What was your biggest oopsy on a call??

[hammer]

Biggest oopsy.

Talk about the "Universal Modification"! The life saving cardboard catch tray seems to be the one!!!

[Shadow1]

Temporary? I have one machine (MP6500) where no finisher or exit tray was ordered with the machine, so I rigged up a "temporary" tray, apologized to the customer, and called the salesperson.

6 months later I go back to put feed rollers in the ADF, and my cardboard exit tray is still there - extensively modified by the customer. Sales already got the check and was operating at their usual efficiency. Of course not its too late to order it as a finished good, so it has to be ordered as a replacement part and come out of my budget.

I guess it's my fault for not triple checking on it.

[fixthecopier]

I took a finisher off a Di650 and when they ask what was going to catch the paper I noticed that the shredder was just the right height. I pushed it over, made a cardboard slide to guide the newly copied paper into the shredder, and told the 2 18 year old soldiers that it was for security reasons and left. Later my shop called. It seems that the company commander and I have different ideas as to what is funny. I had to take it down.

[Lagonda]

My biggest oopsy on a call, hmmm, where would I start?
Perhaps it was my first day in the photocopier industry when I stood in front of a copier and took a screwdriver out of my tool kit with the mistaken idea that I knew what I was doing and could fix the problem. I think it all went downhill from there!


Try explaining that one to the customer!

[pacman]

Well, at least it's nice to know that others still use the cardboard box 'catch-all-to-shut-them-up-while-parts-are-on-order' technique.

People initially think it's stupid until they find out that it is better than holding their hand out and catching the copies.

AMEN. The box top from a case of paper wedged in between the copier and the finisher always did it for me.

[Scorotron Wizard]

A good few years (actually 2 decades) ago one of the salesmen had a deal for an old second hand machine and all the engineers refused to work on such an old machine but it was for "A friend of his" and so he persuaded the newbie apprentice to work on the machine. Anyway it was an old machine with a moving top with a chain drive and the problem was the registration was out. The newbie had the machine on the end of the bench with the lid up and was leaning over the m/c to adjust the reg start switch, as he leant his belly operated the print switch and the top slid across, as the lid was open it dropped back into the window frame and as it changed direction it jammmed against the window frame and the entire machine began to shudder. We all watched as the scanner tried to move to the left and the entire machine juddered to the right off the end of the bench and smashed onto the floor, there was a chear from all the tech engineers. Thinking back this was early 1980s god I'm so old.

[olla86]

Great stories! I have not something like this...

[mabawser]

Not long started working on ricoh machine and went to do my 1st fuser maintenance kit on a mpc 4500!! Fitted everything when I realised I hadnt put the pressure springs on. Thinking I could cut corners and not have to dissmantle it again I tried to put them back on using my pliers.

After struggling I got one on, as i tried to get the second one on, my pliers slipped and came towards my face.If i never had a big nose I would have had my eye outbut instead I had cut a big gash from the top of my lip into my nostrel which was pouring with blood down my chin and onto the floor.

A quick trip to the toilet and a stupid lookin plaster on my top lip I had to go back and strip down the fuser to get the spring on!!

NOTE: strip the covers off to get the pressure springs on If you found them off!!!! haha

[HPLEXKYOPT]

Customer logged a call on there $2500 Color Laser Printer. Just for a service. While standing there talking to the customer, continued working on the machine... Pulled out the cables to the LED board...
We both paused as we looked down at the machine to see the smoke coming out the side as the board was burning out...

Yep forgot to unplug the power...

One LED later and a LED Array board... so glad I was working for the manufacture...

The customer was pissed having gong from a working machine to a one week wait while we ordered the parts in though.

[RichMac]

Ok son, it's alright!

I had the opportunity to bring my six year old son along for the day, back in 1993 while working on a Sharp SD-2075 beast of a finisher.
The elevator motor on this model finisher would rotate the finisher output tray rougly every five seconds or so. The call was for a loud noise coming from the finshing area.
So, I had the covers off and diagnosed a bad motor. We didn't have the part in stock so i tried "cleaning" the motor windings with a squirt, actually a good douche, of isopropyl alcohol.
I fired up the finisher in test command and proceeded to squirt it again. Just then my son came round to see what the old man was doing behind the big machine. Well as luck would have it, the alcohol ignited in a small blue flame and I'm on my knees frantically blowing out the flames. He being six years old runs out of the room, out to the receptionist and proceeds to tell the gal that "the copy machine is on fire!"
I had already put out the flames but next thing I know half of the secretaries are in the copy room worried about the "fire." I tried to minimize the excitement but my son piped up and said " oh no there were bg blue flames!!"
I'm trying to shush him but that didn't work.
If memory serves me correctly, I had to explain to my boss all of the goings on and why my son was with me in the first place. Needless to say, I was barred from doing that again.

[mjunkaged]

Part 1 injuries, Part 2, service snafus!

Seems to me these posts are evenly divided between 'what i did to my body' and 'what i did to the machine/customer/office' , so here goes:
Part 1:
Injuries: 2nd year of my career, I'm walking into a customer's office with a power supply for a savin 770.....it was a 12"x4" square steel box that weighed about 10 lbs. at least. Had it cleverly perched on top of my tool case, and when I reached to pull the customer's door open, it slid off and onto my big toe, handily breaking it! Second worst, filed under 'what the hell was I thinking?' dept.: I was working on an old analog clamshell toshiba, had the front door cheated and power on, while happily sticking my finger in the transfer/sep ( think it was a/c sep, can't remember) corona. Of course, my hand found the print button and YEOOWWW!! I burnt a hole all the way THROUGH the tip of my index finger!!!

Okay, Part 2:
Snafus:
Once whipped out a can of rubber rejuvenator (which I thought had a nice mild smell to it-blow off if you're familiar), only to have my first 1/8 oz spritz met with reactions from 2 or 3 of the workers as if I had just launched a chemical terrorist bomb attack! I was informed that I couldn't use any toxic or 'smelly' chemicals to fix the problem with the machine.....one of those times I had to get creative to finish the repair.

This one wasn't me, a tech. under me - thank God this happened in the shop!
A new hire, we'll call him 'sparkmaster', was instructed to replace the power supply in a mita 213 or 313z, I can't remember the model. But what I (and my colleagues, including the lady rookie and gen. mgr.) will NEVER forget is this:
Guy was a Minolta EP tech. He put one of the 3 new supplies we had in stock in, proceeded to get out his meter, and start measuring between terminals with the machine turned off. POW!!!! HUGE BLUE arc at his lead, new PS blown!!
Me: 'sparkmaster, why did you do that? Who told you to meter it?
Sparkmaster: Well, that's the way we do it on Minoltas!
Me: Well, as you can clearly see from the ****** name on the front of the machine, it says MITA, not MINOLTA....got a few letters missin', there, bunky!! (I was NOT a very nice guy back then)
SO, sparkmaster proceeds to do it again. I'm not kidding, with all of us watching him!!! We all look at each other incredulously!!
I hand him the 3rd and FINAL supply to him, and warn him thusly:
Me: Now, sparkmaster, this is our LAST POWER SUPPLY, and you KNOW you don't need to meter it this time right? You're going to put that away, install the power supply, put the *&(*&%&^% cover back on, and just TURN IT ON THIS TIME, AREN'T YOU????????
Sparkmaster, slowly putting his meter away with stark realization of impending career-related doom: Why yes, that's exactly what I'm doing!!
He did. The machine worked perfectly. Then the female tech., who obviously at that moment knew she was far his superior, defended an attempted put-down by him thusly: "Shut up, Spark-Master!!"
We pissed ourselves laughing!!!!
I hope that dude picked another career path. For every one of OUR embarrassing stories, you can multiply them many times for the ones who didn't go the distance, and 'washed out' as techs.!!!

[Urushiol]

It was my 2nd or 3rd week of training and I was in the library of an Academy servicing a Risograph CR-1610. My right arm had been injured the week before, and was heavily bandaged; use of my right arm was limited, and I had no use of my fingers. But the call was a simple call, just a PM of sorts and I thought I may as well try and do something besides set at the office.

I noticed a small amount of ink seemingly leaking from the ink cartridge so I removed it to inspect it. It had more ink in it than I expected, and only working with one hand(my left hand at that and I'm a righty) it slipped from my hand, it plummeted downward at a 45 degree angle with the ink outlet pointing down and toward a vacant wall. I'm sure you can imagine the horror, as the cartridge impacted, ink erupted out, across the blond carpet, and all over the wall. 3 hours, half a gallon of lacquer thinner, untold multitudes of cloths, towels etc later, The carpet still looked like someone painted it black, and the wall looked like an abstract b/w painting.

On and did I mention the only cleaner I had was lacquer thinner so my sobriety was nowhere to be found after 3 hours in the fumes .

Worst part was it was during the summer and around lunch time and I couldn't find anyone to explain what happened to, so I had to clean it the best I could and return later to explain

[Shadow1]

Once whipped out a can of rubber rejuvenator (which I thought had a nice mild smell to it-blow off if you're familiar), only to have my first 1/8 oz spritz met with reactions from 2 or 3 of the workers as if I had just launched a chemical terrorist bomb attack!

Blow-off: Used to come in a box with their other product lines advertised on the side???

Blow-Off, Lube-Job, Get-Off, and Stick-It

They represent the company's line of rubber rejuvenator / canned air, spray lubricants, sticker / adhesive remover, and spray adhesives respectively - but makes you wonder exactly what they're selling if you didn't know what was in the box...

Check out the web site: - Really good products. Lube Job used to have a picture of a cartoon bolt spraying down his nut with a big smile on his face, but I see they nixed that one - too bad, it was pretty funny.

[banginbishop]

Dropped an ICU board from a sharp cougar a few years back walking out of the workshop. Funny it didn't work when i tried to fit it

[Robert Sveinson]

Early 80s when I was a newbe tech, used to have to wear neck ties. Working on a Sharp 810, good ole chain drive machine it was, yep my tie went right in to one while it was running, tie went through a sprocket an popped back out while the customer was watching.

Respond to copymon
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Was the customer impressed with the 'copy quality'?