Technician Wages

[technodruid]

We, here in IKON's Desert Southwest area, heard about the merging of RBS Phx and IKON Service - Tempe a few weeks ago. I know the Director of Service personally. I believe he has the best interest of the techs in mind. Although, I do know he has a lot of presure from the VP's and such in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. In my experience (8 years with IKON) getting raises and promotions is not as tough as you might think. I started green with zero copier experience and I'm a master tech and team leader with IKON now. I've made a point to take the initiative with my training. I pester my service manager for time to take self pace courses every time I see a usefull one come available. I request training at Ricoh University in Tustin, CA every chance I get. Keeps me on top of the latest gear Ricoh releases and therefore, less expendable than some of the other techs. Overall, I've been pretty happy with IKON. Who knows what the future will bring, but, at the moment, I'm just happy to have a job at all.

[albasoul06]

want to ask the SERVICEMAN for this thread

Hello SERVICEMAN
How long have been you in this business ????? Why you ask for :
1. Entry Level Tech or minimal certs/experiance:
2. Good Tech, trusted in field-don't have to babysit:
3. Senior Tech:
4. Service Manager:

-What kind of vacation and benefits are given?:
-Are raises at regular intervals and what percent?

If you are just one year...you know, but if you are the boss and want to know what to
pay your guys..... that's another story. Just be straight here. If the company don't pay you
just look for another place to go. No tech got six digit paycheck.
Make no sense to me people with no experience want to do the service guy. Technology is
going forward and make things easy but sooner or later fake tech. GO HOME !

[jamesyboy]

underpaid undervalued

Hi guys I work in the uk and itlooks like the same all over

massive skill requirement these days joined the industry in the eighties was an electrician lured by a free company car then you seem never to be able to leave I work for Toshiba in the uk and they are probally the best to work for so far

the problem I think is the copy cost its the only thing that gets cheaper every year with sales wanging in machines at below their running costs so not much in the pot ,there was talk of unions and strikes over here but any such thing would probally result in coming back to work and all youre customers gone somewhere else and no job a catch 22
the future for engineers is to be as financially aware as possible the more money in the pot the more likely we are to get towards a living wage

the manufactures should set a copy cost a sort of cartel then its all down to how good the machines and engineers are engineers should get a part of the sales fee

up the revolution jamesyboy

[b003ace]

no matter what happens to the economy in the future/ as proven before with slowdowns on purchases/ or new businesses starting up and no matter how technology improves in copiers/printers, u will still need a person (human being) to repair them . Be it on out of production units/ used & or new units. a trained & honest field tech will always be in demand in this business, one consistent proven point is that "word of mouth is your best tool" .

I disagree whole heartedly!

Take a look at the letter/A4 desktop copier. Twenty years ago, they sold for $1000 and ran at 8 cpm. (Sharp Z8/Xerox 8008) Today, they run 25-30 cpm for about $250, and include print, fax, and network scanning. (Most any Brother, HP, Samsung, etc.) All disposable, as are ALL dedicated fax machines. Color laser used to start at $2500. Today there are machines starting around $500. Hell, the replacement drum and toner cartridges cost more than the initial price of the machine.

Then look at a Xerox 700. The drums, corotron, and fusers, are all disposable customer replaced units. Same thing on the 252/260.

In many cases, whole assemblies are cheaper than the wear items inside them (especially fusers and PCUs).

Technology is pushing the speed and features up, while pushing the price down. And the cutthroat competition between the manufacturers is putting downward pressure on pricing as well. At the same time, supply pricing is rising. Any wonder why? The OEMs make more on the supplies and customer replaceable parts than they do the original machine.

Some manufacturers are even putting pressure on their dealers and customers to train key customer personnel to do feed rollers, transfer belts and rollers, decurlers, drum cartridges (ones not normally customer replaceable), etc. All of the regular maintenance items we've been responsible for at PM. All in the name of enhanced customer productivity.

Just as the move from analog to digital created a short spike in the demand for techs, as is the current push to make everything color, in the long run, there will be far less need for technicians in a few years. The built in diagnostics on the network connected multi-purpose printing device will order its own parts online and the operator will replace the parts. And the use of ever larger touch screens on machines, some with color, will allow the manufacturers to even include videos for the operator to follow for parts replacement. Shown right on the machine itself.

All of this may well create a two tier technician pay situation. The top tier will be the ones who can actually diagnose and repair abnormal failures. The lower tier will be just like the guy at the quickie lube shop. He (or she) will make just above minimum wage being a parts changer for those few times the operator cannot, or should not, (safety) do it themselves. Those top tier guys may have it made, but there will probably be a glut of them for quite a while.

[verderacer]

Technodruid,

From what I able to find out it really depends on your relationship with your manager. What I know is IKON pay scale tops out much lower than RICOH, but RICOH starts lower.

All I know is by joining IKON as a RBS tech I got .30 cent increase. Yippie ! This is only because I was below the minimum for IKON starting wage. At the time of being given my acceptance letter I asked if the DSW Director would see giving me the opportunity to accomplish the requirements for a master tech and allow me to earn a raise, at least the opportunity. A couple of the other managers basically told me in polite terms, either I sign the letter or be fired. I see that as less than honorable. So much for opportunity.

[kingpd@businessprints.net]

Technodruid,

From what I able to find out it really depends on your relationship with your manager. What I know is IKON pay scale tops out much lower than RICOH, but RICOH starts lower.

All I know is by joining IKON as a RBS tech I got .30 cent increase. Yippie ! This is only because I was below the minimum for IKON starting wage. At the time of being given my acceptance letter I asked if the DSW Director would see giving me the opportunity to accomplish the requirements for a master tech and allow me to earn a raise, at least the opportunity. A couple of the other managers basically told me in polite terms, either I sign the letter or be fired. I see that as less than honorable. So much for opportunity.

Yeah, Ikon pretty much blows.

[Shadow1]

Yeah, Ikon pretty much blows.

There's a reason Ricoh bought IKON and not the other way around, and yet Ricoh is picking up all of IKON's systems and policies - morons in management are going to drive us into the ground again.

[kingpd@businessprints.net]

There's a reason Ricoh bought IKON and not the other way around, and yet Ricoh is picking up all of IKON's systems and policies - morons in management are going to drive us into the ground again.

I think they have too much going on. For instance, they bought Ikon (which I guess had their own rebrand of the machines), Hitachi's Printing Division (which I loved their printers), and have Lanier, Savin, & Gestetner, and recently the joint venture with IBM with the Infoprintsolutionscompany...does the world really need that many version of the same machine? To me Ricoh was always the biggest player, have one company, one product line, and focus on making it the best it can be...just my thoughts.

[RRodgers]

Ricoh the best? Have you worked on them?

[serviceman]

Hello SERVICEMAN
How long have been you in this business ????? Why you ask for :
1. Entry Level Tech or minimal certs/experiance:
2. Good Tech, trusted in field-don't have to babysit:
3. Senior Tech:
4. Service Manager:

-What kind of vacation and benefits are given?:
-Are raises at regular intervals and what percent?

If you are just one year...you know, but if you are the boss and want to know what to
pay your guys..... that's another story. Just be straight here. If the company don't pay you
just look for another place to go. No tech got six digit paycheck.
Make no sense to me people with no experience want to do the service guy. Technology is
going forward and make things easy but sooner or later fake tech. GO HOME !

Albasoul06- Sorry for such a late and outdated response! I JUST got an e-mail that this thread had been updated, but was for the one posted 8 hours ago...

The reason I asked for the info is I've been doing this for 5-6 years now, with the same company. I don't know anyone else in the industry besides who I work with at the office. I have been instructed to get my service department in order and see how things on "the outside" are. I want to make sure if I am pushing the techs to be great techs, that they are getting reasonable compensation for it. The owners are who set the current payscale up, and apart from the Entry Level position-they didn't have anything setup as to what a tech with experiance should be getting....plus I don't think the entry level pay has been adjusted for 10 years!

Right now the entry level pay is $9-$10/hour. From there, there isn't any rhymn or reason for what the techs make now besides just when the owners decided to give raises. Nothing regular in place and while I feel the techs pay is low, I'm being told by the owners that it is really good. What would it be to get a really good tech (senior tech-no babysitting--possibly even the "go to guy"), $14, $16, $20? We are growing and expanding and I don't want to look like a fool when I put an offer on the table with a guy who has been in the industry and offer him way less than he currently makes!

[Shadow1]

Depends on your region, but I would say good tech with good experience should be around $20/hr - That's underpaid IMHO, but seems to be what the industry is willing to pay in this economy. I'm thinking "Go To Guy/Gal" should be more on the line of $25/$30, but that's my opinion, and technicians have always been underpaid/undervalued...

[Shadow1]

I think they have too much going on.

I think Ricoh has decided to focus on counting the beans, and forgotten that if they don't keep their customers happy there won't be any beans to count.

The IKON deal was a "Can't afford not to" situation, so I don't blame Ricoh for buying them, but IKON should have been absorbed into Ricoh instead of the other way around. There's a reason Ricoh bought IKON but for some stupid reason Ricoh seems to be transitioning to IKON's systems.

[kingpd@businessprints.net]

I think Ricoh has decided to focus on counting the beans, and forgotten that if they don't keep their customers happy there won't be any beans to count.

The IKON deal was a "Can't afford not to" situation, so I don't blame Ricoh for buying them, but IKON should have been absorbed into Ricoh instead of the other way around. There's a reason Ricoh bought IKON but for some stupid reason Ricoh seems to be transitioning to IKON's systems.

I agree. They should have just bought the customer base and gotten rid of Ikon culture.

[fixthecopier]

Depends on your region, but I would say good tech with good experience should be around $20/hr - That's underpaid IMHO, but seems to be what the industry is willing to pay in this economy. I'm thinking "Go To Guy/Gal" should be more on the line of $25/$30, but that's my opinion, and technicians have always been underpaid/undervalued...

I also am underpaid, however I have got a raise every year. Slowly but surely I will get there. In my company no one is supposed to know what every body else makes, because not everybody gets a raise. I think you should encourage people and pay accordingly. When I started my company gave the techs an extra $50 if they did 70 calls completed a month. Another $50 for 80 calls and so on in increments of 10. I hit the ground running and was doing 100 to 130 a month. Well there was no way that they were going to pay me that kind of bonus every month. They came up with a great idea... If i had the time to pick up paid calls after doing all my contract stuff, my bonus would be 10% of the profit I made. So I have to do a lot more work than everybody else and make less money. Well the bonuses for the other techs is long gone, but I still get profit sharing. I let it ride all year and collect between 2 and 3 thousand dollars right before Christmas. Because of this incentive I hustle up work. I will walk into rooms where I see people fighting a printer jam and hand them my card. Other small things count. I may could find more money elsewhere but the boss there may not bring in breakfast every Friday for everyone, or they may not throw a small party in the break room on your birthday. Little things can count more than money. You gotta like driving to work every morning.

[Shadow1]

Yeah, there are other factors than money that influence how happy I am with my job.

I've liked where I am fairly well for years... problem is my company just announced they will not be replacing our service vehicles when the lease expires at least for the next year - they expect us to go back to the old half assed system that they acknowledge only reimburses 70% of the (deflated) cost of the vehicle. Then on top of that they give us this ridiculous new dispatch system that serves no purpose other than to crawl up our butt with a microscope and gather information they can use to nickle and dime us to death.

I've seen companies go this route - the people who are good enough that they can find a job elsewhere do, and the company is left with the people who need the kind of babysitting they're imposing on us. It becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.

I've also started hearing bad news from my customers - things like "I just bought a new machine and I didn't even call you because my billing has stayed so screwed up for the last 2 years... It doesn't matter how good your service is at this point, I can't waste my time with your billing department."

That I find really troublesome - I don't care who signs my paycheck, my customers pay it. If the company isn't taking care of them I'm not going to have a very long career with them regardless of how well - or not - they take care of me, and if they can't keep customers its no wonder they're trying to nickle and dime the techs.