Which copier was the biggest piece of crap ever?

[Suprtek]

Wow. I don't we'll see too many people jumping to buy those supplies anytime soon.

[Anders Nilsson]

major garbage

To me it must be Ricoh Aficio color 2003 without any hesitation

[JOEYSULLIVAN]

Speaking of color copiers.... I sold a color copier that made US Crime History (True Story) and heres How It happened.

In 1979, fresh out of high school I began the start of my copier career. At 17, the copiers then were liquid toner/despersant, electrostatic roll paper machines. After 15 years of moving up the ladder and going from cleaner boy to service technician, my boss was making life hell working there and on a Friday morning in February 1995 I had had enough shit from him, and told him to Go Fuck himself and I quit. Monday morning my alarm was going off and I had no job. DOH!! NOW WHAT DO I DO???? Shit why did I quit BEFORE getting my Friday paycheck, then telling the Boss hes number one while giving him the finger???
I had a dream this day one come. It was now or never. I was going balls to the wall and starting my own company. I looked at my watch and laughed to myself when i realised I was late for work. No,....... not anymore. Im right on time, .....my time.
I drove to my NOW EX-customer who was a printer. I said that i was starting my own company and could he print me up invoices, business cards and service contracts and 3 days later All Brand Copiers Inc. was born thanks to Bo my Indian born friend who told me to pay him when i made some money. He relayed his experiences and self doubts when he started his printing bussiness 10 years earlier. His EX Boss said his Indian accent would hinder him and he would never succeed owning a company. His EX boss was wrong.
In my 6th year of owning ABC, I went to a local auction in my home town of Philadelphia. About once a month this auctioneering company would auction off copiers that were owned by leasing companys. I couldnt resist biding on and winning a mint condition Canon CLC300 color copier that was about to be gone with a high bid of $200.00 I stole this copier with a $225.00 bid. At the end of the auction, im approached by another copier owner/technician who was trained on that Canon copier when he worked for Canon corp. and was stating he was available to do the service on it. I never liked the time needed to service color vs. black and white and i took his card. It took 3 guys to move this 800 lb. monster into a corner of my showroom floor. 3 days later, I have a phone call with a guy asking if I had a color copier for sale. Yes, its a canon. What model? Its a CLC300 with a Fiery, ADF, and sorter. He sounded excited and said he wanted it and was dropping everything to come right over and leave a deposit on it. Within 15 minutes a shiny new Cadillac with the "Bling, Bling " 22 inch chrome rims is outside my door, and the drivers hotfooting it inside. Hes wearing a beanie, which i thought odd. He asked how fast he could have it, and i said a few days. I learned a day earlier this Canon sold NEW for over $20,000. 2 years earlier and with only 35,000 copies on the meter, should be a steal at $4,000.00 after i recondition it. He left a deposit of $1,000.00 and asked me to rush getting it to him. I had the ExCaon guy over the following nite and spent a total of almost a thousand dollars invested and was looking to make a nice profit on this sale. After I delivered this unit, the buyer says hes short a $1,000.00 knowing I had taken so much time and needed 3 helpers to get it in to his garage. I noticed the garage was connected to a Video rental company. then suddenly I thought to myself, was he was going to make bootleg copies of the Original box covers? None of my bussiness, and I dont want to know what hes intending to copy. Come back tommorrow and ill pay the balance was the last words I heard as I pulled away. The next day, no answer at the door of the aptartment he said he used to get upstairs. Nor the next day, after trying for almost 30 days it was obvious I got beat. Well, no big loss I made a nice profit overall. Three years pass. I almost fall out of the chair when I answer a call and find out that in the Philadelphia Inquirer is an article about a local man Ricky Nelson charged with the biggest counterfitting operation in US History. Well, he really did have that name i thought. And the beanie is a trade mark of excons who become Muslims in prison i found out also. He had crackheads go into malls from Virginia to Connecticut spending the bogus bucks and eventualy the Feds tracked him down within 2 and a half years. He passed almost $700,000.00 in US money by washing one dollar bills and copying 100 bills onto the blank paper. If a conterfit pen was used, it read ok because it was genuine currency paper. After running and getting my own newspaper I also read that the Canon dude was also indicted. WHAT???? Yep.......that pick was with me delivering the machine that day, and knowing I got beat out of $1,000.00 gave the buyer his own card to do the servicing of the machine. Karma is a Motherf---er I thought. Mr Canon dude had to get a high priced attorney and went out of business, beanie man plead guilty and was sentenced to 7 years in club Fed. And I came to the conclusion, that $1,000.00 wasnt so bad a trade off afterall.

[Gman]

FS-8000C - 'nuff sed

[MaineDoug]

All the mita 3 digit boxes were a pain but the worst ever was the Mita 513

Post edited by: spank6482, at: 2005/01/31 22:07

I thought the 313 used to rock.
Although the 513 left me with many sleepless nights
I cut my teeth on the 132 and 191. Could make those babies purr with booko copies once you learn their tricks and quirks.

[MaineDoug]

Aneurysm wrote:

The peice of crap Copystar 3010 that kicked my ass all day today. I jerked around with a CQ issue for 2 and a half hours before I realized that my main charger corona was a arching. it\'s always the easy stuff that throws us off. :angry:

That should be pretty easy to figure out.
But hey

[MaineDoug]

everything mita analog starting with 40.
4085, 4086, 4090...

Ouch, thanks for bringing up that POS
I can still hear the toner motor clicking now

[MaineDoug]

brutal, sounds like you worked on them too. Any powder machine was heaven compared to them. I remember rebuilding the pumps after cleaning them in a parts washer. Talk about going thru hand cleaner.

Washing those out in a parts washer was where I first started back in '84 from being a delivery "boy".
Should have kept slinging paper "sarcasm"

[yourownfree]

I hate customers wise cracks

If it needs work other than normal its all junk. with technology, we should have another way of producing images by now. You ever get tired of customers saying, "its a lemon" or "can we have one that doesn't jam every other copy?" or "I think it needs to be shot" or "can you bring us another one"
"Oh i thought the document feeder removes the corner staple as the originals go into the document feeder, it did before when i tried it."
"do you know much longer you are going to be? i need to make a copy!
" its the paper you say? how can that be? paper is just paper" well, no it isn't.
"Oh i see you brought help!" If you are at a school say to them "even teachers have aides"
Oh, you need a book to look at? say to them "you use a book for religion."

[Lea@ABM]

I think, over all of the years ive been fixing, the main contestants would be (from current to past):

TOSHIBA 1550 (crap front opening clamshell design, bent chassis and jams from new!)
MINOLTA EP490 (similcolour machine with more clutches and bushings than your can think of)
CANON EP270 (Just crap)
UBIX 112 / 120 (Even crapper)
REGMA EG101 (Electrostatic paper and a toaster for a fuser)
CANON NP1 (Big washing machine with LIQUID premix toner, rotten rubber pipes)
3M LIGHT BOX (Just a box with house bulbs under the glass to expose sensitive paper!)

[dpepin]

I also think that the Savin 840 was a nightmare, it could only be used as an anchor, and should stay in the deep ocean.

[CCS]

my vote is for the Sharp SF-900/901 series

[billv]

Probably the Toshiba 601, it had a toaster oven fuser, and chain driven grippers to pull the paper through. Lots of flames.

[leroyal]

I thought the 313 used to rock.
Although the 513 left me with many sleepless nights
I cut my teeth on the 132 and 191. Could make those babies purr with booko copies once you learn their tricks and quirks.

I loved the way the 313 sounded when it was turned on.

Whirrr-Chunk-Chunk-Chunk

[leroyal]

I am gonna date myself again. The "little monster" the Royfax 1400was a "Royal Pain"..

The Apeco Systematic oldie but not goodie.

The Olivetti copia 1 or 2 I am not sure which the rollfed paper went up about 3 stories before it entered the reservoir og toner/dispersant.

All worth mentioning are the Saxon 10, Canon NP200, Canon NP50, AB Dick 900(made by Minolta?), 3M Thermals, Toshiba BD702, Olivetti Copia 1000(very unique cold pressure machine---a classic like the Edsel).

The Sharp sf740/741 when the drum clamp would get mangled when customer changed master. I sold a lot of clamp assemblies.
Jim , I bet you probably knows all of these.
Happy Halloween Frank/ActionPhotocopy

3M Thermals?! Boy are you old! (me 1968 also)