Repair Guy Uses Tons of Paper

[Guest]

Hi Everyone,

The repair guy for our Ricoh copy machine is at our work on average once a week. After repairing the problem, he runs 7 - 10 reams of paper
through the machine every single time (That is between 3500 and 5000 pieces of paper). Is this normal? The picture shows the amount of paper he ran through the machine last week. IMG_0024.jpg

[JDYAL]

Re: Repair Guy Uses Tons of Paper

O.K so there's always reasons for people doing things so lets look at a couple things. 1. What type of machine do you have. 2. What type of issues are you having that he comes out once a week. 3. What type of volume are you running on your machine (how many prints per day). With a little info maybe we can help you figure out why he runs this amount of prints. It does seem excessive but there must be a reason.

[allan]

Re: Repair Guy Uses Tons of Paper

To be brutally honest no way. 2000 sheets is the absolute max i need to test a 90 to 130 page per minute high volume machine. Take the readings on the machine before he starts and make sure he takes note of that.
You can't be billed for the prints and need to be compensated for the paper if he does not bring his own.
Did you guys piss him off? Don't piss off the copier guy.

Internal test prints don't add to the count are those prints or copies.


And if i know i found and fixed the problem less than a 100 print is good for me.

[copyman]

Re: Repair Guy Uses Tons of Paper

That does seem unusual. Especially having to service the copier once a week! As for running that many pages it tells me he was probably testing for jamming on a high volume machine.
If machine is under contract call company and tell them to bring their own paper next time if they are going to run more than 100 pages to test. If not already store paper away from copier. When tech asks for paper give him 100 sheets no more! 100 sheets is more than enough for 99.9% service calls.

I would think you wouldn't buy a Ricoh again. Look at Konica Minolta next time.

Wanted to add something after reading allan's post. I disagree with what he said about pissing the tech off. Customers piss me off all the time but I don't waste a case of their paper because of it. If you have to worry about something like that than it is time to find a new copier company.

[JR2ALTA]

Re: Repair Guy Uses Tons of Paper

Are you calling once a week for some intermittent squeak that can only be heard while running the machine? If so, he can't run the machine without paper.

If not contact his manager not us.

[JDYAL]

Re: Repair Guy Uses Tons of Paper

I'm with allan I think someone is pissed off. I was just trying to see if we could get more info just to be sure. Usually no more than 200 test prints for me depending on the issue, usually more like 100. Unless this is a pro series it would take forever to print that amount of pages. I wouldn't want to stand around and wait for those to print. The machine must have a LCIT.

And I love my Ricoh machines wouldn't have it any other way

[Paper_Jam]

Re: Repair Guy Uses Tons of Paper

He probably is just running up the total counter to get more clicks on the contract lol. I have never seen so much paper run you should get credit for all that.

[mjunkaged]

Re: Repair Guy Uses Tons of Paper

That does seem unusual. Especially having to service the copier once a week! As for running that many pages it tells me he was probably testing for jamming on a high volume machine.
If machine is under contract call company and tell them to bring their own paper next time if they are going to run more than 100 pages to test. If not already store paper away from copier. When tech asks for paper give him 100 sheets no more! 100 sheets is more than enough for 99.9% service calls.

I would think you wouldn't buy a Ricoh again. Look at Konica Minolta next time.

Wanted to add something after reading allan's post. I disagree with what he said about pissing the tech off. Customers piss me off all the time but I don't waste a case of their paper because of it. If you have to worry about something like that than it is time to find a new copier company.

It's always a bad idea to piss off, or interact unnecessarily with the copier guy. Here's why: We may be working on a very difficult problem, and many end users think we're lazy, weak, and nothing more than glorified, specialized 'custodians' placed in their office on a service call for their personal amusement, or to even abuse us.
It takes us longer to service the machine, and we might mess it up, not deliberately, but because we were distracted at a crucial moment. I had a lovely couple once that decided a great time to pepper me with questions I already answered was while I had the TINIEST CLIP IN THEIR DOCUMENT FEEDER in a very hard-to-install spot.
Well, guess what? it fell down in the HARDEST TO GET OUT spot! ANOTHER half hour of service $$ from you, Mr. & Mrs. Customer!!
Not to mention, most customers 'get it' or have enough class to be at least civil to us no matter what is going on with their machine. Most technicians also won't waste that much paper without good reason. I wonder if the poster ASKED the tech. without calling his office (if he's not the owner like me) and stabbing him in the back over it??

[mjunkaged]

Re: Repair Guy Uses Tons of Paper

Hi Everyone,

The repair guy for our Ricoh copy machine is at our work on average once a week. After repairing the problem, he runs 7 - 10 reams of paper
through the machine every single time (That is between 3500 and 5000 pieces of paper). Is this normal? The picture shows the amount of paper he ran through the machine last week. [ATTACH=CONFIG]41433[/ATTACH]

Have you asked him directly, why so many test prints? And, I agree, don't pay for test prints if you have a contract. Internal prints don't run up the counter, but still uses up paper.

It's possible he has been told if he doesn't fix your jamming issue he's FIRED. And, your office has neglected to notice or tell him that it only jams under this one very specific condition or, it's jamming in the doc. feeder and the caller to his company keeps saying paper jam and never mentioning it's the ADF that jams once per 1000 pages! Every tiny scrap of info about the problem you give (or don't give) to your tech. can mean the difference between fixed, and 'that guy never fixes it'.

[JR2ALTA]

Re: Repair Guy Uses Tons of Paper

This all seems innocuous but having CUSTOMERS use this site to rat on us or shame us is a slippery slope. I advise this thread be removed.

[mjunkaged]

Re: Repair Guy Uses Tons of Paper

This all seems innocuous but having CUSTOMERS use this site to rat on us or shame us is a slippery slope. I advise this thread be removed.

I don't think the OP ratted or shamed anyone, he's just asking a question, is this normal? NO, but there ARE exceptions, as posted in replies! I hope this is a thread where other customers will get an answer as well, and if they read our replies, they'll get insight into what it's like to do our jobs, and how they can best help us and themselves.

[copyman]

Re: Repair Guy Uses Tons of Paper

I have a different feeling about this and disagree with one point a poster made . I feel it's the techs responsibility to put a piece of paper or something under a clip that can fall into the worse spot to find. Don't think it's the customer fault for asking a question and clip falls down inside machine. Also why not tell the customer "can I answer your questions after I'm done", especially if doing something critical at that time. As for questions customer can ask me all the questions they want for the $105 charge. As I posted before I only charge a flat rate not by the hour so hopefully not too many questions

I sometimes put myself in the customer's shoes. If I was paying what most companies charge for service I should be able to ask as many questions as I want. Maybe I'm lucky to have the accounts I have, over 200 active accounts and thankfully I don't have issues with customer's. Or it could be the reasonable flat rate I charge. Also there is a better attitude with a tech if it's their own business, instead of "arms & legs" for a company that don't appreciate them.

[mjunkaged]

Re: Repair Guy Uses Tons of Paper

I have a different feeling about this and disagree with one point a poster made . I feel it's the techs responsibility to put a piece of paper or something under a clip that can fall into the worse spot to find. Don't think it's the customer fault for asking a question and clip falls down inside machine. Also why not tell the customer "can I answer your questions after I'm done", especially if doing something critical at that time. As for questions customer can ask me all the questions they want for the $105 charge. As I posted before I only charge a flat rate not by the hour so hopefully not too many questions

I sometimes put myself in the customer's shoes. If I was paying what most companies charge for service I should be able to ask as many questions as I want. Maybe I'm lucky to have the accounts I have, over 200 active accounts and thankfully I don't have issues with customer's. Or it could be the reasonable flat rate I charge. Also there is a better attitude with a tech if it's their own business, instead of "arms & legs" for a company that don't appreciate them.

Again, you were not there, only I was there, and the part being reattached with a tiny e-ring had ZERO space to put a piece of paper under it, and I've been a technician for over 30 years. I think you would have probably dropped the part too, unless you were worried about it falling through an adjacent hole and stuck a magnet under/near it first (if you were lucky enough that it was made of STEEL). We don't always have foresight, anyone can have hindsight and tell the other person how they can do a better job, and cheaper too. THAT particular service call, the customer was trying to get by on a 1/2 hour minimum introductory call (about 60 bucks at the time), which then turned out to be not possible. I charge by the hour, and I'm not working, 2, 3, 8 hours on a customer machine for a flat rate, unless it's $1500. So maybe don't bother me when my hands are in your machine and parts are everywhere and you're pacing around to tell me to hurry up!! Glad you''re so rich and busy, by the way, I'm happy for you!!

[blackcat4866]

Re: Repair Guy Uses Tons of Paper

On maybe three occasions I may have run that much paper, bit if it's absolutely necessary to do this much testing I enlist the enduser to line up jobs they can use. And that's on production level equipment, not office machines.

On one occasion I observed 20K pass through a bizhub 1052, all customers jobs.

My recommendation is to take it up with the copier vendors management. I think they'll agree that's excessive. =^..^=

[mjunkaged]

Re: Repair Guy Uses Tons of Paper

On maybe three occasions I may have run that much paper, bit if it's absolutely necessary to do this much testing I enlist the enduser to line up jobs they can use. And that's on production level equipment, not office machines.

On one occasion I observed 20K pass through a bizhub 1052, all customers jobs.

My recommendation is to take it up with the copier vendors management. I think they'll agree that's excessive. =^..^=

I've gotten into the habit of asking if customer has any real copies or prints they need to make, and then let them run them for testing. Win-win! I stopped running more than a hundred when I stopped doing high-volume analog jam calls but that is just me. For all we know the boss is telling that guy to do it!