I feel so cheap and used

[fixthecopier]

Ever go to one of those big chain office supply stores, look at the printers and notice how cheap the extended warranty is? We can't compete with that. How can they offer on site service, the next day for those prices? Well I found out. They are sending me. It seems those extended warranties are all owned by a third party who farms them out to local companies as calls come in. Of course they shop around for anyone to take their chump change payments. Who would work that cheap? Apparently I will. I guess after not having a lot of success farming these calls out to low bidders, this service provider worked out a deal with my boss. $50 for each visit, per machine, no matter what the amount of time.

I found this out as I was being handed the first 2 tickets. They were at a large nation wide used car dealer. I was walking in blind. Had no idea someone else had been there before. They had checked out the machine, and the parts I needed had been sent to fix the machine.

The machine was an HP m601 and the ticket said that the tray 2 and tray 3 were not lifting. The previous tech, with the aid of tech support, had a fuser maintenance kit, two tray lift motors and a new paper tray sent. I went in. opened both trays, heard them both drop, closed them and printed a config sheet. I then ask the customer to demo the issue. They went to print the form, click print, and the printer starts flashing. I look at the message. It wants legal paper put in tray 2. I don't know why, as it is in tray 3 and the machine is properly configured. I open tray 2 and 3 and swap the paper around, it takes off and prints. Some where on the IT side, which is completely locked out, they are set up to print that form from that tray. Problem solved. They said I was the third guy to show up for that issue.

Now to the office next door. Hp 475mfp. Jam issue. I test. It jams. Part has been sent. Tray two feed assembly. Seems logical. I don't have the manual, but how hard can this be? Well apparently hp never intended for this to be changed, that is why there is not a section in the manual to tell you how to take it out. I discovered this after half way gutting the machine, thinking there must be an easier way, going to the shop and downloading the manual and looking 3 times for the instructions. Turns out you just need to start at the beginning of the manual and start taking shit off til you have it gutted. Seems the designer snaked the wires from it through the entire machine to plug into a board under the scanner. Anyway, got the assembly in, tested machine, seems to work fine.

The next week when the boss come sback, I have another call, same jam issue , same machine. I start from scratch. Keeps saying out put bin jam. That would seem like a stuck actuator. I cant find issue with the one on the output bin, but while playing with the fuser actuator, I finally got it to stick. I am on the phone with the contractor, report what I see, and tell him I will remove the fuser and see if I can fix it. He says not to bother, they will send another fuser.
Go back next day, they sent wrong fuser, I fixed the one in the machine.

I think I am worth more than $50 a visit. I feel so cheap and used.

[Tonerbomb]

Re: I feel so cheap and used

Yeah Fix been there done that at my last employer. I inherited a call that the previous tech refused to go back to. The warranty company would only pay once no matter how many trips. Oh and then they went past 90 days as slow payers............... Not worth the time or effort for those dirtbags!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[vincent64]

Re: I feel so cheap and used

I recall when I used to work on Sharps, there was a series of small desk top machines, the ones we sold were "AR" series, well office supply stores sold Sharps also, they were the "AL" series, the machines looked to be identical but supplies would not interchange...and we had to do warranty work on them, Sharp had a 3 year warranty on them things, only good thing was telling customers they would have to order toner from where they purchased the copier, as our toner would not fit, but parts would.

[DallasTech]

Re: I feel so cheap and used

It's good to hear these kinds of stories, not good that it happens to people, but good to know. As a new service manager, long time tech, I've learned a lot about the business side of things. $50 a visit is basically the burden rate for any decent technician. There is no way I would agree to a deal like this, especially knowing how the newer machines are built as disposable. I would feel bad sending my technicians to deal with machines other techs have already tried to fix and then not making profit for my company on the other end of things.

I hope these extended warranty companies go out of business. I would not feel bad at all. They don't contribute anything to our industry, only there to suck the profit out of it.

[allan]

Re: I feel so cheap and used

seem like a nice way to collect new parts. $50 is low even for African rates!
And that includes travel cost and travel time?

[fixthecopier]

Re: I feel so cheap and used

seem like a nice way to collect new parts. $50 is low even for African rates!
And that includes travel cost and travel time?

Yep, 50 per trip. If I go and check the machine and they have to send parts, that's 2 trips. So they try to figure out over the phone what is wrong and send the parts to avoid the second trip. The ones I have done have been only a few miles from base.

To show you what I am dealing with, I had another call today, to9 instal a maint kit on the same machine I put one in last week. I logged it as a call, collected the kit to ship back and left. Took me 20 min to locate the kit, as they refuse to sent it to us. They expect us to collect whatever parts they sent, and ship back, so we charge them $25 for handling.



I don't know who was doing this for them before me, but on the jamming printer, I was told that I was the fourth tech to look at it, and one of the parts I shipped back was a control panel.


And lets not forget the one last week, an old Xerox with an error code related to the finisher. The phone tech support couldn't resolve the issue so they sent me. I resolved the issue by plugging the finisher power cord back into the copier. Fifty Bucks!

[DallasTech]

Re: I feel so cheap and used

Yep, 50 per trip. If I go and check the machine and they have to send parts, that's 2 trips. So they try to figure out over the phone what is wrong and send the parts to avoid the second trip. The ones I have done have been only a few miles from base.

To show you what I am dealing with, I had another call today, to9 instal a maint kit on the same machine I put one in last week. I logged it as a call, collected the kit to ship back and left. Took me 20 min to locate the kit, as they refuse to sent it to us. They expect us to collect whatever parts they sent, and ship back, so we charge them $25 for handling.



I don't know who was doing this for them before me, but on the jamming printer, I was told that I was the fourth tech to look at it, and one of the parts I shipped back was a control panel.


And lets not forget the one last week, an old Xerox with an error code related to the finisher. The phone tech support couldn't resolve the issue so they sent me. I resolved the issue by plugging the finisher power cord back into the copier. Fifty Bucks!

$50 for making a trip out there barely pays for your labor, travel expenses, and the admin work that goes into creating the call, invoicing the ticket and collecting the money. Your company is probably breaking even on a simple fix like the Xerox, but if you spend more than 30 minutes on a call, your company would have to be losing money. I'm kinda shocked they would take service at that rate.

[atwageman]

Re: I feel so cheap and used

No way in hell I would / could work at those rates. Bottom feeder warranty companies looking for bottom feeder copier companies / techs to do the work. I'm NOT saying any techs here are bottom feeders. It's just the warranty company hoping when an issue arises, they can get the cheapest company in a given area to do the work.

No way I would commit to unlimited calls for $50.

[subaro]

Re: I feel so cheap and used

The way i look at this. You are given an assignment to repair a machine and that should be your focus when you go out there. The management of your company is the one to figure out what is the deal they got into. You may not know all the particulars to the deal and your logo or badge that you wear represent your company. You never know who is looking at your workmanship and what further business that your actions can bring to your company.
As an example. I mainly do new setups and refurbishing of machines that come back from lease, like for likes ect. I put the extra effort to make that machine look like it has hardly been used even though the mileage is visable, with the thoughts that these machines goes into managers offices and places where people make decisions on renewals and new contracts ect. And you know what they say about first impressions. Of cousrse the machine should function as it looks.
All our shop techs do excellent work, but on school vacations, when outside techs come into the shop and do rebuilds the difference is quite noticeable, because in the field is putting out fires and in the shop is presentation and clearing all defects.
So all that said, i don't think you should really feel that way. Your managers and those who run the company i think they would not be that naive to run into money loosing deals. I think very small operations may more be tempted to take those deals as maybe to lack of work or slow operations.

[atwageman]

Re: I feel so cheap and used

I work for myself. So not only is the machine my focus, so is my accounting.

[fixthecopier]

Re: I feel so cheap and used

$50 for making a trip out there barely pays for your labor, travel expenses, and the admin work that goes into creating the call, invoicing the ticket and collecting the money. Your company is probably breaking even on a simple fix like the Xerox, but if you spend more than 30 minutes on a call, your company would have to be losing money. I'm kinda shocked they would take service at that rate.

Problem is that times are slow, calls are light, and every dollar counts.$50 is more than we make if I am sitting at the shop. besides, I am not paid that much.

[blackcat4866]

Re: I feel so cheap and used

$50 for making a trip out there barely pays for your labor, travel expenses, and the admin work that goes into creating the call, invoicing the ticket and collecting the money. Your company is probably breaking even on a simple fix like the Xerox, but if you spend more than 30 minutes on a call, your company would have to be losing money. I'm kinda shocked they would take service at that rate.

Yep, 50 per trip. If I go and check the machine and they have to send parts, that's 2 trips. So they try to figure out over the phone what is wrong and send the parts to avoid the second trip. The ones I have done have been only a few miles from base. ...

That's a good point about the administration aspect. Back when I was a one man operation we did Samsung warranty service. Anyone who does Samsung warranty work will appreciate this. Samsung's website is much better than it used to be. I used to count on at least 1 hour of website time to get my reimbursement, and often two or three followups to explain my actions. Additionally, the walk-in's frequently lied about whether their machine was under warranty, or if it was out of warranty, someone at the hotline would say: "... oh, we'll still cover it ... " until I actually did the work, that is. Then it was no longer be under warranty. I had quite a collection of abandoned printers there for a while, until I made a policy to collect a $75 returnable deposit on all calls. The untruthful people tended to just walk away. Roll in another 20 minutes to call and confirm warranty coverage, and if somebody promised coverage after the warranty period, get it in writing that your work is covered (or you're working for free). =^..^=

It was a break even proposition at best. =^..^=

[nmfaxman]

Re: I feel so cheap and used

Send them my way!
$50.00 is better than nothing when you could use the money.
I can knock out 10 easy calls a day if I plan my route.
All I need are simple tools and the manual on a thumb drive.

Do I sound too desperate?

[JR2ALTA]

Re: I feel so cheap and used

Send them my way!
$50.00 is better than nothing when you could use the money.
I can knock out 10 easy calls a day if I plan my route.
All I need are simple tools and the manual on a thumb drive.

Do I sound too desperate?

10 calls? With my luck 8 of those 10 would be "your tech was just here working on the printer and now our doorbell isn't working" or "your tech cleaned our printer last week now I hear a little squeek every hour or so"

The cheaper the customer the more expectations.

Better leave this crap alone.

Stick with real machines, real contracts, real inventory and real tech support.

[nmfaxman]

Re: I feel so cheap and used

10 calls? With my luck 8 of those 10 would be "your tech was just here working on the printer and now our doorbell isn't working" or "your tech cleaned our printer last week now I hear a little squeek every hour or so"

The cheaper the customer the more expectations.

Better leave this crap alone.

Stick with real machines, real contracts, real inventory and real tech support.

Again, $50.00 a call is better than nothing when you are out of work and no money.