What was your biggest oopsy on a call??

[mrwho]

Well, lucky me this wasn't a woopsie - but could very well be if I went just a millimeter further. Let me explain:

Was at a bank installing some optionals on an MFP. Since said optionals required the bank's IT guys to do some background job, I was at a cashier's desk holding the phone against my ear while looking around and waiting for the IT guy to give me some feedback.

So, picture me: sitting at the desk (after closing time, so it was me and the two cashiers), held at the phone already for five minutes, getting seriously bored and looking around when I notice this odd red square thing right undernead the desk. Curious, I start rubbing my finger against it, since I have a desk quite like the one I was sitting at but I couldn't remember any red - or otherwise - fittings like that one. As I was inspecting that odd thing and just as I began to press against it, I suddenly had a thought: "Hey! This is a bank! Banks get robbed! Cashiers in the movies usually have an alarm button to call the police!"

I immediately froze, with the button half-a-millimeter pressed and gently released it - hoping that I hadn't pressed it enough to call the cops.

Lucky me, i hadn't!

[Jimbo1]

Whoa!

[OMD-227]

Not my oopsy.... but I saw a good one.

New Sharp MX3500N going to new client, located on the first floor of a brand new building. The building only had the ground and first floors, so there was no lift.
On this day, a different truck driver/installation guy was working with us. He was a small, fairly weedy sort of guy, who would struggle to lift just one corner of the machine in reality. He was now in charge of getting this machine up a flight of stairs by himself (no-one knew until it arrived onsite). He tried to do it alone without calling for backup.
Turns out he got it to the top of the stairs OK. Then on the very top stair, lost his balance and sent the new copier tumbling down the stairs. It went straight through the wall at the end of the stairs and took out a desk right behind the wall (lucky no-one was sitting there at the time).
He said it sort of rolled down like a 'slinky spring', for the first half of the stairs. Rolling end over end.

Anyways, client got a new machine (this one was written off with insurance) and we used some parts of it as spares.

The driver didnt really like working with us after that and didnt last much longer. Went back to his regular deliveries.
Always used the same old reliable guys after that episode.

[fixthecopier]

Well, lucky me this wasn't a woopsie - but could very well be if I went just a millimeter further. Let me explain:

Was at a bank installing some optionals on an MFP. Since said optionals required the bank's IT guys to do some background job, I was at a cashier's desk holding the phone against my ear while looking around and waiting for the IT guy to give me some feedback.

So, picture me: sitting at the desk (after closing time, so it was me and the two cashiers), held at the phone already for five minutes, getting seriously bored and looking around when I notice this odd red square thing right undernead the desk. Curious, I start rubbing my finger against it, since I have a desk quite like the one I was sitting at but I couldn't remember any red - or otherwise - fittings like that one. As I was inspecting that odd thing and just as I began to press against it, I suddenly had a thought: "Hey! This is a bank! Banks get robbed! Cashiers in the movies usually have an alarm button to call the police!"

I immediately froze, with the button half-a-millimeter pressed and gently released it - hoping that I hadn't pressed it enough to call the cops.

Lucky me, i hadn't!

Been there, done that. Years ago my wife took a contract to clean some banks for extra money. On Saturday afternoon while we in the bank alone, look up and see cops and the bank manager standing outside the door. Daughter found the button while dumping the trash cans.

[Zackuth]

Has anyone had the customer tell you that the machine has to have the waste toner bottle in the machine to work???

Besides me?

[HORSE]

Great Thread.

About 10 years ago I was at a customer servicing a Canon CLC900 and was vacuuming out the machine when the customer tapped me on the shoulder and asked if the all smoke from my Vacuum cleaner was normal, I looked around and the damn thing just burst into flames.... Burnt a big hole in the floor before it was extinguished.

Some how the developer had leaked into the motor and caused it to short out.

Good lesson always check your filter.

[rich bennett]

Has anyone had the customer tell you that the machine has to have the waste toner bottle in the machine to work???

Besides me?

well, it does doesnt it?

[rich bennett]

well, it does doesnt it?

oh, sorry, me , being thick!

[rich bennett]

Having just finding this thread I thought I would chime in.

I went on a call a few years ago to service a Lanier 5622 (AF1022 in Ricohland) in a busy doctors office. I had never been to the call before, but could see the machine in the reception area and asked one of the many people working there what the issue was with the copier. I was told that the CQ really looked bad and it was always jamming. A quick inspection showed the issues from a nasty fuser. So I spend a while rebuilding the fuser with all new parts and cleaning the inside of the machine and checking everything else. My pager indicated the machine was under a service agreement so I spared no expense.

After the call was complete, I finally was able to contact the person who called in the service call to sign my service ticket. It was then that the customer told me that I had worked on the wrong machine, that the one they called in for service was the same model but in the back of the building. Not only that, but the copier I spent all that time and money on was under contract by one of our competitors and not even in our system in order for me to clear time or parts against.

What a mess. But I learned never to assume anything and to ALWAYS speak to the person who placed the service call FIRST.

good shout, in our eagerness to do a good job, these things happen, i,ve done it a few times.

[rich bennett]

I was servicing a sharp 8600(Old metal piece of junk of a machine) when I leaned on table with my hand,the table collapsed and the machine came crashing down on its side.the guides in the machine were all bent accordian style,and of course the waste container had spilled toner the entire lenth of the room(about 40 feet) on a finely shined granite floor.I was dripping buckets of sweat off my entire body,when the customer walked back in room,screaming "MY FLOOR,MY FLOOR".That was the least of the problems

8600, remember them, noisy metal gears..

[Jimbo1]

I don't think I am aware of anyone who hasn't at least dumped waste toner everywhere at one point. It's like a rite of passage I think.
Was working on a Lanier 5235 once (Aficio 350). You know the waste toner tank is under the transfer belt and those were before they made it where you could unscrew and vac them out. Well I emptied it in the customers trash bin that has one of those swinging lids.
Next day big time service call because they said a fine dust of toner was everywhere in that room.

Cleaning crew had just dumped that bin instead of pulling the bag and tying it shut. Toner everywhere. Not my fault and customer knew it.

[Ducttape n Glue]

After 35 years in the field, there are so many!! like the time I almost electrocuted myself on an NP7050, got jolted so hard I left my upper back and shoulders indented into the sheetrock wall, told the customer it's better than coffee in the morn.
I think one of the most embarrassing was kneeling in front of the NP400, had placed the big OPEN FULL waste container on top of the copier, reached for it and dumped the whole thing on my head, came up sputtering and coughing trying to breathe, totally cover in a black cloud, turned around and all you heard was about 20 people explode in laughter, it was the copier in the main secretarial area of a large manufacturing company. What a freaking mess. I was probably 22 /23 years old, single and totally embarrassed.

[Jules Winfield]

After 35 years in the field, there are so many!! like the time I almost electrocuted myself on an NP7050, got jolted so hard I left my upper back and shoulders indented into the sheetrock wall, told the customer it's better than coffee in the morn.
I think one of the most embarrassing was kneeling in front of the NP400, had placed the big OPEN FULL waste container on top of the copier, reached for it and dumped the whole thing on my head, came up sputtering and coughing trying to breathe, totally cover in a black cloud, turned around and all you heard was about 20 people explode in laughter, it was the copier in the main secretarial area of a large manufacturing company. What a freaking mess. I was probably 22 /23 years old, single and totally embarrassed.

Wow, you make the rest of us feel like geniuses. Seriously though, that sucks dude.

[KenB]

After 35 years in the field, there are so many!! like the time I almost electrocuted myself on an NP7050, got jolted so hard I left my upper back and shoulders indented into the sheetrock wall, told the customer it's better than coffee in the morn.
I think one of the most embarrassing was kneeling in front of the NP400, had placed the big OPEN FULL waste container on top of the copier, reached for it and dumped the whole thing on my head, came up sputtering and coughing trying to breathe, totally cover in a black cloud, turned around and all you heard was about 20 people explode in laughter, it was the copier in the main secretarial area of a large manufacturing company. What a freaking mess. I was probably 22 /23 years old, single and totally embarrassed.

I did almost the exact same thing, on the same model machine!

The only difference was that the upper fuser roller rolled into the cleaning assembly, another part, and so on.

Anybody remember the game Mousetrap? That was just what it looked like.

The waste toner box, which WAS completely full, flipped through the air, I think in slow motion, spreading its goodness all over the mail room it was in.

Good thing I had a brand new filter in my vacuum that day. Not to mention the fact that nobody else saw it.

[mrwho]

I dare you all to take a picture of the mess next time it happens to you - I know I will do it!