladly contribute 50 cents of each dollar to the cause for every service call this saves me from some place 2-3 hours away on ice roads...

I hesitate to call this idiot-proof, but it's damn well close.

On the topic of helping end users... It's my philosophy that everyone deserves the chance to be educated. Most of the time if I offer to teach an end user how to do something, it's only going to benefit myself - so I offer, then the EU winds up accepting and is taught how to help themself, or they decline and wind up asking later when the problem reoccurs...

If a customer is asking for a step by step breakdown of how to change out a waste toner bottle (it happens... I have a customer 2 hours away who can't seem to remember the big black piece of plastic behind the front cover with the big green dial is the waste toner bottle. If I don't walk her through it, she completely ignores the waste tank and proceeds to start taking out drums and dev units... If it wasn't for the locking tabs and their inability to open doors they would have removed the primary transfer belt) I'll happily assist if it means I'm not going there for damage control after they inevitably f*** something up.

If they're calling me about someone else's machine (looking at you, Xerox) I inform them I'm not trained on it and they need to call the appropriate dealer... If they push beyond that because they're not happy with the provider, I pretend I know what I'm doing and make stuff up. If they screw it up, it's not my machine and they should have taken care of their customer better. Fortunately this has not happened yet...

Am I waking up every morning thinking "how can I screw this company out of money today"? Far from, but I'll happily assist making a hole in a sinking boat larger...

[JustManuals]

Personally, I think you guys (and gals) give way too much information out to end users. I won't mention any names, but some guys give far too much detail to a known end user. Now you may say well I sell manuals to end users. Yes I do. A manual can be a helpful or a dangerous thing. Someone without any technical knowledge can REALLY muck up a machine using a manual, and then he'll have to call a real tech out to fix things up and it should cost him at least twice as much then. I was a Plumber for 28 years then got into PC and printer repair. Even though I know a lot about printers, I know virtually nothing about copiers and I've been mucking around with these copier manuals for 10 years now. I would be lost to diagnose a copier even with the manual.

There's my $.02 cents. (notice my new name change)

Paul@justmanuals.com

[Kidaver]

We have a few customers out there I'm more than happy to pass some info onto...then there are others that even if they wanted to know it they would make things much worse. We have some IT ppl at a school district that we have shown how to reset fusers on Kyoceras. We showed them this because the Firestone plant in their town likes to draw power and shut down half the copiers in this school....now they could call us and it's 45 miles away or we can show them how to do the simple reset. But then I've come across nurses I'm afraid to even show how to load paper....and I remember them because if I'm sick take me to a different hospital!

[Akitu]

Personally, I think you guys (and gals) give way too much information out to end users. I won't mention any names, but some guys give far too much detail to a known end user. Now you may say well I sell manuals to end users. Yes I do. A manual can be a helpful or a dangerous thing. Someone without any technical knowledge can REALLY muck up a machine using a manual, and then he'll have to call a real tech out to fix things up and it should cost him at least twice as much then. I was a Plumber for 28 years then got into PC and printer repair. Even though I know a lot about printers, I know virtually nothing about copiers and I've been mucking around with these copier manuals for 10 years now. I would be lost to diagnose a copier even with the manual.

There's my $.02 cents. (notice my new name change)

Paul@justmanuals.com

Yeah! Paul's just trying to help us out with doubling our chargeable calls to customers who thought they could save their pennies from their service contract by doing it themselves... Everyone wins!

[fixthecopier]

I just went to look at a paper folder that the operator had been working on with the help of the factory. Together they decided the board needed to be changed. She did a fine job but the rollers still ran in reverse. I removed the cover, looked at the clutch. I then looked at the clutch spring spinning freely because the tab to catch it was gone. There is no substitute for a tech.

[michaelc]

I don't mean all end users. The customers I have I will do everything I can to give them the ability to fix (remove jams, calibrate, use correct print/copy settings etc) as this reduces the amount of time I am called out which frees me up so I can watch the clouds pass by or see how many times i can spin my screwdriver in the air and catch it without dropping it (yes, we all do it).

Its just the amount of posts I see on here where people who I assume (assume, not know) to be an end user ask for advice on problems which should ideally be done by a trained tech. I don't mind giving advice and helping at all just thinking of all those hours with my tools getting angry at a machine (imagine the zoolander scene where they are trying to get the files out the computer) and sometimes I still unsure when fixing a machine, so trying to explain to some one who does not know a drum from a fuser roller how to take apart a machine feels like counting the stairs on an escalator (much more polite way to say pissing into the wind). I know it can save that person time, money and stress, but there typing please and thank you does not take any length of time unless you type like myself.

Just to add on to this, got a new thing I am trying to do as I am getting pretty good at spinning the screwdriver. You know your tool case that has the slots for all your tools , try throwing the tool back into the slot from a distance.