Stories while in the Field

[SlipperyCat]

I've been an outside technician for nearly 18 years and I've seen my share of unusual things. I thought it would be fun to read about the experiences of others while they are performing their duties.

This is just one story. I have many. But, I will start with the one that comes to mind first.

I think one of the weirdest situation I've been in is when I went out to network one of our products for a small client in our area. The company was some dive outfit, comprised of a husband and wife ownership. They were in the section 8 renting business so their clientele, needless to say, were some shady folks. The interesting thing was their customers weren't as bad as they were!

While I was trying to setup our machine on their make-shift network they constantly argued with each other, sometimes screaming as loud as they could at one another. Then, for no apparent reason, they would be really calm and joke around with each other (I'm talking about the husband a wife) and everything was calm. But, sometimes one of them would say something to set the other one off and they would start screaming at each other again. I honestly couldn't believe how these two people behaved. They both must have been bipolar because nobody acts like that who is normal.

When one of their customers would walk in, they would be as nice as pie to them. But, as soon as the customer would leave, within about 30 seconds something would initiate a fight between them again. This went on for the two hours I was there. I just kept my mouth shut and did what I had to do but the whole time I was afraid one of them was going to kill the other, including me! It was definitely an environment I did not want to be in.

When I finished the job and had my paperwork signed I got out of there as fast as I could, and as I walked down the side walk I could still hear them screaming at each other.

What is wrong with people??

[blackcat4866]

Re: Stories while in the Field

... What is wrong with people??

I have no idea. And I don't expect to suddenly discover an all encompassing answer.

In my experience the best strategy is just to keep your head down, do your work, and get the hell out before you become the next target.
It sounds as though you're on the same page. =^..^=

[Iowatech]

Re: Stories while in the Field

If you are looking for variety, I'll bite.
Back in the analog days, I got a service call on a Corps of Engineers machine. Turns out that the Corps was doing maintenance on the Mississippi river Lock and Dam at Quincy, Illinois then, and the machine was on a barge in the lock.
They had the lock drained, so it was about a twenty foot climb down a ladder embedded in the side of the lock which was twelve inches wide at best, but I climbed down with my toolcase, and then went back up and got my vacuum. As I was leaving one of their guys showed me the rope and basket they used to lower stuff from the bank of the river to the barge. Which would have saved me a climb. And would have made the initial climb way easier. I'd seen that when I first arrived, too, but I didn't know what that was for.
D'oh.

[SlipperyCat]

Re: Stories while in the Field

If you are looking for variety, I'll bite.
Back in the analog days, I got a service call on a Corps of Engineers machine. Turns out that the Corps was doing maintenance on the Mississippi river Lock and Dam at Quincy, Illinois then, and the machine was on a barge in the lock.
They had the lock drained, so it was about a twenty foot climb down a ladder embedded in the side of the lock which was twelve inches wide at best, but I climbed down with my toolcase, and then went back up and got my vacuum. As I was leaving one of their guys showed me the rope and basket they used to lower stuff from the bank of the river to the barge. Which would have saved me a climb. And would have made the initial climb way easier. I'd seen that when I first arrived, too, but I didn't know what that was for.
D'oh.

That's a good one. lol Thanks for sharing. It's amazing what techs get themselves into.

[Phrag]

Re: Stories while in the Field

I've got one.

I live in Australia, in Queensland midway up the coast. I had to deliver 2 machines (a Bizhub 282 and a C35) to a police station 3 or 4 hours west in a very small town called Woorabinda. The day before I left, the other techs were joking, "Keep your doors locked. Don't leave your windows down. etc etc.)

The town was a housing community for some of the aboriginal population in the region. As I was driving into town, I saw discarded six-packs and cartons of cheap, but popular) Australian beer. XXXX, VB etc. I even saw a crashed, and burnt out car as well. The first sign I saw was one stating that this town had an alcohol ban in place. Good to know. The closer I got, the more... wary, I became.

Almost every yard was untidy, broken windows, sheets for blinds. I won't lie. It was a bit frightening. I was stared at by some people driving through town to the police station. There weren't any cars on the road either.

Anyway. I parked the van and unloaded the machines with some help from 2 of the ladies in the station. While waiting for the IT guy to finish remoting in, they had a woman in one of the cells who was screaming her lungs out. I don't know what she did, or why they help her, but she wasn't being co-operative.

I finished up and got out of there as fast as I could.

[Exok]

Re: Stories while in the Field

Here's one story from my many adventures in copier repair. I was sent to service a copier one day at a hospital in Staten Island, NY. This hospital, as it turned out, was located on the grounds of a huge nearly fully abandoned walled in area that used to be a TB treatment and housing facility back around the year 1900. The place is made up of dozens of large brick buildings with broken windows and doors crumbling away. I really felt I was on the set of some post apocalyptic horror movie. I was waiting for a horde of brain eating zombies to come shambling around any corner as I drove around the spooky gated community from hell. Located in the middle of this place was a larger more modern building still operating as a hospital with a few functioning smaller buildings still in use.

My first visit to this location was within the main hospital building. I was given directions to the office I needed to visit, located in the basement. I followed the directions to the letter but it lead me the wrong way. I found myself walking down an underground tunnel. Apparently this whole facility is all connected from one building to the other with underground tunnels. When I reached the end of the barely lit hallway it ended with a huge iron door that was locked with a thick chain and padlock that looked to be 100 years old. I just remember thinking to myself, this is the part of the movie where everyone is yelling at the screen telling the guy "DON'T GO DOWN THERE" and I really expected when I turned back around to find some hulking figure holding an ax blocking my exit. Well, it wasn't as dramatic as that. I found my way back and then found the correct location.

My next visit there was pretty creepy too. I had to fix a machine in one of the smaller buildings nestled in the middle of many larger abandoned buildings. The copier was on the ground floor next to a window where I could see out to the front of the building. There was one woman typing away on a computer terminal and a doctor in a white lab coat. He had a thick accent that reminded me of Bela Lugosi from Dracula. As I was repairing the machine I saw a pickup truck park in front of the building. The truck was full of what looked like body bags, about 5 of them. Next (I kid you not) a short man hops out of the truck and hobbles into the building. He goes over to the doctor and tells him, "I have those bodies you wanted doctor". The doctor tells him, "good, good, bring them down into the basement." The whole time i'm convinced i'm being filmed for some kind of hidden camera TV show. It was freaky and I was glad to be out of there.

[slimslob]

Re: Stories while in the Field

Here's one story from my many adventures in copier repair. I was sent to service a copier one day at a hospital in Staten Island, NY. This hospital, as it turned out, was located on the grounds of a huge nearly fully abandoned walled in area that used to be a TB treatment and housing facility back around the year 1900. The place is made up of dozens of large brick buildings with broken windows and doors crumbling away. I really felt I was on the set of some post apocalyptic horror movie. I was waiting for a horde of brain eating zombies to come shambling around any corner as I drove around the spooky gated community from hell. Located in the middle of this place was a larger more modern building still operating as a hospital with a few functioning smaller buildings still in use.

My first visit to this location was within the main hospital building. I was given directions to the office I needed to visit, located in the basement. I followed the directions to the letter but it lead me the wrong way. I found myself walking down an underground tunnel. Apparently this whole facility is all connected from one building to the other with underground tunnels. When I reached the end of the barely lit hallway it ended with a huge iron door that was locked with a thick chain and padlock that looked to be 100 years old. I just remember thinking to myself, this is the part of the movie where everyone is yelling at the screen telling the guy "DON'T GO DOWN THERE" and I really expected when I turned back around to find some hulking figure holding an ax blocking my exit. Well, it wasn't as dramatic as that. I found my way back and then found the correct location.

My next visit there was pretty creepy too. I had to fix a machine in one of the smaller buildings nestled in the middle of many larger abandoned buildings. The copier was on the ground floor next to a window where I could see out to the front of the building. There was one woman typing away on a computer terminal and a doctor in a white lab coat. He had a thick accent that reminded me of Bela Lugosi from Dracula. As I was repairing the machine I saw a pickup truck park in front of the building. The truck was full of what looked like body bags, about 5 of them. Next (I kid you not) a short man hops out of the truck and hobbles into the building. He goes over to the doctor and tells him, "I have those bodies you wanted doctor". The doctor tells him, "good, good, bring them down into the basement." The whole time i'm convinced i'm being filmed for some kind of hidden camera TV show. It was freaky and I was glad to be out of there.

As we used to say in the Army Reserves Transportation unit, FIDO! The DO is drive on. You can decipher the rest.

[SlipperyCat]

Re: Stories while in the Field

Being in this business nearly 18 years I have more than one story so I will share another one.

We sold a machine to a prison and I was assigned to network it. After getting through security and signing in (which seemed to take a half-hour) they called a guard up to escort me to where the machine was placed. I had no idea where it was so the guard said to me, "When we go through the yard don't make eye contact and you'll be fine." Huh? What does he mean? Well, apparently he had to walk me through the "yard", across this huge open area (where prisoners were walking around) to get to the building the machine was in. How fun! When I looked the guard over I noticed he wasn't carrying any weapon. I asked, "So what if someone tries to assault us in the middle of the yard and you don't have a gun?" He said he wasn't allowed to take any weapon inside where prisoners were, in case they beat him and took it from him. Nice! This made me even more nervous. He assured me not to worry because if a prisoner tried something there were armed guards everywhere who would shoot them dead within seconds. This seemed unlikely but he seemed serious.

So, after going through several doors we walk out into the yard. We had to cross what seemed like two football fields. It was a long way away to the building. I walked next to him as close as I could staring straight ahead, trying not to make eye contact with any of them. There had to be dozens of prisoners just roaming around. I felt like I was in a lion's den, with all eyeballs glaring at me, waiting to pounce on us at any moment. A group of about three prisoners where heading our way, right in our path and I noticed the guard kept the same path, not moving around them so I stood by his side. As the men approached I thought we were going to run right into them. I held my breath. Almost to the point of contact the prisoners moved slightly to go around us but one of them bumped my shoulder pretty hard, I'm sure on purpose. I kept walking, didn't look back or say squat. No way. The guard noticed what happened but didn't talk.

After we got into the building he said, "You know that love tap you just received?" The guards saw it and don't worry, he will be punished."

After I setup the machine we had to walk through the yard again but the trip back was less stressful and no prisoners came near us. I was relieved.

I've been in a lot of unusual situations during my career but this episode I'll never forget. I just can't believe they allow people from the outside to walk through the yard where hardened criminals roam around. Later I found out from the guard that some of those prisoners are in there for life, with nothing to lose. What if a few of them decided to attack us? I guess the thought of dying from a sniper bullet to the head prevents such behavior.

[slimslob]

Re: Stories while in the Field

Being in this business nearly 18 years I have more than one story so I will share another one.

We sold a machine to a prison and I was assigned to network it. After getting through security and signing in (which seemed to take a half-hour) they called a guard up to escort me to where the machine was placed. I had no idea where it was so the guard said to me, "When we go through the yard don't make eye contact and you'll be fine." Huh? What does he mean? Well, apparently he had to walk me through the "yard", across this huge open area (where prisoners were walking around) to get to the building the machine was in. How fun! When I looked the guard over I noticed he wasn't carrying any weapon. I asked, "So what if someone tries to assault us in the middle of the yard and you don't have a gun?" He said he wasn't allowed to take any weapon inside where prisoners were, in case they beat him and took it from him. Nice! This made me even more nervous. He assured me not to worry because if a prisoner tried something there were armed guards everywhere who would shoot them dead within seconds. This seemed unlikely but he seemed serious.

So, after going through several doors we walk out into the yard. We had to cross what seemed like two football fields. It was a long way away to the building. I walked next to him as close as I could staring straight ahead, trying not to make eye contact with any of them. There had to be dozens of prisoners just roaming around. I felt like I was in a lion's den, with all eyeballs glaring at me, waiting to pounce on us at any moment. A group of about three prisoners where heading our way, right in our path and I noticed the guard kept the same path, not moving around them so I stood by his side. As the men approached I thought we were going to run right into them. I held my breath. Almost to the point of contact the prisoners moved slightly to go around us but one of them bumped my shoulder pretty hard, I'm sure on purpose. I kept walking, didn't look back or say squat. No way. The guard noticed what happened but didn't talk.

After we got into the building he said, "You know that love tap you just received?" The guards saw it and don't worry, he will be punished."

After I setup the machine we had to walk through the yard again but the trip back was less stressful and no prisoners came near us. I was relieved.

I've been in a lot of unusual situations during my career but this episode I'll never forget. I just can't believe they allow people from the outside to walk through the yard where hardened criminals roam around. Later I found out from the guard that some of those prisoners are in there for life, with nothing to lose. What if a few of them decided to attack us? I guess the thought of dying from a sniper bullet to the head prevents such behavior.

I used to work on about 25 copier and a dictation system at the Tehachapi Prison. Was up there about once a week, Correction Officers (COs) are rough on equipment. Since my mother-in-law used to be a senior records clerk there and I was in the Army reserves with a number of COs, I knew that you walked in there liked you owned the place and no one would bother you. I had to let an ambulance go past me one time, an inmate had a heart attack.

I did have a couple of times when the prison went on lockdown while I was there. Usually someone was unaccounted for. One time a pair of scissors was missing from the barber shop. Normally lockdown was not bad unless it happened at 3:00 PM and lasted for a couple of hours.

[DWise]

Re: Stories while in the Field

My next visit there was pretty creepy too. I had to fix a machine in one of the smaller buildings nestled in the middle of many larger abandoned buildings. The copier was on the ground floor next to a window where I could see out to the front of the building. There was one woman typing away on a computer terminal and a doctor in a white lab coat. He had a thick accent that reminded me of Bela Lugosi from Dracula. As I was repairing the machine I saw a pickup truck park in front of the building. The truck was full of what looked like body bags, about 5 of them. Next (I kid you not) a short man hops out of the truck and hobbles into the building. He goes over to the doctor and tells him, "I have those bodies you wanted doctor". The doctor tells him, "good, good, bring them down into the basement." The whole time i'm convinced i'm being filmed for some kind of hidden camera TV show. It was freaky and I was glad to be out of there.

I think the only thing that would have freaked me out more would have been an approaching storm with lots of lightning while all of this was taking place. Then possibly the electricity going out... and bats... and me screaming like a girl running back to the truck.

[kuby]

Re: Stories while in the Field

Sounds like my ex-boss, they would flip each other off, tell each other to Kiss-My-A**, Go TO HE**, and worse. I blushed at things they said to each other. WOW

I've been an outside technician for nearly 18 years and I've seen my share of unusual things. I thought it would be fun to read about the experiences of others while they are performing their duties.

This is just one story. I have many. But, I will start with the one that comes to mind first.

I think one of the weirdest situation I've been in is when I went out to network one of our products for a small client in our area. The company was some dive outfit, comprised of a husband and wife ownership. They were in the section 8 renting business so their clientele, needless to say, were some shady folks. The interesting thing was their customers weren't as bad as they were!

While I was trying to setup our machine on their make-shift network they constantly argued with each other, sometimes screaming as loud as they could at one another. Then, for no apparent reason, they would be really calm and joke around with each other (I'm talking about the husband a wife) and everything was calm. But, sometimes one of them would say something to set the other one off and they would start screaming at each other again. I honestly couldn't believe how these two people behaved. They both must have been bipolar because nobody acts like that who is normal.

When one of their customers would walk in, they would be as nice as pie to them. But, as soon as the customer would leave, within about 30 seconds something would initiate a fight between them again. This went on for the two hours I was there. I just kept my mouth shut and did what I had to do but the whole time I was afraid one of them was going to kill the other, including me! It was definitely an environment I did not want to be in.

When I finished the job and had my paperwork signed I got out of there as fast as I could, and as I walked down the side walk I could still hear them screaming at each other.

What is wrong with people??

[Iowatech]

Re: Stories while in the Field

I think the only thing that would have freaked me out more would have been an approaching storm with lots of lightning while all of this was taking place. Then possibly the electricity going out... and bats... and me screaming like a girl running back to the truck.

Oh, weather stories, I didn't even think of that!
Back in the day I lived in Central Illinois, which is flat as a pancake. Honestly! When the old abandoned Farmall plant in Canton was burning down, I could see the column of smoke from just east of Macomb, which is around forty miles away.
Central Illinois really doesn't get that much snow in the winter (well, OK, there occasionally is a foot or two, but it melts quickly), but there was plenty of ice. One particularly bad night I got lucky and tucked in behind a salt truck (turns out driving 5 to 20 MPH for around twenty miles really isn't that bad in that case). Part of the drive had an electricity delivery trunk line beside it, and thanks to the ice buildup and wind the lines were swinging wildly, and would occasionally hit their utility poles and produce a huge shower of brilliant purple sparks. While I suppose it would stink being beneath them, I lucked out again and the spark showers were never where I was at. So it was kind of a cool light show.

[Exok]

Re: Stories while in the Field

Here's a story from my days servicing Savin liquid toner copiers. Not a story about a strange customer or place, just me.

I just finished a preventative maintenance service on a Savin 7350. The Cleaning unit, developer unit and tank were all nice and clean. Now it was time to add the toner and see how good the copies looked. Hm, no toner bottles in the cabinet. I ask the customer for a toner. The liquid toner for this machine comes with a plastic cap. Remove that and there is a foil seal. You replace the original cap with a feeder cap that allows a small amount of toner to come out when the toner solenoid fires. The customer hands me a toner bottle with no plastic cap. No problem, the foil seal is still on it. I shake up the toner as its probably been sitting on a shelf for months. Hm... why do I feel like i'm getting wet? OH CRAP THE SEAL IS BROKEN!!! The view at that point in time would probably reminded most of the movie Carrie (replacing toner for blood of course). It was a good thing they didn't have carpeting in this room. I cleaned up as best as I could and headed home to change my clothes.

A week later I'm in my office for a team meeting. After the meeting, my manager points to a new bulletin board on the wall full of memos and asks me, "does that bulletin board look familiar?" I couldn't think of where he was going with this till he took it down off the wall and turned it around. It was the cubical partisan wall that was behind me when it started raining toner. We had to buy them a new one since this one looked like a piece of modern art now.

[Exok]

Re: Stories while in the Field

One day while servicing a copier in the ADTC (Adult diagnostic and treatment center, AKA-Sex offender's prison, part of the East Jersey State Prison) I was working in an area located in a short connecting hallway between 2 long hallways. At both ends of this short hallway (20 feet long) were gates. One side was closed and locked, the other open. The guard who walked me to the machine went up the long hall to talk to another guard who was posted there. I just finished servicing the machine and was filling out the paperwork when an alarm went off. Next thing I hear is about a dozen boots running down the long hall with the open gate. As a group of prison guards run by, one of them grabs hold of the gate to my little area and slams it shut. I'm thinking to myself, Wow, OK, WTF is going on. 15 minutes passes by and I hear nothing. I try to look down the hall but can't really see far through the bars of the gate. I'm now locked in my own little cell about 20 feet by 8 feet in size with just me and the copier. 30 minutes go by and still nothing. I think they forgot about me. Cell phones are not allowed inside so I have no way of making contact with anyone. I take out my telescopic mirror out of my tool bag and stick it through the bars trying to see down the hallway as I call out, "Hello? Anybody out there?" Nearly an hour after the alarm the guard that was my escort finally returns to let me out. There was a fight between two inmates and I guess my guard was busy placing bets or something.

Once I had to service a copier located in the prison chapel. (of the main prison) In order to get to the chapel you have to walk through "the yard" where there are 100-200 inmates mulling about just like you see in all those prison movies. As I'm waiting at one of the check points, I'm expecting to see one of these thick necked guards walk up to take me to the machine. Who shows up to take me in? The prison Chaplain. This guy couldn't have been more than 5 feet tall. Suddenly I was feeling like Lois Lane from the original Superman movie thinking "You've got me? Who's got you?" It was a bit unnerving but I came out without any incidents.

The time I had to service the copier in the prison's medical center was freaky though. They actually had the copier inside a metal cage in a room full of free roaming inmates. As I was servicing the machine they all gathered around the cage, tried poking their fingers through at me, made all kinds of vial comments. I made sure to keep more than a shank's distance from the cage the whole time. This prison houses a large number of "lifers". They are in for the rest of their life with no possibility of parole. They don't have much incentive to act in any type of civilized manner.

[Akitu]

Re: Stories while in the Field

This prison houses a large number of "lifers". They are in for the rest of their life with no possibility of parole. They don't have much incentive to act in any type of civilized manner.

That would probably be the most unnerving thing of working in a prison, not knowing who cares that they have nothing to lose but an additional life sentence to the 3 that are already being served. Makes me glad I don't have to deal with that here. I'm not sure which company is working out of Stony Mountain, MB, but godspeed to those poor techs.