Servicing password protected machines

[Scott_Lewis]

The days of open access to all copiers is a thing of the past.

No more password resets from the service mode. Ricoh is making a big push to make the copiers secure from the administrative and user side. On top of that, the administrator can prevent the service tech from reaching the service modes.


Has anyone had to deal with the service mode lockout on a regular basis?

Has anyone changed the way maint agreements are written up to account for the extra time and effort involved with dealing with machines with the service lockout? People losing their supervisor passwords and requiring nvram replacements, etc.

[OMD-227]

Wow, locking techs out of service mode is totally ridiculous... going way over the top. Stupid idea.

Luckily the Sharp MX & MXM's I work on still have the ability to reset the admin password if no administrator or IT person is around. Trust me, I do it all the time.

I've seen some machines with the admin password taped to a small peice of paper on the back cover.... just for reference. No-one else knows its there.

Whatever gets you through. Sometimes you know the admin password off-by-heart..... thats generally sad, because it means you are always onsite at that machine too many times.

Most of our machines have had a device clone done at some stage, so if we lose data for some reason, we have the backup. Still cant see the sense of locking techs out.

[blackcat4866]

We sure need to do something along those lines. I get a three of four calls a month asking: " What's my password?"

How the hell am I supposed to know? And is it my fault that you can't remember what you set up? So far, Kyocera has accommodations to reset most passwords in this situation.

Hey IT guys! How do you handle these situations? It's definitely not a hardware fault if the user misplaced/forgot a password. This should definitely be billable.

It would probably be totally unenforceable, but perhaps the service contract should have a paragraph guaranteeing service personnel access passwords, and some method of recording them in customer documentation.

This reminds me of a Canon NP-2020 that had a coinop connected. I was called out on three occasions to service the coinop. The customer had no keys to open the coinop. They expected me to carry the "universal" keyset. All three times, the customer did not have keys. =^..^=

[Claudio]

A password for this, a Pin # for that, a security question for that.
Pretty soon you'll need a password to open your own refrigerator.

[FMC]

You have to options with this.

1.Switch it off in SP mode.

or

2.My personal fav, charge them an obsene amount for a new NVRAM if they forget the password.

That'll learn smart arse IT people for shutting down a machine your trying to fix.

[unisys12]

The customers that I train how to enter Admin mode in one of our machines, I explain to them that I could create a separate Admin account for them. Most of the time, they decline. The few accounts that I have that do actually inqure into the Supervisor aspect of our machines, I explain to them that the Supervisor account is for techs only. I explain to them that we, as techs, have to have access to the WIM.

I've only had one account that complained about it and it just so happens that this same account called me a month ago not being able to log into WIM on a machine in another part of the country. I walked him through logging in as Supervisor and then told him, "Guess your glad we left that open now, uh?" Of course he just cleared his throat and said, "Thanks".

[Scott_Lewis]

We only have one account that does much with the administrator accounts. Even there, it was pretty much pushed onto them from above. Anyway, I explained to the about how the responsibility for the ops of the machine would be theirs once they changed the passwords. I also explained to the what the bill would be if they messed up the supervisor account.

The result was that I have all of the admin account info and sole possession of the supervisor account. I think I quoted them $650 to restore lost supervisor passwords.

With accounts that have user codes, they have all agreed to allow us to create a user code for service.

As for billing customers that are on contract, we have management approval to go ahead and write a service charge where we see fit. It doesn't always stick. But, at least then our boss gets to talk to their boss and try to eliminate the stupidity or abuse at the copier location.
But, there are still plenty of calls we don't write a service charge where we might like to.