Customers - Walking into a hornet's nest

[BillyCarpenter]

I get a call yesterday from a contract customer for paper jams. The girl who called it in told me that had recently changed the brand paper they had been using and that's about the time the paper jams started. So, I show up this morning and I brought a ream of paper from our office to prove/disprove if the paper was indeed the problem.

As soon as I walk in the door, the manger calls me back to her office and starts reading me the riot act. She tells me that she wants me to replace the copier with another one because of all the jamming problems they've been having. This is all news to me because I'm the only one that works on the machine and they haven't been having jamming problems...beyond the occasional jam.


I finally get her calmed down enough to go work on the copier. I started making copies from tray 1 and it jammed every few pages. I replaced the paper with the fresh ream I brought along - not a single jam. I put their paper back in...jam, jam, jam.


I asked the manger to come to the copier to show her that it was a paper problem. Now she's really upset and tells me she doesn't think that's the problem. I stayed calm and asked her how she explained that the copier worked fine with my paper but jams constantly with her paper. Of course, she had no answer. She kept right on bitching.

Finally I told her that she was gonna have to order quality paper and that if another service call was placed for paper jams and they were still using the cheap paper that they would be charged for a service call. I knew that if I didn't tell her that that this was gonna be an ongoing issue.

[copier tech]

I get a call yesterday from a contract customer for paper jams. The girl who called it in told me that had recently changed the brand paper they had been using and that's about the time the paper jams started. So, I show up this morning and I brought a ream of paper from our office to prove/disprove if the paper was indeed the problem.

As soon as I walk in the door, the manger calls me back to her office and starts reading me the riot act. She tells me that she wants me to replace the copier with another one because of all the jamming problems they've been having. This is all news to me because I'm the only one that works on the machine and they haven't been having jamming problems...beyond the occasional jam.


I finally get her calmed down enough to go work on the copier. I started making copies from tray 1 and it jammed every few pages. I replaced the paper with the fresh ream I brought along - not a single jam. I put their paper back in...jam, jam, jam.


I asked the manger to come to the copier to show her that it was a paper problem. Now she's really upset and tells me she doesn't think that's the problem. I stayed calm and asked her how she explained that the copier worked fine with my paper but jams constantly with her paper. Of course, she had no answer. She kept right on bitching.

Finally I told her that she was gonna have to order quality paper and that if another service call was placed for paper jams and they were still using the cheap paper that they would be charged for a service call. I knew that if I didn't tell her that that this was gonna be an ongoing issue.

Their paper must have be really bad quality to jam every time!

I have a client that uses the cheapest possible recycled paper, its not even white, more brown with bits in but even this feeds OK it does however need to feed rollers every 20/30k.

[BillyCarpenter]

Their paper must have be really bad quality to jam every time!

It wasn't jamming every single time. Sometimes it would feed 5 pages. Sometimes 10. Sometimes 2. When I put my paper in, I could feed 100+ pages with not a single jam.

[tsbservice]

Most of our customers are using cheapest paper they can buy, still machines different(makes and models) I service will feed the paper. Of course there are aftermath and occasional paper jams but more like several jams on few hundred pages. I can imagine their paper was stored in very humid place or something like that before they put it into paper tray. I would ask them for another unopened ream of their paper and make sure that wrapper is in good condition then do some tests.

[BillyCarpenter]

Most of our customers are using cheapest paper they can buy, still machines different(makes and models) I service will feed the paper. Of course there are aftermath and occasional paper jams but more like several jams on few hundred pages. I can imagine their paper was stored in very humid place or something like that before they put it into paper tray. I would ask them for another unopened ream of their paper and make sure that wrapper is in good condition then do some tests.

The customer was using 20lb bond paper that was unopened with no signs of moisture.

All know is this: Their paper jammed consistently. My paper didn't jam AT ALL. They weren't having the problem before they switched to the new paper. I can only call it like I see it.

[blackcat4866]

You took the right line. I had a high volume custumer make the same claim. On three separate occassions I bought 2 reams of paper on the way over, and ran out 1000 sheets of my paper without a jam.

It turned out that the enduser had a pallate of paper stored in an unheated warehouse (22F, 55% humidity). She carried in 6 to 10 cases every Monday morning. It jammed until about Wednesday when the paper had acclimated, then fed fine.

I never did convince her that it was the way she was storing the paper. =^..^=

[copiertec]

Ahh, the old "magic paper" trick. I know this is a situation that techs must have run into a ton of times. I had a client that had an Alphard 2 series machine right next to a Sharp MX-m620. They were using members mark paper and the Kyocera would pull double sheets when feeding this garbage paper. I brought in some Hammermill 20lbs paper it ran completely fine. I told them to stop buying that cheap garbage, low and behold they did. In the end, they replaced the Sharp with another Kyocera and they buy good paper.
But, I have run into this scenario what seems like a million times and some clients think I am blowing smoke up their ass. Like you, I always approach the situation respectfully and listen to the client and make sure I am fully addressing their frustrations. I also let the client know, that if it was a mechanical issue, I would have already fixed it because it is a lot less work involved to replace any mechanical issue then to try to explain and convince you that it's your paper and "no my paper does not have magical qualities. It's just quality paper!"

[slimslob]

Their paper must have be really bad quality to jam every time!

I have a client that uses the cheapest possible recycled paper, its not even white, more brown with bits in but even this feeds OK it does however need to feed rollers every 20/30k.

Cheapest price does not always mean cheapest quality. The paper Billy describes sounds like one Ricoh-USA instructors used warn about in their classroom instruction. It was labeled Great White Shark. It worked fine in lower volume machines, less than 35 ppm. And would jam constantly on anything faster than 50 ppm.

[BillyCarpenter]

I try to never blame it on the paper unless I'm sure that's the problem. With the customer already being pissed off before I walked in the door, I knew I had to make sure the problem was the paper before I let her know. I switched the paper back and forth between their paper and mine about 6 times.

Same results every time. Their paper jammed...mine never jammed.

The manager has sent me about 4 emails since I got back to the office. She told me her job is to save her company money. I told her that I understood but that in this case it was gonna cost her money in the long run as I can't make the copier feed cheap paper. I think she finally got the message.

[SalesServiceGuy]

Did you first inspect, clean or replace the paper feed rollers before assuming the paper was the issue?