We all have them, just interested to hear others exeriences of these customers who make us techs life a complete nightmare and cause nothing but problems, for example I have a customer who will only give you a few sheets of paper to test a high volume printer and who will wait until you have driven 30 miles down the road and ring the office insisting that you return as there are are a couple of toner prints on the machine covers, and another that will throw prints with copy quailty faults at you as soon as you walk through the door, I'm sure you all get the idea...
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Theres not many that are that bad.
I do know one who refuses to let me use their A3 paper to calibrate the machine. I have to carry a few pages of A3 in the car just incase a call comes in at that place. They just outright refuse, saying its an expense they dont need, only to see them print emails in color!! I love it!! -
At least you get samples! Some of my clients won't let you see a sample due to 'confidentialaty' issues. I can't even remamber what breakfast was most days, never mind text I saw on a copy quality sample. Sheesh!
We all have at least one we'd rather stick a hot pin in our eye than visit, nature of the biz I guess.Comment
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Just thought of another one.
2 years ago, had a client who just kept complaining about jamming. It was true, the machine jammed alot, but it definitely was their paper causing all the problems (100% recycled, cheapest brand possible, 50-75% coverage on both sides most jobs). All good quality, new fresh paper run like a dream, but they wouldnt listen. All possible temp & speed adjustments were tried without any luck. Parts were changed just out of curiosity, no luck there either.
They demanded better techs & they demanded a new machine. They stated we were not treating this seriously enough (which I very much was). I reported back to the office that a new machine will have exactly the same problems. A new machine was put in..... and guess what..... same jamming problem. EXACTLY. Same frequency & location each time.
To this day, on each service call, they cannot look me in the eye.
I also explained to them that their previous machine was sent out to another office and it did 300K in the first year alone without any problems at all. Burnt!
I still feel uneasy going there each call, just because of what they had previously said & their ongoing hissy-fits that were proven to be wrong.Comment
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My comment isn't so much about that specific customer, but about that specific situation.
I walk in the door.
"Good morning! I'm blackcat from Blah Blah Copier Company. How are you today?"
"What a piece of shit! I can't believe that it jammed again! It happening constantly ... "
" ... hold on a second." I walk back out the door, wait 10 seconds, take a few deep calming breaths, than walk back in.
"Good morning! I'm blackcat from Blah Blah Copier Company. How are you today?"
"What the hell! I should push this ... hey where are you going?"
I walk back out the door, wait 10 seconds, take a few deep calming breaths, than walk back in.
"Good morning! I'm blackcat from Blah Blah Copier Company. How are you today?"
" ... um, hi."
"I'm here to help you out with your copier problem."
" ... OK."
"Please tell me about it."
I won't continue until I get some sort of greeting. Hi, Hello, Hey asshole, anything. I'm a person and deserve some basic respect which includes a greeting. It always gets better after that. =^..^=If you'd like a serious answer to your request:
1) demonstrate that you've read the manual
2) demonstrate that you made some attempt to fix it.
3) if you're going to ask about jams include the jam code.
4) if you're going to ask about an error code include the error code.
5) You are the person onsite. Only you can make observations.
blackcat: Master Of The Obvious =^..^=Comment
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"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.
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My customer from hell is someone who insists on duplexing 300gsm "cardboard" through the ADU of a C6500, in spite of the numerous times I, and several other techs, have told them not to do. They cheat the built in software restriction and set the paper weight settings to the next lower setting and then force this stuff through.
I told them several times not to do this and why, to the effect that it will eventually damage the machine so it no longer operates properly when duplexing. Now the machine is doing exactly as we predicted and the customer is upset.
AWWWWWW. Too F-ING BAD!
I refuse to service the machine now. I do not have the time nor the patience to deal with assholes who abuse the hardware and wonder why it no longer operates reliably. I pass those calls on to the other guys who might have a little patience left. Lord knows, I have zero patience with them now."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.
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Ha... memories.....
All you Blokes bring to mind and old story I tell from time to time. Not so much a customer from hell but a situation that arised.
I had a customers machine in a zillion pieces on the floor of her office one day and the customer keep asking me a million questions about every darn thing. I turn and I said to her "if you keep annoying me I won't be able to put your machine back together properly".
She said "what do you mean".
I said "love I'm about to go on a coffee break and it could be ...hmmm, one...(scratching my head) maybe two weeks before I get back.
Oh! she said "you wouldn't do that would you" ?
"Just keep talking" I said....
Ha an I never heard a word from that moment on....
Inauguration to the "AI cancel-culture" fraternity 1997...
•••••• •••[§]• |N | € | o | M | Δ | t | π | ¡ | x | •[§]••• ••••••Comment
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Had one customer who liked to cuss his employees up one side and down the other - it was bad enough to be there listening, but when he started in on me I put my screwdriver back in my toolkit and told him "call me when your medication kicks in."
I don't have to deal with him anymore, but need I say nobody down there has a good attitude.73 DE W5SSJComment
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I saw this customer only once.
I was the fifth and last technician in our office to come out. All the others refused to come out again after the first visit. It's probably no surprise to you all that this Napoleon wannbe was a lawyer. The whole visit lasted no more than 1/2 hour but it will stick with me for a long time.
I must admit up front that I was so angry through most of the visit that I don't remember much, but I somehow managed to keep the lid on that day.
Upon arrival my new friend was screaming at some poor early 20's young lady in a very undigified way. Once he found out who I was, I became the new target. I'm sure she was grateful for the respite.
The essence of the problem was that originals printed on his old Xerox would not feed through the document feeder of his new Mita. It didn't take long to determine that the Xerox was an open oil bed fuser, and these originals were nearly dripping with fuser oil. Clean rollers with clean originals worked fine.
As I say, I don't remember much. This aggravating little man was screaming, and I felt his hot spit in my face. I honestly don't know how long he spouted on. Most of these types get tired, and start to wind down. He had lots of energy and wind, and was carrying on just fine. I do remember mentally distancing myself from the screaming. I couldn't really hear words anymore and was thinking how nice it would be to choke the hot breath out of this gentleman.
I may have done so if the sales manager had not showed up at that fortuitous moment. He immediately recognized the look on my face. He put his arm around my shoulder, and gently steered me toward the door. "I've got it from here ... " he said. He walked me to the door and set my case in the hallway.
=^..^=If you'd like a serious answer to your request:
1) demonstrate that you've read the manual
2) demonstrate that you made some attempt to fix it.
3) if you're going to ask about jams include the jam code.
4) if you're going to ask about an error code include the error code.
5) You are the person onsite. Only you can make observations.
blackcat: Master Of The Obvious =^..^=Comment
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I remember a similar customer, years ago when I was a new tech, except it was the lawyer's wife (who was also the office manager or something). She had a nasty habit of ripping into every tech that went out there. I don't remember what the issue was or what she was yelling about. I just remember fixing the problem, then when I asked the office girl to use the phone to call into the shop (this was before everyone had cell phones), here comes the bitch answering for the office girl. "NO!!!", followed by a ridiculous rant. I had been previously warned about this broad so I kinda knew what was coming. I left politely and professionally and called the shop from outside. I came in, talked for a while about her to the service manager who talked about her to the owner. The owner actually wrote her a check for the remainder of her service contract and told her that we do not want her business if she is going to be abusive to the technicians. Obviously, this was years ago, back when copier dealerships at least pretended to care about their customers and employees. I couldn't imagine that same company now getting the technician's back like that. Those days are over...But I'm trying, Ringo. I'm trying real hard... to be the Shepherd.
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A month or so later I learned that this same customer took a call from our general manager. Our lawyer had screamed at several of our dispatchers and supply order people. The lawyer individually apologized to each of our dispatchers and supply people, before they would take any calls from him.
We did eventually buy the machine back to get rid of this gentleman.
Around the same time, I had a customer who was a tax attorney. He wasn't so bad, but his wife/office manager was a Tigress. She wouldn't actually talk directly to me. In the same room she would say "Please tell this man that he'd better get this machine fixed ... !!! The poor guy would just look at me, like " ... you see what I've got to live with?"
I never had any ill will toward the poor guy. He may still be suffering. =^..^=If you'd like a serious answer to your request:
1) demonstrate that you've read the manual
2) demonstrate that you made some attempt to fix it.
3) if you're going to ask about jams include the jam code.
4) if you're going to ask about an error code include the error code.
5) You are the person onsite. Only you can make observations.
blackcat: Master Of The Obvious =^..^=Comment
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