What was your biggest oopsy on a call??

[mjunkaged]

Seems to me these posts are evenly divided between 'what i did to my body' and 'what i did to the machine/customer/office' , so here goes:
Part 1:
Injuries: 2nd year of my career, I'm walking into a customer's office with a power supply for a savin 770.....it was a 12"x4" square steel box that weighed about 10 lbs. at least. Had it cleverly perched on top of my tool case, and when I reached to pull the customer's door open, it slid off and onto my big toe, handily breaking it! Second worst, filed under 'what the hell was I thinking?' dept.: I was working on an old analog clamshell toshiba, had the front door cheated and power on, while happily sticking my finger in the transfer/sep ( think it was a/c sep, can't remember) corona. Of course, my hand found the print button and YEOOWWW!! I burnt a hole all the way THROUGH the tip of my index finger!!!

Okay, Part 2:
Snafus:
Once whipped out a can of rubber rejuvenator (which I thought had a nice mild smell to it-blow off if you're familiar), only to have my first 1/8 oz spritz met with reactions from 2 or 3 of the workers as if I had just launched a chemical terrorist bomb attack! I was informed that I couldn't use any toxic or 'smelly' chemicals to fix the problem with the machine.....one of those times I had to get creative to finish the repair.

This one wasn't me, a tech. under me - thank God this happened in the shop!
A new hire, we'll call him 'sparkmaster', was instructed to replace the power supply in a mita 213 or 313z, I can't remember the model. But what I (and my colleagues, including the lady rookie and gen. mgr.) will NEVER forget is this:
Guy was a Minolta EP tech. He put one of the 3 new supplies we had in stock in, proceeded to get out his meter, and start measuring between terminals with the machine turned off. POW!!!! HUGE BLUE arc at his lead, new PS blown!!
Me: 'sparkmaster, why did you do that? Who told you to meter it?
Sparkmaster: Well, that's the way we do it on Minoltas!
Me: Well, as you can clearly see from the ****** name on the front of the machine, it says MITA, not MINOLTA....got a few letters missin', there, bunky!! (I was NOT a very nice guy back then)
SO, sparkmaster proceeds to do it again. I'm not kidding, with all of us watching him!!! We all look at each other incredulously!!
I hand him the 3rd and FINAL supply to him, and warn him thusly:
Me: Now, sparkmaster, this is our LAST POWER SUPPLY, and you KNOW you don't need to meter it this time right? You're going to put that away, install the power supply, put the *&(*&%&^% cover back on, and just TURN IT ON THIS TIME, AREN'T YOU????????
Sparkmaster, slowly putting his meter away with stark realization of impending career-related doom: Why yes, that's exactly what I'm doing!!
He did. The machine worked perfectly. Then the female tech., who obviously at that moment knew she was far his superior, defended an attempted put-down by him thusly: "Shut up, Spark-Master!!"
We pissed ourselves laughing!!!!
I hope that dude picked another career path. For every one of OUR embarrassing stories, you can multiply them many times for the ones who didn't go the distance, and 'washed out' as techs.!!!

[Urushiol]

It was my 2nd or 3rd week of training and I was in the library of an Academy servicing a Risograph CR-1610. My right arm had been injured the week before, and was heavily bandaged; use of my right arm was limited, and I had no use of my fingers. But the call was a simple call, just a PM of sorts and I thought I may as well try and do something besides set at the office.

I noticed a small amount of ink seemingly leaking from the ink cartridge so I removed it to inspect it. It had more ink in it than I expected, and only working with one hand(my left hand at that and I'm a righty) it slipped from my hand, it plummeted downward at a 45 degree angle with the ink outlet pointing down and toward a vacant wall. I'm sure you can imagine the horror, as the cartridge impacted, ink erupted out, across the blond carpet, and all over the wall. 3 hours, half a gallon of lacquer thinner, untold multitudes of cloths, towels etc later, The carpet still looked like someone painted it black, and the wall looked like an abstract b/w painting.

On and did I mention the only cleaner I had was lacquer thinner so my sobriety was nowhere to be found after 3 hours in the fumes .

Worst part was it was during the summer and around lunch time and I couldn't find anyone to explain what happened to, so I had to clean it the best I could and return later to explain

[Shadow1]

	Quote:			Originally Posted by mjunkaged
	Once whipped out a can of rubber rejuvenator (which I thought had a nice mild smell to it-blow off if you're familiar), only to have my first 1/8 oz spritz met with reactions from 2 or 3 of the workers as if I had just launched a chemical terrorist bomb attack!

Blow-off: Used to come in a box with their other product lines advertised on the side???

Blow-Off, Lube-Job, Get-Off, and Stick-It

They represent the company's line of rubber rejuvenator / canned air, spray lubricants, sticker / adhesive remover, and spray adhesives respectively - but makes you wonder exactly what they're selling if you didn't know what was in the box...

Check out the web site: Max Professional™ - Really good products. Lube Job used to have a picture of a cartoon bolt spraying down his nut with a big smile on his face, but I see they nixed that one - too bad, it was pretty funny.

[banginbishop]

Dropped an ICU board from a sharp cougar a few years back walking out of the workshop. Funny it didn't work when i tried to fit it

[Robert Sveinson]

	Quote:			Originally Posted by copymon
	Early 80s when I was a newbe tech, used to have to wear neck ties. Working on a Sharp 810, good ole chain drive machine it was, yep my tie went right in to one while it was running, tie went through a sprocket an popped back out while the customer was watching.

Respond to copymon
================================================== =====

Was the customer impressed with the 'copy quality'?

[agudmove]

Biggest fowlup. That would be, walking into a new premises with new carpets, with a new machine. Looking behind me after 30 feet, and seeing 2 wheel lines and footprints, from the newly laid tarmacadam path outside!!!!!!!

[D_L_P]

One of the tech's I worked with had a call for a squeak, we were friends so he admitted the true story to me. He couldn't find the noise after a while and was getting frustrated. So while the back cover was off he got out the WD40 and just started spraying. He got it back together and started running copies. You guessed it, it caught on fire. He saw the smoke and popped out a flaming filter and took it outside. Then the copier really started burning with flames shooting out the back. When he came back he grabbed a fire extinguisher and was able to put it out. Funniest part was the customer thought he saved the day by putting out the fire!! Apparently, they came in while he was outside with the partially burning filter and saw the copier on fire and went to get help. When they got back there the tech was with the fire extinguisher.

[KenB]

	Quote:			Originally Posted by D_L_P
	One of the tech's I worked with had a call for a squeak, we were friends so he admitted the true story to me. He couldn't find the noise after a while and was getting frustrated. So while the back cover was off he got out the WD40 and just started spraying. He got it back together and started running copies. You guessed it, it caught on fire. He saw the smoke and popped out a flaming filter and took it outside. Then the copier really started burning with flames shooting out the back. When he came back he grabbed a fire extinguisher and was able to put it out. Funniest part was the customer thought he saved the day by putting out the fire!! Apparently, they came in while he was outside with the partially burning filter and saw the copier on fire and went to get help. When they got back there the tech was with the fire extinguisher.

I actually did the very same thing, myself when i was a newb.

Trying to find a squeak, and started spraying WD40.

No fire, but the machine did emit a loud "crack" and a green spark about half a foot long. (No damage, either, somehow...)

I was waiting for "oohs" and "ahhs", but they never came - just a bunch of icy stares.

[fixthecopier]

Sitting in the shop yesterday, I overhear the service manager talking to a tech who is out on the coast.
shop--what is the problem?
shop--You change the drum and developer and the letters are fuzzy?
shop-- Did you clear the counters?
shop-- You ran the adjustments?
shop--What was that? What did you say?
shop--You put a bag of 110 developer in?
shop-- what are you working on?
shop-- A lanier LD325.
Shop-- You put 110 developer in a Lanier?
shop-- What does 110 developer go in?
shop-- That's right, a Konica 2510.
shop-- What's that? You don't see a problem?
shop--Now think about what you are saying.


It kind of went on like that, but you get the picture.

[mrwho]

	Quote:			Originally Posted by fixthecopier
	Shop-- You put 110 developer in a Lanier? shop-- What does 110 developer go in? shop-- That's right, a Konica 2510. shop-- What's that? You don't see a problem? shop--Now think about what you are saying.

That's it - from now on I'll put diesel on my gasoline car - heck, it's cheap and fuel is fuel, right?