Can techs take a joke?

[spaniel ears]

One of the best pranks we did was on my former boss many years ago. While he was working in the upstairs office one day, we stretched a piece of sellotape across the doorway at the bottom of the stairs. We tried to gauge the position of it so as it would stick to his glasses when he came down, as he was only about 5 foot nothing tall one of the lads crouched down in the doorway as I positioned the sellotape at his eye level sticky side facing the stairs hoping for a direct hit. Anyway, a few minutes later we were all hidden out of sight and my boss came trundling down the stairs, he walked straight into the sellotape bang on target. The best bit was the shock of hitting the sellotape made him jump backwards and his glasses came clean off and they were just hanging there in mid air as we rolled around pissing ourselves laughing, he didn't have a clue what had happened.

When I was a puppy, the same bunch of lads bundled me into an empty machine box on my birthday and parcel taped it closed, then they dragged me out into the middle of the road outside the office and left me there. I had no idea where I was until I managed to break out and popped my head out of the box to find cars driving around a higly embarassed man in a big cardboard box.

Sellotaping the hight adjusting lever up on the swivvel chairs was always a favourite as well, so as soon as someone sits on it the chair drops straight down to it's lowest position.

We also stole an ambulance from the mechanic next door who had it in for a service, he always used to leave the keys in the vehicles so we waited until he wasn't looking and hid it behind our office where he couldn't see it. We gave it him back eventually.

The window cleaner never forgave us for nicking his ladder and leaving him stranded on the office roof for 5 or 10 minutes one day when we were bored. He still gave us dirty looks for several years after the incident, miserable twat.

Rigging up party poppers with extra string and sellotape to chais, doors and drawers was also a frequently used prank.

Occasionally, we also did some work.

[mrwho]

we stretched a piece of sellotape across the doorway

Did that a couple of times some years ago - the sound of the tape breaking when someone hit it sounded like a bear trap closing on its prey, and we would say aloud "caught one"!

[Herrmann]

In the early 80s, i was an Apprentice for Radio and Television engineer. This was the Time, when VHS Recorders was real "Heavy Metal" , 30% Electronic and 70% Levers, gears, Springs and whatever with a total weight of 20 pounds and more. If you had to service such a beast, it ends up in disassembling the whole mechanics, clean, grease and reassemble. So far, so good. as you can imagine, this was a job not been done in a couple of minutes, i needed at least 4-5 hours for a complete reconditioning.

Ok, this was the preliminary, now the fun begins:

I disassembled the mechanic and place the parts in order on my workdesk as end of work time knocks in. So i finished and the next morning i came back and started to reassemble the parts. It ends up with me sitting there, scratching my head while looking at two items (a tiny lever and a spring) for which i had no idea, where they belonged to.

It turns out, that the master engineer added these two parts just to take me on the ride.

This happend more than one Time and not only to me, i hated him for that in that time... but in retrospect i should be grateful, this was a good training to develop a photografic memory while disassembling things

[mrwho]

It turns out, that the master engineer added these two parts just to take me on the ride.

Reminds me of a colleague (the same one who told me about the colorful tales I shared with you) who would sneak up when other techs were not looking and unplug a random connector inside a copier being repaired without telling anyone.

[mikadonovan]

I like walking in to an account where the competition has been working on their particular piece of equipment and decided to leave for a little while. Just to be nice and make sure he doesn't run out, I may add a couple of extra screws and an e-clip or two to his pile he left unattended.

[Dr.silver]

I like to telling the new lazy techs when they ask "HEY WHATS THE PART NUMBER THAT I NEED??" I tell them " It's ID TEN T and to go tell it too the Parts guy". So they go to the parts guy and say "I need an ID TEN t Part" My part guys knows the Joke and tells them I don't have time for this please right it down and give it to me. So I ask you now right down ID TEN T and tell me that not funny

[jmaister]

the one I heard is, the guys in the oil field doing instruments and stuff would often call newbies to get a "pipe stretcher".

[Shadow1]

I guess it can't hurt to 'fess up to this one now...

My boss was enjoying being the one to play practical jokes on everyone else a little too much. Mostly small stuff: He had the spare keys to all our (identical) company vehicles and would swap them around in the parking lot. Leave your computer logged in and unattended and you would catch the "I Love You" virus. Someone posted an ad on Craig's List with one of our salespeople's email and cell phone numbers "Riding lawnmower. Excellent Condition. Free to good home." (I don't think he was responsible, but he inspired it.)

I came in one Saturday with my 11 year old son and spent almost 5 hours "redecorating" his office. Everything - and I mean EVERYTHING - was wrapped either in aluminium foil or pallet wrap.

The pictures on his wall. The Phone. All his paperwork (clear plastic in case he needed to find something) The bookcase. His chair. His desk. The stuff in his desk.

Right down to the poker chip from the previous manager that had fallen behind his filing cabinet. He was impressed with that - posted a picture up on his Facebook page with a caption "They even wrapped the poker chip. Didn't even know it was there." Of course I had already taken pictures of it and emailed to some of his buddies.

The only thing we left visible was the picture of his wife on the desk. Wrapped it in foil too, but cut out around the image.

He suspects I had something to do with it, and it was fun watching him try to flush us out: "They wrapped the poker chip! Had to be a woman involved, no male is that anal."

He lurks here on CopyTechNet, it'll be interesting to see if he finds this post.

[mrwho]

He suspects I had something to do with it, and it was fun watching him try to flush us out: "They wrapped the poker chip! Had to be a woman involved, no male is that anal."

So you're either a woman or extremely anal retentive!

[Radman]

We had this guy with us that was always up to no good Till one day I lost it with him and ducked taped him to a pillar where he was only rescued by his buddy 5 hours later even the boss left him there LMAO

[Shadow1]

So you're either a woman or extremely anal retentive!

Neither - he was trying to see who's feathers would get ruffled or if somebody would drop something about the few ladies that might have been involved.

[Mikey]

Re: Can techs take a joke?

Me and my buddy is working on one Canon IR7095. I know we have to remove the drum assembly unit so I told him to removed specific screws and the connectors. I pretend that I am not familiar with that model so I ask him to put back some screws that we mistakenly removed. I knew that it is his first time to work on this model and he had no idea that I already have experience on this copier. I can see in his eyes that he is afraid that we are not able to fix all the parts we have removed so fast. He told me then that he don't know how to put everything back and I answered him "You're not alone". He sweat so much.

[igi]

Re: Can techs take a joke?

hi
we used to send newbies to get left hand tred screw-driver from stores,
for left handed screws only
clear tape on the edges of the fuse,bitch to find that one
cheers

[Kidaver]

Re: Can techs take a joke?

When I worked for a school district and we had mostly Apple computers there were some fun extensions I'd install on my bosses comp from time to time while he was out. One turned all the letters backwards...that one really messed with him cuz he thought he was dyslexic cuz of it lol.

Another one was called Mittens. It made your keyboard type like you had mittens on. That one really irritated him as he was one of those typers that always looked at the keyboard. He had written out this email never looking up for a bit. He had this long typed up email of just random garbage.

Also had this one elementary teacher that learned how to go in and switch between the printers in all the classrooms. She used to send mean nasty notes to other teachers messing with them. The principle finally called me to come take his laser printer off the network cuz he was tired of getting print outs from her and he didn't want to walk all the way across campus all the time to tell her to stop.

[excanonguy]

Re: Can techs take a joke?

Haha this is a great thread, reminds me of the crap we used to do at Canon...grease on old Norms telephone earpiece he walked around all day with a black ear, we warned everyone in the building not to tell him, we made till about 10 mins before closing when one of the road techs came in and asked him why his ear was all black lol! He didnt clue in for several weeks that we did it to him till someone asked him how he liked the joke we played on him !

same tech I took an old fuser web and used a coat hanger as an axle and tied it to the frame of his car, when he drove away it fell out on the highway and unraveled until he had about 50 ft of web flapping behind his car !

Silicon oil on windshield wiper blades was another good one try to do

On a newbie tech ,photocopy a lone screw in different positions on the glass then put the sheets in the cassette, and tell him there is a loose screw in the machine and watch him try to find it ~!