I would rather be hit in the hand with a hammer...

[fixthecopier]

...as opposed to having to go behind another tech on a call. The only thing worse is not finding out that is what is going on, until the customer tells you. That was Friday. It was a simple call. A Ricoh 1515 needs a drum. Couldn't get any easier I arrive and walk up to the machine and stare at the control panel, waiting to see the message that told them to change the drum. It never shows, so I check the meter and see it only has 45.000 on it in 8 years. I print the meter and the print quality is beautiful. As a matter of fact, it is so good that it printed a second image of it , just not as dark, a few inches down from the first. I look at the customer and say "Sir, you don't need a drum, you need a fuser". That's when he hit me with those dreaded words..."That's not what the other guy said". "What other guy?" I ask. Then they start the search for his name on a ticket because they can't remember what someone who was here the day before looks like. Finally they tell me it was Ray. Now I have to explain why Ray was wrong without throwing him under the bus, as I do not want the customer to loose confidence in our company, and it very unprofessional to talk about other techs to a customer, weather they are yours or the competition. That is what these forums are for. So , I will order a fuser.

I have been on calls where I look at the machine and tell the customer all the parts I am going to put in, and they come back with, you guys are out here all the time, why didn't the other guys put parts in?

And lets not leave out the calls where you have never been there before, and you get jumped with "It's doing it again".

And the worst is to get the call where you know more than 1 tech in your shop has been there, and you show up to find that just about every consumable and maintenance part needs to be changed.

Well, does anyone else get hit with this?

[Tonerbomb]

Re: I would rather be hit in the hand with a hammer...

...as opposed to having to go behind another tech on a call. The only thing worse is not finding out that is what is going on, until the customer tells you. That was Friday. It was a simple call. A Ricoh 1515 needs a drum. Couldn't get any easier I arrive and walk up to the machine and stare at the control panel, waiting to see the message that told them to change the drum. It never shows, so I check the meter and see it only has 45.000 on it in 8 years. I print the meter and the print quality is beautiful. As a matter of fact, it is so good that it printed a second image of it , just not as dark, a few inches down from the first. I look at the customer and say "Sir, you don't need a drum, you need a fuser". That's when he hit me with those dreaded words..."That's not what the other guy said". "What other guy?" I ask. Then they start the search for his name on a ticket because they can't remember what someone who was here the day before looks like. Finally they tell me it was Ray. Now I have to explain why Ray was wrong without throwing him under the bus, as I do not want the customer to loose confidence in our company, and it very unprofessional to talk about other techs to a customer, weather they are yours or the competition. That is what these forums are for. So , I will order a fuser.

I have been on calls where I look at the machine and tell the customer all the parts I am going to put in, and they come back with, you guys are out here all the time, why didn't the other guys put parts in?

And lets not leave out the calls where you have never been there before, and you get jumped with "It's doing it again".

And the worst is to get the call where you know more than 1 tech in your shop has been there, and you show up to find that just about every consumable and maintenance part needs to be changed.

Well, does anyone else get hit with this?

Ahh yes been there done that, go there almost every day. The life of a field supervisor.... Then I get to do my special paper work for the lazy tech that was just there, after I fix the machine. I have 2 rules 1 when going after a tech(recall,followup ect.) I should not have to get my vaccume out, 2 if I show up on a callwhile the tech is there I shouldn"t need my tool kit, if I need either there's hell to pay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[fixthecopier]

Re: I would rather be hit in the hand with a hammer...

Ahh yes been there done that, go there almost every day. The life of a field supervisor.... Then I get to do my special paper work for the lazy tech that was just there, after I fix the machine. I have 2 rules 1 when going after a tech(recall,followup ect.) I should not have to get my vaccume out, 2 if I show up on a cal lwhile the tech is there I shouldn"t need my tool kit, if I need either there's hell to pay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was out one day and the "service manager" had to do a call in my area. Next day he tried to bust me for a dirty machine. So while we were all standing at the front desk I ask the girl to look up the service history. Seems the last time someone was there was 6 months earlier I must have been out that day also, cause the tech was ....ta da, the service manager. Yessssssssssssss!

[Tonerbomb]

Re: I would rather be hit in the hand with a hammer...

I was out one day and the "service manager" had to do a call in my area. Next day he tried to bust me for a dirty machine. So while we were all standing at the front desk I ask the girl to look up the service history. Seems the last time someone was there was 6 months earlier I must have been out that day also, cause the tech was ....ta da, the service manager. Yessssssssssssss!

Nice !! I have to do my calls at the higher standard, since I have to hold the techs accountable. It's the shitty part of my job, but someone has to do it.

[blackcat4866]

Re: I would rather be hit in the hand with a hammer...

I consider myself fortunate to only have to account for the three of us: Me, Myself, and I. There's usually no one else to blame, so it makes the assigning blame simple. And alas, most of the hubris has been ground out of me, particle by particle, so I usually have no problem with taking credit for the last stupidity.

Occasionally though we have sub-contractors come in, when the workload becomes more unmanageable than usual (when the "Where is the tech ... " calls start coming in). On one such call we sent out our subcontractor for a jamming problem from tray #1 on a Canon iR3030. This subcontractor always likes to get two service fees, so every call comes back incomplete, usually for feed tires (every feed tire on the machine) regardless of how many prints are on each paper source or even if the call was for something totally different. I thought that this might be the perfect call to send him on, since it would most likely actually need feed rollers.

But instead of feed tires he says it needs a main board (0101 jams). The office manager/dispatcher tells me about it, and while I'm trying to think of a tactful way of saying "bullshit", she says "I know. It sounds fishy. Go have a look at the machine."

I would hope that every first year tech knows to at least look at the feed rollers, but I take a glance anyway. Feed and Sep look fine. I can't really determine the wear on the Pickup since it's missing. Do you think that might account for 0101 jams?

The customer had been primed for a $1500 part replacement, so it was simple to deflect the conversation with "I have found another solution. How does $25 sound?"

Later on I was out for a drum replacement, and an enduser handed me the mystical missing pickup roller: "Do you need this?" "I sure could have used that a year ago actually ... " =^..^=

[CableGuy]

Re: I would rather be hit in the hand with a hammer...

I've probably done this on another thread around here before, but here goes again. 7 years ago I left a company because I could no longer put up with following a particularly lazy SOB around every day, not only fitting parts he had promised and never bothered to do. But also doing simple services on machines. For someone who did very little work, he was always 'busy' mostly in lay bys frequenting burger vans and doing personal things. When I had finally had enough, I went to the director who's advice was to 'take him round the corner and sort him out myself'.....
Shortly after that I found a job a mile up the road at another dealer where I have had a happy 7 years, where I pretty much cover my own area and have only myself to blame if I'm having a lazy day and end up having to go back and do it properly on the next visit.

I still see a couple of the folks from the old place for a beer occasionally and the subject often turns to this chap and as you can guess, nothing has changed. My guess is he has something on the directors (which isn't impossible with their business ethic) so they are afraid to give him the boot.

Me, sour?.... maybe a little

[Jamesu]

Re: I would rather be hit in the hand with a hammer...

There are only two of us for this company so it's pretty easy going.

There is something worse than that though, having a customer tell you whats wrong with their machine... You know the truth but even after speaking to them and correcting them they're still adamant that they're right...

[Akitu]

Re: I would rather be hit in the hand with a hammer...

...as opposed to having to go behind another tech on a call. The only thing worse is not finding out that is what is going on, until the customer tells you. That was Friday. It was a simple call. A Ricoh 1515 needs a drum. Couldn't get any easier I arrive and walk up to the machine and stare at the control panel, waiting to see the message that told them to change the drum. It never shows, so I check the meter and see it only has 45.000 on it in 8 years. I print the meter and the print quality is beautiful. As a matter of fact, it is so good that it printed a second image of it , just not as dark, a few inches down from the first. I look at the customer and say "Sir, you don't need a drum, you need a fuser". That's when he hit me with those dreaded words..."That's not what the other guy said". "What other guy?" I ask. Then they start the search for his name on a ticket because they can't remember what someone who was here the day before looks like. Finally they tell me it was Ray. Now I have to explain why Ray was wrong without throwing him under the bus, as I do not want the customer to loose confidence in our company, and it very unprofessional to talk about other techs to a customer, weather they are yours or the competition. That is what these forums are for. So , I will order a fuser.

I have been on calls where I look at the machine and tell the customer all the parts I am going to put in, and they come back with, you guys are out here all the time, why didn't the other guys put parts in?

And lets not leave out the calls where you have never been there before, and you get jumped with "It's doing it again".

And the worst is to get the call where you know more than 1 tech in your shop has been there, and you show up to find that just about every consumable and maintenance part needs to be changed.

Well, does anyone else get hit with this?

This pretty much perfectly sums up every new Canon and Ricoh I've been looking at... I took over service in this area from a lot of Ricoh National machines, which include the Canons picked up by Ikon earlier on... Every time I go to one of these new machines that I've never seen before or been trained on, it's always "well the last guy x". I've been finding my new trainee to be of more value than the last tech I took over for... Lucky guy retired not long after we snagged the service, I came to find he had been replacing band aids on big booboos for quite a long time. Now, all of these machines are breaking in pretty critical ways. I feel like a new tech starting over again with all of this crap sometimes.

[ZOOTECH]

Re: I would rather be hit in the hand with a hammer...

This pretty much perfectly sums up every new Canon and Ricoh I've been looking at... I took over service in this area from a lot of Ricoh National machines, which include the Canons picked up by Ikon earlier on... Every time I go to one of these new machines that I've never seen before or been trained on, it's always "well the last guy x". I've been finding my new trainee to be of more value than the last tech I took over for... Lucky guy retired not long after we snagged the service, I came to find he had been replacing band aids on big booboos for quite a long time. Now, all of these machines are breaking in pretty critical ways. I feel like a new tech starting over again with all of this crap sometimes.

You are learning, quickly, with all the "crap" left for you to fix; if the machines were working perfectly, you wouldn't be 'learning' as fast.

[Akitu]

Re: I would rather be hit in the hand with a hammer...

You are learning, quickly, with all the "crap" left for you to fix; if the machines were working perfectly, you wouldn't be 'learning' as fast.

Couldn't agree with you more. That's how I started my job as a tech, fixing the last guy's bandaids... Trial by fire to the extreme.

[Shadow1]

Re: I would rather be hit in the hand with a hammer...

Take it as a compliment - I'm one of the guys who get called when nobody else can fix it. Sux having to follow up somebody who doesn't have any real skill, just a big box of band-aids. It can also be interesting at times, too. It's amazing some of the things techs try to get away with, but it's also amazing how some of the more McGuyyver-ish field fixes work better than the original.

[Akitu]

Re: I would rather be hit in the hand with a hammer...

Take it as a compliment - I'm one of the guys who get called when nobody else can fix it. Sux having to follow up somebody who doesn't have any real skill, just a big box of band-aids. It can also be interesting at times, too. It's amazing some of the things techs try to get away with, but it's also amazing how some of the more McGuyyver-ish field fixes work better than the original.

In the hands of a good tech with a will to keep a machine running, a band-aid can definitely be better than the original. In the hands of a tech who's trying to keep them running for that little extra time until he retires and can wash his hands of it all... Those band-aids quickly require stitches.

[JustManuals]

Re: I would rather be hit in the hand with a hammer...

I got hit in the head with a sledgehammer in 1979. That's my excuse. Right between the eyes and above my eyebrows Ouch!

[fixthecopier]

Re: I would rather be hit in the hand with a hammer...

My all time favorite band aid was done by one of the female techs I work with. While I was out one day , she did one of my calls on a bizhub 500. She found one of the post in the charge unit broke and used electrical tape to rig it and pull the wires tight enough to make copies until I could get there the next day with a new one. And the damn thing was making usable copies. I mean comeon, there is such a thing as trying too hard and making the rest of us look bad. That is a hard one to beat!

[fixthecopier]

Re: I would rather be hit in the hand with a hammer...

I did not even bring up getting burned taking back something someone else has "fixed". Nothing like hearing "It's still doing it, I thought you said he fixed it?"