Second attempt my first attempt was lost as i went to preview.
I think you under estimate the photocopier, yes i see lots of simple repairs which i could train or describe to many non copier trained people.
But I know for a fact that even if we hire a highly intelligent Technolgy degree holding indivual we still train them up for six months and when they first go out on their own to calls they still have to ring others for advice.
I work for a manufactuer I do know of people who have carried out jobs on the side and I have dealt with the other side. Clearing up the mess after this has happened.
Firstly how do you know the person you hire is trained or compent?
What skills, qualfications would you look for?
A engineer trained on a Ricoh may know nothing about a Konica and vice a versa. I msure they could have a good go part experience and know how on the particular model is critical i find.
For example due to the huge ranges copier manufactuers have not all Engineers are trained on all the range in every case.
How much experience does your Engineer have? You may strike lucky and get a good tech but many as they get older either move up the payscale or grow weary of the trade i find. They dont want work on the side. So are you sure you wont have a trainee or a guy on a lower payscale even if he has years in the trade? I know plenty of guys who have 10's of years experience but still seem clueless. I certainly would not wanna spend money on them working on a device.
Also who will supply the parts? If the Engineer does he will either use his own stock, which means he is stealing it and your handling the goods. A crimnal offence i belive in the UK, i presume in the US?
If he uses third party or your buy the parts from the manufactuer who decides how many and what parts?
Many techs on here will tell you the less experienced or poor Engineer will order more parts than someone who is on the ball will.
If the Tech is supplying the parts and making a 100% profit on them...
If he buys you third party parts will he know all about them. For example I have years and years experience but have never fitted a third party spare part, i belive some you need to adjust different settings and alsorts. Some simply dont seem to work well from what I read on here from Techs who work in dealerships who try them out.
Who will you go to if the repair is no good. The Tech may well deny ever being there as he or she would lose their job and possibly face legal action. Also how do you escalate the issue?
If a dealership and almost certainly the manufactuer goes in. They will insist all genuine parts are fitted. I know this as I have been the engineer told to do this to a quite a few copiers. If i had not raised the issue if another of an engineers went on later there is a chance it might query why third party parts were being used. Which would put me under the spotlight, ie what was i up to..
I have been to places where the fusing rollers, the drum, its blade and Dev plus the dev had to be changed before we would work on the device. It only had a jamming issue, which seemed to have plagued the machine for months from the smc. We also while there "improved the copy quality" as the cheap parts had caused backgrounding.
Although unlikely if the Tech had accident while on site or the device was involved in an incident. Whose insurance would that person claim on?
I was told by a group of fire safety inspectors the first thing they always check is the copier/printer and vending machines in a typical office.
Will your insurance be voided if it comes out you had it serviced on the cheap or cant prove who serviced it.
In the UK technically all Equipment has to be PAT tested, maybe they don't need to in the US.
If a device failed its pat test then the insurance company may not be so happy untill it passes. You would need to get a service company to make right any issues. Its rare but is the off duty tech going to come in and put his or her name to the device once they have checked over the device?
I know some are a bit extreme. but this device sitting in your office is not a toy. It needs treating with care
Good luck but just be careful trying to do things on the cheap, you maybe lucky but i have seen some people out of pocket.
I think you under estimate the photocopier, yes i see lots of simple repairs which i could train or describe to many non copier trained people.
But I know for a fact that even if we hire a highly intelligent Technolgy degree holding indivual we still train them up for six months and when they first go out on their own to calls they still have to ring others for advice.
I work for a manufactuer I do know of people who have carried out jobs on the side and I have dealt with the other side. Clearing up the mess after this has happened.
Firstly how do you know the person you hire is trained or compent?
What skills, qualfications would you look for?
A engineer trained on a Ricoh may know nothing about a Konica and vice a versa. I msure they could have a good go part experience and know how on the particular model is critical i find.
For example due to the huge ranges copier manufactuers have not all Engineers are trained on all the range in every case.
How much experience does your Engineer have? You may strike lucky and get a good tech but many as they get older either move up the payscale or grow weary of the trade i find. They dont want work on the side. So are you sure you wont have a trainee or a guy on a lower payscale even if he has years in the trade? I know plenty of guys who have 10's of years experience but still seem clueless. I certainly would not wanna spend money on them working on a device.
Also who will supply the parts? If the Engineer does he will either use his own stock, which means he is stealing it and your handling the goods. A crimnal offence i belive in the UK, i presume in the US?
If he uses third party or your buy the parts from the manufactuer who decides how many and what parts?
Many techs on here will tell you the less experienced or poor Engineer will order more parts than someone who is on the ball will.
If the Tech is supplying the parts and making a 100% profit on them...
If he buys you third party parts will he know all about them. For example I have years and years experience but have never fitted a third party spare part, i belive some you need to adjust different settings and alsorts. Some simply dont seem to work well from what I read on here from Techs who work in dealerships who try them out.
Who will you go to if the repair is no good. The Tech may well deny ever being there as he or she would lose their job and possibly face legal action. Also how do you escalate the issue?
If a dealership and almost certainly the manufactuer goes in. They will insist all genuine parts are fitted. I know this as I have been the engineer told to do this to a quite a few copiers. If i had not raised the issue if another of an engineers went on later there is a chance it might query why third party parts were being used. Which would put me under the spotlight, ie what was i up to..
I have been to places where the fusing rollers, the drum, its blade and Dev plus the dev had to be changed before we would work on the device. It only had a jamming issue, which seemed to have plagued the machine for months from the smc. We also while there "improved the copy quality" as the cheap parts had caused backgrounding.
Although unlikely if the Tech had accident while on site or the device was involved in an incident. Whose insurance would that person claim on?
I was told by a group of fire safety inspectors the first thing they always check is the copier/printer and vending machines in a typical office.
Will your insurance be voided if it comes out you had it serviced on the cheap or cant prove who serviced it.
In the UK technically all Equipment has to be PAT tested, maybe they don't need to in the US.
If a device failed its pat test then the insurance company may not be so happy untill it passes. You would need to get a service company to make right any issues. Its rare but is the off duty tech going to come in and put his or her name to the device once they have checked over the device?
I know some are a bit extreme. but this device sitting in your office is not a toy. It needs treating with care
Good luck but just be careful trying to do things on the cheap, you maybe lucky but i have seen some people out of pocket.
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