The service call from hell...

[copyman]

Let's have a little fun:

What was the worse service call you have gone on? Keep it with repairing the actual machine, not stuff like there were mice in machine, etc. I will start with two I can remember even though many of the newer techs won't know the machines because they were from the 80's.
The Sharp 741 master clamp jam!

Canon, restringing the corona grids.

[Saturn]

That was in the early 1990s. I had carried out a complete maintenance on a Ricoh FT 4065 that was placed in a stairwell.
I had put the full waste toner container on top of the document cover. When I got up, I bumped into the machine and the
waste toner container fell down the stairs.
It took one hour to vacuum the walls and the stairs until they were somewhat clean again.
After that I reassembled the machine and wanted to make test copies. However, only blank pages came out.
So I disassembled everything again, but couldn't find anything wrong. Now I've put everything back together again......
........and blank pages again. Until I realized that I had forgotten to put a test sheet on the platen glass.

It was a crappy day. I never will forget.

[kingarthur]

I've had 2, neither were copiers, 1st was a cash till, was carrying it up the stairs, moved it to one hand to open the door, and fell on top of it - carried on walking, went to open another door, and noticed my hand was covered in blood, looked behind me, and there was a trail of blood behind me, there was a deep gash in my little finger, ended up having it stitched, unfortunately, I cut the tendon....still can't bend it.

The next one was a Rexel Computershred, yes - a shredder, it would easily shred a 2p coin, there was a lid at the back, which the operator could open, to clear misfeeds, but it cut the power. Was working on it in the workshop, with the cover off, I always made sure the safety switch was always in the off position - however, one day i got distracted - the machine was live, i leant forward to check the belt tension, but i leant on the "Go" button - 2 of my fingers went between the belt and the pulley, which you couldn't even get a sheet of paper between - it hurt like hell, all I had 2 bruised fingers, I thought I'd lost them, and was too scared to look....

[copyman]

I've had 2, neither were copiers, 1st was a cash till, was carrying it up the stairs, moved it to one hand to open the door, and fell on top of it - carried on walking, went to open another door, and noticed my hand was covered in blood, looked behind me, and there was a trail of blood behind me, there was a deep gash in my little finger, ended up having it stitched, unfortunately, I cut the tendon....still can't bend it.

The next one was a Rexel Computershred, yes - a shredder, it would easily shred a 2p coin, there was a lid at the back, which the operator could open, to clear misfeeds, but it cut the power. Was working on it in the workshop, with the cover off, I always made sure the safety switch was always in the off position - however, one day i got distracted - the machine was live, i leant forward to check the belt tension, but i leant on the "Go" button - 2 of my fingers went between the belt and the pulley, which you couldn't even get a sheet of paper between - it hurt like hell, all I had 2 bruised fingers, I thought I'd lost them, and was too scared to look....

Ouch! Your story about cutting your hand reminded me of a similar accident I had. A friend and me were delivering a machine after hours at night. The guy we were suppose to meet was tied up in traffic so we decided to get something to eat, well not only did we eat we had a "few" drinks. When we finally went to deliver machine I had a nice buzz. The machine was a Minolta CS pro EP5000, heavy as a son of a bitch. Got the machine in no problem but when we brought the finisher in I set the bottom down and when I pulled my hand out I sliced my palm open on a thin metal grounding plate, it was like a razor blade! Ended up getting stitches at hospital. Anyway it was the one time I left an office looking like a crime scene....

[slimslob]

Apeco Superstat. Machine was located in a closet on top of a couple of file cabinets. Back then we used lacquer thinner to clean paper transport rollers during service calls. Every time I had to work on that machine I had a headache for 3 days afterwards from the fumes.

Then there was an SCM super high speed estat. Used xenon strobe lights for exposure. The power pack for the strobes produce an output that was high enough to kill instantly. I had to replace one.

[mloudy]

Cut my finger open on a Sharp SF-7900. I has been so long ago I don't remember what I cut it on. I was sitting cross legged in a school office when it happened. It was one of those cuts that I wasn't sure how bad it was until I bent my finger. It opened up deep when I bent my finger and gushed. Splinted it with a Sharp corona cleaner, wrapped it in a lint free cloth and held it together with electrical tape, all with one hand and my teeth. I was able to slide the fuser back in, power it up and tell the secretary I would be back. Half way to the ER I worked myself up so much thinking about the stitches I started sweating and got tunnel vision and was sure I was going to pass out. I walked in th ER and nobody paid any attention to me because I was often there working on the copier. I had to tell someone I was not there to work on the copier and needed stitched up.

[Mittle Lix]

Had a couple mishaps:

1. Was doing a big service on an MXM904, full drum unit, fuser and transfer unit rebuild at the clients site. While replacing the corona wires of the MC in the drum unit the spring slipped off my spring hook and disappeared(heard it hit either a roof or the wall), Spent 15 minutes on my hands and knees looking for where it went with no luck, went back to the van (approximately an hour drive away from the warehouse) and pulled apart a bunch of spare parts in my van looking for a suitable spring to fit.

Having no luck with anything in the van; Ultimately got it sorted by retrofitting the spring out of my pen, cutting it to length and reshaping it.

Machine has been working without issue since. (6+ months ago)



2. Got called out to either a jammed up or an associated error code with the fuser in an MX7580; arrive on site and the machine has already been turned off. Removed the fuser from the machine and placed it on the bench to inspect; as it touches the bench, it jumps up (i hadn't noticed but the client had simply turned off the power outlet on the wall and not properly shut the machine down, the pressure was still engaged on the unit) and smacks my finger just near the nail, big tear at the base of my nail that went 25% of the way around my finger. quickly washed it, cleaned it and put on a band aid. fit a replacement fuser and had a gash missing out of my finger for 2-3 weeks.

[ninadobrev]

Cut my finger open on a Sharp SF-7900. I has been so long ago I don't remember what I cut it on. I was sitting cross legged in a school office when it happened. It was one of those cuts that I wasn't sure how bad it was until I bent my finger. It opened up deep when I bent my finger and gushed. Splinted it with a Sharp corona cleaner, wrapped it in a lint free cloth and held it together with electrical tape, all with one hand and my teeth. I was able to slide the fuser back in, power it up and tell the secretary I would be back. Half way to the ER I worked myself up so much thinking about the stitches I started sweating and got tunnel vision and was sure I was going to pass out. I walked in th ER and nobody paid any attention to me because I was often there working on the copier. I had to tell someone I was not there to work on the copier and needed stitched up.

GeoGuessr Free
This happened a long time ago, so the details are a bit fuzzy, but I still remember the aftermath clearly. I was sitting cross-legged in a school office, working on a Sharp SF-7900 copier when I somehow cut my finger open. I don’t even remember what I cut it on — maybe a metal edge or part of the fuser assembly — but it was one of those deceptive cuts. At first, I thought it was minor… until I bent my finger.

[blackcat4866]

On of my more memorable service calls I was removing booklet jams from a Konica Minolta FS-532 finisher. As luck would have it, there was a salesman there with me, or I'd still be there.

I had pulled out the booklet maker and jammed my arm into the gap to get the wrinkled booklets. I could only just touch the last one. Finally my elbow slipped past, and I got the last booklet jam. That's when the problem began. My arm would not come back out, and it was going numb fast. I called the salesman over: "I'm going to need some help with this... " I explained how to take the screws out of the booklet maker rails to slide it out. "I don't really know how to do that ...". I said: " Just start taking out screws. By the way, I can't feel my arm anymore." He suggested calling the fire department. You can imagine what the fire department would have done to the finisher! Eventually, he must have taken out 30 screws before he found the two in the rail, and the booklet maker moved about 1", enough for me to escape. In total, I was stuck in the finisher for an hour. Normally I would have been the only person onsite.

Oh, there's one more: I was brand new to copiers. I had been cleaning corona wires with spit on my right index finger. It works ok in most situations.
I was servicing a Mita 900D for the first time. I spit on my finger, and ran it across the razor blade primary ... oops! I cut that finger to the bone. I poured alcohol over it and wrapped in a paper towel and a 1/2 roll of black tape. I never got stitches in that one. It eventually grew back.

[copyman]

On of my more memorable service calls I was removing booklet jams from a Konica Minolta FS-532 finisher. As luck would have it, there was a salesman there with me, or I'd still be there.

I had pulled out the booklet maker and jammed my arm into the gap to get the wrinkled booklets. I could only just touch the last one. Finally my elbow slipped past, and I got the last booklet jam. That's when the problem began. My arm would not come back out, and it was going numb fast. I called the salesman over: "I'm going to need some help with this... " I explained how to take the screws out of the booklet maker rails to slide it out. "I don't really know how to do that ...". I said: " Just start taking out screws. By the way, I can't feel my arm anymore." He suggested calling the fire department. You can imagine what the fire department would have done to the finisher! Eventually, he must have taken out 30 screws before he found the two in the rail, and the booklet maker moved about 1", enough for me to escape. In total, I was stuck in the finisher for an hour. Normally I would have been the only person onsite.

Oh, there's one more: I was brand new to copiers. I had been cleaning corona wires with spit on my right index finger. It works ok in most situations.
I was servicing a Mita 900D for the first time. I spit on my finger, and ran it across the razor blade primary ... oops! I cut that finger to the bone. I poured alcohol over it and wrapped in a paper towel and a 1/2 roll of black tape. I never got stitches in that one. It eventually grew back.

Ha-ha. Good stories. Yes the good ole spit trick worked on cleaning corona wires! I used a little spit on paper towel back in the day. The acid in spit cleaned well!

[Mako]

Had an employee of the pharmacy department in a major hospital account take the black cap off of a toner bottle for a Ricoh console machine and for some dumb reason he shook the bottle.....without the cap on. I was the unlucky tech who had to go clean up the entire pharmacy department with my vacuum and stretch and dust rags. There wasn't a place in that room that you couldn't wipe your finger and come up with toner. It was everywhere.

[Larhal]

I had a similar toner dousing at an executive office. Xerox 3100 LDC. Key operator, very familiar with adding toner, had trouble removing the cap. Cap in one hand, bottle in the other. Pulled and cap came off and so did all the toner. We took over a Shop toner hover and did the copy room. 5 hrs later we finished. Worst part was that the toner got in the optic and fuser so the optic needed a major cleaning and the fuser, radiant type, was caked with melted toner, and a general clean down in the machine..