Poll: Non-professional behavior.

[mikadonovan]

A technical competentcy exam may be a good idea although it would be difficult to comprise a list of questions to cover all types and manufacturers of equipment.

[TonerMunkeh]

This is a very difficult thing to police. An end user could come prancing on here pretending they are a technician and still weevil the information they require out of a tech.

I'm all for banning people who ask for and provide information to clear a machine's total counter, as this is of course completely illegal.

However, giving a customer information on how to get into service mode on a machine isn't necessarily harmful in certain situations, i.e. resetting SC543 on a Russian. It's the customer's fault if they start messing around with other settings. I can understand the point of view that "service mode is for technicians", but as FRIDGEMAGNET says where do you draw the line?

I agree a pre-joining exam would be the best thing to stop end users accessing the forum. Questions like "what is a CIS", "what does a CCD do", "what are VSG and VSP" etc (obviously manufacturer specific) would have most end users stumped.

Let's not go over the top here though.

[FRIDGEMAGNET]

You could use the PDI plus exam as a test.

[Guest]

The whole point of the Internet was supposed to be a free exchange of ideas. I don't think people should necessarily be penalized for simply asking a question. Having said that, let me assure all of you that I would never give out any information like total counter resets, login account information to manufacturer tech support sites or anything of the sort. However, I don't feel the need to bash people who try to get this information. We don't need to band together and eradicate every poster who posts something that annoys us. Just ignore their post. It's not that hard to do.

[blackcat4866]

Do you have any opinions, Copyboy?
=^..^=

[TheOwl]

Well, here is a question to answer a question.

If my eyes aren't mistaking, the logo says 'Copytechnet An online community for copier, printer and fax TECHNICIANS'. So my question to everyone is:

Would you give out this information to other techs?

There needs to be a way to police end users from techs. I don't have a problem at all giving our service modes to other techs because we realise the consequences of what could happen. An end user does not. How many times have we been asked to look at another piece of equipment while servicing our machines?

Counter resets I'm dead against, but sometimes these are necessary. That is what the manufactures support is for.

An exam would be good, but the answers are all over the internet. And how are we going create an exam that covers all brands without crossing proprietry technologies?

At the end of the day, there is an extremely fine line that is going to be too hard to police. And if end users really want, then most service manuals can be bought from the web anyway.

Just my opinion, but the questions need to be asked.

[mjarbar]

I am dead set against resetting meters unless they are durable meters that are designed to be reset, and only then by a qualified tech during a service visit.

We recentlly had a clocked Canon machine from a company that will remain nameless for the moment, and it caused no end of confusion due to the fact that we had three differing sets of meters giving us three different readings. In the end we just stripped the whole machine and replaced everything resulting in us spending way more on the machine than what was probably nessercery, purely because we could not be certain what was good and what wasn't.

As for the question of tech / end user, I feel that we must put something in place when people first join to find out if they are either of the above and make sure that there are certain terms and conditions that people will adhere to before they can start using the site. It could be that the person is asked if they have read the terms and conditions but put the question at various points in the T&C's if they say yes to the last but not the others in the list then it can be assumed that they have in fact skipped to the end and so don't let them use the site.

Blackcat has already posted elsewhere a post that could form the bases of the T&C's.

[Setright]

I reckon this information should NOT be allowed here.

Don't forget that us techs will sawing off the branch we're sitting on if we teach all of our customers how to do our job

[DadO]

Exam would be good thing but whit its consequences. Thers a lot of end users who go here to ask a simple question obout their copiers. If they fail the test (and they surely will) they will unable to send a question.

What we must do is to discuss will this site be for end users and tech or tech only(what was primary idea if got the philosophy right). I can see that no one have strong standing about this issue.

If exam will be an conclusion then admin must create an special part where u dont need to register if u want to ask a question exemplar : "Post your question and tech would answer" forum like.

[fixthecopier]

Unless you folks are encountering a better grade of customer than I, I think you folks are assuming that an end user would go to a lot of trouble to join a forum just to ask a question. I think a simple exam with basic questions would weed out the end users and they would run to the next site on their list. A public bulletin board could be accessed by end users to post questions. The average person will take the path of least resistance and not bother to research test questions online when another site will provide what he wants with little effort.

[ToshibaTech]

^^ Exactly. And it sounds likeyour customers are just like mine... lazy, and just like me in some cases! Hah! They aren't going to look for a way to fix the machine they are going to wait for the service provider to give it to them. IMO the only "customers" that come on here looking for answers are the ones who are not under maintenance contracts. Hey, if they want to screw up their machine trying at first then they can just pay one of us even more to fix it in the end.
I think two boards one public for basic questions/job postings/etc and a private one for authorized users for the technical data. Just my thoughts...

[TheOwl]

Just a quick thought on proving who is who. We have all had to do manufacturer training, so why not email in a copy of a manufacturer certificate to a designated person?

This would prove that you are a technician. That way, there would be no requirement for setting up an exam etc.

Sorry, a little off topic.

And as for my customers, they won't search for answers to the problems, they will just ring us and log a call to say 'The machine isn't working'. It's the people that are trying to save money that post here trying to get help.

[Guest]

Playing the Devil's advocate:

Why not encourage users to post here and get all kinds of inside technical information? What do you guys think will happen if they actually got the information they are looking for? Do you think they'll be able to fix their own copiers and never need a qualified service professional? Armed with this inside information, chances are excellent that they will cause far more problems than they solve, thus increasing the need for service. Let's face it, for the most part fixing copiers is something that most people would rather pay someone else to do. For that reason alone technicians like us will always be able to find work.

[Juxta5]

Not everyone is a leech... sorry for the novella

The count reset is a no brainer, it's wrong on so many levels. All of our copiers/printers are off lease & I would be really pissed off if I was deceived as to how much use a machine has seen.

I am not a factory tech, but I was trained by a good friend. I go into the service mode on our equipment. I've reflashed and replaced ROM's, replaced control boards & used an ISW Transfer program, networked with PC's as well as Mac's, performed PM's and loaded scan to PDF software -- all successfully on various makes/models. I would be lost without the advice, manuals (paid for) etc. that I have found through this site. I am careful to only offer advice that I have personally found to be successful.

I have paid factory techs in the past, thousands of dollars. But we only buy used equipment because it is less expensive, and the companies that factory techs work for often don't like them working on non-contractural equipment.

I have also used independent techs on 2 separate pieces of equipment in the past. Those techs made problems worse and my equipment was down for long periods of time. I have only one independent tech in my area that I trust.

If you created a test... I would take it and let the cards fall where they may. But I feel sorry for the honest person out there that has a business in some small remote town/country and has no where else but the internet to turn to for help, or they cannot afford the "Corporate" solution. You will always attract some schmarmy leeches, but there are good people too....

[Juxta5]

Why not encourage users to post here and get all kinds of inside technical information? What do you guys think will happen if they actually got the information they are looking for? Do you think they'll be able to fix their own copiers and never need a qualified service professional? Armed with this inside information, chances are excellent that they will cause far more problems than they solve, thus increasing the need for service. Let's face it, for the most part fixing copiers is something that most people would rather pay someone else to do. For that reason alone technicians like us will always be able to find work.

Ha! Perfect and brilliant train of thought. Kudos to you. To hell with paranoia.