Why is it????????????

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  • fixthecopier
    ALIEN OVERLORD

    2,500+ Posts
    • Apr 2008
    • 4714

    #31
    I may have said it wrong or something, but my criticism was not directed at people on this site. The subject matter made me think about techs I know in person who whine and bitch about their job. One person comes to mind that used to be a delivery boy for us left to be a tech at another company. His job was great when he only had 1 or 2 calls a day, and was getting paid to sit at the house, but when they cut staff and he had to work all day, now it sucks to be him. I remember this giant copier we had at the steel plant, I do not remember the brand. Working the night shift, I only saw the tech once. I was probably covered in liquid and powered graphite, looking like a coal miner and may have had a couple of broken fingers. I saw this guy in clean clothes with clean tools working on the copier and thought , "I need a job like that". The tech looked at me in total disgust, as if to say , please do not come near this machine. The other thing is listening to techs I have worked, with complain all the time. I have had those suck ass days like everyone else, when the calls keep coming and someone has real problems. Under pressure. I had also met another one of my competitors, who works for a Cannon dealer. The office is in another city and is is their local tech. He tells me he only has 110 contract machines to keep up with. While in the compound, I use one of his copiers and it was nasty and dirty. Look like a run down piece of shit. This from a tech who is on his way back to the house when I am on my way to my first call. I bet if his company cuts back, and he has his calls double, he will complain about how his job sucks.
    I feel your pain, I really do. I think that I used to get really pissed when I was slammed with calls and had to deal with idiot calls. I think that I just got my mind adjusted to my customer. A lot of you guys go to calls and see the same people all the time year after year. Maybe every now and then you see a new face. Reality is that the office I spent time giving a full blown demo to, 6 months ago is calling for something stupid again, because the personnel has all changed. Soldiers change units all the time and get out and go home. It does no good to show attitude to some 19 year old who ran out of toner or does not know how to do a 2 sided copy. She just got there and has never seen the machine before and the books are gone. If you think your territory is frustrating now, imagine if all your customers got replaced with new ones every 6 months. I just deal with the fact that I will have to explain slit glass and lines on copies when using doc feed, almost every day of my life. My reality is that I will have to deal with these calls for as long as I do the job. I will have to give demos on the same copier over and over again as the staff changes.
    The tech that used to work for us is who I do not want to be. I have a printer customer that has a contract copier from his company. One day something simple popped up on the copier. I said I would take care of it so they do not have to bother Jon. All the ladies in the office chimed in that they would prefer that, because they did not want to listen to Jon run his mouth and bitch at them. I do not want my customers to fear breaking the copier because they do not want to deal with an asshole tech.
    To get by I changed my attitude to "My job is to make sure you are happy you did business with our company. I will respond no matter how simple the call"
    If anybody here thought I was criticizing you, I apologize, I do not know what you have to do in the course of the day. I was just ranting and raving.
    The greatest enemy of knowledge isn't ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge. Stephen Hawking

    Comment

    • Jimbo1
      Senior Tech

      500+ Posts
      • Mar 2008
      • 845

      #32
      No problem. There have been some really tense threads of late and I just figured it was what was running.
      I like having the ability to have to leave a customers office with them still down but they are happy because they KNOW I will take care of it.
      "Some days you get the bear, some days the bear gets you."

      Cdr. William Riker

      Comment

      • Stirton.M
        All things Konica Minolta

        1,000+ Posts
        • Oct 2009
        • 1804

        #33
        Originally posted by fixthecopier
        I may have said it wrong or something, but my criticism was not directed at people on this site.
        If anybody here thought I was criticizing you, I apologize, I do not know what you have to do in the course of the day. I was just ranting and raving.
        Nah...no worries...we deal with the issues at the local universities that are remarkably similar to yours on the base. Every semester it would seem....same shit, different group. Those are the exception to our rule.
        "Many years ago I chased a woman for almost two years, only to discover that her tastes were exactly like mine: we both were crazy about girls."
        ---Groucho Marx


        Please do not PM me for questions related to Konica Minolta hardware.
        I will not answer requests or questions there.
        Please ask in the KM forum for the benefit of others to see the question and give their input.

        Comment

        • Jimbo1
          Senior Tech

          500+ Posts
          • Mar 2008
          • 845

          #34
          Ah well you let too many of them operate or think they operate some of these and you have lots of calls. Always nice to have a key op you can educate.
          "Some days you get the bear, some days the bear gets you."

          Cdr. William Riker

          Comment

          • AlvinBrown

            #35
            Originally posted by Stirton.M
            Asking your doc about surgery is nowhere near the same as asking someone to clean glass. I am a repair technician, not a janitor at their beck and call.

            You call in an appliance technician to fix your dishwasher or stove or fridge, is it their responsibility to clean said appliance? No it is not.
            hi Stirton:

            Touche. But my thinking is, they ARE paying for my hours, so I might as well humor them. To be honest, if it's a simple task, then why not go the extra mile. It would put you at the front of the line when they think of a technician they can depend on. Right?

            Comment

            • Shadow1
              Service Manager

              Site Contributor
              1,000+ Posts
              • Sep 2008
              • 1642

              #36
              Yeah, I'm not their janitor, but if my machine looks better everyone (not just the machine's owners) get a better impression of my company - that's good for business.
              73 DE W5SSJ

              Comment

              • Stirton.M
                All things Konica Minolta

                1,000+ Posts
                • Oct 2009
                • 1804

                #37
                Originally posted by AlvinBrown
                hi Stirton:

                Touche. But my thinking is, they ARE paying for my hours, so I might as well humor them. To be honest, if it's a simple task, then why not go the extra mile. It would put you at the front of the line when they think of a technician they can depend on. Right?
                Yes and no. As previously argued, the time consumed to do this menial task, to drive to the location and do this one thing, could be better spent on the customer who has an issue that really does include the need of a technician to correct a problem. If you are not busy, then all the power to you to keep busy and justify your paycheck in such a manner. In my office, the colour department covers on average, 30+ calls a day between 4-6 guys (depends on holidays and sick days), with many of those calls forcing us to make a trip to the office for consumables and parts. Short calls last about an hour...half of that trip time, the rest dealing with the call itself. On average however, 2-3 hours can be spent if any serious repair or parts swap is involved.

                I have no issues of cleaning a machine if I am there to fix it for other issues. In fact, I insist on this standard of all our techs. Most machines, if well maintained during each service call, should take at most 5 minutes with a dust cloth to wipe down the outside, clean the optics, clean the transport and feed rollers. Truth be told, most KM colour machines these days, unless in a very dusty environment, stay pretty clean internally, as well as externally, so cleaning is a rarity for us anyway. But I will not expect my techs to take time away from another customer who needs their machine to work and give it to someone else who merely has a dirty scan glass that they are too "above it" to deal with themselves. Our office prides itself on fast response times to calls, and timely service to get the machine up and running, which is more often than not, far more valuable to the customer. Those that ask for a cleaning are put on the low priority chain relative to those that call for actual service where they cannot print or otherwise.
                "Many years ago I chased a woman for almost two years, only to discover that her tastes were exactly like mine: we both were crazy about girls."
                ---Groucho Marx


                Please do not PM me for questions related to Konica Minolta hardware.
                I will not answer requests or questions there.
                Please ask in the KM forum for the benefit of others to see the question and give their input.

                Comment

                • Stirton.M
                  All things Konica Minolta

                  1,000+ Posts
                  • Oct 2009
                  • 1804

                  #38
                  Originally posted by Shadow1
                  Yeah, I'm not their janitor, but if my machine looks better everyone (not just the machine's owners) get a better impression of my company - that's good for business.
                  As I said above, any given visit to service the machine, it gets a once over. But I will not make a special trip just for this when I have several other customers with problems that go beyond basic maintenance.
                  "Many years ago I chased a woman for almost two years, only to discover that her tastes were exactly like mine: we both were crazy about girls."
                  ---Groucho Marx


                  Please do not PM me for questions related to Konica Minolta hardware.
                  I will not answer requests or questions there.
                  Please ask in the KM forum for the benefit of others to see the question and give their input.

                  Comment

                  • fixthecopier
                    ALIEN OVERLORD

                    2,500+ Posts
                    • Apr 2008
                    • 4714

                    #39
                    Originally posted by Stirton.M
                    As I said above, any given visit to service the machine, it gets a once over. But I will not make a special trip just for this when I have several other customers with problems that go beyond basic maintenance.

                    Of course the machines with real problems get to go first. But what happens sometimes the customer has diagnosed the problem and has decided that a good cleaning will take care of the problem. I make them wait a couple of days cause I am busy, and they will call back to complain, because they have black lines or a jamming problem they thought a good cleaning would fix it. They can't understand to just call in for what they have going on. How many times do I have to hear "the copies were light, and I changed the toner and they are still light."
                    The greatest enemy of knowledge isn't ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge. Stephen Hawking

                    Comment

                    • Stirton.M
                      All things Konica Minolta

                      1,000+ Posts
                      • Oct 2009
                      • 1804

                      #40
                      I get that from time to time too. Nothing more irksome than getting a call for one problem that is menial...like empty the waste toner bottle but upon arrival to the site, to discover that I have to go all the way back to the shop for drums, charge wires and PM kit.....

                      Or an extension to your toner thing....where the message clearly says "Change Image Unit K soon" which somehow the users see as "change toner cartridge k soon" and then call us for service because the cartridge is not working.

                      I'm wearing a flat spot on my forehead I tell ya....
                      "Many years ago I chased a woman for almost two years, only to discover that her tastes were exactly like mine: we both were crazy about girls."
                      ---Groucho Marx


                      Please do not PM me for questions related to Konica Minolta hardware.
                      I will not answer requests or questions there.
                      Please ask in the KM forum for the benefit of others to see the question and give their input.

                      Comment

                      • fixthecopier
                        ALIEN OVERLORD

                        2,500+ Posts
                        • Apr 2008
                        • 4714

                        #41
                        Originally posted by Stirton.M
                        I get that from time to time too. Nothing more irksome than getting a call for one problem that is menial...like empty the waste toner bottle but upon arrival to the site, to discover that I have to go all the way back to the shop for drums, charge wires and PM kit.....

                        Or an extension to your toner thing....where the message clearly says "Change Image Unit K soon" which somehow the users see as "change toner cartridge k soon" and then call us for service because the cartridge is not working.

                        I'm wearing a flat spot on my forehead I tell ya....

                        not paying attention is universal. same thing here. So far my record for running a bizhub with the change PC drum message, is around 60,000, and they still have not seen it yet. Refer to signature below.
                        The greatest enemy of knowledge isn't ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge. Stephen Hawking

                        Comment

                        • Stirton.M
                          All things Konica Minolta

                          1,000+ Posts
                          • Oct 2009
                          • 1804

                          #42
                          That's not bad. I have yet to encounter that...though truth be told, up to this point, prior to the IU enhance initiatives, the machines either locked up at a certain point or gave a very annoying message that was hard not to notice, yet very hard for some to comprehend its meaning.
                          "Many years ago I chased a woman for almost two years, only to discover that her tastes were exactly like mine: we both were crazy about girls."
                          ---Groucho Marx


                          Please do not PM me for questions related to Konica Minolta hardware.
                          I will not answer requests or questions there.
                          Please ask in the KM forum for the benefit of others to see the question and give their input.

                          Comment

                          • mrwho
                            Major Asshole!

                            Site Contributor
                            2,500+ Posts
                            • Apr 2009
                            • 4299

                            #43
                            This happens more or less constantly, but I had this one just a few days ago.

                            Was at a customer working out some questions of his about this piece of software when a teacher (a teacher!) who was trying to take some copies on a copier nearby (because, according to her, the copier at the teacher's room was not working) suddenly starts to say ouyt loud "There it is, this machine isn't working either!". "Calm down" I said while I approached the machine, "let me see what's wrong". As I looked into the panel, the message "Please add paper" was on the top row, along with a red light.

                            The machine at the teacher's room was okay also.
                            ' "But the salesman said . . ." The salesman's an asshole!'
                            Mascan42

                            'You will always find some Eskimo ready to instruct the Congolese on how to cope with heat waves.'

                            Ibid

                            I'm just an ex-tech lurking around and spreading disinformation!

                            Comment

                            • fixthecopier
                              ALIEN OVERLORD

                              2,500+ Posts
                              • Apr 2008
                              • 4714

                              #44
                              I also get work orders when the green light is blinking. Copier works, the blinking bothers them.
                              The greatest enemy of knowledge isn't ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge. Stephen Hawking

                              Comment

                              • dinkyoaf
                                Technician

                                50+ Posts
                                • Sep 2010
                                • 63

                                #45
                                Originally posted by mrwho
                                This happens more or less constantly, but I had this one just a few days ago.

                                Was at a customer working out some questions of his about this piece of software when a teacher (a teacher!) who was trying to take some copies on a copier nearby (because, according to her, the copier at the teacher's room was not working) suddenly starts to say ouyt loud "There it is, this machine isn't working either!". "Calm down" I said while I approached the machine, "let me see what's wrong". As I looked into the panel, the message "Please add paper" was on the top row, along with a red light.

                                The machine at the teacher's room was okay also.
                                It truly is depressing the level of education kids receive today. The education system is only half of the problem. Teachers are the other half. Teach your kids to question what they are taught (there are some good teachers still)!

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