What was your biggest oopsy on a call??

[hammer]

Talk about the "Universal Modification"! The life saving cardboard catch tray seems to be the one!!!

[Shadow1]

Temporary? I have one machine (MP6500) where no finisher or exit tray was ordered with the machine, so I rigged up a "temporary" tray, apologized to the customer, and called the salesperson.

6 months later I go back to put feed rollers in the ADF, and my cardboard exit tray is still there - extensively modified by the customer. Sales already got the check and was operating at their usual efficiency. Of course not its too late to order it as a finished good, so it has to be ordered as a replacement part and come out of my budget.

I guess it's my fault for not triple checking on it.

[fixthecopier]

I took a finisher off a Di650 and when they ask what was going to catch the paper I noticed that the shredder was just the right height. I pushed it over, made a cardboard slide to guide the newly copied paper into the shredder, and told the 2 18 year old soldiers that it was for security reasons and left. Later my shop called. It seems that the company commander and I have different ideas as to what is funny. I had to take it down.

[Lagonda]

My biggest oopsy on a call, hmmm, where would I start?
Perhaps it was my first day in the photocopier industry when I stood in front of a copier and took a screwdriver out of my tool kit with the mistaken idea that I knew what I was doing and could fix the problem. I think it all went downhill from there!

One stuff up does spring to mind, it was the day I tried to move a Nashua 4550 away from the wall so I could get in the back. Now the old 4550 was built back in the days when copiers were built out of steel and must have weighed about 200 kilo. It was on top of a steel cabinet which had skinny castors and they had sunk into the thick shag pile carpet. No matter how hard I strained and grunted I couldn’t get the beast to shift. Finally with a Herculean effort that almost gave me a double hernia I got one corner to swing out. Now I was a lot thinner in those days and there was just enough room for me to wiggle in behind on my bum and with my feet on the trolley and my back braced against the wall I gave one almighty push. The result? There was a loud crack, the copier stayed still and the fibro wall behind me shattered!
Try explaining that one to the customer!

[pacman]

	Quote:			Originally Posted by schooltech
	Well, at least it's nice to know that others still use the cardboard box 'catch-all-to-shut-them-up-while-parts-are-on-order' technique. People initially think it's stupid until they find out that it is better than holding their hand out and catching the copies.

AMEN. The box top from a case of paper wedged in between the copier and the finisher always did it for me.

[Scorotron Wizard]

A good few years (actually 2 decades) ago one of the salesmen had a deal for an old second hand machine and all the engineers refused to work on such an old machine but it was for "A friend of his" and so he persuaded the newbie apprentice to work on the machine. Anyway it was an old machine with a moving top with a chain drive and the problem was the registration was out. The newbie had the machine on the end of the bench with the lid up and was leaning over the m/c to adjust the reg start switch, as he leant his belly operated the print switch and the top slid across, as the lid was open it dropped back into the window frame and as it changed direction it jammmed against the window frame and the entire machine began to shudder. We all watched as the scanner tried to move to the left and the entire machine juddered to the right off the end of the bench and smashed onto the floor, there was a chear from all the tech engineers. Thinking back this was early 1980s god I'm so old.

[olla86]

Great stories! I have not something like this...

[mabawser]

Not long started working on ricoh machine and went to do my 1st fuser maintenance kit on a mpc 4500!! Fitted everything when I realised I hadnt put the pressure springs on. Thinking I could cut corners and not have to dissmantle it again I tried to put them back on using my pliers.

After struggling I got one on, as i tried to get the second one on, my pliers slipped and came towards my face.If i never had a big nose I would have had my eye outbut instead I had cut a big gash from the top of my lip into my nostrel which was pouring with blood down my chin and onto the floor.

A quick trip to the toilet and a stupid lookin plaster on my top lip I had to go back and strip down the fuser to get the spring on!!

NOTE: strip the covers off to get the pressure springs on If you found them off!!!! haha

[HPLEXKYOPT]

Customer logged a call on there $2500 Color Laser Printer. Just for a service. While standing there talking to the customer, continued working on the machine... Pulled out the cables to the LED board...
We both paused as we looked down at the machine to see the smoke coming out the side as the board was burning out...

Yep forgot to unplug the power...

One LED later and a LED Array board... so glad I was working for the manufacture...

The customer was pissed having gong from a working machine to a one week wait while we ordered the parts in though.

[RichMac]

I had the opportunity to bring my six year old son along for the day, back in 1993 while working on a Sharp SD-2075 beast of a finisher.
The elevator motor on this model finisher would rotate the finisher output tray rougly every five seconds or so. The call was for a loud noise coming from the finshing area.
So, I had the covers off and diagnosed a bad motor. We didn't have the part in stock so i tried "cleaning" the motor windings with a squirt, actually a good douche, of isopropyl alcohol.
I fired up the finisher in test command and proceeded to squirt it again. Just then my son came round to see what the old man was doing behind the big machine. Well as luck would have it, the alcohol ignited in a small blue flame and I'm on my knees frantically blowing out the flames. He being six years old runs out of the room, out to the receptionist and proceeds to tell the gal that "the copy machine is on fire!"
I had already put out the flames but next thing I know half of the secretaries are in the copy room worried about the "fire." I tried to minimize the excitement but my son piped up and said " oh no there were bg blue flames!!"
I'm trying to shush him but that didn't work.
If memory serves me correctly, I had to explain to my boss all of the goings on and why my son was with me in the first place. Needless to say, I was barred from doing that again.